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காலா (2018)

Kaala is the story of the leader who could go to any length to protect his people. He gets challenged by a politician who wants to acquire his land to meet his causes. What happens after their chaallenges forms the rest of the story.

The performances of the cast are brilliant. Rajnikanth is stylish as ever. I don't know how he could nail such extreme roles with such an audacity and expertise. No one else could have done justice to his role. Nana Patekar is good to watch to. He plays his part well of a villanous politician. He effectively delivers his dialogues with a sturd in it. Sampath Raj is also good. Pankaj Tripathi could have been given a beteer role owing to his talent. Huma Qureshi was good, but I felt her role was just to provide a romantic and melodramatic layer to the story.

P.A Ranjith does his job well. THe writing could have been better. The film has such a good talent, but lacks a good story. The screenplay was fine. Music was Okay. Overall, you can watch the film only for its top-notch performances. But if you are expecting a perfect plot, stop expecting.

Kaala is a film written and directed by Pa. Ranjith. I was quite reluctant to watch the film given the mixed word of mouth. But after seeing it last night, all my doubts were put to ease.

Plot: When Haridev Abhiyankar decides to seize the land of Dharavi from its residents, it’s Kaala who decides to stand up against him.

Story and direction: Being a die-hard fan of Rajinikanth I decided to give the film a shot. To be fair, I found the film quite decent. Let’s get on with the positives. The spirit of Dharavi is effectively captured. In each and every minute of the film I felt that I was living in the area and felt the pain and difficulties these people were facing. The cinematography by Murali is awesome. The characters were very interesting and I liked the way the hero and the villain are diametrically opposite to each other and have different ideologies of what their aim in life is. I felt that the second half was where the film actually got the grip and it started to get interesting. Now for the things I didn’t like so much. The first half of the film didn’t impress me that much especially the so-called romantic angle between Kaala and Zareena. That could have totally been avoided. Instead they could have focussed on developing characters like Inspector Patil or Charumathi. I don’t know what attraction the makers have to the rains. I know that it adds quite an effect to the scenery, but the first half has quite a lot of raining going on. Also, there were some scenes that felt were stepping outside the purview of reality (especially the action scenes and the climax).

Performances: Rajinikanth delivers a great performance. His character is a bit grounded than his previous ventures (although at times we see come fully in his SUPER STAR status). Nana Patekar was brilliant as the villain. He is not the typical villain. He is cold and calculative. Eswari rao was good as Kaala’s Wife. I liked the way Samuthirakani’s was more than just a comic relief. Huma Qureshi was OK. Dileepan and Manikandan were effective as Kaala’s sons. I did feel that more screen space for Anjali Patil and Pankaj Tripathi would have been beneficial to the film.

Music: The music of the film felt like the heavy baggage that one holds which just tires you after a time. None of the songs were good and it felt more like a marketing strategy. The BGM however was great and it got an adrenaline rush in me.

Favorite Scene: It would be the scene where Hari and Kaala meet at Hari’s home. Here they talk about their different ideologies and how opposite they are in their inner and outer appearances. And who wouldn’t love to see two iconic actors in one scene.

Verdict: With some slight tweaking and a reduced runtime, KAALA would have worked better. Anyway, the film for me was quite decent and satisfied the Rajini fan in me.
I am going with a 7.5/10.