kaal

The cover of the movie says "There has never been a horror movie quite like this one". They're right!

From the beginning it follows the typical Indian movie formula of dancing and singing. Then it drops into the movie. Its unclear to me (having watched it) if its a horror or a satire (of even a kind of comedy?). Well its been done before, but movies like Evil Dead were at least funny!

This is not quite a movie review and not quite spoilers, but since Kaal is not quite a horror movie, nor not quite a comedy then I figure that this is OK

In Kaal is quite a strange movie, I suspect that the joke is only known to those who have visited india and been pestered by people wanting to be your guide (like at the Taj Mahal or indeed any indian monument) ohh ... perhaps I've given away the ending already.

The movie was reduced to 69 rupee (about €1) which is pretty cheap by anyones standards, but then hey, this is a cheap movie.

Without a doubt, my vote for best actor in the entire film goes to the monkey. I realise he's only a supporting role, but he appears in a few places. Perhaps its best to think of him as just another person, or perhaps (better yet) think of the entire production as being a monkeys?

Anyway ...

One of the theme's of the movie is illegal hunting, naturally one the characters quiclky outs himself as a "keen hunter" (and pulls a .22 caliber semi auto pistol out of his pants). Right ... you'll be doing lots of big game hunting with that! So, anyway, later in the movie he takes the "jeep off into the Jungle" to do some hunting. Mysteriously he comes across some white bunny rabbits in the middle of the jungle.


With a grin on his face of "I've found game" he pulls out his .22 pistol and heads off in pursuit.


Right about now I'm wondering ... is this movie pulling the piss or are they on drugs?

It gets worse .... as the director introduces the 'fake' tension scenes. Like this one; the "hunter" has just mysteriously slipped (on a rock) and been pulled down into this valley by some mysterious force (gravity it seems works). After picking himself up he is standing before the camera sweating with tense music building ... slowly a straining hand reaches from his right ...


then with a crescendo we find ...


its his own hand. WTF?

I don't know if the director is attempting to pull the piss out of horror movies, insult the intelligence of the audience, or is the director genuinely that dumb himself.

Anyway, their guide gets killed, and everyone wants to go home. So off they drive and get held up by a 'freak' landslide blocking the road. From out of nowhere comes Kaal ...




he'd saved them from tigers before (when their guide got them stuck) by appearing from nowhere, again he appears from nowhere and offers them help.

This (I suspect) is where the horror is. You see, when you walk about in parks or famous monuments like Red Fort in Agra, you get pestered by people wanting to 'guide you'. It starts out at 300 rupee, then gets dropped down to as low as 100 or "pay me as you like" when you keep saying no. Then (eventually) the sting comes at the end. We had one fellow who tried a cunning adaptation on this and said "no, I don't take any money, this is my duty!" (at first). Then after showing us around he wanted to take us one more place (around the corner) mumbling about showing us a hidden secret. When we refused he then demanded to be paid "as you like" for his services.

you should have seen his face when I offered him 1 rupee :-)

So anyway ... I won't spoil this with the ending, just keep the pestering guides in mind when you watch the movie. There is the real 'horror' of this movie.