Kali - Feel the Rage

Bharath Vijayakumar

Malayalam cinema never ceases to surprise. With two happening actors (read as stars) together Kali is nowhere close to the kind of film that you might expect.This I mean in the most positive sense.

Plot:

Siddharth(Dulquer) is an extremely intolerant guy who gets angry at the drop of a hat. For someone who boils for no reason he is put in a melting situation.

Cast:

Far removed from the regular angry young man roles Dulquer plays someone who is almost a patient fighting this disease called anger.As the perennially angry youngster Dulquer does well. His face adequately conveys the constant turmoil that he is in. Sai Pallavi is very good as his level headed wife trying to get him out of this mess. She is particularly impressive towards the later part of the movie when she finds herself in a hapless situation and shudders in fear. Soubin Shahir ensures a hearty laugh in his limited screen time. Chemban Vinod Jose and Vinayakan as the bad guys are menacing. The tension in the entire second half of the film owes a lot to these two actors.

Crew:

Gopi Sunder and Gireesh Gangadharan do their parts in creating the mood of the film. Be it the romantic portions or the tension filled highway sequences the former's music and the latter's visuals do the trick.

Direction:

Kali as a film keeps throwing small surprises. Firstly the hero is not a likeable guy. He is not the Anniyan type angry guy who wants to fight injustice. He is someone who gets angry seeing a kid playing loud music and dancing. He is someone who gets angry when he is made to wait for his turn at an interview. His anger hurts his loved wife as well.

But things are beyond his control. The film follows this beautiful but troubled relationship between the lead pair in the first half. You are not sure as to what genre it belongs to till then. At best this is a love story so far. The second half sees tables turn and what we are presented is a nail biting tension filled episode involving this pair. They are in trouble partly due to his anger again. The danger seems so real and it almost plays out like a horror film at times. The mood capturing is absolutely brilliant and the tension very apparent. The film does not have a typical start and end point. It just shows you an episode. The intention itself is very different. It builds up all the lead that we have in our action hero template and it actually refrains often from showing the action itself. It offers this exciting and extended foreplay but never actually gets to the act. And it does all this on purpose. While the thumping BGM might give a feel of glorifying action the film at many places shows that wild anger does no good.

Bottomline:

Do not expect a conventional start - stop template .This is a film that tries to set you in an ambience and taken as such it does a fine job of it. So you feel the rage but do not experience the punch.

Rating: 3/5