Movie Review: Kaala

"Until the Lion learns to write, every story will always glorify the hunter."

That seems to be the guiding motto of director Pa Ranjith's work to date in Tamil cinema. At least that's the impression I got after watching 2 out of the total 4 films he's made so far - Kabaali (2016) and Kaala (2018), both starring the legendary Rajinikanth.

India's epics have always served as inspiration for filmmakers, right from the very first film that was ever made in India,  Raja Harishchandra (1913). Manirathnam's Raavan (2010) and Prakash Jha's Rajneeti (2013) are just two recent examples that come to mind. The main reason behind this is the Timeless and Universal appeal of these epics. The Ramayana and the Mahabharat, in particular are "Living Epics", not some dead literature and the most prominent feature of living epics is that they are open to interpretations. This is what makes them so conducive to reinterpret, reimagine and refashion to create a whole new version altogether.

As Dan Brown says in his famous novel, 'The Da Vinci Code' :

“History is always written by the winners. When two cultures clash, the loser is obliterated, and the winner writes the history books-books which glorify their own cause and disparage the conquered foe. As Napoleon once said, 'What is history, but a fable agreed upon?”

This is all the more true for Mythology. As any keen observer would tell you, mythology is a battle between different narratives.  The victor's version becomes the dominant narrative and comes to be widely accepted while the vanquished's version or the counter-narrative gradually gets buried under the sands of time. Pa Ranjith's Kaala is a retelling of one such counter-narrative that might have got buried under the sands of time but refuses to die nevertheless.
In Kaala, he takes the age-old trope of 'Good vs Evil' from Ramayana and turns it on it's head by presenting Raavan or, to be precise, Kaala as the Hero.  Dharavi, Asia's second largest slum, serves as the backdrop for this retelling of Ramayana; Raavan's Lanka, so to say, thereby locating the epic in contemporary Indian realities.

Kaala is a film rich in symbolism, be it the use of colours to represent the different caste and class structures prevalent in the society or the names of the chief players - 'Kaala Karikalan', his son 'Lenin' and 'Hari Dada' or his henchman 'Vishnu' (who gets killed by Kaala on the day of Ganesha Visarjan) or Hari Dada's company 'Manu Realty' that wants to turn the slums of Dharavi into 'Dandakaaranya Nagar' or the omnipresence of Dalit-Bahujan iconography such as the statues of Buddha, Ambedkar and Periyar..heck even the number plate on Kaala's Mahindra Thar jeep which reads 'BR 1956' (the year Dr. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism) 

Hats off to the director for incorporating so much symbolism into the story. Direction on the whole is top-notch. Three sequences, in particular, stand out.

1. The animated portion featuring a young Rajini from the 80s right at the start laying out the backstory.

2. The brilliantly choreographed slo-mo Rajini rain fight sequence right before the interval.

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3. The cryptic yet super-charged Climax; the first known instance of the use of "Magical Realism" as a cinematic tool in mainstream Indian cinema. Multiple Oscar winner Alezandro Gonzalez Inarritu of Birdman fame would be proud!

The only minor glitch is the track involving Kaala and his ex-lover Zarina played by Huma Qureshi. This whole track feels forced and could have been easily done away with, without taking anything away from the story.

Coming to the performances, Kudos to the Thalaiva, first of all, for choosing to lend his  Superstardom to such an offbeat and potentially controversial subject (One of his dialogues goes like: "Land may be a means to Power for you. For us, it is our very life. I'll not spare even your Gods if they too try to take it away from us!").

It may or may not be his most successful film in terms of box office but it surely is his most important and Rajini-the actor is in rare form here making sure he does full justice to the immensely likeable 'Kaala'. In fact, it won't be an exaggeration to term it his finest performance till date with the possible exception of Manirathnam's Thalapathi (1991) (which, by the way, was itself based on another epic, the Mahabharat)



Every great Hero needs an equally strong Villain. Batman had the Joker. Superman had Lex Luthor. Kaala has 'Haridev Abhyankar' aka Hari Dada played to perfection by the great Nana Patekar. Even though he actually makes an appearance in the film in the second half only, yet his shadow looms large, both literally as well as figuratively, over the whole film, right from the beginning, even when he's not in the frame. It was a masterstroke to pit Nana's acting prowess against Rajini's off-the-charts charisma and just as you'd expect, sparks fly whenever these two stalwarts come face-to-face on the screen.



But the real scene-stealer here is the effervescent Eswari Rao who plays Kaala's wife, Selvi with such aplomb that it becomes difficult to believe that she is making a comeback to Tamil films after over a decade! The mature romance track between Kaala and Selvi is one of the most endearing aspect of the film and provides some much needed lighter moments in an otherwise politically charged film.


Not just Selvi but even the other female characters of Kaala - be it his ex-flame Zarina or his would be daughter-in-law Puyali - most of them are shown to be strong, independent and opinionated women with a mind of their own and not like the stereotypical Bollywood caricature of Indian women. 

Nowhere is this more evident than in that memorable scene, which can also be termed as the highlight of the film, where the firebrand Dharavi mulgi who also happens to be Kaala's would be daughter-in-law, Puyali (played with the requisite gusto by Anjali Patil) while being manhandled and stripped by the corrupt Policeman, instead of picking her shalwar to cover her "modesty" chooses to pick up a hockey stick instead to beat the shit out of her molester. 

Which is an indication that Pa Ranjith's cinema is not just about Dalit assertion but about Women rights and Feminism too.

Background music is yet another highlight of the film, particularly during the rain fight sequence right before the interval and then towards the climax. Songs, albeit, are strictly okay. At least in the Hindi version that I saw. The use of Hip-hop as a tool of rebellion against oppression by the slum youth is a nice and novel touch, though.

All said, Kaala is director Pa Ranjith's film through and through. It bears his unmistakable stamp in almost every frame and every aspect of film-making, which is a remarkable feat for a director who's still only 4 films old!

If post Kabaali, he had the "thinking" fans' curiosity, post-Kaala he now has their attention! 

Final word: Must Watch for everyone who's interested in meaningful, stimulating, thought provoking cinema. 

Here's wishing more power to Pa Ranjith's craft and looking forward to the third and concluding part of his 'Educate.Agitate.Organise' Trilogy.