Action Drama

KAALA

CAST: Rajinikanth, Nana Patekar, Huma Quereshi, Easwari Rao

DIRECTION: Pa. Ranjith

 

 

 

It’s magical to witness how the 67-year-old superstar Rajinikanth still manages to emit the same gusto and whistle-worthy swag­ger that’s been instrumental in establishing his god-like celebrity status for decades. At its best, his latest ‘Kaala’ packs in Rajinikanth’s trademark coolness and explosive action to provide staple entertain­ment for the aficionados of South Indian action cinema. But most of the time the film feels like a machinegun trying to fire magic bullets at tricky issues like caste, religion and poverty. Kaala (Rajinikanth) is a celebrated Godfather-like figure living in the slums of Mumbai’s Dharavi. The tension builds even as Kaala and the locals want nothing more than basic facilities like education, healthcare and sanitation from the govern­ment. However, his main adversary, the corrupt politician Hari (Nana Patekar), gangs up with builders and real estate agents to demol­ish the slum and put up high-rise buildings. (Sounds familiar?) The story then develops into a classic moral tale of good versus bad where Kaala inspires a mutiny among the slum dwellers against the crony cap­italist in Hari.

 

The storyline where one man with heroic abilities rouses an entire com­munity has been done do death in countless Hindi and South Indian films. Of many, Shankar’s ‘Nayak’ and Mahesh Babu-starrer ‘Sriman­thudu’ come to mind immediately. In Kaala, Director Pa. Ranjith cooks up the same stew but with added leftist philosophy in the mix.

 

Kaala is a dalit and perhaps a com­munist to boot. The blending of these attributes with Rajinikanth’s larger-than-life heroism gives the film an earthly sentimentality, some­thing unusual in a masala flick. Also there are many instances where the director playfully subverts mythical representation of good and evil. Here the good Kaala deliberately puts on black, the devil’s color, while the conniving Hari dons crisp white clothing.

 

But with a run time of almost three hours, Kaala loses focus from its central plot of Kaala’s political struggle several times. It moves at a tedious pace, with many side characters and plotlines. Kaala’s banter with his rebellious activist son and his flirtatious digs at his wife (Easwari Rao) are the sweetest scenes in the film. But the long flash­back and unnecessarily stretched romantic track of Kaala and his childhood ex-lover (Huma Quereshi) are unconvincing.

 

Rajinikanth and Nana Patekar are the film’s acting centerpiece. While Rajinikanth makes his energy felt in each frame, even in scenes where he keeps mum, Nana Patekar oozes a menacing appeal in his brooding and composed perfor­mance. In fact their one-to-one confrontational exchange of dia­logue are more fun than stylized action sequences where Rajinikanth flexes his muscles.

 

Kaala remains a surface level entertainer even though it harbors a deep ambition to impart a strong political message about haves and have-nots, religious and ethnic tol­erance. But Pa. Ranjith’s honest effort feel outdated and adds noth­ing unique to the social debates. His contribution can thus be taken as no more than lip service to the agenda of the poor.

 

As an action drama, Kaala has the typical Rajinikanth stamp. If you take the film a bit less seriously, then it will definitely whet your appetite for South Indian action cinema. But if you delve into the film’s sugar­coated political ideology then you might find it simplistic and silly.