In the early parts of the new Malayalam fantasy thriller Secret of Kalinga, it was almost like it was okay on paper, but the limitations in pulling off something like this on a minimal budget were causing the issue. But as the movie progressed, you slowly realize how mediocre the imagination is, and it was basically a concept that should have been, at best, a short film. The movie becomes a completely outdated mess in the second half. Directed by Saneesh Unnikrishnan, Kalinga, aka Secret of Kalinga, is an ultra-generic imagination that doesn’t know its own rules when things reach the finale.
The story is set against the backdrop of this mysterious land, “Mandakini Kadu,” which is currently located on a college campus near Athirappilly. A lot of people believe that there is the presence of the ghost of a woman named Mandakini, and it was closed almost a decade back when an unnatural death happened. What we see here are the developments that unfold when certain student groups demand to open the Mandakini Kadu to the students.
If you look at the trailer and teaser of this movie, it is dominated by either AI or the popular star cast, like Dhyan Sreenivasan, Althaf Salim, Mareena Michael, etc. But when it comes to the movie, you will feel that the story basically revolves around this character named Aji, and almost all the other main characters are supporting characters in Aji’s story. And when I checked BookMyShow to know who the actor was who played the part of Aji, it was none other than the movie’s director, Saneesh Unnikrishnan. I somehow feel that he has made this movie as a showreel for himself as an actor. Because, in the first half of this movie, we are mostly seeing a serious shade of this particular character. But as the movie approaches the interval and when things go dark in the second half, we see the movie investing too much in this Aji character, and the comedy in those portions made no sense.
As I said, the writing of this movie is extremely generic, with the same old ghost story. You have those typical characters who wouldn’t listen to any warnings and would do the exact opposite. Dhyan Sreenivasan is playing the role of this Aji character’s brother, and it is still unclear to me what exactly his character is contributing to the film other than narrating the history of this place. The ghost in this story is also inconsistent. In the beginning, the movie shows her as some kind of powerful ghost who can hypnotize people. But later, she fails to do that with some other characters, and the reasons are extremely giggle-worthy in my opinion.
The film has used AI footage extensively, and it even has a credit of “AI Supervisor.” While some of the visuals made sense, there is a problem with AI that it cannot create something new. So whatever these people are showing as the history of Kalinga almost looks like some Greek mythology stuff the AI showed them when they entered the prompt. Dhyan’s stills from Thira have been used to create his flashback bits. The problem was that the aesthetic of the AI visuals and the original visuals were evidently different. The songs are underwhelming, and what was even more bizarre was the placement of those songs. You can hear these seemingly optimistic songs when everyone is running in fear of this ghost.
Dhyan Sreenivasan has only one location in this whole movie. Maybe they shot his whole portion in a matter of 10 days or so. There was one point I thought he would finally get out of that house, but they used a phone conversation and finished his portions in a single location. The same thing can be said about Althaf Saleem as well. This is a weird universe where Althaf Salim is Dhyan Sreenivasan’s younger brother and Anwar Shereef is their uncle. I mean, it is a kind of director’s brilliance to defend all the logical issues in the movie. A bronzed Riyaz Khan is made to play this poor security guy in this movie, and the only reason that can make it logical is the AI past of that character. Like I already mentioned, the character of Aji is performed by the director himself. While I liked his voice, the way he performed comedy in the latter part of the movie sucked out all that love. The name of the girl who played the part of the heroine, Gayathri, is Adhirsha, and in comparison with the other folks, it was a better performance. Nithin Parameshwar of the Pan Indian Branch is there in a pointless role to say his Kattakkada dialogue. The names like Malavika C Menon, Mareena Michael, Gowri Nandha, etc., are there for just one or two scenes with no major purpose.
750,000 dollars is the budget of the current Hollywood sensation, Obsession. That is roughly in the 6-8 crore bracket. And that is a budget we associate with a normal Malayalam film these days. I am saying this because often we have seen certain Malayalam filmmakers making this excuse that they had budget limitations. Curry Barker has proved that budget is a limitation only if your imagination has limitations. Secret of Kalinga is just a collage of borrowed ideas, and they are trying to overcome their budget limitations by adding unoriginal and lifeless AI visuals. I was someone who believed that AI would enable non-established filmmakers to make great visual spectacles. Well, Kalinga has made it clear that even a breathtaking AI visual is lifeless if the filmmaker’s vision is lackluster. Saneesh has shown the audacity to announce a possible sequel to this movie, and if AI improves dramatically in the next few years, he might well release a fully AI sequel.
