Have you ever thought about how much violence we have seen in the last decade through the forwarded videos on our mobiles? Have we become habitual of watching them in a repeat mode or we have started finding some kind of ugly pleasure in those videos that cannot be expressed in words? The questions surely ask for a timely debate but the fact remains that these videos do target the demonic side of our persona, that exists in every human without an exception.
Competition, jealousy, bias, revenge, and hatred towards the other lead to violence (as the last resort) and that’s exactly what Kala (meaning weed) talks about representing the widely prevalent, caste and regional social divide. Directed by Rohith V. S., the film begins with a quote on Selfishness by Oscar Wilde and after almost ninety minutes (in a two hours film) makes an unusual mention as ‘Based on true incidents’ as a caption on the screen.
Revolving around a family living alone in the wilderness, Kala is all about the violent clashes between an egoistic employer (Tovino Thomas) and a violent labourer (Sumesh Moor) looking for his revenge without any holding back. A technically well-crafted film, excelling in its cinematography, sound, action, and editing along with full throttle lead performances, Kala isn’t any familiar revenge drama giving you the actual picture. The film is dark and psychotic in tone, spilling a lot of blood on the screen resulting in an unusual sight. Not for the faint-hearted, it makes a solid impact with its unsettling violent sequences in the second half but doesn’t offer anything significant before it all begins.
In straight words, nothing happens in terms of story content in the first half of the film and one keeps waiting for something to unfold soon losing the patience. Though the action successfully keeps the viewer glued in the concluding hour, it still lacks substance solely stressing upon the brutality and its technical presentation. Consequently, the film somewhere loses its path remaining too much involved in its celebration of violence that appears to be meaningless after a while.
Having said that, Kala does convey a lot about our inner demons in one of its fight sequences, in which the father finds his young son staring at him while fighting with the labourer. At times, it also makes you feel amazed looking at the sincere efforts put in by the entire team on and off the screen. However, that isn’t sufficient to represent it as an insightful attempt justifying the gore and the repetitive violence, without any engrossing plot. Summing up, Kala can be seen for its technical achievements, well-shot action, and solid intense performances like an exceptional visual treat. But that is all it has to offer to be precise.
Rating : 3 + 0.5 / 5 (with the additional 1 for the amazing collective effort by the technical team along with the two lead performers.)
Director: Rohith.V.S
Starring: Tovino Thomas, Sumesh Moor, Lal Paul, Divya Pillai and more.
Streaming at: Amazon Prime
NOTE : The article was first published in THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL Newspaper (Mumbai Edition) on 8th June 2021.
