The long-awaited trailer of Kalki 2898 AD is out. It shows Amitabh Bachchan returning as an angry man albeit in an older version and Deepika Padukone as the mother of Kalki. The short trailer gives a glimpse of what the movie's storyline could be and already many movie fans have started speculating and guessing it.
Kamal Haasan’s character is inspired by Harry Potter’s Voldemort
Harry Potter and its characters are known worldwide. Lord Voldemort loses his body and needs help to regain it and even shares the body of Quirinus Quirrell. The fleshy structure of Voldermort seems to be similar to what Kamal Haasan ’s character Kali looks like in the trailer. He too seems to be needing help for survival and is after Kalki who is in the womb as the child is destined to kill him. Harry Potter too survived Voldermort’s attack and is the chosen one to kill him.
Terminator angle?
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator series is a big franchise. The first part showed how a Terminator (robotic man) from the future is sent in the past to kill Sarah Conner whose unborn child will destroy Skynet, an AI-based system in the future. To save her, Kyle Reese too time travels into the past and has a fling with Sarah as he tries to save her from the Terminator. In the process he fathers John Connors who will destroy Skynet.
There is a bit of similarity between this concept of Terminator and Kalki 2898 AD as Kali is all set to ask Bhairava aka Prabhas to time travel and kill Padma aka Deepika Padukone who will be the mother of Kalki. There is a strong possibility that Bhairava and Padma have a relationship and from their union is born Kalki, who will destroy Kali.
Mahabharata is the base
With the character of Amitabh Bachchan as Ashwatthama taking center stage in the trailer of Kalki 2898 AD, it is obvious that some inspirations are drawn from the Indian epic. The dressing of Ashwatthama, how he protects the young children, and promises Padma that he will protect her unborn child all indicate that makers have taken a reference from Mahabharata.
Ashwatthama is believed to be repenting for killing the sons of Pandavas in sleep and for that he was cursed and his only redemption is saving the children. So that is an obvious similarity between the two stories.
In a nutshell, it seems Kalki 2898 AD may not be completely original but has been put together using interesting twists and turns from many hit movies and books. With big stars like Kamal Haasan, Amitabh Bachchan, and Prabhas leading the film, it is expected to become a huge blockbuster.