Mahakaal (1994) — Triskaidekafiles

MAHAKAAL

WRITER: Y.V. Tyagi

DIRECTORS: Tulsi Ramsay and Shyam Ramsay

STARRING: Karan Shah as Prakash

Archna Pooran Singh as Anita

Johney Lever as Canteen and Hotel Manager

Mayur as Param

Prema Lagoo as Anita's Mother

Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Anita's Father

Baby Sweta as Mohini

Dinesh Kaushik as Randhir

Mahaveer Bhullar as Shakaal

Konica as Seema

QUICK CUT: A band of teenagers sing and dance their way as they chase their dreams.

THE MORGUE

Anita - A young student who loves her family and friends, is always there to help, but has something haunting her.

Prakash- Anita’s boyfriend, always ready to protect her and his friends.

Seema - Anita’s best friend, troubled by dark dreams.

Param - Seema’s boyfriend

Anita’s parents - Your average parents, if your dad is the head of police, and still dealing with the lost of their other daughter years ago.

Canteen - The comic relief, who just wants to sing and dance and be in a Ramsay Brothers movie. Good news!

The Mahakaal is coming from inside the house.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! I don't do subtitled movies that often, just because they're a pain in the ass, but this movie from India caught my attention. It will become clear why, if it's not already. So let's dance on into Mahakaal. Oh, and just a bit of covering my ass, there are a bunch of Hndi names and words that get used, obviously, and I am sure to misspell one if not many. My apologies, and I'll do my best.

As the credits roll, we watch Seema wandering through a creepy, dusty, abandoned building, with an ominous, shadowy figure stalking nearby. And something about all this feels very familiar...

Eventually, he catches up with her, and she wakes up screaming as he slashes her with his clawed glove. Yes, IT WAS ALL A DREAM...and a very familiar one at that. YES, this is the Hindi version of A Nightmare on Elm Street, our traditional February 1st reviews.

I do really love how faithful this opening nightmare is, while still being its own thing. It strikes a very nice balance.

But anyways, later that day, Anita is hanging a picture, and her boyfriend Prakash interrupts her. We briefly meet her parents, before she heads out to college.

They meet up with their friends Seema and Param, and get some drinks. Where we also meet Canteen, dressed like he wants to be in Thriller, and dancing to some Michael Jackson. It's...very odd.

Canteen also breaks the fourth wall by saying he got a call from "the famous Ramsay brothers" to be in a film. Y'know, the guys directing THIS movie.

Indian John Saxon...okay no, I'm not gonna do that the whole movie.

Aaand then a song breaks out. Y'know, Elm Street is a lot more...musical, than I remember it. But you know what? I kinda dig it.

Following that, and a few minutes in class, Seema shares her nightmare with Anita, and naturally tries to brush it off. Until she sees the wounds, that is.

That night, Anita has a nightmare of her own, featuring her sister who died seven years ago, which is also haunting her father.

Anita follows her sister into Indian Freddy's lair, and wakes up screaming after a short encounter all her own.

The next day at school, Anita runs into the guy who runs the local group of ruffians, and he gets very, very physical with her. That is, until Param and Prakash come to her rescue in a fight scene.

Yeah, musical numbers and random fights. This sure is an Indian movie all right.

To cheer Anita up and take her mind off being sexually assaulted, they decide to go on a picnic the following day. But the big question is, where should they go??

...So, uh, pretty much anywhere, then? Considering the rest of this movie?

Which, yes, breaks out into another musical number. Okay, new rule. You don't get to have a song and dance routine before the first kill of the movie. Every musical number should end in a death. Now THAT would be something!

Unfortunately, the dance number drained the battery on Param's truck, and they can't get home. So the gang finds a nearby hotel to spend the night in, and sort everything out in the morning.

And theman behind the counter looks...just like Canteen, and says they are brothers, because reasons of weird cultural comedy.

Everyone settles into their rooms, the Canteen Brothers get their own dance number while being creepy pervos and asdghjkl KILL SOMETHING ALREADY.

Prakash notices Anita is still down for some reason, and gee, I dunno, the car broke down, and we're stuck at the Hotel California with Canteen's weird sleazy brother.

After having sex with her boyfriend, Seema has another nightmare and she gets held to the ground and killed, while Param watches, seeing only her writhing body as it starts to bleed.

I've heard of being so drunk you want the floor to hold onto you, but this is new.

The screams bring Anita and Prakash, and they all end up at the police station, talking to her father, the cop. Well, that's ONE way to get a ride back to town...

Naturally, Param is trying to avoid the police, since he looks very guilty, being the only other person in the room. He appears at school and tries to explain what happened, to Anita. But her father is there, and tries to arrest Param, before he runs off.

I *swear* if this chase for Param breaks into another musical bit...

Later in class, Anita dozes off, hearing Seema calling her endlessly, and it's a very solid recreation of the body bag scene being dragged off by no one. When it leans into the source material, this movie does a fantastic job.

She follows her dead friend's endless cries of "Anita...Anita...Anita..." just to find out what she needs so badly and can't seem to name...

Anita delves deeper and deeper into the bowels of the school, as things get danker and creepier, eventually becoming a uh, ice block warehouse?

Whatever. She runs into the dreamin' demon, who struggles with her a bit, freezerburns her arm on a pipe, and she wakes up screaming in class.

I am impressed with this movie’s use of colour theory.

Anita tries to convince her boyfriend of what's going on, of the evil spirit haunting them, and he ends up going to have a chat with Param in prison.

Meanwhile, a bunch of girls are gushing over going to see a movie, and one of them mentions Video CDs and WOW that takes me back.

On the way home from the movie, the girls encounter a gang that gives them a hard time. Which is when a weird dude carrying rope like he's a Boondock Saint and unable to keep his hair out of his face shows up.

No, we're only about halfway done, Shahenshah.

Okay this has to be a cultural thing I am completely oblivious to. Lemme just google a thing...Okay aaaand CONFIRMED! Shahenshah is an Indian action movie hero, with several movies, and is a bit of an icon. It's...still a large digression for this movie, but it is fascinating, nonetheless.

And I guess it turns out that was just Canteen dressed up as Shahenshah and saved the day? Such a weird, weird indulgent diversion.

That night, the dreamin' demon comes for Param in his jail cell, to tie up any loose ends. And do some killin'.

He slashes into the walls of the cell with his glove, and *snakes* begin pouring out, which is a nice cultural touch to use that particular fear. Also, the effect of them crawling out of the gashes is pretty great.

Anita wakes up from the nightmare, knowing her friend is in danger, and tries to convince her parents, especially her cop father, to do something.

Naturally, no one believes her, until a call comes in to let dad know that Param was found dead in his cell.

Prakash comes by to comfort his girlfriend, and as he's leaving, he sees Anita's dad sneaking around. Prakash follows, and sees him pulling a bladed glove out of a drawer. And when their eyes meet in dramatic zooming cuts, it is all VERY Indian melodrama, and I love it.

Anita sees this, and finally it is time for the big expository dump. And if you've seen the original Elm Street movie, you know the gist of it. Bad dude, kills kids, parents take him out, and he kills in their dreams for revenge.

This time around, there's a bit more to the story though, as Shakaal, our Freddy stand in, was an enemy of the state, for performing black magic. He would sacrifice kids to his dark patrons, and increase his power.

So we get to hear the story how Anita's sister was taken, her dad tracked down the killer, but he was unable to stop the monster from chucking her down into a hellmouth for his gods.

None of which reeeeally explains why his face is all jacked up, because it already is in the flashbacks, and instead of burning him to death, Anita's dad buries Shakaal alive. So he always was Just Like That, I guess.

And lemme tell ya, being buried alive sure is a great excuse to come back and get revenge.

And that was how we invented fire baseball.

Dad and Prakash go to where Shakaal was buried to go check on the body, while the women go to get some spiritual guidance from a local priest.

Meanwhile, Anita has another nightmare, getting chased through an aquarium by Shakaal. She wakes up mostly unharmed.

The priest they meet with says that Shakaal's power is not easy to destroy, and only with Dad's help can they stop it. Well, bad news, because he's not a believer. Which makes it impossible to find a solution.

And since they are unable to understand his power, Shakaal shall destroy mom, dad, Anita, and every one they know, in a process known as MAHAKAAL, or THE TIME OF DEATH. And then comes MASS DESTRUCTION. Well, THAT escalated quick!

Their only chance is to dismember him and keep beating him up, in hopes that will destroy his power.

After giving Anita another nightmare, Shakaal pays dad a visit, and they do a REALLY cool effect of him walking a few steps, then an empty room, then back and walking. Another effective moment, almost walking between worlds.

“Ah you are a sight for sore eyes!” “Next time try Visine!”

The monster possesses Anita, and heads to college. What a way to audit some classes. She runs into the gang of ruffians that have been bothering her, and there's another action sequence to beat Randhir and his gang up.

On the upside, now that the plot is moving, at least we haven't had any more musical numb...Awww dangit.

Shakaanita is wandering in the rain, and Randhir picks her up, taking her back to his place, to get up to some mischief.

While she dries off, Randhir gets comfortable on his bed. He gets a brief taste of his wildest fantasies being fulfilled, before Anita disappears.

Once he's all alone, Randhir is suddenly on a water bed, and Shakaal pulls him into it, but we don't get a giant geyser of blood, sadly.

We can't quite escape the movie without more wackiness from Canteen, sadly, as ANOTHER brother of his shows up. Honestly, this is all very Shakespearean, with a little something for everyone.

Back home, Anita is washing up, and she sees her face becoming scarred like Shakaal's. She begins breaking mirrors, and hey! Be careful, you might free the boogeyman!

Regardless, Shakaal grabs Anita and drags her through the walls and into his lair. She can't see anyone there, and all of a sudden starts reacting like she's being slapped and hit. And this actually starts to get a bit too camp, even for me.

Anita's family shows up somehow knowing where to go, even assuming they'd be there in real life, but we are down to the last ten minutes, so fine.

Mummenshantz is getting rather aggressive.

A flying glove gets dad in the arm, and Prakash rips it out. Well great, now the wound is gonna bleed all over the place!

Shakaal enters the room finally, and Prakash...runs forward. Leaping into the air. Doing a front flip that KILLS ME because of how extra it is, and then tries killing the demon by punching him.

While they fight, dad grabs an axe or something, and HURLS it at the monster, driving it deep into Shakaal's head.

Of course, not being quite human, Shakaal just pulls it out like he had a leaf in his hair.

We run around and fight for a bit longer, and Shakaal just blithely walks right up to the very convenient guillotine he just so happens to have in his basement.

Anita shoves him into it, and drops the blade, cutting him off at the knees.

He crawls after Anita, and she leads him to an equally convenient set of spikes hanging from the ceiling that Prakash drops on him.

This is why we do not live in torture dungeons, people!!

I guess that counts as "dismemberment and beating up" because the movie ends not one minute later. Bad guy's dead, there is NO movie left. To borrow a phrase.

TRSK ASSESSMENT

Video: It looks fine. Not great, but that’s more because of the quality of the source material, I guess.

Audio: Something that’s so musical, I wish it was better, but it’s okay.

Body Count: Disappointing, to say the least.

1 - A whopping 47 minutes into the movie, and Seema is groped by a thousand hands.

2 - Param gets it at an hour and ten minutes when snakes crawl out of holes

3 - In a flashback, Mohini is tossed into a fiery pit.

4 - Shakaal buried alive.

5 - Randhir is pulled into the water bed.

6 - Shakaal gets squished

Best Corpse: Seema’s death at the many hands of Shakaal is pretty good.

Blood Type - C+: Not a lot of blood, but it has a few moments, and the ‘burn’ makeup is all right.

Sex Appeal: Nope.

Movie Review: I actually had a lotta fun with this one. This is a FASCINATING experience, I enjoy it with curiosity, but I can't really judge if it's a GOOD movie, because it's too culturally dependent. At two hours, it is more of an experience than a movie. I dig the musical numbers, but they do drag on. I also appreciate the Shakespearean nature of things. It is an intriguing look at an interpretation of A Nightmare on Elm Street, that stays true enough to the core of it, and makes it more appealing to the local people. It’s made well enough, the acting from most of the class works, even with the language barrier, and there’s some good creative choices. Lots of fun, and I’m glad I experienced it, 4 out of five musical numbers.

Entertainment Value: The stuff that’s supposed to be entertaining to the people it was made for, doesn’t land for me. I find Canteen too quirky and a distraction more than a puckish jokester. The Shahenshah stuff is just so weirdly diversional. But even then, I did enjoy this more than I didn’t, and it’s worth checking out just to experience something different. Three out of five broken mirrors.