On the one hand, we seem to have a “mainstream” entertainer. At the other end of the spectrum, we have something out of sci-fi. The fun of watching ‘KA’ is figuring out how all these strange elements are going to come together.
Every time you question the sameness or the lack of originality of filmmakers and their films, they say that all ideas have been taken, all stories have been told. But KA, written and directed by Sujith-Sandeep, proves that this is not necessarily the case. Take the protagonist, named Abhinaya Vasudev (Kiran Abbavaram, in a solid performance). He grows up in an orphanage, and he begins to feel less alone by reading letters written to others. For instance, reading a mother’s letter to her son, he understands a little about what it’s like to feel maternal affection. This, in itself, is a lovely, fresh, emotionally satisfying idea – but it doesn’t stop there. This letter-reading concept is developed throughout the film, and it becomes the driver of the plot. Even though it’s a little convenient the way all crucial information is obtained through letters, I did not mind because the thought is so interesting and new. Plus, Vasudev is a postman, after all.
The flavour of the film – set in the 1970s – can be guessed when you learn that Vasudev’s love interest is named Satyabhama, and another key character is named Radha. (The actors are Nayan Sarika and Tanvi Ram.) The village itself is named Krishnagiri. The screenplay is filled with little lines that sound like they were taken from a holy book: say, the Bhagavad Gita. Early on, we hear that the good and the bad we do in life always haunts us. A masked man says that he is the darkness that will swallow Vasudev. Vasudev is told that, in some time, he won’t remember anything, not even his name. And speaking of memories, there is a hypnosis machine that takes Vasudev into his past. If you buy into all this, like I did, the fun of watching KA is trying to figure out how all these strange elements are going to come together at the end.
Even the tonality of the film keeps us guessing. On the one hand, we seem to have a “mainstream” entertainer about an orphan, the woman he falls in love with, and the evil villain who is behind the mysterious disappearances of women from this village. This part of the film has action scenes and love scenes and comedy/ drama with a surprisingly restrained Redin Kingsley, and even a faithful dog, like the one at the end of the Mahabharata. At the other end of the spectrum, we have something out of sci-fi, like that hypnosis machine and the masked men in trench coats and fedoras. (They look like detectives in the Hollywood noir films from the 1940s and 50s.) This is the only bit of imagination in KA that did not work for me. By the end, I understood that these men had to look different, because they are different from the others in the film. But given the religious underpinning of the rest of the narrative, involving concepts like karma, this sci-fi flavour felt very odd.
The romance could have been written better. It is a tad generic. But the interval twist is solid, and it makes us want to know where the second half is going to take us. In fact, the filmmakers make the brave choice of keeping us in the dark for so long that my mind-voice went: “Guys, the big reveal at the end had better be worth it!” And it is. I never, ever would have guessed that this is what KA is all about. This is a film that will benefit from a second viewing, but even after the first time, I thought back and appreciated so many touches: like how a small scene with a pen comes back as an echo later, or what secret lies behind an apparently abandoned house. Best of all, I loved that Vasudev is an imperfect hero. He does good things, like all heroes, but he also has flaws, and these flaws make him commit to actions that have serious consequences, and these consequences come back to haunt him. Now tell me that there are no more new stories to be told!
