Kalki 2898 AD was a dystopian epic action comedy drama. Nag Ashwin's imagination was monumental in its own way. In some distinct lines of cinematic thinking, his voice was new on the canvas of Indian cinema.
How different is Rajamouli's Varanasi going to be from that movie? Like Kalki, Varanasi too has divine characters and a super-villain. Kamal Haasan's Supreme Yaskin was totalitarian in a post-apocalyptic imagination. Prithviraj Sukumaran's Kumbha, too, is devilish and supremely dark. But the similarities might end here. Unlike Prabhas' bounty hunter or Amitabh Bachchan's Ashwatthama, Mahesh's Rudhra is properly divine, totally non-grey, and semi-Puranic. While Kalki 2898 AD debatably glorified Karna, Varanasi seems to be more Dharma-compliant.
Our bets are on Varanasi. This "dream project" is going to be more whistle-worthy than Kalki. It's going to be more hope-inducing, it is going to be more godly in its breadth, more gutsy in its scope, and more wholesome in what it will be narrating - it will stand tall as a standalone magnum opus.
Varanasi will hit the cinemas in Summer 2027.
