Kaalo Movie Reviews

When comedy and romance are the order of the day, director Wilson Louis has dared to be different by making a horror film. It's a thorny genre to attempt, since one has to maintain consistent suspense throughout. Otherwise, the film runs the risk of becoming tacky and unfrigthening. Perhaps this is why horror, as a genre, hasn't yet been optimally tapped in India. Sure, we've witnessed horror films in the past, but very few of them succeeded

Was just wondering the other day, why do [most] Hindi films that tackle the horror genre don't really succeed in their endeavour of scaring the viewer? I mean, real stories concerning supernatural forces continue to make the rounds to this date and make us break into a cold sweat, especially when you listen to them in rapt attention at nights. So why don't these stories succeed in their motive of scaring us in the dark confines of a cineplex?

Believe in witches, do you? Doesn't matter, 'coz Kaalo with her weird black get-up couldn't be real. She's a grotesque creature who flits across the barren desert, swoops on a bus load of good and bad guys and swallows them whole with a sticky long tongue. And when she's not really hungry, she chops them with an antique axe or sucks them into the sand. All because she wants sweet little Swini to satiate her hunger for immortality.

Before you start wondering about the film’s title, let me save you the trouble. Kaalo is named after the lead character who is a witch! Yes, a black-cloak-donning, monstrous-looking witch with the quintessential crooked nose and bat-like wings (that’s an innovation now), straight out of children’s fairy tales. Kulbaata, an eerie town in Rajasthan, is an uninhabited place now. Years ago, when it was populated, it was plagued with the presence of a witch

A cross between a witch and bird-like creature called Kaalo haunts the desert village of Kulbhatta and kills young girls to achieve immortality. Angry villagers manage to capture the monster and bury it alive, but Kaalo continues to haunt them, forcing the inhabitants to flee. Out of fear, no one traverses through the abandoned village for ages until a busload of passengers opts to traverse through Kulbhatta citing Kaalo to be mumbo-jumbo

Kaalo is a poor fare. It will meet with a poor response at the box-office.