Veteran actor Mukesh Khanna, widely known for playing the role of Bheeshma in BR Chopra's Mahabharata, recently shared his own review of Nag Ashwin's latest release, Kalki 2898 AD. The film stars Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan in lead roles, and the story draws inspiration from the Hindu epic of Mahabharata, and Lord Krishna's prophecy around Kalyug and the birth of Kalki.
Khanna stated that while he would award the film full 100 points for the performances and scale, he felt that the film was designed to appeal to the West. "The level of intellect with which the film has been made is fine for Hollywood. People are more intelligent than us over there. Forgive me, but audiences in Odisha and Bihar are not going to understand this kind of filmmaking," he stated.
Not just that, but Khanna went on to criticise director Nag Ashwin for showing a misleading story about the Mahabharata. The veteran actor said that on contrary to the scene in Kalki 2898 AD wherein Lord Krishna removes the jewel from Ashwatthama's forehead as a curse, in reality, it was Draupadi who had instructed that the jewel be removed as Ashwatthama had killed all her children.
"In the beginning, when Krishna curses Ashwatthama by removing his ‘mani’, this never happened. I want to ask the makers, how could you presume to know more than the Vyas muni, who said that what doesn’t exist here cannot exist elsewhere?" Khanna questioned.
He further said, "The liberties that you’ve taken are inexcusable. We think that South filmmakers have more respect for our traditions, but what happened here?," adding that the government must set up a special committee to review mythological films and projects that have mythological connections.
Khanna also stated that every Hindu ought to be offended by the 'changes' the makers of Kalki 2898 AD made, just like the wrath that was unleashed upon Adipurush, which was a retelling of the Ramayana.
Meanwhile, Kalki 2898 AD has emerged to be a blockbuster at the box office, and the film, which was made with a budget of Rs 600 crore, has already earned Rs 700 crore worldwide before the end of a week since its release.
Besides Prabhas, Deepika and Big B, the dystopian drama by Nag Ashwin also stars Disha Patani, Kamal Haasan, Vijay Deverakonda, Dulquer Salmaan, and others.
