Was SaNa’s work a plus or a minus for Kalki?

Many were surprised by the presence of key technicians working on Kalki 2898 AD, when their names were first announced. Large scale films usually rope in technicians who are more renowned and experienced. However, Nag Ashwin took a different path, hiring newer and relatively lesser known technicians.

For instance, despite having the chance to hire any top cinematographers from Telugu or any other Indian industries, he chose Djordje Stojiljkovic from Serbia as the film’s cinematographer. Going by the film’s visuals, it looks like Nag Ashwin’s judgement worked.

Coming to the music director, Nag Ashwin had initially selected his Mahanati collaborator Mickey J Meyer to compose music for Kalki, but he was later replaced with Santhosh Narayanan. Although Santhosh has a good reputation in Tamil cinema, people had doubts about whether he could do justice to such a massive project.

Viewers who watched Kalki, however, expressed mixed reactions about the music director’s work in the film. The songs in the movie did not stand out. The makers of the film did not make any efforts to release songs or promote the music extensively before the movie’s release to build anticipation. The songs seemed unimportant in the larger scheme of things in the film.

A promotional single titled Bhairava Anthem, sung by Diljit Dosanjh, was unveiled before the movie’s release and then did nothing more. Even that song received mixed reactions and was sampled briefly in the film. The other three or four songs barely left an impact with the audience.

But it is not correct to assume that no one cares about songs in such massive movies. The importance of songs in movies like Baahubali and RRR is undeniable, and they played a crucial role in hyping the movies before their release. However, Nag Ashwin took the songs lightly, and Santhosh did not provide the most melodious or memorable songs.

In terms of background score, Santhosh did a good job. Although he didn’t deliver an output on par with MM Keeravani, he did justice to the movie. All in all, the songs of Kalki were a minus, but his score was a plus for the film.