A Very Dark and Unsettling Dystopian Thriller With Strong Ideas and Some Big Shocks
There are some movies that are made mainly to entertain, while a few movies try to take you into a completely different world and show what could happen if society completely collapses. This one belongs more to that category. I watched it in the theatre when I got some free time, and honestly, I went in without expecting too much. But by the time the movie reached the interval, I was genuinely surprised by how dark the story had become. Some of the elements gave me a proper shock, and the second half takes that darkness even further. Code : 5
What I liked most is that the movie doesn’t explain everything immediately. It gives us small hints about the world, the people and the central conflict, and slowly allows us to understand what is actually happening. The basic storyline is simple, but the way the filmmakers build the situation and place the characters inside this disturbing world makes the movie much more engaging.
At the same time, I wouldn’t call it a perfect film. There are clear budget limitations, and at certain points it genuinely feels like a concept-driven short film stretched into a feature. But surprisingly, the writing doesn’t feel compromised. The makers have clearly concentrated more on the story, characters, plot points and twists rather than trying to make the film look much bigger than its actual scale.
And yes, this is a very, very dark movie.
Movie Details
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Movie Name | Kaliyugam 2064 |
| Genre | Dystopian Thriller / Science Fiction / Dark Drama |
| Original Languages | Telugu and Tamil |
| OTT Platform | Sun NXT |
| Director | Pramodh Sundar |
| Writers | Aathreya, Karthik Gunasekaran, Karkavi |
| Main Cast | Shraddha Srinath, Kishore Kumar G., Iniyan Subramani |
| My Rating | 3.5/5 |
| Viewing Experience | Dark, disturbing and thriller-oriented |
| Recommended For | Viewers who enjoy dark futuristic and dystopian stories |
A Future Where Survival Becomes Everything
The story takes us to the year 2064, where the world has reached an extremely bad situation. Basic necessities like food and water have become difficult to obtain, and naturally, that changes the way people live and behave.
The movie introduces two major groups in this world, the Resistance and the Liberators. The Resistance has created a huge wall around its area and seems to be living in comparatively better conditions. They have access to resources and are able to maintain a more prosperous lifestyle. On the other side, the Liberators are fighting against the Resistance, while ordinary people are desperately trying to survive.
A lot of people want to get into the Resistance-controlled area because they believe that is where they can find food and safety. Outside that protected world, people are struggling for even the most basic necessities. This setup itself gives the movie an interesting foundation because it immediately shows how much society has changed.
The film doesn’t spend too much time explaining every single detail about the future. Instead, it gives us small hints through situations and conversations. Slowly, we understand how badly the world has changed and why people have become so desperate.
The World-Building Is Simple but Interesting
I liked the way the movie introduces its world without completely overloading the audience with explanations. You see people struggling, you see the scarcity of resources, and you understand that different groups have completely different goals. The huge wall separating the two worlds also gives the film a clear visual representation of inequality.
At the same time, I wanted more information about how this world reached this point. The movie gives us enough information to understand the central story, but it doesn’t completely explain the history behind the collapse of society.
I would have liked to know more about what happened before 2064, how these different systems developed and why the Resistance has so much control. These details could have made the world-building much richer.
Still, for a movie working within a limited scale, I think the basic world-building is handled reasonably well.
It Sometimes Feels Like an Extended Short Film
One of my biggest observations while watching the movie was that it sometimes feels like a concept-based short film that has been expanded into a two-hour feature.
The basic story is actually quite simple. Two characters enter a particular situation, something unexpected happens, the central conflict slowly becomes clearer and the story moves towards its major revelations.
The first 40 minutes especially feel like one long sequence. The film doesn’t keep jumping between too many different storylines. Instead, it spends time establishing the situation and showing us what this world has become.
I actually liked this focused approach because it keeps the story from becoming unnecessarily complicated. But at the same time, I felt the movie could have benefited from some additional character background and more information about the world.
A little more backstory would have made the characters more emotionally interesting and would have made the overall world feel larger.
The First 40 Minutes Slowly Build the Situation
The first portion isn’t about giving us major twists every few minutes. It is mainly about showing us the condition of the world and allowing us to understand the situation.
Food has become extremely valuable. People are struggling. Survival has become more important than normal social values, and the movie keeps giving us small hints about how far things have gone.
The filmmakers don’t directly explain everything to the audience. Instead, we understand the world by watching what the characters experience.
Once the main conflict begins, the movie slowly shifts towards a thriller.
At that point, you start asking what exactly is happening and why these things are happening. The film deliberately keeps certain answers away, and that creates curiosity.
Kishore’s Character Is One of the Highlights
The character played by Kishore Kumar G. is one of the more interesting elements of the film.
Initially, you don’t completely understand where the character is going. The movie gives you certain hints about him, but it doesn’t immediately reveal everything. As the story progresses, the character slowly becomes more important to the central conflict.
I thought the character was very well created, and Kishore also performs the role effectively. He brings the seriousness and mystery required for the character, and his performance fits the dark world of the film.
The gradual way in which the character is revealed makes him more interesting than if everything had been explained immediately.
The Thriller Aspect Gets Better After the Main Conflict Begins
Once the movie enters its main conflict, the thriller aspect becomes much stronger. You are no longer simply observing this futuristic world; you are trying to understand what is actually happening.
There are moments where you genuinely feel that something is going on but you don’t have enough information to understand it completely. That uncertainty works in the film’s favour.
The movie keeps giving small hints, and you may start predicting where it is going. But then it gives you information that changes the way you look at the earlier scenes.
That is one of the reasons I remained engaged.
The Interval Gives a Proper Shock
The interval was one of the moments where I felt the movie really worked.
The film gives us certain hints before reaching that point, and you may even think that you have figured out what is going to happen. But the actual reveal still has an impact.
My reaction was basically, “I wasn’t expecting it to go this dark.”
That is exactly what I wanted from the movie. It had already established a disturbing world, but the interval makes you realise that the story is willing to go much further than you initially thought.
It also creates a completely different expectation for the second half.
The Second Half Becomes Much Darker
This is where the movie really goes into its darker territory.
The first half establishes a world where food and water are scarce, but the second half shows what happens when human beings are pushed beyond their normal limits.
The movie explores desperation, survival and the way people can change when basic necessities become unavailable.
There are some genuinely disturbing elements here. The darkness isn’t simply being added for shock value. It comes from the situation that the movie has created.
When people are starving, how far can they go?
When survival becomes more important than morality, what happens?
When people desperately believe that someone or something can save them, how extreme can that belief become?
The movie uses these ideas effectively in the second half.
The Kalki Element Adds Another Interesting Layer
Another interesting idea is the way the movie uses the concept of Kalki within this dystopian future.
The people living in this world are desperate for hope. They want someone to save them, and that makes the idea of a saviour extremely powerful.
The movie takes this concept into a darker direction and shows how people can interpret such a belief when they are living in extreme circumstances.
I liked this aspect because it gives the story another layer beyond just survival and science fiction. The belief itself becomes part of the conflict, and the way certain characters use or respond to that belief creates some of the movie’s darker moments.
Shraddha Srinath Is Excellent
Shraddha Srinath is one of the biggest strengths of the movie.
Her character goes through some very difficult and traumatic situations, and she handles those scenes extremely well. There is a certain emotional weight to the character, and the performance makes those moments feel serious.
For me, she genuinely killed it.
Especially when the story becomes darker, her performance becomes even more effective. She doesn’t need to overdo the emotions. A lot of the impact comes from the way she reacts to the situations around her.
The character is not simply there to move the story forward. She becomes an important part of the emotional side of the movie.
Kishore Kumar G. Also Does a Very Good Job
Kishore Kumar G. is another strong performer.
His character is written with a certain mystery, and the performance supports that writing. There are moments where you are not completely sure what to make of him, and that uncertainty is important for the thriller.
The way his character is gradually revealed also works well because the audience starts looking back at earlier scenes differently once more information becomes available.
I thought both the writing and performance worked nicely here.
The Supporting Performances Are Decent
Iniyan Subramani and the other supporting performers also fit the world of the film well.
The cast is not extremely large, which actually works for this type of story. The movie remains focused on a small group of characters and the particular incident they become involved in.
Because the story is relatively contained, the performances don’t need to carry huge subplots. They mainly need to make the world believable, and overall they do that.
The Villain Is Interesting
There is also a character who gradually becomes more important as the story progresses.
What I liked here is that the movie doesn’t immediately present this person as a typical villain. The introduction creates one kind of impression, and then the film slowly reveals more about the character.
The reveal is not simply thrown at you.
It happens gradually.
You get small indications, and then eventually the full picture becomes clear.
When the character is finally revealed, there is a proper “Oh, so this is what is happening” feeling.
That was another aspect of the writing I enjoyed.
The Twists Are Placed Well
The movie doesn’t constantly try to surprise you.
Instead, it spends time establishing the situation and then gives the important information at the right moments.
The interval twist is effective, and the second half continues to build on it. The later revelations then take the story towards the climax.
This is one of the strongest aspects of the screenplay.
The movie understands that a thriller becomes more engaging when the audience knows something is wrong but doesn’t know exactly what the answer is.
That balance is maintained fairly well.
The Climax Worked for Me
The climax is another portion I found interesting.
By this stage, the movie has already become quite dark, so naturally you want to know where everything is going to end.
The final portion provides a decent payoff and also leaves room for another chapter.
There is a hint towards a possible second part, although personally, I don’t think it was absolutely necessary.
The movie could have ended without that hint and still worked.
But it also doesn’t completely spoil the ending. Instead, it leaves the audience wondering what could happen next.
Does It Need a Second Part?
I’m honestly not sure.
The world created in the movie definitely has enough material for another story. There are many questions about the future, the different groups and the larger situation that could be explored.
But the first film itself tells enough of a story to work as a standalone experience.
So if the makers do make another part, I hope they expand the world rather than simply repeat the same type of conflict.
There is definitely potential there if they decide to explore the bigger picture.
The Biggest Problem Is the Budget
Now coming to the main weakness, the budget is clearly visible in certain portions.
The movie does try to establish a futuristic world with VFX, costumes, locations and production design, but there are moments where the film looks more like a short film than a large-scale theatrical production.
You can see that the makers have had limitations.
However, I don’t think this becomes a major problem because the film doesn’t try to pretend that it is a massive visual spectacle.
It focuses more on the story.
And honestly, that was the right decision.
Production Design Is Actually Good
Considering the limitations, I thought the production design was quite good.
The costumes, sets and overall environment help establish the future setting.
The movie has a particular visual identity, and the makers have clearly put effort into creating the world.
Some of the VFX elements are also useful in showing the larger scale of the situation.
It may not look like a huge-budget science-fiction movie, but it does enough to make the story believable.
The Story Is Bigger Than the Budget
This is probably the biggest compliment I can give the film.
You can clearly see where the makers had to compromise on the visual scale, but you don’t feel that they compromised heavily on the core storyline.
They have put more effort into the characters, plot points, twists and central conflict.
For me, that is always a positive.
A movie doesn’t necessarily need hundreds of crores to have an interesting story.
If the writing is strong enough, even a contained film can create a good experience.
This movie proves that to some extent.
Telugu Dubbing Could Have Been Better
One area where I wasn’t completely satisfied was the Telugu dubbing.
The movie is available in Telugu, but some of the dubbing didn’t feel completely natural to me.
Especially in certain emotional scenes, the dubbing could have been better.
The voice given to Shraddha Srinath’s character didn’t completely match the intensity of her original performance for me.
If you are comfortable watching the movie in Tamil or Telugu, I would personally prefer experiencing the performances in the language in which they were originally delivered.
The Music Didn’t Make a Huge Impact
The music is okay, but it wasn’t one of the major highlights for me.
The background atmosphere is more effective than the songs.
The movie is dark and thriller-oriented, so it doesn’t really require heavy musical portions anyway.
I wouldn’t call the music bad, but compared with the writing, performances and production design, it didn’t leave the same impression on me.
This Is Not a Big-Budget Sci-Fi Spectacle
One thing I would strongly recommend is not to compare this with huge-scale futuristic films simply because the story is set in the future.
This is a much more contained movie.
It isn’t trying to give you massive VFX sequences or build a huge cinematic universe.
Instead, it takes a small group of characters and places them inside a disturbing future situation.
That approach actually works for the movie.
The smaller scale allows the filmmakers to concentrate more on the central conflict.
The Darkness Is the Biggest USP
If there is one thing I will remember about this movie, it is how dark it gets.
The darkness isn’t just in the visuals.
It is present in the story, the characters, the situation and the ideas.
The movie asks what happens when people don’t have food, when survival becomes everything and when society starts losing its normal moral boundaries.
Some of the situations are genuinely uncomfortable.
There are moments where you simply think, “How far are these people willing to go?”
And the movie keeps pushing that question.
That is what makes it different from a regular futuristic thriller.
I wouldn’t call it perfect, and there are definitely things that could have been better. The world-building could have been deeper, the character backstories could have had more detail, the Telugu dubbing could have been stronger and the movie occasionally has a clear short-film feel because of its limited budget.
But when I look at the movie as a whole, I think the filmmakers have done a good job with the material they had.
The concept is interesting, the storyline has some strong ideas, the characters are well placed, the twists arrive at the right moments and the second half becomes genuinely dark.
The interval was a proper surprise for me, and after that, the movie keeps building the tension until the climax.
Shraddha Srinath is excellent, Kishore Kumar G. is very good, the production design is impressive considering the scale, and the writing is probably the strongest department.
The biggest positive is that the movie doesn’t feel like it has compromised on the story just because of its budget.
It feels like the makers had a particular concept in mind and tried their best to execute it with the resources they had.
And for me, that worked.
If you like dark dystopian stories, survival-based thrillers, futuristic concepts and movies that are willing to go into uncomfortable territory, I would definitely recommend giving this a chance.
Just don’t go expecting a massive science-fiction spectacle.
Go for the concept, writing, characters and darkness.
If you are planning to watch it in theatres, you can definitely try it. Otherwise, you can wait for the OTT release on Sun NXT.
For me, this was a movie that had some limitations but still managed to leave an impression because of its storyline.
My Rating: 3.5/5
Overall, I would say this is a dark, interesting and concept-driven dystopian thriller that is worth trying, especially if you enjoy movies that take their ideas into unexpectedly disturbing territory.