The Messiah?

Kalki 2898 AD (Telegu; 2024)

Director: Nag Ashwin

Why is it that every culture predicts a nihilistic future where annihilation is the final outcome? Almost all paint a picture of chaos where morality is down the drain, virtue becomes an alien feature, and pandemonium is king.

According to Hindu culture, time is cyclical in Nature. A time unit, chaturyoga, lasts 8.64 million years. It is divided into four yugas—Satya, Treta, Dwarpa, and Kali. We are in Kaliyuga, which commenced in 3102 BCE and will last for 432,000 years. Each yuga depicts further deterioration of human behaviour. Like the four seasons on Earth will repeat indefinitely. By the end of Kaliyuga, human behaviour will be despicable, with total anarchy and chaos, reaching the point of entropy. Decoiry, emphasis on external beauty, false divinity, fakery, greed, and the list go on about what can be expected by the end of Kaliyuga. Nature would need to reboot and restart the system, returning to Satya, the golden age. Rinse and repeat.

It is believed that the end of the Kurukshetra War marked the commencement of Kaliyuga. With so much disorder (adharma) ongoing, with so much breaking of conventions and ethics, it is said that Vishnu's 8th avatar, Krishna, manifested to set rules for mankind so the effects of Kaliyuga could be minimised. 

It is prophesied that Vishnu's final avatar, the tenth, will appear at the end of Kali-yuga to set order once again and pave the universe into the next yuga, Satya-yuga, the golden age.

In the Hindu scripture, eight icons are booned (cursed) with immortality. Besides Hanuman, Vyasa and Markandeya, Ashwattama was cursed by Krishna to roam the jungles, deformed with wounds festering with blood and pus for 3,000 years. For the context, Ashwattama was Drona's son. Drona was the archery teacher to both Pandavas and Kauravas. Because of politics, Drona and Ashwattama fought for the side of the Kauravas. Krishna was the charioteer for Arjuna, the principal warrior of the Pandavas. 

As dirty as war can be, the Pandavas tricked Drona into believing that his son, Ashwattama, had died in the war. Drona's temporary lapse of concentration cost him dearly. In actual fact, an elephant named Ashwattama was killed. The angry Ashwattama went on a rampage, which eventually led to him attempting to kill Pandava's last heir, Uttara's unborn child, Arjuna's grandchild. Hence, the curse.

This is where the movie starts. Six thousand years into Kali-yuga, 2898 CE, the world is dystopian, with Kashi being the only 'civilised' place left standing. Kashi is ruled by a despot harbouring serum from pregnant mothers for youth rejuvenation. I do not think Shrimad Bhagavadam describes things as these. The storytellers have taken the artistic liberty to draw in viewers. The rebels have gone underground at Shambala. One of the mothers in the incubation pods carries Kalki in her womb. But the extraction of serum proves fatal. Hence, the rush to save the day. We can deduce this from the fact the mother's name is Sumathi. 

Ashwattama springs into action. A bounty hunter who catches anyone and anything for a fee is also on the trail. Unbeknownst to the bounty hunter, Bhairava (a reference to Shiva's incarnate. controller of time) is a reincarnation of Karna. The movie is obviously just a teaser to one of many more sequels. 

Ashwattama was cursed with immortality for aiming 
a celestial weapon at Abhimanyu's pregnant wife to
kill the Pandava lineage. In his defence, he was not
taught how to disarm the weapon.

With all the CGIs, this is undoubtedly a rare attempt of Indian cinema to create science fiction using Indian mythology. With no local templates to follow, it is evident that the makers got the prototypes of their props from Star Wars. 

Is it a coincidence that most civilisations and religions present a world entirely of sin and debauchery, leading to the annihilation of the world? And a saviour always comes on a white horse. What do you know? Kalki is said to ride a white horse, too. Why are there so many overlaps between Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic traditions? The story of a newborn escaping royal capture happened in the cases of Jesus and Krishna. Moses and Karna were placed in a waterproofed basket in the river to be adopted by someone else. 

One possible explanation goes back to the time after Nebuchadnezzar's army destroyed the First Temple of Jerusalem. The Israelites were taken captive and brought to Mesopotamia as slaves. There, intermingling with the local populace before King Cyrus the Great brought them back to Israel, the early Jews added tales common to Hinduism to their pantheon of stories.

(P.S. 2898 CE is long before the end of Kali-yuga if it lasts 432,000. It seems too premature for Kalki to be born.)

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The end is nay, but when?

Knock in the Cabin

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Interestingly, the throb of the world's end and a man riding a white horse is a recurring theme in most eschatological studies. We all know of a leader with 666 tattooed on his forehead who would be the proverbial anti-Christ who would ride on a white horse. Then there are the four Horsemen who would be riding in to right the wrong of a decadent world on the brink of extinction.

In Kalki Puranam, the end of kali-yuga will be marked with events signifying the loss of piety and goodness the world over. It will be climaxed with the total annihilation of Earth. The Big Bang would have reached the point of entropy. The reset button would be initiated for time to restart. Lord Vishnu would assume his last avatar, Kalki, to expedite this process by slaying the terrorising asuras. Again, Kalki would be marching in on a white horse. Kali-yuga will be replaced with Satya-yuga. Graham Hancock's research suggests that time is cyclical. One major civilisation is replaced with another.

Most world belief systems have an eerie commonality about a nihilistic future where civilisation would decay and meet a fiery end. The trouble is that no time frame is given for this end, but many are cocksure that he knows that end is nay.       

Depending on which scriptures one reads, the rider on the white horse can be a saviour or a villain. And they had different names. The founder of the Ahmeddya sect may have proclaimed to be Kalki. In the Shia sect, at the end of times, they believed Imam Mahdi would unite the believers and help to rule the world. In Buddhism, Maitreya, a messianic-like saviour, would rule the world.

Some historians believe Kalki Puranam is a later production, unlike other Hindu scriptures. It is said to have been penned in Bengal around 1500-1700CE when a Muslim Sultanate was in power. Are they saying the Muslim reign was terrible and the ordinary people dreamt of a saviour on horseback to rescue them?

In modern times, many doomsday prophets sniff around for gullible souls to convince them the end is near. Like Chicken Licken, they holler around, yelling the sky is falling down, asking people to join in the reception party that greets the Lord when His Kingdom reigns after Armageddon. Every now and then, we hear cults interpreting certain everyday occurrences as proof that the end is near. Many are in the corner for fake news or a brush with the law, like in the cases of Branch Davidian under the tutelage of David Koresh in Waco, Texas, or Jim Jones 'People's Temple' in Jonestown, Guyana.

In the film, when a vacationing same-sex couple with their adopted young daughter is visited by four people talking about the end of the world, they think the four people are nuts. They insist that one of the couple must kill the other or the girl to stop the multiple air crashes and the raging natural calamities. Even though the plot is hollow and the script may not be the best I have heard of late, the movie managed to grab the attention of its viewers via its ability to create suspense. It makes one think.

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A historical fiction

Ponniyin Selvan Part 1(பொன்னியின் செல்வன், Tamil; 2022)
Director: Mani Ratnam

Kalki first published these fictionalised historical stories back in the 1950s in a weekly magazine. The stories were penned by Kalki Subramaniam and printed in Kalki magazine in Chennai. These stories were hugely popular and had developed a cult following. People were fascinated with the vivid narration and witty dialogue. The publication's readership at one time was 71,366 - a formidable number in newly independent India. Kalki Subramaniam had been a freedom fighter.

As early as the late 50s, attempts have been made to make a movie of Kalki's 'Ponniyin Selvan'. MG Ramachandran bought the rights to the story but failed due to financial constraints. Mani Ratnam attempted it in the 1980s and 2010s but failed again. After the delays posed by the pandemic, it finally hit the silver screens in 2022. 

Now, this film is said to be the fourth highest-grossing Tamil movie of all time, and people are singing praises of the movie. A blog reader watched it and said she did not quite understand the story. As I expected, the characters were too many, and the names were too mind-bending for an average occasional Tamil speaker and non-speaker to register. The dialogue can be considered too courteous for general consumption, as most Tamil movie dialogues are crude and rude. There were clearly no comedic actors to crack mindless slapstick and jokes. Again, this is another essential ingredient for a wholesome Indian picture where the audience will find money's worth. In PS-1, the dialogue is witty, and the comedic component is packaged in wordplay. I wonder if any Malaysian audiences who watched the movie with me in the cinema read the innuendos between the lines.

I have to confess that when a 13-year-old me watched 'Star Wars' when everyone else was singing praises of it, I too agreed with them. In reality, I could not understand the whole storyline, but not to appear dumb, I followed the herd. 

Maybe, because this movie is promoting nationalism at a time when the whole world becoming less tolerant of each other, it plucks the heartstrings of many. That was precisely the intention of Kalki Subramaniam, an Indian freedom fighter when he penned the series of stories. Kalki would have been very proud of his work as it is portrayed on the silver screen.

The cinematography and the special effects are of high quality, way above what is generally seen in most Indian movies. The artwork involving adventures (or rather misadventures) on the high seas was almost reminiscent of the 'Pirates of the Caribbean series. 

Ponniyin Selvan 1 is a historical fiction of the life of times of young Arunmozhi Varman in the 10th century CE before he became the great Chola Emperor Raja Raja Cholan. He was referred to as 'Ponniyin Selvan' - the son of Ponni. Ponni is the other name for the River Kaveri. Legend has it that the spirit of the River had saved Arunmozhi from drowning, hence the nickname. 

As in politics then and now, frequent backstabbing and doublecrossing were going on to usurp power. In that climate, brothers Aditha Karkalan and Arunmozhi Varman have to stand tall, fight the schemers and protect the throne in a series of swashbuckling adventures and death-defying moments.

Sure, the history of Man was never peaceful. At no time were Man cordial with his neighbours. They found ingenious ways to differentiate one from another. I could not help but notice that the scriptwriters purposely tried to suggest animosity between Shaivites (Shiva worshippers) and Vaishvanites (Vishnu worshippers). But I always thought that in ancient India (and now), heterogenicity was embraced. It remains the only land that was not hostile towards Jews and accepted Zoroastrian refugees when Islamic invaders chased them away from Persia. There are even Chinatowns in India.

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We dig our own grave?

The Eternals (2021)
Director: Chloe Zhao

The story is actually an amalgamation of many stories, folklore mainly. After all, most world mythologies have almost a similar theme. See how often babies are left to float in a vessel by a river to escape persecution. Moses survived Pharoah's persecution and was adopted by the Pharoah's daughter in a twist of fate. Karna was left off by his unwed mother in Mahabharata to escape humiliation, only to be adopted as a charioteer to fight his younger brothers later! And see how everything comes to an end, in Armageddon, or when Kalki descends from his horse at the end Kaliyuga.

Gilgamesh

So, how did Judea-Christian mythology get intertwined with Hindu mythology? Simple. After destroying the First Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, Jews were taken as slaves and brought to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar and subsequent Persian conquerors. They spend 48 years in Babylon imbibing the Indus culture into their, hence, the cross-overs. King Cyrus freed them from Babylon and helped them rebuild their temple in Jerusalem. So, one can see many cross-over influences in the Judeo-Christian stories.

The Sumerians have their own past stories of glory. Annunaki was an extra-terrestrial king if we believe what our ancient alien theorists say. He thought homo-sapiens were not too intelligent workers and frequently fought amongst themselves. Annunaki decided to infuse extra-terrestrial DNA to make humans into productive workers. Gilgamesh, one of the characters in this movie, is a long-forgotten Mesopotamian hero. In the first half of his life, he was a king who fought fearsome battles and spent the remaining half pondering the meaning of life. His adventures are depicted in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

In this movie, the Eternals are a breed of near-immortal of ten alien superheroes sent to Earth around 500BCE by Arishem to protect the planet against Deviants. Deviants are Arishem's (The Creator) creations who have gone rogue. They are hell-bent on destroying Earth, and The Eternals are assigned to protect Earthlings from them. Periodically, the Eternals infuse knowledge into Mankind. With this knowledge, Mankind made periodical monument jumps in their civilisation. The Eternals were strictly told not to interfere with any conflicts that arose from within humans. The last of the Deviants were slain, so they thought, in 1521. And the Eternals awaited further instructions from Arishem, which never came.

In the present time, the Eternals had to re-group when a Deviant re-emerges. Their leader, Ajak, is killed, and Sersi assumes command. She communicates with Arishem telepathically to be told that their real mission was to save Earth from the Emergence (the End of the World).

Friction ensues amongst the Eternal for what they feel as being 'used' by Arishem. The rest of the show is about how Earth is saved and how they resolve crises.

The human race is meant to progress through the exploration of their intelligence. Their discoveries are meant to propel them collectively forward. Exclusive control of power and knowledge by alpha predators (leaders) seems unhealthy as they would steer the whole race towards a particular that would benefit them. Hence, the Deviants were meant to clip the wings of the alpha predators. Unfortunately, the wisdom handed to Earthlings seem not to civilise them but instead lead to their own destruction. The Emergence/ Armageddon/ End of Days is their own doing.

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