Kaal (2005 film)

Two British nationals are killed by a ferocious tiger in Corbett National Park in India. This incident is followed by several other tiger attacks, and many deaths result, prompting National Geographic to send a correspondent, Krish Thapar (John Abraham) to the national park and ascertain what really happened. Thapar is accompanied by his wife Riya (Esha Deol).

A group of youngsters, consisting of Dev Malhotra (Vivek Oberoi), his girlfriend Ishika (Lara Dutta), Sajid (Kushal Punjabi) and Vishal (Vishal Malhotra), are on a hunting trip in the hopes of sighting and shooting some big prey. The youngsters' car breaks down and Bagga (Vineet Sharma), a passing by driver, gives them a lift. Bagga's car accidentally hits Krish's, which also breaks down and is at the middle of the road. The two groups decide to travel together in Bagga's car, leaving a mechanic repairing Krish's car.

Just a few seconds they set off, the mechanic disappears and they believe a tiger just took him away and decide not to risk their lives to look for him.

Bagga finds them a place to stay -- a guesthouse owned by Pandey. Pandey is a guide who agrees to lead them the next day to the core area, inhabit of tigers, for hunting. Pandey disappears the very night and his body is found in the wild the next day, with his head chopped off. Krish starts to be suspicious about the real cause of the recent rising deaths in the jungle, as he is an animal expert and recognizes Pandey is not killed by a tiger or any animal.

Warned by an officer and scared, the group decide to leave the jungle. Before they depart, they find Sajid missing. Dev, close friend to Sajid, assumes the latter is going to the core area alone for hunting. However, the group decide to leave without Sajid. Expectedly, Sajid joins the series of mysteri deaths. The rest are soon confronted by three tigers on the way. Kaali Pratap Singh (Ajay Devgan), who claims to live in the jungle, saves them from the upcoming tiger attack.

On their continued way out of the jungle, they find the road is blocked by rocks due to the landslide caused by rain. Kaali shows up again and agrees to lead them out of the jungle.

Kaali appears to be very knowledgable about the jungle. Krish, who is now more curious about the mysterious deaths, asks him if he knows what's behind those deaths. Kaali answers that there was a mad guide in this jungle, who always led tourists to wrong places to make them killed by animals. Angry villagers later found about it and beat him to death. But his spirit -- the ghost -- remains in the jungle and keeps killing tourists. But none of them believe Kaali's story.

Bagga later disappears when repairing his car, rising the fear among the rest. Vishal is also killed by their car explosion a few moments later.

The rest carry on and reach a deserted guesthouse in the evening, outside which there is a well. All go to sleep after being warned by Kaali not to get close to the well. Riya wakes up thirsty in the night. She decides to get water from the well despite Kaali's warning, and is later accidentally hanged in the well and dies.

The rest find out Riya's death and try to pull out her body, while Dev suddenly realizes that Kaali does not have a reflection in well's water. He also sees that Kaali is not visible in any of the videos that had been recorded by Vishal so far. He realizes that the story Kaali told them is true and he is the ghost referred in the story. Dev makes an excuse to push Kaali off and convinces the others that Kaali is a ghost. They decide to escape from Kaali.

They encounter several accidents on their way out of the jungle, apparently arranged by Kaali, but finally manage to escape.

Krish now knows what's behind those mysterious deaths but he is not going to tell anyone because no one is going to believe him. Meanwhile in the jungle, Kaali keeps killing tourists.

• Ajay Devgn as Kaali Pratap Singh
• John Abraham as Krish Thapar
• Vivek Oberoi as Dev Malhotra
• Esha Deol as Riya Thapar
• Lara Dutta as Ishika Malhotra
• Vishal Malhotra as Vishal
• Kushal Punjabi as Sajid
• Vineet Sharma as Bagga
• Parmeet Sethi as Officer Khan
• Daya Shankar Pandey as DS Pandey
• Shah Rukh Khan in a special appearance in item song "Kaal Dhamaal"
• Malaika Arora as an item girl in item song "Kaal Dhamaal"

Soham Shah, the writer-director of Kaal had earlier assisted Karan Johar in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham... (2001). 25 Litres of real blood was used in the film.[3] The idea of using computer-generated tigers was dropped because of the lack of its realism.[3] The three tigers shown in Kaal were also used in the Hollywood film Gladiator (2000).[4] Scenes involving tigers were shot in Bangkok, where they used to roam free on sets.[3] Vivek Oberoi wanted to portray the character Kalli, but later accepted the one offered.[4] The film was shot at the Jim Corbett National Park.[5]

The film received mixed to negative reviews from critics noting it to be a different type of horror film.[6][7] At the box office it performed moderately well, grossing an approx Rs.19 Crores and was declared Semi-Hit.[2] It was also the tenth highest-grossing film of 2005.

A sequel has been confirmed by Johar. Ajay Devgn will reprise his role as Kaali Pratap Singh. The film will shoot in late 2020 once Devgn is done shooting for the remake of Kaithi.

The music is composed by Salim–Sulaiman and Anand Raj Anand. The lyrics are penned by Shabbir Ahmed, Anand Raj Anand and Kailash Kher. According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 16,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's seventh highest-selling.[8]

• Kaal on IMDb