Kaalakaandi: The story of Saif Ali Khan-Akshat Verma's film, visualised as 8-bit games

Ever since the Kaalakaandi teaser released, we’ve been trying to figure out just what the film’s plot could be.

Director Akshat Verma cryptically mentioned that it’s all about ‘what happens one night’. And from the brief glimpses we’ve seen, we imagine it has something to do with Saif Ali Khan’s character navigating one wild adventure after another. Let’s not forget that Verma is the same filmmaker who gave us the pretty crazy Delhi Belly.

Using 8-bit imagery and Saif’s kooky look from the Kaalakaandi poster, here’s a visual imagining of what might be in store for his character.

Here’s Saif’s character, if he was part of the ping-pong ball hit and break-the-brick game ‘Arkanoid’. Who can forget this game, which used to be one hell of a time-killer back in those days of TV video games and even later in PCs! More than a pastime it used to cater to fidgety, anxious souls when there was no WhatsApp and Facebook to distract us.

Here’s Saif’s character entering the world of ‘Bomberman’ — the tiny bot that used to plant live bombs which would then explode and open up ways, while keeping away from other enemies and obstacles.

Yeah! How can you miss this one? A video-game spin-off is incomplete without ‘Mario’. So here’s Saif, in the Super Mario scenario.

If there’s Mario in the list, how can ‘Adventures Island’ be missed? Saif is visualised as the primitive skater in this game. Just in this version, those lucrative stars are actually death traps. The moment his skates touch them, he goes zonkers and the game comes to an end.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, should it? Unarguably, the most played game on this planet — is there any surface left that we have spared making those two vertical and horizontal lines? From notebooks, books, cards, tickets, and even currency notes — all have been scarred with those hashes and the continuous craving for ‘one-more’ game. Saif’s Kaalakaandi character does the same.

Kaalakaandi also stars Sobhita Dhulipala, Akshay Oberoi, Amrya Dastur and Kunaal Roy Kapur. It is produced by Cinestaan Film Company and Flying Unicorn Entertainment. It is slated to release on 8 September.