Imagine a movie, which has
the potential to strike a chord with the audiences after movies based on
partition like Gadar, Train to Pakistan, Pinjar, to name a few, mesmerized the
audiences with the same. You have some of the most influential stars to play the
important roles. You have the backing of Dharma Productions. Nothing can go
wrong here, right? That’s where the audience gets duped by Abhishek Varman’s ‘Kalank’, which like ‘Zero’,
truly justifies the movie title – it is indeed a ‘Kalank’ [blot] on
the face of Indian cinema.
Plot
Satya Chaudhary [Sonakshi
Sinha] is informed that she would succumb soon to the cancer that she got
diagnosed with. In order to give her loving husband Dev [Aaditya
Roy Kapur] another shot at a better life, she surprisingly
arranges his marriage with an acquaintance’s rebellious daughter Roop [Alia
Bhatt].
Unable to adjust to the
rigors of the Chaudhary household, Roop finds solace in learning music from an
ex-courtesan Baahar Begum [Madhuri Dixit], who resides in the notorious Heera
Mandi of Husnabad, a majestic city near Lahore, British India. How her
adulterous relationship with the local womanizer Zafar [Varun Dhawan] affects
the Chaudhary household, as well as her own life, especially in the wake of the
partition, forms the crux of the story.
The
Bad –
Usually, some movies become
case studies for aspiring filmmakers as to how to create such compelling
masterpieces. However, in the case of Kalank, it is the complete opposite. If
this movie were a case study, it would’ve been a perfect case study on how not
to make a period drama.
Zero originality,
plagiarizing from various sources, including lifting a plot line from Munshi
Premchand’s ‘Saut’ (observe the angle between Satya,
Roop and Dev), and mediocre storytelling makes Kalank an
unforgettable drag. The movie copied blatantly from Bahubali, Gadar, Padmaavat,
DDLJ etc, failing to infuse the magic of either.
The editor of this movie
needs some serious lessons in basic film editing. For a movie like Kalank, it
was almost hilarious to see English subtitles being inserted and faded at whim.
For the VFX of the movie, the lesser said, the better.
The movie is so bad, that
even films like ‘Thugs of Hindostan’ and ‘Zero’ would look handsome in front of
this. If the producers are brave enough to pump in 80
crores for this period drama, could they not spend some
money for a decent script? Despite having a plotline with some potential, the
characters of Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit were extremely underutilized.
Is
there anything even Good?
However, even in the dark clouds,
there is a ray of sunshine. The few bright spots in this movie were the music,
the sets, and actors Aditya Roy Kapur and Alia Bhatt. For a person, who has
been way too much underutilized in other movies
kalank, Aditya Roy Kapur surprises one and all as the no nonsense
manager of Daily Times, Dev Chaudhary.
A true-blue progressive, who
doesn’t like being bullied by political compulsions, a better focus on Dev’s
personality would’ve removed the scourge of watching a movie laden with Kalank.
Though Alia Bhatt’s Roop makes us frown with her constant confusion and her
dumb approach to human relationships, in terms of acting, she essays her role
quite well.
Had the character of Varun
Dhawan not been exploited for the propaganda of the
makers, he did nail the role effortlessly. Even Kunal Khemmu, as the vicious
fanatic Abdul, surprises us with the conviction to his role. We wish he gets
better opportunities.
All in all, Kalank was a
golden opportunity to depict the complexities of relationships in the wake of
the partition that got subdued by propaganda. Grand sets and foot tapping music
aren’t enough to make a movie a success, if the content is mediocre. We’d
rate Kalank with 1/5 stars.
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