00:00Hi, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News Tabloid and last night I went for the screening of Kedar Nath
00:11Directed by Abhishek Kapoor. It's a star-crossed love story
00:16Between Mukku and Mansoor Khan. Mukku is played by Sara Ali Khan who makes her debut with this film
00:23And then there's Mansoor Khan played by Sushant Singh Rajput. He's relatively more experienced
00:29actor
00:30Now there are some love stories that shake you to the core. Who doesn't love a good love story?
00:35But this one leaves you slightly unmoved
00:38but it's not because of for the lack of trying because you can see that both Sara Ali Khan and
00:44Sushant Singh Rajput have tried in earnest to cook up this to bring alive this love story about rebellion about
00:52Interfaith relationship and the resistance they face while it's great on paper
00:57It somehow does not translate well on screen. The movie opens by introducing us into this picturesque
01:04Spiritually charged town called the Kedar Nath temple. So there is
01:09Mansoor Khan played by Singh whose job is to transport people
01:14Physically by carrying them on their back
01:18To the feet of the temple. Now, he's a Muslim lad and the movie also shows him as this eternal ray of sunshine
01:26He is one of the person who's like everybody is ready, you know, this movie showcases the religious divide not so subtly
01:34In the beginning you have a very pious old Hindu lady refusing to be transported by a Muslim lad
01:41She can't walk but she says that I would hate to be transported by a man from another religion
01:47But here you have Mansoor Khan who just wins her over with his charm and relentless sweetness
01:55it's not wholly unbelievable, but Sushant Singh Rajput somehow manages to add a bit of
02:01Believability into it just through his acting prowess. Now there is Sara Ali Khan
02:05This entire movie is a showcase to show her range of acting. There is a song there is a dance
02:12There's emotion. There's a crying scene. There's a self-destructive suicide scene everything to showcase how good a talent she is
02:19It's almost like it should have been named just Sara Ali Khan ideally
02:23And not Kedarnath because all focus is on her and the camera lovingly explodes at every angle, which is good. Thankfully
02:31Sara Ali Khan has enough heft also to demand that kind of attention
02:35She's got an arresting screen presence when she is on the screen
02:39You just notice her which is very good for a newcomer because not all newcomers can boast of that
02:44Although she's very raw in the emotional scenes most of the scenes of romance of singing dancing. She gets it, right?
02:49So I think a star has been born here, of course
02:53But the first half moves at a very languid pace now
02:56You have to be you know
02:57You have to sit tight and wait for the actual action to happen in the second half
03:01The problem the second half is the last 20 minutes are very turbulent
03:05You have like a flood hitting this village this tiny Hamlet and how it's the biggest level of how a mother
03:12Nature unleashing its fury is the biggest leveler in the world
03:16It's about how a triumph of human spirit and how people come together irrespective of whether they're Muslims or Hindus
03:23You know the core of the issue is kind of sweet
03:25But the problem is they save the best for the last and by then it was too late to you know
03:31To lift this movie that was drowning in in a typical love story, which you have already seen before
03:37I mean I can think of so many films that have explored this
03:42You know this path of two forbidden lovers
03:45Resisting the world going against their parents and their wishes, etc
03:49So they you know, this movie does not offer anything new in that respect what it offers though
03:57Which is quite refreshing is to see the scenes of flood. It's like the perfect storm
04:02Director Abhishek Kapoor has done a great job of actually bringing those scenes of fury and you know
04:09Nature's fury alive and the whole destruction is well
04:12Brought out but not much attention has been given to those parts because I think
04:18director preferred melodrama to actually show showcasing the kind of
04:23Destruction that a flood unleashes and how it's the biggest leveler
04:26So in a way that is one of the biggest failures of the film where they concentrated a lot on the love story and not on
04:32the actual
04:33Floods, although it says is inspired by true events. There's very little focus on that
04:38I have gone with 2.5 out of 5 for my full review. Go to gulfnews.com slash tabloid
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