00:00Set in the 1947 pre-partition India, this period romance is a messy quadrangle filled with supremely gorgeous players.
00:14Hi, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News Tabloid and on Wednesday, I went to watch Kalank starring Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Dutt and Sonakshi Sinha.
00:28Set in the 1947 pre-partition India, this period romance is a messy quadrangle filled with supremely gorgeous players.
00:37You have Alia Bhatt, you have Varun Dhawan, you have Aditya Roy Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha, they all look like poetry in motion.
00:45They look spectacularly beautiful but there's very little soul in the movie.
00:49Now, if you're an idealist or a hopeless romantic, you're likely to surrender to the world that Abhishek Varman, the director, has created.
00:57But if you happen to be a bit cynical and not so idealistic, you might want to chew your hands out because of the sheer boredom and the collective stupidity on display.
01:08Kalank is not for everyone. It's an acquired taste.
01:11We have seen the story of Kalank before.
01:13Kalank revolves around Roop who is forced into a marriage of convenience by Satya played by Sonakshi Sinha.
01:19Sonakshi Sinha, who plays an ailing wife, has this bizarre idea of settling a husband with another woman.
01:26As far as ideas go, it's bizarre.
01:28However, Sonakshi Sinha manages to make it convincing somehow and even manages to sell this bizarre idea.
01:35The entire storyline of Kalank seems as old as the hills.
01:39You've seen it before, there's nothing new in it.
01:41This concept of forbidden relationship, illegitimate children, bonds being fulfilled out of obligation is something that we have already seen in films like Devdas.
01:52You have already seen it in Sanjay Leela Bansali films.
01:56So, Abhishek Varman's Kalank will also strongly remind you of Sanjay Leela Bansali's films.
02:02What is missing here is the plot.
02:04I mean, the plot somehow does not come together because there are several loopholes in the film.
02:09More focus is given on how beautiful a frame should be or how beautifully coordinated the dance movement should be.
02:16The entire film is utopian.
02:18I mean, everywhere that you see is beauty.
02:21But you have to remember, Kalank is strictly superficial.
02:24Even though there are undercurrents of a civil war waiting to erupt in pre-partition India,
02:30everything in Abhishek Varman's world is utopian.
02:34Everything is colourful.
02:35Even the so-called locality called Heeramandi that is patronized by the likes of courtesan Madhuri Dixit and Varun Dhawan,
02:44who plays an illegitimate young man who is raised to be a bastard, is very clean, is sanitized.
02:50At one point, you are not very sure about how is it that a locality is so pristine, is so beautiful.
02:57How are the dance movements so coordinated?
03:00There is an element of plasticity in all of this.
03:03So somewhere along the way, the whole setup seems surreal.
03:06Every one and every movement in Kalank is fantastical.
03:10But does it always land? Not so much.
03:13As far as performances go, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Kunal Khemu as this political activist who is very wily and manipulative,
03:22and Madhuri Dixit, they have all done their bit.
03:25It's the solid performances that keep this fantasy vehicle alive.
03:29This is a clear case of how even a star-studded vehicle cannot save a movie if the plot and the story doesn't just hold.
03:37Even some of the scenes, such as the introductory scene by Alia Bhatt who plays Roop flying a kite,
03:43reminds you of the one in Ham Dil De Chuke Sana, where Aishwarya Rai is introduced into the film through the same device.
03:49Some of the scenes, though grandiose, seems as if you've seen it and you've already witnessed it in other movies.
03:56That's one of the biggest letdowns of Kalank.
03:58Kalank is also one of the films where a lot of focus is on showcasing beauty and splendour.
04:03But when it comes to actual substance, there's very little of it.
04:07Now, there's Varun Dhawan who plays Zafar.
04:09Zafar plays a goldsmith who's in a forbidden relationship with Alia Bhatt's character Roop.
04:14They have very little chemistry between them, but somehow they manage to make it stick
04:19because the songs are beautiful, but the dialogues really don't add up.
04:23Also, be warned, there's a lot of talking in Kalank.
04:26People all say the right things, do the wrong parts and then continue to speak some more.
04:31So, there are parts when you feel that this movie has been hyper-verbalized at 170 minutes long.
04:37It's a long trek to the finish line.
04:40Although the climax is engaging and looks like poetry in motion,
04:43there's a part of you which hopes that Abhishek Varman had tidied up things at least 30 minutes before,
04:49rather than the 170-minute length.
04:52This movie is overly long. It's set in operatic style.
04:55It's not for everyone. Watch it at your own risk.
04:58I've gone with 2.5 out of 5.
05:01For my full review, go to gulfnews.com slash tabloid.
Comments