Kalank

Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Sonakshi Sinha, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanjay Dutt, Kunal Khemu

Writer/Director: Abhishek Varman

Producer/s: Sajid Nadiadwala, Karan Johar, Hiroo Yash Johar, Hiroo Keswani, Apoorva Mehta

Plot: A star studded epic period drama set in the 1940s, set for a release in April 2019.

Kalank Movie Review Rating: 1/5 Stars (One star! & I’m being ‘too’ generous here)

Star Cast: Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit-Nene, Kunal Kemmu, Kiara Advani & still there’s not a single frame without cringe!

Director: Abhishek Varman

What’s Good: If you’re opting to watch this, you have a good 166 minutes to decide what you’re doing with your life!

What’s Bad: Some people will buy the grandness and rush to the theatres, but alas, the days of watching a YRF movie just to drool over Switzerland are long gone!

Loo Break: Challenge yourself by controlling the tsunami of frustrated emotions for 166 minutes! Don’t think of a break this time. If you’re in, you deserve it

Watch or Not?: Don’t even if the visuals attract you! Just skip it and save yourself of some hard-hitting dramatic torture

User Rating:

Set in 1946 in Husnabad which is apparently close to Lahore in the Dharma-world (but in reality, it’s in Telangana), and we can see snow-clad mountains as Zafar (Varun Dhawan) plays the sport of Bullfighting in Spanish-style. Roop (Alia Bhatt) while running after a falling kite starts dancing with the villagers and complains about how hard it was to catch the kite. Satya (Sonakshi Sinha) is dying because of a fatal disease and wants Roop to marry her husband Dev (Aditya Roy Kapur), because why not?

Roop agrees because she has two ‘unmarried’ sisters and her father will not be able to ‘take care’ of them alone. Don’t underestimate Roop! She also has some demands to stay in Dev’s castle after getting married to him and being his second wife – she wants to learn singing from a brothel owner Bahar Begum (Madhuri Dixit). Balraj Chaudhry (Sanjay Dutt) is head of the house and does nothing apart from doing nothing. All of these ingredients mix together to make that thing which our mothers warned not to take from strangers on the road.

Kalank Movie Review: Script Analysis

The script was conceptualised by late Mr Yash Johar 15 years ago and even for that time, all of this is very naive and boring. You’re asking a girl to marry a husband of another dying lady and then get the girl to complain that “Aapke pati toh sirf aapse pyaar karte hai” (Of course girl!). Lousy screenplay can’t make up to stunning visuals! It doesn’t matter how good you look if you are saying shit. I know the movie is set in 1946, but still you can’t use dialogues such as “Kala azeem hai, keemat nahi lagayi jaa sakti” OR “Hum iss guftugu se thak gaye hai” – hum bhi aisi movies se thak gaye hai! (You hear me?).

No matter how much I try to talk about the amazing cinematography (by the master Vinod Pradhan), the ghosts of appalling narration are still haunting me. The editing is so bad because the editor (Shweta Venkat Mathew) forgot to delete the entire movie. I very much enjoyed the “Sab kuch acha tha, lekin tambaaku ne sab barbaad kar diya” (Tobacco) ad in the interval. Alia’s character asks towards the end – “Aapne is kahaani mein kya dekha?” (What did you see in this story?) – I saw a few rich brats coming together and burning millions on screen.

Kalank Movie Review: Star Performance

Varun Dhawan, the man with the 100% of track record at the box office, sleepwalks as Zafar. Why you do this Varun? He slurs his dialogues because they’re way too weird to speak for a normal millennial. Though he tries to carry the film solo on his shoulders, he gets some help from Alia Bhatt. She is the best actress of the current slot and I’ve no two thoughts about the same. But, Kalank is not something you do to portray your talent! (Remember Suits? One for me, one for the organisation) This is not something Alia will do for herself, for sure.

Aditya Roy Kapur gets a very easy role of being on the sets, wear some clothes that royals would wear and deliver some comparatively easy dialogues. Yes, he gets a scene in which he gets to do his favourite thing – drinking alcohol but still he can’t match his talent. Sonakshi Sinha and Sanjay Dutt are ignored throughout as they get minimal screentime (which is a kind of a relief too! We couldn’t afford more than 166 minutes for this film).

Madhuri Dixit’s character is very artificial! She tries to cover the flaws with her grace but nothing works. Kunal Kemmu and Kiara Advani are good in their extended cameos. Kunal gets more screentime than Sanjay Dutt & Sonakshi Sinha.

Kalank Movie Review Quicker: Starring Varun Dhawan as Zafar, Alia Bhatt as Roop and half a dozen other actors, the story is set in Husnabad in the year 1946. It’s divided between the people of belonging to a Royal family (Chaudharys) and Muslims.

Before getting into the main review, I’ve got some feedback about making my thoughts clear in the quick review. Will refrain from doing the same today, with getting just into the story and some technical aspects till the interval.

Planning to watch any movie in the theatres? Click here and enjoy exclusive cashback offers!

Satya (Sonakshi Sinha) is suffering from a fatal disease, and for some reason wants Roop (Alia Bhatt) to accompany her in their castle for the remaining time of her life. Roop has a challenging request (can’t reveal, because spoiler) but agrees to go with her. There she meets with Satya’s husband Dev (Aditya Roy Kapur).

Roop starts working with Dev at his newspaper agency called as Daily Times. On researching the Red Light area known as Hira Mandi, Roop meets Zafar (Varun Dhawan) and the first half ends with exposing various back-tracks of all the characters.

The film is visually appealing but is it enough? Was it enough for a magnum opus like Thugs Of Hindostan? Let’s wait for the full review to come to any conclusion. The best takeaway from the film till now is its background score and Arijit Singh’s title track. Everyone is acting their characters but Varun and Alia get the maximum chunk of screen-space, Aditya being the close second.

Madhuri’s appearance is reminiscent of her look of Chandramukhi from the 2002 film Devdas. In her opening poster, with tears in her eyes, she was seen sporting a red veil. Sonakshi, on the other hand, is playing the role of Satya. Her character with the posters was introduced as “pure, elegant and filled with love”. Sonakshi can be seen wearing a bindi and vermillion in the poster. Alia essays the character of Roop, who is “free and bound by only love”.

This is Alia Bhatt’s fourth film with Varun. The two have previously worked in films such as Student Of the Year, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania and Badrinath Ki Dulhania.

Conceptualised by and his late father Yash Johar almost 15 years ago, Kalank is set in the 1940s. It features Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit-Nene and Aditya Roy Kapur. Abhishek Varman is directing the epic drama, which hits the theaters today.

The film is being produced by Karan Johar, Sajid Nadiadwala, Hiroo Yash Johar and Apoorva Mehta. It has been co-produced by Fox Star Studios. Stick to this space for the full review!

Android & IOS users, download our mobile app for faster than ever Bollywood & Box Office updates!