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Kalank Movie Review: Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt starrer is predictably slow paced and soulless
Kalank stars Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit. The partition love story has been watched and reviewed. Read on.
Movie: Kalank
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, Kunal Kemmu
Director: Abhishek Varman
Ratings: 2/5
“Humse zyaada barbaad aur koi nahi iss duniya mein jab kissi aur ki barbaadi jeet lagti hai!" sums up the entire plot of Kalank. The conflicted love story uses the crutches of the political unrest during the partition era as its plot to take us back in time where hate defeated love, where revenge was the only thing that mattered was to realise it was all for NOTHING, absolutely nothing. In the small town of Husnabad, near Lahore, two hearts full of anger and angst met, while another two were about to get separated. But one decision entangled their lives forever, for good or bad, no one can tell.
Zafar (Varun Dhawan) grew up in Hira Mandi, a Muslim dominated area where Behaar Begum (Madhuri Dixit) and her impeccable dancing and singing skills were the talk of the town. Growing up in a town where being a love child only invited taunts and more humiliation for him, Zafar's only motive is revenge. On the other hand, Satya (Sonakshi Sinha), the daughter-in-law of Balraj Chaudhary (Sanjay Dutt)'s family is suffering from a fatal disease. She asks her husband, Dev Chaudhary (Aditya Roy Kapur) to get settled again to make sure he isn't left alone after her. She begs Roop (Alia Bhatt) to be her saviour. The love Dev and Satya shared was eternal in its own way, but their actions made way for a fresh eternal love story to brew and how!
Zafar, infamous for being a womaniser, is drawn to Behaar Begum's haveli for the first time in 20 years after hearing Roop's voice, which he says is filled with 'ishq' and 'dard.' The first scene shared by Zafar and Roop in Kalank has been shot wonderfully, with Zafar crossing the river for her, in the metaphoric sense. The two meet when Ravana is being burned down to ashes signifying their love will be the death of them. One must get the clue there! While Roop seeks love in Zafar, Zafar has other motives which are backed by strong hatred for his father and mother. But Roop's innocence and love force Zafar to change his outlook and give up his hatred. Her love consumed him in ways nothing else did.
The love story, however, is not that simple. Of course. Falling in love with another man whilst being married to someone else is not an easy road, is it? And a troubled and conflicted family feud only adds to the commotion. But what makes Zafar and Roop's love story eternal is their simplistic love, and ability to sacrifice and accept each other despite everything. Varun makes Zafar look convincing and has perhaps delivered one of the best performances in the movie. For me, his scenes with Madhuri stood out and his chemistry with Alia was without a doubt superlative. The only scene which literally was the major put off featuring Varun was where he is seen engaged in a bull fight. The special effects used for the particular scene made me reconsider Manikarnika's VFX, for a moment. Was it that bad? Yes!
Alia, on the other hand, delivered a poor performance which could have been great. While her scenes with Varun were the highlight, long dialogue delivery made it look caricaturish. It seemed she was trying too hard to fit into the shoes of an aspiring classical singer. The dialogues though written in accordance to the partition era did not have any soul. It is ironical given that it is the writing and dialogues that majorly elevate a period drama. Even if we forget, how poorly the dialogues were written, the screenplay by Abhishek Varman did fall flat for me. It just did not work. Despite trying hard to feel invested in the characters, a sense of detachment prevailed every time as we were bombarded with heavy dialogues that not only lacked soul but were vomited like a mugged delivery.
However, it is Kunal Kemmu, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit who actually elevated the entire film for me. Wish they had been given more screen space. Kunal as Abdul, leader of a Muslim League Party and a friend of Zafar, was too good. His confrontational scenes with Zafar and his rather sinister side is a revelation and how. Kunal surely nails it. On the other hand, Sonakshi as the quintessential bahu, who is deeply and madly in love with her partner, is top notch as well. Aditya does justice to Dev with his restrained performance, after a few hiccups in the beginning. Madhuri, as usual, was a dream to watch on-screen. There is absolutely no one who can beat her when it comes to dancing with perfect expressions.
The background score for the movie is one of the biggest highlights with the title track making you feel each emotion, but the flawed script disappoints. After all, only superlative performances and poor writing cannot elevate a movie, but a superlative script and average performance might still do the job.
Give Kalank a chance if you are a hopeless romantic, but enter without any expectations!
ALSO READ: 5 reasons to watch Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Dutt, Aditya & Sonakshi starrer
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