#Kalank : Kalank has got everything right , actors
coming back from retirement - actors who should retire after this - a set that
will make even Sanjay Leela Bhansali strive harder – a mindless song every ten
minutes – a marketing maverick as a producer -a hamming Aditya Roy Kapoor
continuing from where he left in Fitoor -Sonakshi Sinha back with her Lootera
looks -Varun Dhawan oscillating between his characters from Tu Mera Hero and
Badlapur – it even has got the three K’s -Kunal “ Who” Khemu, Kiara and Kriti , except the two important things – a story
that is believable and a director who knows how to tell a story and the one who
believes in basic human intelligence . It’s
a surprise that none of the balm manufactures used this film to promote their
product through surrogate advertising . Because the first thing you will reach
out to after the 170 minute onslaught is a tube of pain relieving balm.
Kalank is a film about revenge ,
love , partition , betrayal , life of courtesans and may be even gondola ride !
The film covers the distance from rivers to snow capped mountains in seconds . It
takes reference from many films from Pakeezah to DDLJ to Devdas to Trishul to Bahubali to Gadar . Somewhere in between
the director forgets which story he wanted to tell. The lady who introduced Roop
( Alia) to the courtesan Bahaar Begum ( Madhuri) in act I forgets Bahaar Begum
by Act II when she had come to meet Roop . Zafar ( Varun) whose only motif was to
take revenge against Balraj Chaudhury ( Sanjay Dutt) for being abandoned as a
child , doesn’t even recognize Balraj’s legitimate son Dev ( Aditya Roy Kapoor)
, in spite of staying in the same city and wooing Dev’s wife Roop ( Alia) .
Take that for consistency or shall I say marijuana induced film making .
It takes some special skills to
make Alia Bhat act this bad in a film or to take your eyes off when Madhuri
Dixit is dancing . But director Abhishek Varman even manages to do that . That
brings us to the moot point that how some one invests 80 crores in a film like
this , how some of the talented actors even sign such a film . May be Kalank is a story of hope , the
hope that one day some of us will have a producer to fund our stories . The
hope the one fine day Aditya Roy Kapoor too will learn to act . The hope that
some day Hindi Cinema will break the shackles and if not world cinema at least
will compete with regional cinema in terms of quality . The hope that some day
we will have audience who will call out the bluff .
Yes Kalank , no doubt is a
visually stunning film . But as one of the character asks in the film “ kya
baas accha hona kafi hota hai kisike sath puri zindegi bitane keliye “ I will
also ask “ is only a beautiful set and designer costume enough to invest three
god damn hours” and if beautiful costume is what matters to the audience then
they should rather watch a fashion show . I will go out with a very generous
0.5 out of 5 for this film , that shouldn’t have been made in the first place .
In terms of the art of film making , Kalank , the film, stands by its name !
