Kalank
Year: 2019
Director: Abhishek Varman
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sonakshi Sinha, Kunal Khemu, Sanjay Dutt, Madhiri Dixit

What’s the plot?

A dying woman (Sonakshi Sinha) marries off a free-spirited young girl (Alia Bhatt) to her husband (Aditya Roy Kapur). The man reluctantly agrees to the betrothal but makes clear that he would never take the new girl to heart. Caught up in her own web, the neglected second wife finds herself getting drawn to a macho young blacksmith (Varun Dhawan). With a rich patriarch (Sanjay Dutt) and a famous courtesan (Madhuri Dixit) in the background, there are many more darker deeper secrets at work, as the Partition looms large on the horizons.

Verdict

Kalank is a lavish spectacle throwing together a multitude of stars, eye-popping sets, noisy music and flashy choreography but it forgets to add the key ingredient – a tight-knit heartfelt story. It vainly tries to pose as an epic love-story in the mould of Gone With The Wind or Dr. Zhivago, presenting cross-generational star-crossed romances; tales of jealousy, betrayal and sacrifice, and a cataclysmic historic event (Partition of India!) in the background.

Unfortunately, the lengthy period drama lacks the memorable characters and a strong emotional core, which make any love-story tug at the heartstrings. The plotline, the places, the performances, the people…..everything in the film feels stagy and superficial. Among the key characters, the oldies- Madhuri Dixit and Sanjay Dutt are lackluster; Aditya Roy Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha are morbid, and Aaliya Bhat and Varun Dhawan are limited by the ordinary script. Kunal Khemu surprisingly makes the most solid impression despite a none-too-well-etched role.

Such over-budgeted multi-starrer melodramas are already becoming passe in today’s Hindi cinema but perhaps producers like Karan Johar still seem loathe to let go of that formula.

Rating

 2 stars