Kalank review – Mr S’s take
A love story with the background of communal violence is not something new in Bollywood and I wish the total time the movie had been stretched for would have been less. And yet somehow the performances save the magnum opus with the ensemble of so many huge stars. Kalank review, brought to you by AboutFlick’s Mr S.
Director: Abhishek Varman.
Review: Set on the backdrop of 1940, Kalank describes the love story of a married woman and a blacksmith from two different castes. And this love story is fueled by the pre-partition religious violence between two communities.
The story begins in Husanabad, a town near Lahore inhabited mostly by Muslim blacksmiths. The most affluent family of Husanabad is that of the Chaudhury’s – where Balraj and Dev run a newspaper called the daily news. Dev’s life take a sudden turn when he has to marry Roop due to unexpected reasons. Complexities start when Roop meets Zafar while visiting Bahhar begum’s chambers. After a few such meetings they start developing strong feelings for each other. Though the story makes the audiences assume that it is trying to tell something new but the ill-fated relationship is nothing new in Bollywood. Although the way the story line treats the characters is something quite refreshing.
Coming to the performances of the multi-star caste, the movie does justice to the screen time of all the characters: Starting from Alia’s Roop, Varun’s Zafar, Sonakshi’s Satya, Aditya Roy’s kapoor’s Dev, Sanjay dutt’s Balraj, Madhuri Dixit’s Bahaar begum to even Kunal Khemu’s Abdul.
While Alia and Varun do an excellent job in portraying the young fanatic lovebirds, Aditya Roy Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha shines in their moments of silence. To watch Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit Nene share screen after such a long time was one of the other reasons for watching Kalank. And it wasn’t disappointing at all.
No doubt the set of the movie belongs to dharma productions. It is more fictitious than fiction itself. And like other Karan Johar movies one of the major characters die but obviously I am not going to reveal who. A love story with the background of communal violence is not something new in Bollywood and I wish the total time the movie had been stretched for would have been less. And yet somehow the performances save the magnum opus with the ensemble of so many huge stars.
Rating: My rating for the movie is 3 out of 5.
Who should watch this: If you like Kalank you will also enjoy movies like Garm Hava (1973), Bombay (1995), Earth (1998), Partition (2007), Rajkahini (2015).