295. Kalank; movie review

KALANK
Cert 12A
166 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence, sex references

It's the big-budget, all-star cast, epic of the year but does Abhishek Varman's spectacular period drama meets its ambitions?
Well, although it is bloated at two hours and 45 minutes, my overriding sentiment was that it does.
Not for some time, have I seen such vibrancy in a movie's set pieces and, while the story is a tad too slushy, it does grip.
And its characters have greater depth than in most Bollywood films - especially Alia Bhatt's.
Bhatt is as excellent as always as a young woman who is persuaded by a family friend (Sonakshi Sinha) to become her the second wife to her beloved husband (Aditya Roy Kapur) because she is dying from cancer.
He goes along reluctantly with the marriage but stresses that this will only ever be a platonic relationship.
Consequently, she tries to immerse herself in work, picking up a job at his newspaper and writing a story about their town's red-light district.
There she has singing lessons from an exotic madam (Madhuri Dixit) and falls for the local bad boy and bullfighter (Varun Dhawan).
However, she doesn't know that he has an ulterior motive for getting at her husband's family and, in particular, his father (Sanjay Dutt).
Set in the period just before Indian independence, Kalank is an epic movie with dynamic song and dance numbers and wonderfully colourful sets.
Apparently, estimations of its budget are a significant bone of contention but there is no doubt that its makers were trying to make Kalank stand long in the memory.
Did they succeed? I would like to think so.
Bhatt's brilliance is complemented by the wonderfully alluring Dixit and Dhawan and Kapur are convincing leading men.
It has an intoxicating storyline and, yes, it is overly melodramatic at times and way too long but it grabbed at my heart, so I suspect it will have done to many others.

Reasons to watch: All-star cast, big-budget, spectacular period drama
Reasons to avoid: Slow and overly long

Laughs: None
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know?  Reportedly, producer Karan Johar wanted to cast Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji, Ajay Devgan and Kajol in the film. However, things didn't work and the dream cast remained as a dream. 

The final word. Varun Dhawan: "When I debuted in Student Of the Year, I do not think that anybody would have imagined that I am capable of playing a character like Zafar of Kalank. It took me 12 films to prove my worth and to gain the confidence of producers to budget a film like Kalank."

Share this post