Kalank movie review: All show and no go

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Kalank movie cast: Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri Dixit, Kunal Khemmu, Sonakshi Sinha
Kalank movie director: Abhishek Varman
Kalank movie rating: One and a half stars

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Theres a lot going on in Kalank: pre-Partition rumblings between Hindus and Muslims in Husnabad near Lahore, illegitimate sons, dutiful daughters, tawaaifs and gaana-bajaana, incurable diseases and wasting wives, all wrapped in love and betrayal and revenge.

Its the kind of crowded multi-star cast movie which used to be made to appeal to a worshipful fan base back in the 70s. The inclusion of lavish song-and-dances, which includes mujras and celebration of religious tyohars, and mohabbat and pyaar ka izhaar between Hindu and Muslim characters reminds you of the Muslim socials which were also so popular in that era.

Kalank is stuffed with stars, big and small: Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit come together after years. Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditya Roy Kapoor are there too: thats a whole lot of people to keep track of, in a movie whose scale and scope and ambition is epic.

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If it had all come together the way it was intended to, this would have been a great throwback to the time Hindi cinema would make movies when time was expended in building characters and quirks, when the plot was buoyed by the presence of stars.

But sadly, the promise Kalank holds out is frittered away in its inordinate length, which you start feeling quite soon after it opens. The pace slows so often that you are left admiring the period detailing from the 1944-45-46 years, in the movies havelis and bazaars and newspaper offices. That and the slack treatment: a film like this should also have the tools to ramp up the drama and be consistent with it.

You end up clutching at stray moments. Varun Dhawan as Zafar, a haraami offspring of a respectable father and not-so-respectable mother, all bare torso agleam, as he goes about fighting bulls and brandishing swords. Alia Bhatt and Madhuri Dixit, all flowy and bejewelled, in some of their exchanges. The film is dripping with the kind of dialogue of yesteryear cinema: yeh Read More – Source