Kalank is a stunningly beautiful movie with some breathtaking frames. Sadly, that is more problematic than praise-worthy here. Set in 1940’s, the film covers one of the most brutal episodes of the Indian subcontinent. It is, then, a political decision to make 1946 look more beautiful than traumatic. It is a lazy attempt of turning an important page of our history into a money-minting opportunity.
The depiction of the politics of that era in Kalank is opportunistic and disgraceful to the complex moral dilemma that engulfed an entire generation. It paints the politics into a convenient white and black narrative, conveying a message of love over hate, inclusiveness over divide so childishly that it never impacts the audience.
However, Kalank is ultimately a love-story that uses the narrative of partition merely as a backdrop. Like everything else in the film, the love story takes its own time to build. Zafar (Varun Dhawan) and Roop (Alia Bhatt) meet for the first time against a burning Raavan on the auspicious day of Dussehra. The symbolism of that scene is enough to establish the morality of the relationship these two character develop over a series of meetings. But director Abhishek Varman is not the one for subtlety. Much like his debut 2 States that benefitted from the spoon-feeding form of narrative given the poor source material, Varman forces things on his audience, explaining everything even if it means the film drags on for an unbearably long period.
The love story tries to have an old-world charm to it, but Dhawan and Bhatt are burdened with dialogues that are so heavy that it is impossible to imagine real people mouthing them flawlessly. Kalank tries to be a twisted blend of Kapoor and Sonsand Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. To make it more charming, the makers mount it on a large scale, hoping to replicate the success that Sanjay Leela Bhansali has found with grand sets and mediocre storytelling. Sadly, the film is as thin and flimsy as the cardboard cut buildings of Hira Mandi that seem beautiful but lack authenticity.
Kalank is that film that would have tested the patience of the audience even if it was made a decade ago. In 2019, it is just a form of torture forced on the audience by a privileged man whose father imagined a world that is filled with half-baked ideas and poorly written characters. Kalankexists now as the cinematic equivalent of a little kid hell-bent on being at a shop staring at a toy he wants. A futile but irrefutable presence that benefits no one.
