Kalank movie time duration movie#
The sets are undeniably lavish, making the movie a visual delight. Dhawan, however, wavers between earnest and cheesy, thanks in no small part to the filmmaker’s insistence on dousing him in bronzer and parading him bare-chested for a good portion of his screen-time.
It is here that Roop crosses paths (and eventually falls in love) with a rakish young blacksmith named Zafar ( Varun Dhawan), who is battling his own demons – a bastard, he was disowned by his wealthy father and abandoned at birth by his mother, Bahaar Begum.įor the most, the movie is backed by strong performances – Madhuri Dixit is luminous as Bahaar Begum, while Alia Bhatt plays her poor-little-rich-girl role with restraint.
When coolly informed by Dev that their marriage is only an agreement that she will have to endure, Roop withdraws into a shell, opening up only when her in-laws agree to allow her to pursue music under the tutelage of Bahaar Begum ( Madhuri Dixit), an ageing courtesan located in the infamous Heera Mandi neighbourhood. This is a decision she instantly regrets. Although initially appalled at the proposition, Roop eventually concedes when Satya also offers to provide for her younger sisters. Knowing that she has barely a year before she breathes her last, Satya wants Roop to accompany her for that duration to her marital home in Husnabad, a fictional township near Lahore, in the hopes that the young lass will eventually fall in love with and wed her soon-to-be bereaved husband. One day, the family receives a curious request from an ailing Satya ( Sonakshi Sinha), who is the daughter of the family’s benefactor and also the wife of London-returned newspaper publisher Dev Chaudhry (Aditya Roy Kapoor). The movie opens to a narrative by Roop, the feisty, freedom-loving oldest daughter of a music teacher of modest means in Rajputana.
The movie is set in the complex socio-political environment of pre-Independence India, and – through the eyes of its headstrong protagonist Roop ( Alia Bhatt) – also attempts to capture the era’s complex social and political undercurrents, contrasting them with interpersonal relationships that were far ahead of their times. At first impressions, Kalank is an ode to dysfunctional love.