Kalank, one of the most anticipated movies of the year hit the screens this Wednesday on 17 April 2019. It a Hindi language period love saga set in the 1940s during the partition of India.
Release and Day 1 Collection
This Dharma Productions movie is one of the biggest releases of the year. It is expected to release in over 5300 screens worldwide, with around 4000 of them located in India. Movie experts believe that the movie might do really good business initially, looking at the fact that it’s releasing on Mahaveer Jayanti (Wednesday) holiday. Moreover, another holiday in the form of Good Friday strengthens this notion. With no competition in sight, it looks like the film will have a splendid time at the box office until the release of Avengers: Endgame on April 26.
According to the Film trade analyst Taran Adarsh, Kalank emerges as the biggest opener of
2019. It ‘starts with a bang’, as Adarsh tweets and collects a massive 21.60 crore INR on its opening day.
Adarsh also shares the fact that Kalank beats former biggest openers Kesari and Gully Boy which earned 21.06 crores INR and 19.40 crores INR respectively to become the highest opening day collector.
Critical Reception
Kalank has received a mixed response from critics with average ratings, Movie critic Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama reviewed the movie using the word “Disappointing”. He gave the movie a rating of two-star and mentions the fact that the movie doesn’t live up to the expectations. “Writing, music, length play spoilsport…” he tweeted. Although, he approves the climax and describes acting as top notch. Anupama Chopra gave the movie three stars and opines that Kalank is likely to be the most visually stunning film of this year Shubhra Gupta from Indian Express gave the movie one and a half star out of five and said, “Kalank doesn’t really lift off the screen.”
Public Review
The film has opened up to rave reviews from the audience with people mainly criticizing the sloppy direction. Although, the irresistible chemistry between Varun Dhawan and Alia Bhatt has managed to attract masses. The performances, music and the lavish sets have seemed to impress the moviegoers. They could not stop praising about the extravagance of the film. But many criticised and revealed that the film has a slowly paced screenplay and sloppy direction. The film was especially accused of being too much time consuming with the songs and the sets being the only thing worth watching.
Cast and Production
The movie is directed by Abhishek Varman who is known for the captivating romantic drama ‘2 States’. Kalank is produced by Karan Johar and Sajid Nadiadwala. It stars an ensemble cast consisting of Varun Dhawan, Alia Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt and Madhuri Dixit with Kunal Khemu in a guest appearance. Made in a budget of 80 crores INR, the movie is mainly shot in a set built in the Film City. The estimated cost of the lavish set was reportedly ₹15 crore.