In the final analysis, this is a yawn of a yarn about a man, Kaalidhar (Abhishek Bachchan) who is dumped by his two younger brothers and sister-in-law when he develops a disorder that makes him forget his own identity and address. The brothers take him to the crowded Kumbh Mela and manage to ditch him.
Helpless, sans identity documents, he gets onto a bus but must alight midway as he does not have the fare to go to the bus’s destination. A man with a craving for biryani, he encounters a young orphan boy named Ballu (Daivik Baghela), who becomes a guiding near-adult force in his life. Suddenly, KD (as Bablu christens him!) remembers who he is and suspects that his family deserted him. What he does not know is that when he was in hospital (where the doctor stated that he would require ongoing expensive treatment), his brothers had taken his thumb impression on the property papers,
KD then tells the boy, who was dumped by his parents as an infant and is worldly-wise, that he would not like to go back. The two decide to enjoy life fulfilling their dreams and desires (especially KD’s) with the kid being street-smart in all respects. These include having biryani all the time (!), imported booze and more. The boy even takes him to meet Meera (Nimrat Kaur), the love of his life, whom he could not marry due to his family responsibilities, the same family that ditched him! KD’s sister, Gudiya, is the only one who pines for him.
Meanwhile, a small fire burns the documents and now his brothers want KD back. They hire a young man, Subodh (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) to locate him. What happens next?
While the climax was excellent, the in-between portions not only drag terribly (in the current fad of ‘realism’) but also reach absurd levels. Ballu is shown precocious beyond measure, equally expert in matters of language, love and philosophy despite being an uneducated child. Some of his activities are like an illogical spoke in the ‘logical’ or ‘real’ wheel of the script. The emotional sequences do not mostly connect, whether between KD and Meera, KD and his sister and above all KD and the boy.
More important, Abhishek Bachchan is completely miscast despite his patent sincerity. The boy, Daivik Baghela, is excellent, though the script gives him an overdose of unreal wisdom and smartness given his background. Nimrat Kaur and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub are alright, ditto the brothers Vishwanath Chatterjee and Priyank Tiwari and Madhulika Jatoliya as the sister-in-law. Priya Yadav as the sister and Richa Meena as Subodh’s wife have nothing to do, really.
Amit Trivedi’s music is marked by the well-written (Geet Sagar) Haseen pareshaaniyaan but is unremarkable. Ditto the background score by Tajdar Junaid. Of the rest of the technical side, high marks can be allotted to Ashwini Shrivastav’s production design.
The script (Madhumita with Amitosh Nagpal) is the main culprit despite some breezy dialogues. Madhumita’s direction can be faulted only because of that. The Malayalam film, KD, on which this was based, had a logical storyline and centered around an 80 year-old and an orphan. In an era when remakes are passe, the one thing the common writer-director could have done was to make sensible changes. Maybe she thought, though, that the film would have then been too similar to both Baghban (featuring Bachchan Sr.) and last year’s Vanwaas.
Rating: **
Z5 presents Zee Studios’ & Emmay Entertainment’s Kaalidhar Laapata Produced by: Umesh KR Bansal, Pragati Deshmukh, Monisha Advani, Madhu Bhojwani & Nikkhil Advani Directed by: Madhumita Written by: Madhumita & Amitosh Nagpal Music: Amit Trivedi Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Nimrat Kaur, Daivik Baghela, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Vishwanath Chatterjee, Madhulika Jatoliya, Priyank Tiwary, Richa Meena, Anil Tiwari, Devendra Kushwaha & others
(Used under special arrangement with NIT)
