Kaalakaandi review: Saif Ali Khan OWNS this Swagpur!

Movie: Kaalakaandi

Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Deepak Dobriyal, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Nary Singh, Vijay Raaz

Director: Akshay Verma

Producer: Cinestaan Film Company

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Saif Ali Khan has indeed evolved tremendously as an actor, but due to one circumstance or the other, his previous films, namely Rangoon and Chef, failed to make its mark at the box office, although he established himself as one of the actors to look forward to all the time. Quite an irony there, right?

Speaking of ironies, Saif, who is as clean as one can possibly be in real life, will be seen tripping his mind out in his next outing, Kaalakaandi, a film which tells the story of a rather sober person who decides to live his life to the fullest after he is told that he has only a few months to live, courtesy his stomach cancer. And, we must say, his performance is as earnest as it can be.

The Saif Ali Khan-starrer, as you will realize, doesn’t really focus entirely on its leading man, but is, in fact, a collection of three tales that unfold during one single night in Mumbai. So, it’s essentially a dark version of Salaam-E-Ishq in that sense.

The plot and the subplots of this dark comedy are best left undiscussed because the real joy of those stories and scenes can be best enjoyed while watching, so, we will get down to star performances right away.

Saif Ali Khan is as consistent and honest as his other two films, and frankly, we haven’t laughed this hard since Go Goa Gone. He has a bucketful of witty lines and plays the character (who remains unnamed until the end) as if it really is his story. Then, these are some outstanding actors such as Deepak Dobriyal, Vijay Raaz and Nary Singh, who have given their all to their characters, which are somewhat of a stereotype, but, thanks to debutant director Akshat Verma and his cast, it never really gets boring.

Apart from these stellar artists, there are others who are somewhat underwritten and add little to no impact on the tale, but, that’s how it was supposed to be. Since it’s a story (or a collection of stories) of only a handful of people, some guys are supposed to take a step back.

The film, since it is being helmed by a first time director, comes with some obvious flaws that you’d expect a first timer to commit. Certain plots don’t really add up well in the end, certain potentially impactful scenes don’t really exist and the ending is kind of done carelessly done. But, these minor flaws don’t really come in the way of the film turning out to be a total entertainer, that is if you have the appetite for a dark comedy such as Delhi Belly (which was written by the director of this film)

Three stars!

Alright, you’ve read what we had to say, but now, take a look at what cine-goers like YOU think about Saif’s goofy night!

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