Veda Sharma

A soulstirring drama masterfully presented by brilliant performances. Beautiful cinematography and set and costumes without the garish SLB touch. The story itself transports you to the Bengal of 1880s - deeply patriachal and feudal and makes you a witness to Bulbul's disturbing journey from innocence to darkness to bloody revenge . And you ask if 150 years later is it any different ?

Kedarnath A love story in the backdrop of a calamity or tragedy acquires a timeless quality.Kedarnath is one such tale of love that takes place during the violent cloud burst of 2013 in Uttarakhand that claimed 4300 lives and over 70,000 missing. As the trailer shows , we have a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy falling in love. In most religious shrines people from all faith have been connected with it and bowed before the deity with equal devotion. At Kedarnath also the tourist porters working since generations have been Muslims and by and large nobody has had a problem . However personal vendetta and ulterior business motives aquire the colour of communal hatred and take the small village by storm . Before the village burns in the flames of hatred, nature's wrath in form of a cloud burst , flood and then landslide completely razes everything except the stone temple . The cinematography of Tushar Kanti Ray is the real hero of the movie , taking us to Uttarakhands Himalayas - snowy majestic peaks, milky flowing rivulets , lush pastures and this mystical shrine of Shiva surrounded by a village in all its nuances . The heartbreakingly real VFX showing the incessant downpour followed by the landslide and flood as the picturesque village transforms into a valley of death and devastation leaves you stunned. The image of the Kedarnath temple getting engulfed in a mammoth wave in the end leaves you spellbound with the might of nature . Clearly, this movie is for big screen viewing. Sushanth is convincing and bankable as the humble tourist porter with a heart of gold. Sara Ali Khan as a rebellious girl is definitely good in her debut . Charming , intelligent and restrained she is here to stay. Her biggest plus is she is not the typical barbie doll cutout and has inherited her fiesty mom's spunk and endearing looks. Nishant Dahiya leaves a mark as the chauvinistic ill tempered fiance . Nitish Bharadwaj make a comeback as Saras dad . Amit Trivedi's music is hummable with the NamoNamo, an ode to Shiva and the melodious Qaafirana . What the movie lacks is a more powerful script and sleek direction. Indiscriminate commercialization and irresponsible development that has damaged ecology and topography in Uttarakhand which has invited these landslides only finds a token reference. Sadly, as intolerant we have become as communities , this beautiful movie is banned in Uttarakhand for more reasons than one - love jihad ( the ridiculous belief of how hindu girls are being hurled away by muslim.boys )and the portrayal of some hindu elements as stoking violence . In the end when everything gets destroyed and painstakingly rebuilt , I hope the village wakes up to the pettiness of these divisions . Its the height of human stupidity and myopia that we need calamities to rise above our hatred and divisive mind and realise that both the Almighty and Mother Nature never discriminate amongst us. The essence of life is love and it is love alone that transcends death. As the images of the freshly reconstructed and decorated shrine of Lord Shiva - Mrityunjaya (one who has conquered death) beckon you in the end of the movie, the timeless romantic song " lag ja gale ke phir ye hasin raat ho na ho"almost brings home the truth of the transcience and beauty of every living moment . Rating 4/5.