Can anyone forget the devastation that nature had wreaked upon the Char Dham complex in Uttarakhand in 2013? One of the worst affected regions was incidentally the most visited i.e the Kedarnath temple. It would be hard to even imagine what the people stranded on spot would have faced, forget experiencing it.
Usually, some movies in the Indian film industry are hailed by critics as the ideal movie, or a beginner’s guide to a masterpiece. However, Abhishek Kapoor’s ‘Kedarnath’ is actually none of them. It is a rather a hard-hitting guide on what not to do with a tragic event, and going by his depiction of the tragedy, it doesn’t look as if he has taken any lessons from Anubhav Sinha’s horrendous movie, ‘Mulk’.
The Plot –
Directed by Abhishek Kapoor, the movie is a tale of Mandakini aka Mukku [Sara Ali Khan], daughter of a local priest [Nitish Bhardwaj], who falls in love with a local porter cum guide, Mansoor Khan [Sushant Singh Rajput]. How they overcome the immense hatred that they have for each other and face the impending disaster that looms over their town of Kedarnath is what forms the crux of this story.
The Bad –
To begin with, Kedarnath is a literal insult to the hundreds of victims, who were killed by the flash floods that had struck the Char Dham complex. It’s one thing to be inspired by international classics, and it’s another thing to shamelessly ape it. For all its shine and glamour, ‘Kedarnath’ is nothing more than a blatant rip off of ‘Titanic’, with a Hinduphobic twist. Trust the left-liberals of Bollywood to be this shameless.
Except for the visuals, there is absolutely nothing that can bind you with this movie. Surprisingly, with the exception of ‘Namo Namo’, even the soundtrack composed by Amit Trivedi is below average, which is absolutely unacceptable if compared to his previous masterpieces in ‘AndhaDhun’.
The Ugly –
‘Kedarnath’ is just not bad; it is so vicious in terms of content that it reminds audiences of the vitriol that ‘Mulk’ had displayed on the silver screen. Given that a Kedarnath floods are a sensitive issue, one expected Abhishek Kapoor to make a moving drama for the audience. However, what Kedarnath turns out to be is a dizzying cocktail of Hinduphobia with environmental activism and pseudo secularism shoved down our throats in an attempt to maintain the ‘secular fabric.’
The characters of Mukku and Mansoor and the treatment meted out to them reeks of inherent contempt for the Sanatan community. Okay, even if we accept that Abhishek’s intention was to depict two star-crossed lovers who overcome the class struggle, couldn’t the protagonist have been a small-time flower or bookseller, or even a constable in charge of protecting the shrine. Why was it necessary to stress upon a Muslim protagonist, and what purpose does it serve?
Also, the way Mukku wishes for catastrophe to strike Kedarnath, just because she is not allowed to spend her life with Mansoor, is something that insults both logic and the dead victims of the tragedy. Did this disaster happen, just because a girl didn’t get her so-called boyfriend?
Has the film crew of ‘Kedarnath’ taken our common sense for granted? Interestingly, Sushant Singh Rajput has taken pseudo-secularism to a nauseating level, both in the promotions and in his role in the movie. It looks like he desperately wishes to join the notorious brigade of elite Bollywood without delay.
However, we forget that the brains behind this movie are Abhishek Kapoor and Kanika Dhillon, who are notorious offenders when it comes to bashing people on the basis of their religion. Can we forget how Abhishek Kapoor demonized the Sanatanis in ‘Kai Po Che’? It is also shameful to see that a man of the calibre of Nitish Bhardwaj, who immortalized the character of Shri Krishna in the teleserial ‘Mahabharat’, play such a regressive role without any guilt.
We’re no strangers to how Kanika Dhillon wrote those offending scenes that insulted the customs of the Sikh community in ‘Manmarziyaan’. These were the scenes for which Anurag Kashyap created a furore along with Taapsee Pannu when the scenes were wisely removed by co-producer Aanand L Rai, who did not want Sikhs to be offended when the film released in Punjab. As such, it is not entirely shocking to see such regressive content being passed off as art by our left liberals.
The only thing that made this movie bearable is ironically the girl for whom ‘Kedarnath’ was the ideal launchpad: Sara Ali Khan. Even though her demands seem illogical, and her rhetoric absurd, she played the character of the talkative Mukku impressively. Except for her, ‘Kedarnath’ is a forgettable cringefest that attempts to insult the majority community but backfires rather badly. I’d give 1 out of 5 stars.