Movie Review: Kaalakaandi, a stew of well timed punches```
When a doctor tells you that you are dying due to stomach cancer and there is no cure to your last stage disease, you go all out and do the things you wouldn’t have done in your right mind. This is where Rileen, played by Saif Ali Khan, a plaintive banker comes in. He has never had a drink, neither smoked, nor ever had butter and is matter-of-factly delivered the news of his oncoming death. What ensues is a situational black comedy which is trippy to its core. Kaalakandi stands true to its Marathi origin, meaning when everything goes disastrously wrong’.
The name of the debutante director, Akshat Verma brings us to the memories of Delhi Belly for which he was the writer. One can believe him to find ridiculous and chaos even in a nonchalant, bare sight. This movie, similarly, is away from the typical romance movies with a revenge plot, you might even find the characters relatable. Saif Ali Khan may be the crowd attracting star of the movie, but he isn’t the central character alone. The movie is an interweave of three largely disconnected plots running parallel, starting and ending in a span of a single night.
Where Rileen decides to add colour to his life with a drop of acid, the ensemble cast of Verma’s movie is revealed. Akshay Oberoi plays Saif’s confused brother amidst the cold-feet inducing preparations of his marriage, Sobhita Dhulipala as the go-getter who leaves for U. S. the same night, Kunaal Roy Kapur as her pitiful boyfriend constantly begging her to stay, the jodi of Vijay Raaz and Deepak Dobriyal as side-kicks of a Mafia don trying to steal from their own boss and Neil Bhoopalam as the don’s bodyguard who plays an eccentric wannabe Feroz Khan. It should be duly noted that he has only one testicle because he shot the other one while practicing Khan’s moves in the film Khotey Sikkey with loaded guns.
Kaalakaandi is psychedelic, witty, cheerful, disjointed, and overall a movie that would leave you wanting more of this kind of cinema in a flood of cliched movies.