Watch
Kaalidhar
Laapata
because
clean
family-viewing
films
are
getting
scarcer
by
the
week,
recommends
Deepa
Gahlot.
The
2019
Tamil
film
KD
was
a
delightful
story
of
an
unlikely
bond
between
an
80-year-old
man
and
an
orphaned
child,
probably
inspired
by
the
2009
animation
film
Up.
Now,
KD
Director
Madhumita
has
made
a
Hindi
version
called
Kaalidhar
Laapata,
which
retains
the
core
of
the
plot,
but
changes
the
main
character
into
a
40-year-old
with
an
early
onset
of
dementia-like
mental
condition
(someone
calls
it
‘ameeron
ki
beemari‘).
Having
Abhishek
Bachchan
play
the
part
retains
the
sweet
chemistry
between
him
and
the
street-smart
kid,
but
takes
away
the
sting
of
the
social
evil
of
treating
old
people
as
disposable.
In
the
original,
Karuppu
Durai
(played
by
an
utterly
natural
M
U
Ramaswamy)
had
been
in
a
coma
for
three
months,
when
his
awful
sons
decided
to
kill
him
by
performing
a
socially-sanctioned
euthanasia
ritual
called
thalaikoothal.
He
suddenly
wakes
up,
overhears
the
plot
and
runs
away,
eventually
meeting
the
kid,
who
teaches
him
how
to
lead
a
carefree
existence.
In
the
Hindi
film,
which
deserves
some
promotion
instead
of
slinking
onto
an
OTT
platform,
Kaalidhar‘s
brothers,
unwilling
to
bear
the
cost
or
trouble
of
looking
after
him,
take
his
thumbprint
on
property
documents
and
decide
to
leave
him
at
the
Kumbh
Mela.
Then,
to
pretend
that
they
didn’t
do
it
intentionally,
file
a
missing
persons
complaint.
Kaalidhar
overhears
their
plan
to
abandon
him
and
leaves.
But
Subodh
(Zeeshan
Mohammed
Ayyub)
from
the
‘lost
and
found
department’
wants
to
find
him
for
his
own
reasons.
Ejected
from
a
bus
for
not
having
enough
money
for
a
ticket,
Kaalidhar
finds
himself
in
a
strange
village,
and
encounters
the
chatty
Ballu
(Daivik
Baghela),
who
was
abandoned
on
the
temple
steps
and
lives
there,
making
a
living
doing
odd
jobs.
But
a
few
years
of
school
have
sharpened
his
brain
and
made
him
literate.
At
first
irritated
by
the
older
man’s
intrusion
into
his
space
and
amused
by
his
passion
for
Biryani,
Ballu
ends
up
taking
Kaalidhar,
whom
he
renames
KD,
under
his
wing.
In
the
Tamil
film,
the
fact
of
the
man’s
age
is
immutable,
but
there
is
no
way
of
convincingly
conveying
KD’s
mental
deterioration,
which,
in
an
earlier
scene,
a
doctor
said
would
get
worse,
with
no
solution,
except
‘nasha‘.
KD
and
Ballu
make
a
hut,
find
a
way
of
making
money
and
the
kid
arranges
a
regular
supply
of
Biryani.
They
also
get
work
in
the
local
nautanki
company.
Ballu
makes
a
list
of
KD’s
unfulfilled
wishes,
and
they
go
about
ticking
them
off
—
dancing
at
a
wedding,
drinking
foreign
booze,
and
so
on.
Their
life
is
a
picnic.
The
question
a
character
asks
about
what
will
happen
to
Ballu
after
KD
does
not
quite
have
the
same
effect
because
KD
is
a
seemingly
robust
40.
Meanwhile,
the
brothers
lose
the
property
document
in
a
fire,
and
now
have
to
look
for
KD
in
earnest,
with
Subodh’s
help.
By
making
KD
younger,
it
would
seem
that,
like
society
at
large,
filmmakers
too
want
to
ignore
the
aged,
except,
perhaps
as
a
reason
for
melodrama
in
films
like
Baghban.
If
Amitabh
Bachchan
was
not
such
a
huge
star,
the
role
of
KD
could
have
been
played
by
him.
If
the
man
is
80,
there
is
a
sense
of
time
running
out,
and
the
urgency
to
rush
through
the
bucket
list.
For
a
younger
man,
even
with
his
mental
fragility,
life
still
offers
opportunities,
as
the
film
suggests
in
the
end.
It’s
not
that
Abhishek
Bachchan
does
not
do
a
good
job,
considering
the
limitations
of
the
altered
script.
He
works
to
bring
a
kind
of
baffled
innocence
to
his
face,
and
the
slightly
tragic
air
of
a
man,
so
weighed
down
by
responsibilities
that
he
never
learnt
how
to
really
live.
The
joy
on
his
face
when
a
plate
of
Biryani
is
placed
before
him
or
when
he
meets
a
character
from
his
past,
indicates
the
actor’s
sincere
investment
in
the
role.
Daivik
Baghela
plays
Ballu
with
a
winning
zest,
and
mercifully
keeps
the
precociousness
in
check.
(With
no
cinema
or
television
in
sight,
how
does
he
know
Amitabh
Bachchan’s
dialogues
and
gestures
from
old
films?)
Kaalidhar
Laapata
is
worth
a
watch,
more
so
because
clean
family-viewing
films
are
getting
scarcer
by
the
week.
Kaalidhar
Laapata
streams
on
Z5.
Kaalidhar
Laapata
Review
Rediff
Rating:
