A vadda mistake, this one!

Jasmine Singh

This week’s Punjabi film release can also be called an ode to the most talented actor of the Punjabi film industry, Yograj, the actual vadda kalakaar. 

And this is about it, because when it comes to the film, Vadda Kalakaar, all you get to see is overacting, melodramatic and over-stretched scenes, boring dialogues, lost direction and non-existent storyline.  

Starring actor and writer Alfaaz, who makes his come back to the silver screen with Vadda Kalakaar after a long time, the film can be taken as a lesson as to what a kalakaar shouldn’t be doing. 

Let’s begin with the kalakaars of the film. Starting with the vadda actor, Yograj, we loved his baritone, his dialogue delivery in films like Batwaara, Jatt Tey Zameen, Subedaar, but cut to 2018, nothing seems to have changed. For what we see, director Kuldeep Kaushik probably asked Yograj to be himself, and that’s what he did in the film. So, you can’t really blame him for overacting and for not letting the audience know whether he played himself or the character in the film. 

Next up is Alfaaz, the artiste with magical words, but when it comes to acting, this kalakaar mostly runs out of luck. For Alfaaz fans, one, you wouldn’t be able to recognise that it is Alfaaz, not until you can see through the dishevelled tuft of hair, and pierce through the adipose layers. Yes, this is Alfaaz. Now again, it is unfair to blame the artiste for playing a character that is half-baked. We do not feel his happiness, his pain, his love, or his lust for revenge. For, Alfaaz likes to treat all emotions with one expression. Up comes, the lovely Roopi Gill. What were the director and the costume designer thinking while preparing her costumes? A red salwaar, a pink shirt and blue duppatta. If you can’t give the actress enough dialogues, then at least don’t mess with her looks.

Nirmal Rishi, BN Sharma, Harby Sangha, Malkeet Rauni, now these are senior artistes who need to be used judiciously on screen. 

And this is a shout out for the director Kuldeep Kaushik, who didn’t have the time to search for the story, who allowed the actors to go on an overdrive, who did not see the flatness in dialogues, and who did not say cut to the scenes that are nothing but a wasteful addition. Akh Naar Di, sung by Ranjit Bawa, was the only enjoyable thing of Vadda Kalakaar but not vadda enough to get it some brownie points. 

jasmine@tribunemail.com