Kaalidhar Laapata

Kaalidhar Laapata is the story of Kaalidhar, a middle-aged lonely man suffering from memory loss.   He overhears his sibling's plans to abandon him and runs away.   Somewhere along the way he meets an orphan boy, Ballu, who teaches him how to live for himself.  Flashbacks become a distraction in films about forgetting and laughing. A sweetly awkward interlude toward the end of Kaalidhar Laapataresolves a minor mystery: why Kalidhar, a middle-aged man with early-stage dementia played by Abhishek Bachchan, loves eating biriyani so much.   What links his plate to heart is memory.   Let's go by the name "meat-cute."   This passage (featuring younger versions of characters and scored with the generically sweet ‘Haseen Pareshaniyaan’) returns to conventionality a narrative that celebrates the art of letting go.   In the 2019 Tamil original, KD, the moment is handled briskly, with minimum sentimentality.   But a Hindi film without a discernible ’love track’ and a cameo is perhaps too much to ask.  Kalidhar’s disease—described as ‘amiro ki beemari’ (rich people’s ailment)—has made him a burden on his family.   His self-seeking, debt-ridden younger brothers are after the inheritance (a fork-tongued sister-in-law pulls the strings).   After a failed attempt to euthanize him in his sleep, Kalidhar is escorted on a trip to the Kumbh Mela and left to wander off.   He tracks them back to a tent and overhears their dark designs.   Dejected and aghast, he takes off on his own. Kaalidhar Laapata (Hindi)  Director: Madhumita Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Daivik Baghela, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub Run-time: 109 minutes  Storyline: Abandoned by his family, a man struggling with dementia finds freedom and connection after befriending an orphan  After a night’s wandering, Kalidhar finds shelter on the premises of a temple.   A sparkly, precocious orphan named Ballu (Daivik Baghela) initially dismisses the strange, untidy man who takes over his tree seat.  But once the entrepreneurially-minded Ballu realises that bumbling, biriyani-loving Kalidhar has his uses, they become friends.   Kalidhar's desire to live on his own terms and for himself is sparked by the boy's impulsiveness. Together, they draw up a bucket list.  The protagonist of K.D. was an eighty-year-old man recently awoken from a coma, played by Mu Ramaswamy.   Abhishek Bachchan cannot chomp a mutton bone with quite the same relish (conventional remake wisdom would have tapped his father, Amitabh, for the role, a thought reinforced by a passing Bachchan reference in the film).   Still, with his sad, sunken face that can brighten into a smile, Abhishek plays the struggling Kalidhar with tenderness and vulnerability.  The actor’s recent films like Ludo, I Want to Talk and Be Happy have centred on adult-child relationships, and he strikes up an easy camaraderie with the upbeat Daivik.