Kedarnath Critics’ Review: Sara Makes Assured Debut in Uneven Film

Is it a thumbs up or a thumbs down from the critics?

Film: Kedarnath
Director: Abhishek Kapoor
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Sara Ali Khan

Read excerpts from reviews of Kedarnath here:

As torrents of water rush down, destroying everything that gets in the way, you recall the horror of 2013. Although the special effects are uneven (the temple town was rebuilt in a vast tank on a film set in Mumbai and later flooded for those particular scenes), the tragedy is intense.Khan shines in these later scenes, shedding the earlier self-consciousness to throw it all into the physically challenging finale. Rajput is natural as the compassionate Mansoor, though at times he seems to be searching for the soul of his character, which could have been another casualty of a confused script.  

Udita Jhunjhunwala, Mint

Ali Khan starts off a tad awkward, but soon settles in and shows a perky confidence, very reminiscent of her mother, the actor Amrita Singh. Dahiya as the fly in the ointment has impact; as does Gor as Ali Khan’s sister, and Amin as Rajput’s mother. Rajput himself doesn’t really come up with anything new, and Bharadwaj as the angry ‘door-ho-jaao-meri-nazaron-se-baap’ is old, old hat. How well do the Kedarnath stars know each other?And that’s the trouble with Kedarnath. Using the devastating 2013 Uttarakhand floods as a major plot twist should have given the film some depth. But the writing is sketchy, and the tone confused, never quite knowing whether to go quiet and life-like or to swell with wailing violins, especially when the waters start rising, and life-threatening danger starts looming.  

Shubhra Gupta, Indian Express

Of the talent, Sara steals the show. She is a superstar on the rise, who is honest with her work. Sushant is game to complement her without displaying any ego. Seeing a love story set against the backdrop of a calamity like this, one can’t help being reminded of the Hollywood blockbuster, Titanic (1997). While the Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet romance-drama was made on a humongous scale, the makers of Kedarnath haven’t compromised on the scale of their comparatively lesser-budgeted Sushant-Sara prem kahaani.  

Meena Iyer, DNA

Despite the brisk storytelling and nicely braided scenes that give a vivid sense of the locations, Kedarnath never achieves the emotional peak that is a requirement of the disaster movie... The absence of any creases or rough edges makes Mansoor a very nice but a very dull boy. Singh Rajput’s reticence is amply compensated for by Sara Ali Khan, a debutant with the confidence of a camera veteran. Ali Khan is a vibrant presence, lending her character spirit and charisma. She is the most watchable and memorable character in the pre-interval sequences, and gives a snappily told but somewhat cold film much-needed warmth when the mountains melt and everything goes under water.  

Nandini Ramnath, Scroll

(Source: Mint, Indian Express, DNA, Scroll)