Kedarnath

*ing: Sushant Singh Rajput, Sara Ali Khan, Nitish Bharadwaj, Alka Amin, Sonali Sachdev, Pooja Gor, Nishant Dahiya

Rated: 7/10

Love in the time of catastrophe, especially a disaster as recent in public memory as the Kedarnath tsunami, is pregnant with possibilities and this Ronnie Screwvala production for most part of the film lives up to the expectations. The brewing inter-religion romance between Sara Ali Khan and Sushant Singh Rajput is peppery enough to hold much of your attention even though the imminent deluge that would eventually sweep away everything is constantly knocking the doors of your mind.

You get to wait endlessly for the disaster while unravelling the common nuts and bolts of a love story between a pandit ki beti and a musalmaan pitthuwala in a Bholey Baba ka pilgrim town. Sushant makes his presence felt not just with his dimpled cheeks but also the effort he puts into living the part of a hesitant boy who knows his limits when it comes to the girl he is romancing. Rajput gives you many moments in the film as does debutante Sara Ali Khan.

She is feisty, full of verve and displays a body language which goes with her bindaas take-it-all attitude with which she graces the screen with all the pedigree that comes from the Khan khandan of patiala.

Together they stitch up the film till the deluge builds up to breach all barriers of life and take 4300 people to their watery grave. The credits tell you 70000 are still missing since the 2013 catastrophe.

Going by that figure alone, one would have wanted to know more about the tragedy than one gets to know through this big canvas, well shot, slim on music film which engages the audience nevertheless. The debate will be on whether the love angle could have been the side story and the disaster notes kept on a tidal high. For me, Kedarnath work as a good combination story told and depicted excellently.