Its transition from a romantic drama, struggling to disseminate the sounds of the aching hearts of its characters, into a retelling of the disastrous butchering of the Indian state, with communal rioting as the highlight, further dislodges the film's construction. Trying to make sense of the plot and why the characters do what they do, especially in the second act, is what turns Kalank into a tedious affair. But then come the hidden messages and twists that rob the fun out of this drama that is only good at displaying its grand budgetary wealth. In a way, it surprised me that there is some uncomfortable storytelling happening here, sampling characters that are not too far from realism. No prizes for guessing what happens to some of these characters because Varman seems confused with writer Shibani Bathija's story as he weaves and explores the relationships between these characters with an unusual degree of unpreparedness. And in her exploration is where she finds a calling for her talent in perhaps the most popular dancer-for-hire (Madhuri Dixit) in the locality as well as a ray of hope in her chained life in a womanizing blacksmith-cum-daredevil (Varun Dhawan). Tied into this unwanted union to show her loyalty to her friend, this woman now questions the status quo of a nearby place that has a potential for conflict, a communal one, with the help of her husband's newspaper press (another interesting element). Set in just a few months before the Partition of India, Kalank tells the story of a young woman (Alia Bhatt) coaxed into marrying the husband (Aditya Roy Kapoor) of her dying friend (Sonakshi Sinha). Unfortunately, that is one of the few interesting elements in this otherwise nondescript tale of love and partition. The interesting thing about Abhishek Varman's Kalank (Blemish) is that it introduces almost all its characters in the initial minutes and then starts narrating the story, an ambitious period drama that asks its viewers to judge its moral at the end.