'Mast Kalandar' is a phrase overly used by Bollywood lyricists and musicians. Actually speaking, 'Mast Kalandar' in the context that is mostly used by filmmakers, translates to, 'Mast' – a person who loves to have fun and 'Kalandar' or the original 'Qualander' means a wandering ascetic.
In Mast Kalandar, however, neither the film nor the actors are ‘Mast’ or ‘Kalandar’. So, we didn’t quite understand what exactly the title implies. Plugged be a romantic comedy, the film revolves entirely on its hero, Nithin, who appears to have thought that it could ride on his star power. But, this proves to be disastrous.
Mast Kalandar is filled with cheesy, sexist dialogues. In fact, the trailer of the film had a cheesy line towards the end that compares women to 3D technology, which, according to the hero, is in front of our eyes but still out of reach! Bravo, dialogue writer. Of course, this was just the trailer – picture mein sexist dialogues baaki hai mere dost! The trailer was a cue and we should’ve taken the hint.
The movie is filled with many more of these sexist dialogues. Mast Kalandar is an archetypal boy-meets-girl chronicle that is packaged with amateur acting. Our hero Nithin is a careless young man who takes pride in being irresponsible. He is jobless and is the guy nobody wants. As he is out of work and happens to see a beautiful woman, the heroine Aarohi, he decides to stalk her as a full-time job.
What follows next is a series of cheesy routines to make her fall for him. Despite knowing he is worthless, the heroine accepts his proposal. Well-known actor Sridhar play’s Nithin’s father and it's on his advice that the hero takes the 'success' route. Though the makers have tried to establish father-son bonding, it isn’t impressive. Amid all this, the hero sings in the rain with the heroine, fights 10 goons single-handedly, fracturing their bones and our brains.
Nithin's acting is wanting in several departments and he really needs to learn to choose good scripts. Aarohi’s job is to look good and advise our hero, in alternating scenes, which she has done promptly. No scope for acting here. None of the other characters is worth mentioning, as they are just blink-and-miss roles.
Director Rajkumar Aditthyaa hasn’t taken any trouble to bring in any fresh elements. Speaking of Premkumar's music, except Chanda Aparada by renowned singer Vijay Prakash, the songs are tiresome. Bang Bang Bengaluru sung by Chandan Shetty is a smart inclusion in the album, but the lyrics aren’t good enough for us to hum it.
The opening beats of Jai Ganesha Jai song at places can remind you of Agneepath’s Deva Sri Ganesha. Such songs are turning out to be mere fillers in films these days. They are either clubbed with/ used as hero-entry song or as a song simply pasted in a random frame, without establishing anything.
A few scenes have been shot at Madhugiri, which is known to be the world’s largest monolithic hill, but zero effort has been put into capturing its beauty.
The shooting of the film started in 2014 and it took 4 years for the movie to see the light of the day. One would be surprised if it lasted more than four days in theatres, given what a huge let-down the script proves to be.
Disclaimer: This review was not paid for or commissioned by anyone associated with the film. Neither TNM nor any of its reviewers have any sort of business relationship with the film's producers or any other members of its cast and crew.