Let’s Hope Responses To Kalank Will Help Varun Dhawan Make Better Choices

With Student Of The Year, Karan Johar gave us three next-gen stars who could not be more different from each other. Alia Bhatt has established herself as one of the finest performers of this generation and Siddharth Malhotra has made a niche for himself.

Arguably, in terms of tangible success, Varun Dhawan has been the one to have a career that one can only dream of. He has had 12 releases so far in his career, including Kalank and as delivered 11 hits. While he has become the favorite of the masses with films like Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya and ABCD 2, critics have also given him their nod of approval for his performance in films like  Badlapur and October.

However, things are not as rosy as they seem. While his films have always made money, he has panned by critics and a certain section of the audience for his choices like Judwaa 2 or Dishoom. It is not the question of the mass appeal here. Varun has proved time and again that masses love him and he has also shown his acting chops. Thus he is one of the very few actors in Bollywood who can balance both like the way he did in Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya.

But if he continues to choose scripts like Kalank, things might not remain as glorious as they are now. It seems like Varun is more inclined towards a project that enables him to unleash his ‘mass appeal’ on screen. He wants to be the matinee icon that sings, dances, romances, is full of drama and can beat up baddies, all in one film.

But if you observe his filmography carefully, you can notice that in all his films where he has tried to do it all., he has lost a certain section of the audience. It is oddly disturbing when a rare performer like him who can literally have it all, misses out on a certain section of his audience simply because of his choices.

Not to say that Varun is not talented, but luck has also played a tremendous role in his career. Also, he has mostly ridden on the popularity of his last film for his next venture to become a success. Luck can only take one so far and this chain is a precarious one which can break anytime.

Responses to Kalank has been worrisome and the film has seen a dip of about 50% in box-office collection on the second day itself. There is a good chance the film will turn out to be the first flop of Varun’s career. If that’s the case, he won’t be able to rely on the snowball effect of success that has helped him in films like Dishoom, which could have easily been a flop if his films before that were not hits. So to speak, his bank is perhaps over and now he only has his talent to rely on.

If Varun has to continue his winning streak, he simply has to look at scripts more carefully and chose the ones that offer him something that is more than the archetype of a ‘masala hero’ in Bollywood. We love Varun and we love Bollywood masala, but the truth is, in a scenario when things are changing and people are seeking content in films over anything, he simply cannot lose out on cerebral cine-goers because of his choice of scripts.