'Kaalidhar Laapata' Ending Explained & Film Summary: Did Kaalidhar Go Back To His Brothers?

The highlight of the Madhumita Sundararaman directorial, Kaalidhar Laapata, is its dialogue and the conversations that happen between the protagonist and a small boy named Ballu, who develop a very strange bond. Daivik Bhagela, who plays Ballu and the entire cast of the film, does an exceptional job. That said, let’s find out what happened in the film and how Kaalidhar found the will to live life despite all the grief and betrayal.

Spoiler Alert

Why did Kaalidhar’s brothers abandon him? 

Kaalidhar was suffering from some mental health issues as a result of which he quite frequently hallucinated, and he experienced memory loss. He had become a burden to his family, and the irony was that Kaalidhar was the one who had supported them in every manner up until then. Kaalidhar had two younger brothers, Manohar and Sundar, and a younger sister named Gudiya. Manohar had a wife named Neetu, who also wanted to get rid of her brother-in-law as soon as possible. But getting rid of him didn’t mean that they didn’t want a share in Kaalidhar’s property, as they knew that that was the only way they could repay their debts. Gudiya wanted to take care of her brother, and unlike Manohar and Sundar, she genuinely loved him, but in an orthodox setup, her hands were tied, and she didn’t know how to help him out. Even Kaalidhar didn’t want to be a burden upon Gudiya and give her in-laws an opportunity to taunt her. 

The ancestral house where Kaalidhar and his brothers lived was in the former’s name. Manohar and Sundar were desperate to get him to sign the property away so that they could sell it and get some money. But Kaalidhar was not in a state to sign the documents, and the doctors made it very clear that it was highly unlikely that his condition was going to improve. So Manohar, Neetu, and Sundar came up with a wicked plan: they decided to put his thumbprint on the documents without his knowledge, and then they made a deal with an employee of the government hospital to inject some poisonous drug into Kaalidhar so that he never woke up from his slumber. Though they got his thumbprint, they weren’t able to kill Kaalidhar in the hospital. So it was decided that they would take their elder brother to the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, the largest religious human gathering on the planet, and abandon him there. They knew that with his memory loss he wouldn’t be able to find his way back. Manohar felt a little guilty about doing so, but then managed to overpower his conscience and showed everybody what kind of man he was. Manohar, Sundar, and Neetu took Kaalidhar to Prayagraj, and they left him there. The poor man waited for his brothers, and when they didn’t show up, he started looking for them. Kaalidhar was able to find the tent that Manohar had booked for the night’s stay. He was outside the tent when he heard them talking and got so hurt that he decided to go his own way. Kaalidhar couldn’t imagine what he had done to deserve such treatment: how had he become a burden for them when all he wanted was a roof over his head? The man literally made no demands and threw no tantrums, yet his own brother absconded from him, not even caring about what he would do considering he had so many mental health issues. Kaalidhar took a bus that was going to Itarsi, and then, because he didn’t have money, the bus conductor asked him to get down at a village named Bhojpur. Kaalidhar found a secluded spot and went off to sleep, probably hoping that when he woke up the next day, he would discover that it had all been a bad dream. 

How did Kaalidhar and Ballu become fond of each other? 

Kaalidhar was woken up from his deep sleep by a child named Ballu. Ballu was abandoned by his parents when he was just a few months old, and he was left on the stairs of the temple in Bhojpur. Since then, he has stayed there and managed to survive through his sheer will and extraordinary entrepreneurial temperament. Ballu was the kind of child who didn’t let negative emotions cloud his mind. He was full of life and hope, something that Kaalidhar knew nothing about. At first Ballu created as many hurdles in Kaalidhar’s way as he could, because he felt like the latter was adamant to take away everything from him, from his multiple jobs to his sleeping spot. But soon, the boy and Kaalidhar developed a very strong bond and became inseparable. One time, an inspector from the food and health department came to inspect the food that was being served at the temple. Ballu didn’t hesitate to tell the inspector how the priest took a chunk of the raw ingredients for himself and also how he didn’t care about the quality of the food served at the temple. The priest lashed out at Ballu, and the latter felt extremely hurt by the harsh words the elderly man used. Kaalidhar went to Ballu with a samosa, and that’s where their journey started. Ballu taught Kaalidhar how to cherish life, how to seize every moment, and how to not think about what happened in the past. Kaalidhar didn’t understand how, even after living such an uncertain life, Ballu did not get scared about the future. Ballu was a confident young boy, and he knew that he would always find a solution, no matter how big the problem was. Ballu told Kaalidhar that they would make a list of all those things that they wanted to do in life and then, one by one, fulfill their dreams. From driving a motorcycle to eating biryani and acting in a play, they did everything. Then one day Ballu got the scare of his life when Kaalidhar consumed alcohol and experienced what seemed like an epileptic episode. Ballu, probably for the first time in his life, felt scared as he didn’t know what he would do if the man didn’t survive. Ballu and Kaalidhar didn’t realize how, in such a short time frame, they had become extremely close to each other. Ballu also realized that Kaalidhar was suffering from certain mental health issues. He noticed that Kaalidhar often hallucinated and saw things that weren’t there, and at times he forgot what he had said. Kaalidhar got to know that his brothers were looking for him but he hoped that they would never find him, as he didn’t want to go back to them. He had created his own world with Ballu, and he didn’t want his adventurous ride to ever end. 

Why did Subodh want to find Kaalidhar? 

Subodh was an officer at the lost and found department who helped people find their missing family members. Manohar, Sundar, and Neetu also came to him, as they had realized that if they didn’t complain, the police might speculate that they abandoned their elder brother intentionally, a practice that the Kumbh Mela was infamous for. It didn’t take a lot of time for Subhodh to understand that. 

Manohar and Sundar said that they didn’t have any photographs of their brother since both of them had new phones, but then that changed once their plan to transfer the property to their name failed. As fate would have it, after Manohar and Sundar left Kaalidhar in the mela, the property documents burned up as the room in which they were kept caught fire. Also, their neighbor claimed that, before leaving, Kaalidhar had transferred all the property to his name, which meant that Manohar needed the property papers to nullify those claims. So once that happened, Manohar and Sundar actually started to search for their elder brother. Subodh paid them a visit, and that is when they gave him a photograph of Kaalidhar. Subhodh realized what had happened, and he did tell them what he felt. Subhodh wanted to take the lead on the case because some priest had told him that he would have a kid only when he found a man with a huge beard. He felt that finding Kaalidhar was the cure to all his problems. But over a period of time something changed inside him. He got a hunch that Kaalidhar probably didn’t want to go back home, which was why he was making sure that nobody found him. Subodh quite strangely felt attached to the man. He wanted to make sure he was doing well. He decided that he would find him, and if he didn’t want to go back, then he wouldn’t tell anybody about his whereabouts. Subhodh was also to locate Kaalidhar, and there was something really surreal about that encounter. It felt as if somebody had held a mirror up to Subhodh and gave him an opportunity to self-introspect his own life. 

Did Kaalidhar go back to his brothers? 

Back in the day, Kaalidhar was supposed to get married to a girl named Mira, but because of certain reasons, it fell through. Ballu forced him to find Mira and meet her once. We were never told if Mira was married or divorced or if something had happened to her husband, but I presume that she was single since she lived alone with a little girl. She was very happy to see Kaalidhar, and she told him that she had waited for a long time for him to return. 

Kaalidhar’s mother had passed away and then his father decided to take his own life, as probably he couldn’t deal with all the grief. After that day, the responsibility of looking after his brothers and sister fell on Kaalidhar’s shoulders. Kaalidhar was about to get married to Mira when he got the news that Neetu, Manohar’s wife, was pregnant, and it was an issue since they both weren’t married at that time. Kaalidhar knew he had to be there for his brother and help him sort out the issue. Kaalidhar sacrificed everything for the sake of his brother, and at the end, he reciprocated his love by abandoning him.

Kaalidhar, at the end of the film, went back to his family, and he got to know that that one villager, who happened to be Kaalidhar’s good friend had been making those claims because he knew that until he did that, Manohaar and Sundar would not look for Kaalidhar. Kaalidhar divided his property into four parts: he gave a sum of money to his sister, he paid off his brother’s debt, and he transferred one share to Ballu, who was admitted to a good school as a good Samaritan had decided to sponsor his education. Kaalidhar, this time around, kept a sum of money for himself too. He had realized how important it was to be financially independent in this harsh world, and he had also learned from Ballu that he needed to live for himself too. Kaalidhar told his brothers that he had gotten to know the kind of people they were. He told them that he had paid off their debts as he believed that it was his responsibility, but apart from that, he didn’t want to keep in touch with them in the future. They felt guilty, and I believe it was a very small price to pay for what they had done. 

At the end of the film, we saw Kaalidhar donning a cool leather jacket and riding a bike with Mira sitting behind him. I do see him making visits to Ballu’s school and meeting him on a regular basis in the future. I know for sure that Kaalidhar will seize every moment, just like Ballu had taught him to, and not let anybody come between him and his happiness. 

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