Advertisement
Star cast: Farhan Akhtar, Deepika Padukone.
Advertisement
What’s Good: The romance in the first half; two songs.
What’s Bad: The second half; the climax.
Komal Nahta says: This is Karthik Killing Karthik.
Loo break: When Farhan leaves the city, you may leave for the loo!
Now for a little more detail:
Excel Entertainment’s Karthik Calling Karthik (UA) is the story of a schizophrenic man, Karthik Narayan (Farhan Akhtar). Low on self-esteem, he is dismissed from his job by his ruthless boss, Kamath (Ram Kapoor), for no fault of his. Obviously, Karthik is devastated.
Even while he is jobless, Karthik receives a telephone call at home. He is shocked to know that the person who has called him is himself, Karthik. These telephone calls from Karthik to Karthik become a regular feature. The typical point is that the calls come at 5 a.m. everyday and Karthik only listens to what the voice has to tell him. The good part is that the voice of Karthik gives Karthik such pep talk that he suddenly becomes assertive and smart. Not only does he get back his job but he also succeeds in wooing his office colleague, Shonali Mukherjee (Deepika Padukone), thanks only to the telephone calls he receives from himself. The voice cautions him against telling anyone about the mysterious telephone calls.
However, Karthik confides in Shonali when they decide to get married to each other. On hearing about Karthik’s mysterious calls, Shonali, obviously, thinks he is mad and tells him to consult a psychiatrist. Karthik consults his regular psychiatrist, Dr. Kapadia (Shefaali Shah), who is bewildered when he actually gets a call at 5 a.m. even while she is sitting with him.
Soon, Karthik receives a call in which the calling Karthik fires him for revealing all to Shonali. The voice now threatens to destroy him – and actually does so. Karthik loses his job as well as girlfriend. Scared, he leaves the city and goes to a place he himself doesn’t know and stays in a hotel he himself is clueless about. His logic is that if he doesn’t know his own whereabouts, the telephone caller would not be able to harm him. But things aren’t so simple.
Here, Dr. Kapadia solves the mystery of the caller and explains all to Shonali.
The story and screenplay, both penned by Vijay Lalwani, are very different from the routine or regular stuff films are made of. However, it is very unlikely that the drama will be lapped up by the audience simply because of the novelty factor. For one, the story is quite confusing for the average film goer, more particularly the mass audience. The concept of Karthik calling Karthik would impress the youth in the cities in the initial reels but the audience outside of the big cities would simply not accept such a drama. Even the city folk will find the proceedings in the second half rather boring and quite illogical. The revelation of the suspense by Dr. Kapadia is the weakest link in the story as it tries to marry medical science with technology.
Frankly, the interest of the elite audience may remain alive in the first half because of the freshness with which Karthik and Shonali’s love story has been tackled and also because the viewer keeps assuming that the telephone calls are a figment of Karthik’s imagination – in much the same way as Dr. Kapadia assumes, and even tells him so. But the moment Dr. Kapadia speaks with the caller, on Karthik’s telephone, the film becomes a suspense drama which it isn’t till then. From there on, the drama keeps dipping and begins to bore the audience. As for the masses, they will find it even more difficult to comprehend and appreciate what’s going on in the last few reels. The entire track of the telephone and its features, elaborately dealt with in the pre-climax and climax, is dull and far from exciting.
All in all, while the love story of Karthik and Shonali works to an extent, the track of the medical condition of Karthik is too elitist and also quite boring after a point of time. Even Vijay Lalwani’s dialogues are more class-appealing than mass-appealing.
Farhan Akhtar does well. He plays his character with understanding. Deepika Padukone looks sexy and does a good job. Ram Kapoor is efficient. Shefaali Shah also performs ably. Vivan Bathena gets limited scope but is okay. Vipin Sharma leaves a mark. Yatin Karyekar and the others lend the desired support.
Vijay Lalwani’s direction is just about fair. Not only is his script class-appealing but his narrative style is also easy-going and not fast-paced, adding to the boredom of the masses. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music is good. ‘Uff teri ada’ and ‘Hey ya!’ are excellently tuned songs and will be loved by the youngsters. Their picturisations (Uma-Gaiti) are energetic. Javed Akhtar’s lyrics are easy on the lips. Sanu Varughese’s cinematography is nice. Editing (Aarti Bajaj) is sharp. Production and tech- nical aspects are good.
On the whole, Karthik Calling Karthik is a film with limited appeal for a section of the audience in the big cities only. At other places, it will be rejected. The film will, therefore, find the going at the box-office tough.
Advertisement
