Karthik Calling Karthik - Review

Vidit Bhargava

Actors: Farhan Akhtar, Deepika Padukone

Director: Vijay Lalwani

Genre: Mysteriously Dramatic!

Rating: *** 1/2

I mentioned about the Indian mystery movies in my last post, you know whats going to happen in the end. This one is yet another mystery movie, and you tend to catch up with this one if not knowing fully what's next.

Plot: Karthik is bullied by everyone in his office from his boss to the peon even in his apartment his land lord doesn't leave him. He has no self respect. And then he starts receiving calls which say that they're by him... Karthik's Now Calling Karthik. And the rest should not be disclosed if you wish to enjoy the movie.

Most of you must have thought it to be a Mystery and full of suspense film from the trailers. However, it is not. The first half of the movie just scrolls on how you need to know the 7 Habits of highly effective people! Nothing much really. But at the same time, inspiring. However, in the second half things change. It gets into the actual flow of a mystery. You no longer believe he has hallucinations (as in many other recent movies) and start finding who is the caller. You even suspect the Credit Card walas who call him! However, you don't need much brains to solve this one. Most of the times you also catch up with the movie.

The climax, is simply average! It is a mixture of a few old movies and new ones. One's you're taken aback by that and ready to go out of the hall comes the writer's bit. Which by the way gives a little shape to this climax. The climax is just fine, not very good but at least better than some of the past suspense and mystery films or more logical than them of course.

Farhan Akhtar is on a roll, he's as brilliant as ever in his acting. Deepika Padukone is good but wasn't needed much. Ram Kapoor (that Swamvar wala host you have bear on TV) is better in this movie than any of his past TV ventures. Not to say he didn't do well in fact he was as brilliant as Farhan Akhtar. The others are just props of this movie, they don't have much of a role after the actual mystery begins, they just come in numbers to insult Karthik in the first half. They've got in a psychiatrist also, Shefali Shah. She keeps on popping up in the movie & does her act good. The best in the last is the Rubik's Cube! It has a bigger and more important role than Deepika Padukone and any other "Prop" in the film. Also he takes the best out of the Akhtar ones he's unsolved. :P

The film is not flawless, it has few loopholes. The script though well written and gripping is average when it comes to providing a good mystery. That's it not anything very bad about it.

Songs are good but they'll wither after a few weeks. They've embedded the brilliance of Shanker Ehsaan Loy and Javed Akhtar. The background score is in blend with the mysterious look of the movie in the second half, Medieval Pundits do it with perfection

On the whole, Karthik Calling Karthik works because of its acting and a fairly good script. Though the movie is very good it never goes above that, you rarely say, "Wow, I never thought of that" or "Completely Ingenious" but still its a good entertainer and also behind all of that inspiring, to the "YES MEN"!