A lot of water has flowed down the Thames since I last blogged. In the last two weeks, India-Pakistan "peace talks" began, Sachin broke the world records by scoring an ODI double century, Pranab Da presented the budget and Karthik Calling Karthik got released. Against better judgement and the reviews of critics, I decided to take the plunge and watch it.
Q. If the producers of Karthik Calling Karthik ran out of money, what will be the movie called?
A. Karthik Missed Calling Karthik.
Pathetic joke, I know. But it seems the producers ran out of the ingredient which is so less used in Hindi movies - Story. If I would dare say, the movie was reduced to Karthik Blank Calling Karthik for the writer-director Vijay Lalwani seems to have lost the script half-way through the movie.
The basic premise on which the movie is built, the calls which Karthik recieves everyday at 5 a.m. from Karthik himself, falls flat with just one simple solution - changing his phone to a model which does not has the voice reminder facility. Also, Karthik talks to hours with the person on the call without ever draining out the battery or running out of the phone memory on which he is supposed to have recorded the message himself! Are we dumb Vijay Lalwani?
Karthik, as a child, is supposed to have hallucinated about an older brother whom he thought he had killed. Now in any normal family if you come across such a child who talks about a non-existent person, you would take him to a doctor, right? But you should not expect any such thing with Karthik's family. The only thing that his parents do is stare open-mouthed at their child's stories.
Kathik suffers from schizophrenia which is discovered by a brilliant stroke of luck by his doctor well at the end of the movie where the director seems to want to hurriedly finish off the movie. All the medical facts and principles about this sensitive disease get thrown out of the window so as to accommodate the story.
Despite such flaws, the movie does entertain you and hold your attention, if only in flashes. Farhan Akhtar is brilliant, he seems to be improving with every movie. Alas, his acting too could not save the movie. Deepika Padukone looks beautiful and is supposed to be playing the part of an ambitious architect. But never once in the movie I could see her holding a design plan.
If you are bored and have nothing to do, then go and watch this movie. Otherwise stay away from it.
Nobody likes blank calls.
Very nice review :)
ReplyDeleteYou have very beautifully captured all the minute flaws of this movie. Keep it up bro....