Dropped Call. Review on Karthik Calling Karthik

Karthik Calling Karthik, is a little difficult to summarize - Is it a love story with a mystery element, or is it a thriller with a strong romantic track? For most parts, KCK is a very well crafted movie, but sadly the attempt to keep the mystery angle ‘real’, distances the audience. And finally the dramatic moments, leave us emotionally un-engaged.

But to begin at the beginning, Farhan is a shy young man. As a child, he had lost his brother in an accident and he still blames himself for this - and hence, he never confronts anyone. His boss, his colleagues, his landlord … everyone bullies him but he remains a doormat. He also loves the office’s ‘hot babe’ and writes 1300+ daily emails to her, but never gathers the courage to actually send them.

After one particularly bad day, he loses his job and is pushed to the brink of suicide. And that’s when he gets his first call from a mysterious stranger, who is also ‘Karthik’. Under the guidance of this mysterious stranger - Karthik, our Karthik goes from shy and under confident, to bold and assertive. Frankly, we never really see Karthik transforming. After a couple of confrontations, and a makeover collage, we see the transformed bold Karthik, and that does seem a tad oversimplification. But this is still the most entertaining part of the movie, and watching the underdog getting back at all the bullies, and winning over the hot gal, has the audience completely engaged.

This is what happens until the interval, there is a big development after that and then the final resolution. And it is in these parts that the movie fails to engage. The attempt to keep it ‘real’ is to be appreciated, but KCK’s climax is unable to live up to the expectations that it itself raises with an entertaining first half.

On the technical fronts, the cinematography, editing, art direction, background score, etc are nothing short of brilliant. The story is focused, the characters minimal, but the technical teams do their jobs so well that the movie’s small canvas never bores us. The music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy is excellent, though their ‘sound’ is getting a tad predictable and repetitive.

And on the acting front, Ram Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Vivan Bathena, etc do a fair job but the movie belongs to Deepika Padukone and Farhan Akhtar. Deepika is so endearing that she smokes, gets sloshed and hooks up with a married man - and we still end up empathizing with her character. As for Farhan Akhtar, he is completely convincing as the scared and shy guy, as the bold and brash dude and also as the confused guy. And in one scene, he actually is so convincingly menacing, that he sends a shiver down your spine.

Finally though, most of the bouquets and the brickbats must go to debutante director, Vijay Lalwani. He is credited with story, screen play, dialogues and direction - and his command over the craft of film making is un-debatable. Where we think he gets it wrong is in the rather anticlimactic ending. But this is still a very engaging, contemporary movie which the multiplex intelligentsia should enjoy - we give KCK 3 out of 5.