Karthik Calling Karthik (Hindi)
Meet Karthik: an introvert by nature and shy by choice. Karthik suffers with huge confidence issues and is miserable at his just average job that yields less than average results. His boss treats him like dirt. Shonali, his colleague who he secretly loves doesn't even know he exists. Karthik is a loser, knows it, and accepts it.
Karthik believes his life can't get any worse and then suddenly one night, it happens; The phone rings. And Karthik speaks to someone he never thought he would - He speaks to a man who also claims to be Karthik. The man on the phone says that he is here to change Karthik's life. Karthik accepts the phone in his life and soon it becomes his guide, his mentor, friend and guardian. And most importantly it becomes the ticket to the love of his life, Shonali and Karthik's life changes in ways that he hadnÃt imagined.
First impression when the movie started rolling was- Farhan Akhtar looks a lot like a watered down version of Jack Shepherd from Lost. And he resembles him in more ways than one. They both are a curious package of winner and loser combined into one. And the movie is also just that. It wins some and lose some.
Karthik calling Karthik is a strange mix of blatant reality and incredulous eccentricity. It manages to balance both for the most part, but fails towards the latter half. The movie in itself is slow and makes you wonder where its leading- Some might fall asleep with that and some will be on the edge of your multiplex chair-your choice.
It possibly could have been a welcome change from the all perfect heroes who usually don the Bollywood screen. But apparently, these days the scarred and scared heroes rule the market. Yet, Farhan Akhtar steals the show with his easy portrayal of the protagonist with a charming disguise.He ace the part of the wounded hero -making us ache for the damaged goods. He is a treat to watch and definitely should do more films. Deepika totally fits the ice queen office doll (who is also smart), but I wonder whether she can ever get out of that mould.(Another Aiswarya Rai in the making, I suppose).
The writer has been obviously reading Kafka. There are some brilliant strokes in the movie- like the lone tear hidden beneath the boring glasses of Karthik leaving the office when he gets fire, before and afters of the makeover of the man and his home, a Rubiks cube which encompasses all things mundane yet amazingly powerful.(Farhan learnt to solve the cube for the movie, says Wikipedia.Wow).
The screenplay gets increasingly chunky towards its second half. When the only two people in the movie theatre (perks of going for an Indian movie in a US theatre on a Friday) guesses the climax, it could only mean one thing- Either we are exceptionally smart or the climax is passe which any ardent Sydney Sheldon fan could easily spot. But mistake not, I do have the creeps every time a telephone rings at home.
I wouldnt call it a love story nor a thriller. It hangs in a fine line between the two.But its definitely worth a watch. After all, the movies motives are sincere and its heart is in the right place.
And if not anything, you should watch it for Farhan Akhtar. Uff teri Ada!
A relaxed pace is used to get into details of the protagonist's relationship with his lover and himself. Unfortunately, they forget that they are supposed to maintain the depth because of which the same pace now seems sluggish.
However, the twist is indeed worth the time because it's not 100% predictable. If nothing else Farhan Akhtar's ace performance is something you will relish for quite a while.
One doesn't actually buy into it until much later in the movie. The mystery of the phone call seems overdone at first and one realises that it must be Karthik's own hallucination? Is it or is it not? The movie then leads you to believe that the person behind the call may be real? Is he or is he not? But what actually you find out at last, let me assure you, leaves you utterly satisfied with a sense of compliments towards ingenuity of the director or/and script writer. This movie is about a loser Karthik (Farhan) whose life turns 180 when he gets a call from Karthik (once again Farhan ! ). The caller claims to be the same man Karthik speaking in the same voice as our protagonist. So he knows all the intimate secrets of our man and knows him as his own self.....
The multiplex-boom in India, with their over-cushioned seats, over-priced popcorn and over-stretched parking lots have led to a genre of made-for-multiplex movies. Movies coming from a distinctly setting, with characters that most people watching the movie recognize immediately as themselves, their cubicle-mate, their next-door neighbour... it's brought Hindi cinema a lot closer to its audience, at least the urban audience. However, it fails to take into account that this audience is also heavily into American/English pop-culture and is not going to appreciate one's recycling of old stories. KCK falls into that category.
A first heads-up for those who haven't watched the movie and haven't read up a synopsis of it anywhere - it's not a sugar-laden love story. Even if that's the impression you got watching Deepika Padukone making the collective male populace go 'Uffff, teri ada' on any of the innumerable music channels. If the friend next to you turns and says 'You didn't tell me you were bringing me to a horror movie', shrug and smile. For those who have read the synopsis and have a vague clue what it is about, it's not a thriller either. It's just confused. Like the protagonist himself.
I will not do a brief synopsis of the movie or anything because it's probably present in a million places. Farhan Akthar is Karthik, doing a role which you immediately think Irrfan Khan with his sleepy Vodafone ad voice would be much better at. Deepika Padukone is hot, and trying her best to justify her presence in the movie. There's a psychiatrist who takes 'stating the obvious' to levels never seen before. And there's a Japanese-made telephone which is quite eerie and is obviously the technological predecessor of later Japanese techno-horrors as seen in The Ring.
Karthik has issues in life (he's going to a psychiatrist, duh). The issues stem from childhood scarring, are made worse by a boss who doesn't have a single polite bone on his body, and the fact that the hottest girl in the office sees right through/over/above him. The last part he can have no complaints about I think, he's lucky there even is a hot girl in his office. But personal feelings aside, that's his life. And the psychiatrist is just no bloody help. Until... drumroll. Or rather, ring tone. It's a voice claiming to be Karthik and he rights everything in Karthik's (the non-phone one) life, within 30 first-half minutes. At this point, you're already thinking 'Ohh, Fight Club. Or Beautiful Mind'.
Obviously, he can't tell people about his phone friend without them calling him Cuckoo. Especially his girlfriend, who has apparently been through too many bad relationships and a cuckoo boyfriend is really the last thing she needs. Confusing, this lassie. She mocks him for being a 'safe guy who would never misbehave with a girl', then she says 'you won't be like all them other guys right?'. Make up your mind darling, do you want safe or sorry? A straight lift of a line from the sitcom Two and a Half Men about how girls:men::dogs:cars doesn't help clarify matters any. So anyway, the lassie says he better get help or else. And eerie phone Karthik simply doesn't like that. So everything he built in the 30-minute first half, he destroys in 30 seconds of the second half.
You'd think all the thoughts in your head about 'already seen this story, already heard this line, already know the ending'would stop at those. But the music director feels the need to make his presence felt as well, and a jarring background score to all of the Karthiks' encounter. Heavily 'inspired' by Clint Mansell, you wonder if that's the best mood you want to set for a poor guy having mental issues. Though again, 'Uff teri ada' is completely worth it all. As a visual experience.
Karthik calling Karthik takes two good 90-minute films and mixes them into a hodgepodge 120-minute one. It could either have been the story of a shy, introverted guy slowly overcoming his fears and all that with an imaginary friend type person. Imaginary friends are ok, they're mostly cute, they're always by the protagonist and they usually disappear when the job's done. Or it could have been the story of a tortured, scarred kid whose scars eventually affect him enough when he grows up to start taking apart his life. The one good thing probably was the conscious effort to leave no loose ends, as the 'summary' scene shows how Karthik actually knew everything that he wasn't supposed to know. Fair play there, well worked, at least they didn't make it descend into the realms of the supernatural. If only that effort had been put into a more organized screenplay.
Keeping with the movie's own theme, subconsciously you want to like KCK, appreciate it, applaud it. But consciously, it just comes across as one of those things for which you say 'Well tried. Maybe next time.'
Karthik Narayan(Akhtar) is a simple, unassuming guy who just can’t help being bullied. You could say that he has very little sense of self, or various neuroses which consume his sleeping hours – whatever it is, Karthik has it bad. He’s got an aggressive landlord who hounds him for money, a nasty boss who won’t give him rightful credit, and co-workers who dismiss him as a loser.
But life changes for Karthik when he starts getting self-affirming telephone calls from someone who claims to be . . . himself. This telephone Karthik seems confident and assured and gives loser Karthik advice which helps transform his life. The landlord is now subservient, the boss applauds him, and Shonali Mukherjee (Padukone), the stunning co-worker who doesn’t know Karthik exists, suddenly wants to be his girlfriend! Will this wonderful life last, or is it just another trick of fate ? . . .