Karthik Calling Karthik

Cast: Farhan Akthar, Deepika Padukone, Sheefali Chhaya

Director: Vijay Lalvani

Overall Rating: 6.5 / 10.0 (A good movie to watch, if there are no other plans)

The movie Karthik Calling Karthik, starts with the portrayal of Karthik (Farhan Akthar), as a low on self-confidence and hence low on self esteem, hard-working guy. His straight-forward nature and self-formed fears have made the subject of exploitation from everyone; from his greedy and wily land-lord and smart colleagues at work to his ever-cribbing boss, who gets all the work done by him and takes away the credit without even thanking him for his effort once. Ironically, even the people who bullied him did not need to boss-around or threaten him, and even a whimper would scare Karthik, who would silently bear all the pain, and do all the hard-work fearing a reprisal. The start of this movie almost reminded me of another movie like “Rocket Singh”.

The movie also adds a romantic twist, the entry of Karthik’s dashing dream-girl Shonali (Deepika Padukone), who has worked with him in the same office for 4 years, but doesn’t even know that he exists. The story trudges slowly and suddenly Karthik loses his job, and in midst of all this depression, Karthik thinks of ending his life on his birthday, when at 5 AM in the morning, he receives a “phone-call”, a phone-call, which as mentioned in the commercials, changes his life for the better or the worse.

The person on the other end of the line claims to be Karthik himself. After initial resistance, the LOSER Karthik decides to listen to his mentor on the other side of the phone. The mentor Karthik seems to be sort of a Steven Covey or a Dale Carnegie, if you may, who grooms Karthik to become a better man. He listens to the insecurities of Karthik, imbibes positive thoughts and incorporates confidence in Karthik. He also plans both personal and professional strategies for Karthik, which is fun to watch. The same LOSER Karthik now almost undergoes a metamorphosis from a caterpillar to a butterfly. He not only subdues his landlord with his new skills, but he also convinces his boss into giving a much better job, and more importantly finds a place in the heart of his romanticized angel.

However, as all good things come to an end, Karthik’s dream streak also reaches its end once Shonali finds out that he receives phone-calls from his imaginary self, and asks him to make a decision and pick either her or his so-called mentor. And, one-day Karthik doesn’t pick up the call of his mentor and things start going in a downward spiral for him ever since. Since Karthik goes against his mentor, the Guardian Angel suddenly becomes the Messenger of Death for him. He ensures that Karthik suffers falls in both his professional and love-life, ushering him back to his world of miseries.

The movie moves back and forth, trying to then answer the questions like:

Who's the other Karthik and why is he calling Karthik? What can Karthik do to free himself from the menace of the other Karthik’s wrath, and will he succeed in resolving the issues in his life?

Final Verdict:

The movie in a nutshell shows the trauma and stress surrounding the current corporate scenario and fast lifestyle. We have on one hand an exploited and depressed worker Karthik, who is trying to set his life on track; and Shonali, who has had too many bad relationships, and is trying to bring some stability to her life.

Personally, I felt the storyline went on too slowly, and yet, with witty and sarcastic dialogues, the movie kept going on. The end is almost abrupt, and before you can fully comprehend the movie-flow and get into the flow of it, the credits start popping in.

Nevertheless, Farhan Akthar has done a marvelous job, acting almost like a chameleon, moving from the dull-boy to happening-guy and so on. It is a movie with a new topic, and the freshness along-with the comical thrill will probably make the movie sail thorough. It’s a good movie to watch, if you have no other plans, and look forward to seeing a light and yet serious flick.

Up in the Air - A movie Review

Last Thursday, I was sitting in the Hyderabad airport, waiting for my flight to arrive, and thinking on what should be my next blog topic. Suddenly out of nowhere, I got reminded of this recent flick that I had seen which seemed to be a complete match to my wait for the flight situation. And so, here is my review on “Up in the Air” literally written up in the air, on-board my Flight from Hyderabad to Ahmedabad.

Up in the Air

Cast: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick

Director: Jason Reitman

Overall Rating: 7.5/10.0 (A very good movie to watch)

For most of us, the very thought of taking a flight reminds us of endless queues for luggage checkin, waiting a grueling amount of time before the boarding commences and then the flight itself, where we are made to breathe recycled air, given some cookies and snacks, while time gets spent looking at the clouds, without nothing much in sight. However, this is the story about Ryan Bingham (George Clooney), who is kind of obsessed with the thoughts of flying, so much so, that he prefers to be on-the-move, rather than stay snuggled on the ground.

In his life on the ground, Ryan works for a company, which takes the outsourcing of the work of downsizing people. This means that Ryan is always on the move, going from one city to another, visiting the offices of the loser-bosses as he calls them, and helping them by discussing with the to-be-fired employees about their dismissal. The idea of travelling is also perfect for Ryan who wants to keep earning more sky miles and reach a magic figure of 10 million miles, as a sense of personal achievement. He keeps buying and spending all of the allocated corporate allowances to ensure that his sky-miles keep getting maxed out. The idea behind this is to ensure excellent loyalty-related services for being a preferred customer. Things seem to be going pretty smooth for Ryan, when all of a sudden; Natalie (Anna Kendrick) enters the scene. Natalie is a 23-year old graduate from Cornell, who is all set to revolutionize the way firing is done, by bringing in ideas like using Remote Access Video Conferencing to lay-off people and having set of instructions, almost an algorithm to inform people about their lay-off.

Being the big-fish in town, Ryan obviously doesn’t like the changes and he takes Natalie with him “on-the-road” so that she understands the need for the human presence when the axe is lowered. The idea is to explain to Natalie, that the way she treats this business makes it seem like a presumed human resource expert, who follows a set of instructions and has no grasp of the human character. On the other hand, Ryan fires people sitting face to face, with a smile on his face, and sometimes even giving a pat at the back of the employee being downsized, doesn’t hurt the person on the other side of the table as much. In fact, he even tries at times to make the person realize that it is a blessing-in-disguise and they should look forward for tomorrow, with renewed hope and energy. It is this journey in which, while teaching Natalie the emotional side of the job; that Ryan figures out a lot about himself. For the first time, he understands the importance of family and friends in life.

The story also takes a slight romantic twist when Ryan meets Alex (Vera Farmiga), who is also a high-flying executive and probably as mile-hungry as him. Their perception of life and definition of relationships though seem to be inhumane to most of us, are perfect for each other, and thus this adds a new chapter in the story.

The movie also shows Ryan as a public speaker, who takes sessions on explaining people how to work and how to fly. He comes up with this theory of packing the life in a single back-pack. The idea he lives by is that the higher the luggage, the slower you will be able to move. He goes on to say that emotional baggage is also a baggage, and carrying it will slow you down in life. As he says, "The slower we move, the faster we die."

Final Verdict:

To put it in short, this is a movie about Ryan, a downsizing expert, whose everyday brushes with people to be fired, their anguish and despair have left him falsely compassionate, living out of suitcase and loving every second of it, trying to protect his way of life from the prying eyes of Natalie, who wants to ground him by using Remote Access to do the job instead. And yet, the genre of the movie is comedy, in spite of all the layoffs and the depression the movie talks about.

Though the movie is not completely flawless, the movie comes with a beautiful message portraying the impact of lay off in the life of a person, but more importantly, the part, when in the post-layoff counseling, most of the people who were given the pink slip, speak up about the support and understanding of their families and friends, due to which they could sail over the trauma.

All in all, Up in the Air, is definitely a good watch, for the beautiful handling of a sensitive topic, which brings us closer to ourselves. By any chance, if you are going to travel by an International Airlines like Emirates, which give you a choice of movies to be watched, “Up in the Air” should definitely top the list of the movies to be watched while you are up in the air.

My Name is Khan - Review of A Highly Awaited Movie

Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Kajol, Jimmy Shergill, Zarina Waha

Director: Karan Johar

Overall Rating: 8.0/10.0 (A movie which is definitely worth a watch)

“My name is Khan” was one of the most awaited films in the year 2010. For anyone who saw the trailer, the base of the storyline seems clear, whatever be the issues, questions about national and religious identities, lack of support from near and dear ones or not completely sound mental state, what Rizwan Khan (Shahrukh Khan) wants to convey to people divided with prejudices and the racist behavior unfolding in the United States as an aftermath of 9/11 is that, “My name is Khan, and I am not a Terrorist.”

The story starts with Rizwan Khan as a kid in the slums of Mumbai, who is suffering from a medical condition called Asperger’s syndrome. This condition causes him to have fear of new places, feeling of insecurity when in crowded places, hyper-sensitive to loud sounds and scared of bright colors like yellow. He also cannot easily communicate his feelings, and he can view the world factually, but not emotionally. Nevertheless he is a genius when it comes to brain-power and becomes popular in his mohallah (locality) since he can fix almost all electronics. Being specially-abled, results him in getting more of his mother’s attention, which leads to sibling jealousy and rivalry with his younger brother. (Jimmy Shergil)

The story moves on and years later, when his mother dies, Rizwan moves to the United States, with his brother, who then ushers him into the business of selling beauty products. Though he is afraid of new places, let alone new people, Rizwan battles on in this new phase of his life as a salesman. This is when he meets Mandeera (Kajol ), who is a hair stylist at one of the beauty parlors where he goes to sell the beauty products. Mandeera is a Hindu by religion, and also a single mother, whose husband left her and eloped with another woman when she was 22. The first half of the movie moves on in this phase, with Rizwan trying to woo over Mandeera in his “normal” way asking her to marry him. Finally, the movie reaches its peak of happiness when Mandeera marries Rizwan and even Sam (Mandeera’a son) becomes Rizwan’s best friend.

Then comes the next era, which as Rizwan puts it is the third era. The first is BC, the second is AD and the third is Post-9/11 era. The United States goes in frenzy and Rizwan’s Dream-world is shattered. His son and “only-best friend” Sam becomes a victim of a racist attack, because he shares the last name “Khan” from Rizwan Khan. In a state of shock, Mandeera accuses Rizwan for being a part of her world and asks him to meet the President of United States and convey to him the message that, he is a muslim and not all muslims are terrorists. The rest of the movie conveys parts and pieces this journey, with its highs and lows, of this differently-abled common-man wanting to meet the President against all odds.

Not wanting to have any spoilers, I am avoiding the risk of spilling more information about the story. However, the movie has some wonderful incidents and witty one-liners. It contains even aspects like Presidential change from George Bush to Barack Obama, but most of all, it shows us a glimpse of the post-9/11 United States, where saying Allah in a public place is as good as committing a crime and uttering the word terrorist and having a last name “Khan” is proof enough to lock you up for interrogation without giving you legal rights. But the wonderful aspect of the movie is the fact that Rizwan sticks to his goodliness, which has become a part of his character from his mother’s teaching.

For me, the highest point in the movie is that part when Hindu-Muslim riots were on in the city and young Rizwan enters home reiterating what the people outside were saying about Hindus being bad and should be killed, his mother, draws 2 stick figures, one with a stick and another with a lollipop and asks Rizwan which stick figure is good and which is bad. When Rizwan says the one with stick is bad and one with lollipop is good, she asks which of the stick figures is a Hindu and which it is a Muslim? When young Rizwan is unable to tell the difference, she says, the only division this world has among people is that there are good people and there are bad people. There is no other way to divide people like caste, creed or color, everything boils down to just “good people” and “bad people”. This is one thing that sticks together with Rizwan, and when he is on his quest to meet the President, and cannot do it at a Presidential fund-raiser, since it is open to Christians only, he leaves back his $ 500, which he gathered for his event and says, “Keep the money, it is for the people in Africa, who are not Christians”.

Final Verdict:

This movie sees the trio of Karan Johar, Shahrukh Khan and Kajol in an area of Cinema, where they have never ventured before as a team. Shahrukh does really well to move out of his normal chocolate-boy roles, but in some parts of the movie, the transition doesn’t seem to be complete, however, it is a meaty role which is played well. Kajol plays her part pretty well, and Shankar Ehsan Loy music add wonderful sound tracks taking the movie to the next level.

To be honest, this is not a movie without flaws, and yet it is a wonderful watch irrespective of its shortcomings. I felt the movie was about 20 minutes long, and it could have been shortened in some places to make it more compact and more effective. However, the characters, their struggles and the realities they face live with you even when you walk out of the theatre hall. The broad mindedness and the tolerance that the movie resonates with is a necessary lesson for every citizen in our small-globalized world.

And in a lighter vein, due to the confusion in the city of Mumbai for the release of this movie, since Shahrukh made some statements about Pakistani players not being a part of the 3rd Indian Premier League, which the Shiv Sena did not quite approve, probably the next quest for Shahrukh would be to meet Bal Thakrey and tell him, “My name is Khan and I am not an Unpatriotic Indian”.