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.