Karthik Calling Karthik

I think it’s very tough to look at movies in isolation without comparing them to the world cinema one has seen and is aware of. But also sometimes given the context of a particular culture\country\industry we should look at movies in a limiting context.

Given that background if I look at KCK reducing the universe only to Bollywood (and not even the extremely vast reserves of regional cinema India has), the movie is impressive. Farhan Akhtar manages the transition from an invisible loser in life to a high flying yuppie quite well. The movie does have a suspense element which the director has successfully carried throughout the film almost till the end. You don’t realize how quickly the harmless phone transitions to an object of terror. The movie is quite crisp. And though it’s the story of the man “Karthik” the love angle with Deepika has been woven without stretching it or giving it more shades then required.

The role suits Farhan and he has played it without melodrama. Deepika on the other hand has all of two expressions in her acting repertoire. She does compensate it with the fact that she looks pleasantly gorgeous and looks good no matter what she adorns.

While the editing is crisp and almost manages nail-biting suspense at one or two places, it does have a few stereotypes. The depiction of the therapist for one is very Freudian and kitsch and could have done with some research. I wish the director had actually met a shrink and observed how she functions. Another disappointment is that I doubt if people associated with the movie even understood the details of what entails a mental disorder. What is schizophrenia or MPD? What are the symptoms? How it manifests itself in a person? I wish the script writer and the actress playing the shrink had bothered just “googling” it – it would have taken the film to a different level itself.