STARRING

Farhan Akhtar, Deepika Padukone, Ram Kapoor, Shefali Shah and others.


DIRECTION

Vijay Lalwani

STORY

The story of the flick revolves around an introvert person Karthik (Farhan Akhtar), who believes himself to be loser after being shabbily treated by one and all in office and other places. He is unable to express himself properly to even his girlfriend Shonali Mukherjee, who works in the same office.

However, a phone call changes everything in his life after the voice introduces itself to be Karthik and wants Karthik to follow his instructions to make his life better.

Karthik Narayan, as Karthik is generally known to people, did not have any confidence to put forth his ideas or fight for his causes. However, it all changes once he starts following the instructions from phone.

The phone call instructions changes Karthik’s life so much that Shonali becomes his friend and does not mind spending some quality time with him. This confidence gives self respect back to Karthik.

What happens to his love story with Shonali is revealed in the later part of the flick.


PERFORMANCE


Farhan Akhtar, who plays the part of introverted Karthik Narayan, comes out with a brilliant performance in the film. He has successfully enacted the three different nuances of the character of Karthik and comes out as absolute winner in the acting department.

However, the last avatar of Karthik when he retreats into his cell once again proves to undoing of the film. Even the climax sequence seems unconvincing and does not add much to the film. But, Farhan’s chemistry with co- star Deepika Padukone is terrific and it comes out beautifully on the celluloid.

Deepika Padukone, the leggy beauty of bollywood who plays Farhan’s love interest in the film Sonia Mukherjee, looks stunningly beautiful. She is natural to the core in playing the bindas character of an upwardly mobile girl. After her performance in ‘Love Aaj Kal’, Deepika seems to be in her elements once again.

But her role is relatively shorter and she could have easily provided the audiences respite from this serious stuff, had she been around for a longer period. In fact, Deepika Padukone’s bubbly character makes the movie work for hoi polloi.

Ram Kapoor, who is currently hosting Rahul Mahajan’ show on television, has acted well in his part. Even Shefali Shah does well and provides excellent support to the main cast of the flick. Others like Yatin Karyekar, Tarana, Vipin Sharma etc provide good support to the film.

The direction of Vijay Lalwani shows spark but fails to take the film to its logical conclusion. In fact, the second half is not only slow but also climax seems out of tune with the feel of the movie.

The music by Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy is excellent and already a rage with the audiences. ‘Ufff Teri Adaa’ number has already been making waves among the audience and should help the flick at the box office. Sanu John Varughese’s cinematography is good and adds value to the project. Other production values are good.


STARDUST VERDICT


Despite of Farhan Akhtar’s towering performance and Deepika Padukone providing the glamour quotient to the flick, the movie drags in the second half. The whole venture may attract  some sections of Gen X towards multiplexes but aam janta is unlikely to come for  Karthik calling Karthik. An average fare at the box office.