Random Musings

It seemed like 4 good movies had released this weekend, two in Hindi and two in English. Soon we started hearing so-so reviews of Teen Patti and decent reviews of Karthik Calling Karthik.

So having come back from the sale at Shoppers Stop, and the wife having got her new Bausch and Lomb lenses, as we were contemplating getting the walls repainted with Asian Paints Royal Touch paints, we decided to go ahead and see Karthik Calling Karthik after all.

The titles gave hope. The great combination of Farhan Akhtar, Javed Akhtar, Shankar Ehsan Loy was together again, and that should be good. Once the film started, one of the first things I noticed was the Rubik’s cube. In fact, the cube had a big part in the story, after all! Without any dialogues of course.

Realized that Rubik’s cube seems to be the new “k” symbof for the film industry. The way, Sunita Menon had got everyone starting projects with letter ‘k’, it appears that everyone is now inclined to have a Rubik’s cube in the scene, perhaps for luck. Aamir had it in 3 Idiots, and we know how big that film went. Then Shah Rukh Khan had it with him in MNIK. If claims are to be believed, that one has also gone some distance.

Farhan must have thought that the cube will rescue him too. Unfortunately, the link has been broken now. The cube did not work, after all!

By the way, on the first Sunday for the film, at a prime time show, the theatre was just about 20% full. So business is down, for sure. And the film showed the reason why.

The first half actually was quite breezy. The rising up of the underdog, and his becoming a hero. Usually an entire film is devoted to a story of this type. As I sat and saw the story fly in that first half, that was exactly the question in my mind. What will happen now? The story is already at a point of “happily ever after”. Now what could happen?

As it turned out, not much happened anyway, after the break. The story meandered into some incredulous areas, and it was a dull and boring part most of that second half. Irrespective of where the story went, the subject line was not that gripping to hold the audience’s attention on that one tiny thread, for so long. The end was also quite lame, after all.

So what is the judgement after all? The film is ordinary. The first half is still fine. Quite breezy. Some good banter, in terms of smart dialogues. Decent performances by Farhan and the ravishing Deepika. That’s it, though.

If you must see a Hindi film this weekend, this should still be better than Teen Patti. So go see it. And if you can do without your weekly dose of Hindi films, you will be fine giving this one a skip too.

Oh, even though the phone was an integral part of the story, no telecom brand would have liked to associate. If anything, the film would have led to reduced call usage, and led to lower ARPUs for the telecom brands.

Take care.. Regards – sanjay