Karthik Calling Karthik

A phone call can change everything!!
Well, the tag line of Karthik Calling Karthik (KCK) created a lot of curiosity… going by the kind of movies that Farhan has made or acted in, was actually expecting a path breaking movie, but alas…. It’s like all good things come to an end.
Movie starts with a dorky Karthik Narayan (Farhan Akhtar) who is overburdened and treated as much like a wallflower, but the sunflower of his life, Shonali Mukherjee (Deepika Padukone) gives him reason to live. He composes mails everyday to her but does not have the guts to hit the all important “send” button. And it takes a while in the movie before you figure out her job profile, cos she dresses like a socialite, waltzes into work cheerily at 1 pm and wishes “good morning”. I kept thinking she was the EA or the PR person till it gets revealed that she’s an architect. She spends more time on her clothes and smoking than on the blue prints. Plus she has a cute affair with office hottie (Vivan Bathena – he was Abhimanyu Singh in Chak De India).
How does he spend time after work? Visits a psychiatrist to help him get over his guilt ridden childhood. And then one fine night rather, he decides to end his life, with a huge bottle of pills and then the phone rings…… which really changed the narration of the story. The call becomes a pep-up pill, acting like a guardian angel, giving him advice to stand up for himself and get what he deserves. Soon, wardrobe revamp, glasses are off, gets a new bike and of course Shonali after a lot of pleading and begging for a cuppa. Well all’s well in paradise, until he decides on being honest… since when did honesty in a relationship make things easy thereafter???
And then the rigmarole of his mental disorder, the break up and his decision to start life all over again takes you thru the 2nd half. And then the lovers re-unite… how predictable!!
Some of the stuff at the start is really funny: the bad boss, the persistent landlord, having coffee in Khandala, the new –improved version of Farhan. The song “Uff teri Adaa” is a peppy number while “Hey ya” has good vocals
What sucks: the exaggeration in the 2nd half, Deepika doing similar roles of the independent new-age woman who scars herself in relationships (Bachna Ae Haseeno, Love Aaj Kal, KCK) and yet foes back to the guy…
My verdict: Maybe a one-time watch for Farhan Akhtar fans.