Karthik Calling Karthik

<p>Karthik Narayan ( ) is an introvert who lacks self-confidence, and feels trapped in his average and probably underpaid job at a company owned by Mr. Kamath ( ) in . He is undergoing medical treatment from a , Dr. Shweta Kapadia ( ), for being continuously troubled by an incident from his childhood: Karthik’s older brother, Kumar, used to always torture him, but whenever he complained to his parents, they refused to believe him. One day, Kumar took Karthik to a and attempted to throw him inside it, but Karthik managed to escape, while Kumar accidentally fell inside the well and died. Karthik has been blaming himself for his brother’s death ever since. Shonali Mukherjee ( ) is a co-worker at Karthik’s company, whom Karthik secretly loves though she remains unaware of his existence, much less his feelings. The day after Karthik purchases a new as his , Mr. Kamath ruthlessly berates him in front of all his colleagues and fires him from his job due to a petty misunderstanding. As a result, Karthik becomes depressed, isolates himself in his house for several days, and eventually figures out that his life cannot become any worse and decides to commit suicide. However, just as he is about to do so, Karthik receives a on his landline from a mysterious , who has the same, exact voice as his and states that he himself is also “Karthik”, and convinces him that he has the ability to change his life. These phone calls become Karthik’s life guide and their phonic conversations take place daily at 5:00 am sharp. The mysterious caller provides advice on all the problems of Karthik, successfully guiding him to get freed from his guilt of killing Kumar, confront Mr. Kamath and gain the job of a manager in his company, win Shonali’s heart, and bring colour to his otherwise dull life. However, things take a drastic turn when Karthik informs both Shonali and Dr. Kapadia about the phone calls, despite being strictly warned not to do so by the mysterious caller. As a result, the mysterious caller turns furious and threatens Karthik that if he could bring him up, he could also bring him down. As per his word, things begin going downhill. Mr. Kamath fires him from his new job as well, a heartbroken Shonali dumps him, and Karthik ends up with zero bank balance, all due to misunderstandings deliberately created by the mysterious caller. Unable to bear it anymore, Karthik decides that if he escapes somewhere he does not know, then the mysterious caller would not know where he is either. He sells all his valuables, travels by a to an unknown city in , seeks refuge in a small hotel, and asks the to remove the telephone as well as room number plate from his room. After a few months, Karthik is comfortably residing in with a decent new job. His life is back to normal except for the fact that he refuses to have a . However, he is forced to purchase a landline on the request of his new employer ( ). This time, Karthik purchases the same telephone he used to receive the phone calls on, and goes to great lengths to ensure that he himself is unaware of the . Meanwhile, Dr. Kapadia meets with Shonali in Mumbai and reveals the shocking : Karthik is actually the patient of as well a , two characterised by and failure to understand . He has been suffering from this condition since a very young age, when he made up an imaginary older brother named Kumar (which is why his parents never believed him). Moreover, the mysterious caller was none other than Karthik himself as he exhibits an that is more assertive and advises him on how to live life. Karthik’s telephone has the unique feature to record and replay them at a scheduled time. Karthik would wake up in the middle of each night, record voice messages for himself as his alter ego, and return to sleep, only to awake once again at 5:00 am to receive his own “phone calls”. After learning this, Shonali realises that Karthik’s life might be in danger and immediately leaves for Cochin to save him. Elsewhere, Karthik leaves himself a new voice message as his alter ago, in which the “caller” states that he has tracked Karthik down to Cochin and threatens to kill him. After receiving the voice message, Karthik becomes so disturbed that he by drug overdose again. However, Shonali arrives at the right time to save him, and they reconcile with she deciding to help him with his condition. After a few days, Karthik is apparently in the process of dealing with his disorder and lives a happy and rehabilitated life with both Shonali and Dr. Kapadia by his side. In an effort to prepare for his role as the introvert loner Karthik, Farhan Akhtar isolated himself at home and turned off his phone. He also learned to solve the , an activity which his character completes in only one try. The film received positive reviews from critics. On the website , 80% of 5 critics’ reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. of rated the movie 3.5/5 stars, calling it “immensely watchable, purely for the class act by Farhan Akhtar in the title role” and recommending it to those who are in the mood for serious cinema. Shweta Parande of gave a rating of 3.5 out of 5, applauding the cast and crew for their performances and their efforts on building up the story as a team. of gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and wrote, “This one’s clearly not a formula film. It isn’t merely suspense for most parts either. It’s the kind of thriller that practically every Bollywood B, or big budget, genre flick aspires for.” of gave it 2.5 out of 5 stars and stated that “it isn’t a bad film, but it isn’t very good either”. of gave the film 2.5 out of 5, calling it “a decent product with an unconvincing conclusion”. of gave the film a 2.5/5 rating, praising for his versatility, while simultaneously criticizing for not being able to “hold a single scene on her own”. The soundtrack of the film is composed by with lyrics penned by . The album was released on 20 February 2010. Though the album did not get favorable critical reviews, the track ” ” created waves and topped the charts numerous times in the following months. At the box office, the music had an impact in the opening of the film, as it got a bigger opening than its competitor . Before the album got released, an online copy was leaked onto the Internet. Farhan Akhtar confirmed this and requested people to not download it illegally. 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