Karthik Calling Karthik

Karthik Calling Karthik
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vijay Lalwani
Produced by	Farhan Akhtar Ritesh Sidhwani
Screenplay by	Vijay Lalwani
Starring	Farhan Akhtar Deepika Padukone Ram Kapoor Shefali Shah Vipin Sharma
Music by	Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Cinematography	Sanu Varghese
Editing by	Aarti Bajaj
Studio	Excel Entertainment
Distributed by	Reliance Big Pictures
Release dates	26 February 2010 (2010-02-26)
Running time	135 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Karthik Calling Karthik is a 2010 Indian psychological thriller film, written and directed by Vijay Lalwani and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under the banner of Excel Entertainment and Reliance Big Pictures. The film stars Farhan Akhtar and Deepika Padukone in lead roles. Ram Kapoor and Shefali Shah play supporting roles in the film. The film's music was composed by the trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, while the background score was composed by MIDIval Punditz and Karsh Kale.

Plot

Karthik (Farhan Akhtar) is an introvert who lacks confidence and feels trapped in his average job at a construction company. He is continuously troubled by an incident from his childhood: His older brother, Kumar, used to torture him, but whenever he complained to his parents, they did not believe him. One day, Kumar took Karthik to a well and tried to throw him in it, but Karthik escaped. Kumar accidentally fell inside the well and died. Karthik has thought himself responsible for his brother's death ever since.

Shonali Mukherjee (Deepika Padukone) is a co-worker at Karthik's company, whom Karthik is secretly in love with, though she remains unaware of his existence, much less his feelings. After being derided by his boss yet again, Karthik figures his life can’t get any better and decides to commit suicide. Just as he is about to, a stranger with the same, exact voice as him calls and says that he is also Karthik, convincing him that he has the ability to change his life. These phone calls become Karthik's life guide. His chats take place every morning at 5:00 a.m. and the caller provides advice on Karthik's problems, guiding him to become a successful man, win Shonali's heart, and bring color to his otherwise dreary life.

However, when Karthik tells Shonali and his psychiatrist about the phone calls, despite being warned not to, the mysterious caller gets angry and tells Karthik that if he could bring him up, he could also throw him down. As per his word, things start going downhill. Karthik's boss throws him out and Shonali leaves him. Karthik decides that if he goes somewhere he does not know, then the caller wouldn't know where he is either and stop calling him. Karthik travels to an unknown place, takes shelter in a small hotel, and asks the receptionist to remove the telephone and room number plate.

After a few months, Karthik is comfortably living in Cochin with a decent job. His life is back to normal except for the fact that he refuses to have a phone line. Upon his boss's request, he is forced to purchase a landline. He goes to great lengths to ensure that he himself is unaware of the phone number. However, one day at exactly 5 a.m, he receives a call from the mysterious caller, who threatens to kill him. Meanwhile, Shonali is contacted by Dr. Kapadia, who reveals the twist: Karthik is actually schizophrenic. He has an alter-ego that is more assertive and advises him on how to live life. All this time, the strange caller was Karthik himself. He has been dealing with this condition from a young age, when he created a fake brother named Kumar. Karthik's phone has the capacity to record messages and act as a playback feature at a certain time. Karthik would wake up in the middle of the night, leave himself messages as his alter ego, and return to sleep, where he would awake once again at 5am to take his own calls.

Eventually, Karthik becomes so disturbed that he attempts to commit suicide again. Shonali, realizing the truth, arrives at the right time to save him. They reconcile and she stands by him, helping him with his condition. After a few months, Karthik is in the process of dealing with his schizophrenia and lives a happy and rehabilitated life with Shonali by his side.

Cast

• Farhan Akhtar as Karthik
• Deepika Padukone as Shonali Mukherjee
• Ram Kapoor as Mr. Kamath
• Shefali Chhaya as Mrs. Kapadia
• Vivan Bhatena as Ashish
• Vipin Sharma as Karthik's Landlord
• Yatin Karyekar
• Siddhartha Gupta as Young Karthik
• Swapnel Desai as Young Kumar
• Kanchan Pagare as Peon at ACL Office
• Haansaa as Secretary at ACL Office
• Abhay Joshi as Phone salesman Mumbai
• Brijendra Kala as Telephone exchange clerk

Production

In an effort to prepare for his role as loner introvert Karthik, Farhan Akhtar isolated himself at home and school and turned off his phone.^[1] He also learned to solve the Rubik's Cube, an activity which his character completes in only one try.^[2]

Release

Critical reception

On the review-aggregation website ReviewGang, the film scored 5.5/10 based on 11 reviews.^[3] Film critic Rajeev Masand gave the film 2 out of 5 possible stars. Nikhat Kazmi of Times of India rated it 3.5 out of 5, calling it "immensely watchable, purely for the class act by Farhan Akhtar in the title role".^[4] Shweta Parande of IBNLive.com 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.^[5] IndiaGlitz gave a 3 out of 5, concluding "Go but with an open mind."^[6]

Box Office

Karthik Calling Karthik was a declared a below average, netting 26.5 million (US$420,000) at the end of its run.^[7] The movie grossed 267.5 million (US$4.3 million) and collected a distributor share of 86.4 million (US$1.4 million).^[8]

Soundtrack

Karthik Calling Karthik
Soundtrack album by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Released	26 February 2010
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
Label	T-Series
Producer	Farhan Akhtar, Ritesh Sidhwani
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy chronology
My Name Is Khan (2010) Karthik Calling Karthik (2010) Hum Tum Aur Ghost (2010)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Planet Bollywood	[9]
Glamsham	[10]
Starboxoffice	[11]
Yahoo! Movies	[12]
Music Aloud	[13]

The soundtrack of the film is composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy with lyrics penned by Javed Akhtar. The album was released on 20 February 2010.^[14]

Though the album did not get favorable critical response, the track "Uff Teri Adaa" created waves^[15] and topped the charts numerous times in the following months.^[16] At the box office, music had an impact in the opening of the film, as it got bigger opening than its competitor Teen Patti.^[17]

Before the album got released, an online copy was leaked onto the Internet. Farhan Akhtar confirmed this and requested not to download them illegally.^[18]

Track listing

Awards and nominations

2011 Zee Cine Awards

Nominated^[19]

• Best Music - Shankar Ehsaan Loy

2011 IIFA Awards

Nominated^[20]

• Best Male Playback Singer - Shankar Mahadevan

2011 Star Screen Awards

Nominated^[21]

• Best Music - Shankar Ehsaan Loy

References

External links

• Official website
• Karthik Calling Karthik at the Internet Movie Database