Review : Karam

Karam is the directorial debut of cinematographer Sanjay F. Gupta. That’s probably why the film unfolds like a slickly made music video. Good technique if it was meant to be a one-song video, not so good for a feature film. The pace is slow, and doesn’t build up to the climax scenes.John (Abraham) and Shalini (Chopra) are husband-wife, she a nightclub singer, he a contract killer. He works for the “Captain” (Dabholkar), a mafia boss. On a killing mission, a child accidentally gets killed along with her parents. Aghast and repentant at having engineered a child’s death, John decides to give up killing. Meanwhile the Captain has been attacked by another rival Yunus (Vishwajeet Pradhan), and decides to retaliate using John’s marksmanship. When John demurs, the Captain kidnaps Shalini, in order to make John do his bidding.

Now John must kill 5 targets in 36 hours to save Shalini’s life, all the while dodging the persistent police Inspector Wagh (Shiney Ahuja), who is on his tail. Does he succeed ?

The film fails becuase it relies more on its presentation, than plotline or execution. Neither the acting, nor dialogues are on par with the visual imagery on screen. The stylish and overdone visual treatment of the film, also brings glaringly into focus the other underdone facets of the film. Acting is poor, with John wooden, and Priyanka displaying her extremely limited acting skills. The supporting cast isn’t, except maybe Shiney Ahuja. The film fails to hold the viewer engrossed, etching out characters unconvincingly. Like other industry thrillers, this one takes a break from reality and the laws of gravity in the action scenes.

What is beautifully done are the frame compositions. Some shots are done in sepia, and some in the begining, are done in what can be best described as B & W rendering animation (if you’ve seen “Kill Bill” or the old A-ha “Take on me” music video, you know what I mean). The director beautifully mixes B & W with color in some shots. However, just presentation does not a good film make. Gupta attempts to learn this the hard way.

Music is good, with “Tinka tinka” and “Tera hi karam” hauntingly melodious. With the sudden spate of “gangsta” films in Bollywood, this is one more, and not a good one at that.