Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5) 1pondo 061017538 Exclusive Direct
Is it perfect? No. The middle act drags slightly, and the romantic subplot with Deepika, while sweet, feels like a commercial break from the psychological tension. However, the climax lands the plane with a surprising amount of emotional weight. It leaves you questioning the nature of sanity and the lengths we go to escape our own loneliness. Slate Digital Fresh Air [BEST]
This is where the movie separates itself from the standard Bollywood fare. It isn’t a ghost story. It isn’t a simple revenge tale. It’s a journey into the fractured psyche of a man who decides to coach himself into success. The "Other Karthik" is confident, charming, and dangerous—the id to Karthik’s superego. Watching the transformation from a stammering mess to a suave, bourbon-sipping success story is incredibly satisfying, mostly due to Farhan Akhtar’s grounded performance. He doesn't play it over-the-top; he plays it like a man terrified of his own power.
There are two kinds of Bollywood thrillers: the ones that scream their plot twists from the trailer, and the ones that creep up on you like a shadow in an empty room. Karthik Calling Karthik belongs firmly in the latter category. If you’ve just navigated the wild west of "vegamovies" links to land on this film, congratulations—you’ve just cashed in your bandwidth for one of the most underrated psychological thrillers of the 2010s.