Karam is a sloppy attempt to make a Hollywoodish Hindi movie out of a story that has been tried many times in Bollywood.
Making a good film requires much more than just the command over the technique of the art. And the director of Karam, being a cinematographer, may be an accomplished technician who can embellish his work with some impressive visuals, but he certainly is a poor director.
Sanjay F. Gupta relies too heavily on style - stylistic camera movements, portions shot in black and white and some sequences in sepia and amber tints. But he pays no attention to the delineation of characters in the story, to bring out their subtle shades and lend inner layers to the narrative.
Rather, attention is paid to make John Abraham look spunky and stylish, to make the action scenes “breathtaking” with Matrix-like stunts that defy the very physical laws of nature and gravity.
The film tells the tale of an assassin, John (John Abraham), a cold-blooded hitman who kills without as much a blink of his eye. He is a pawn in the dirty games of his boss Captain. Captain tells him to bump people off and he does it without asking questions.
But one day, when John kills an entire family, his conscience is stirred as he looks into the eyes of a young girl dying. Then on, he decides to change his ways and find a new life with his wife Shalini (Priyanka Chopra).
However, fate has something else in store for our hero. His boss Captain faces life threat from his rival Yunus. He asks John to kill Yunus and his associates, including an industrialist, a film producer and a cop. But John has given up killing people.
Captain kidnaps John's wife Shalini and blackmails him to kill Yunus and three others.
How John fights his way through this situation and pays back for his karmic actions is what the rest of the movie is about.
Karam begins on a promising note and grips your attention. But then, as soon as it dawns upon you that the director intends to show you nothing more than his skill and style, you recline back and compensate yourself in the mind for the money wasted on the ticket and time wasted on the movie.
Karam would undoubtedly have fallen flat had it not been for John Abraham who not only looks dashing but also plays his role with élan, bringing out a convincing transition in his character from a desensitized killer to a man with a repentant heart.
But John should take care not to get typecast in such roles.
Priyanka Chopra too does a fine job although her character in the film could have been developed better.
In a nutshell, Karam is meant for such viewers who dig style but not substance, pace but not depth, beautification of form but not the richness of content.
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