Karam movie review: Vineeth Sreenivasan film is let down by extremely shoddy writing

After a sudden move that he made without listening to his superior during a very important military operation backfired, Army officer Dev Mahendran (Noble Babu Thomas) is court-martialed and sacked from the force. For the dedicated officer, who often sacrificed his personal relationships and happiness for his job, this is a major blow. Nonetheless, he tries to gain a new lease on life as he reconciles with his girlfriend, Sana (Audrey Miriam), and they decide to start afresh, much against the opinion of her family. Meanwhile, Sana, while with Dev, gets into an accident that leaves her paralysed. Her family takes their fury out on Dev and throws him out of her life entirely. Fast forward a few years, and Dev is now married with a son. One day, the family travels to Lenarco (a fictional place portrayed to be located in Georgia) for Dev’s wife Tara’s (Reshma Sebastian) official conference. In the city, he chances upon Sana at a bar, where she has been forced into sex work after being trafficked by some miscreants following her recovery from paralysis. Heartbroken, Dev decides to save her. However, the club is owned by André Nicola, who has too many connections. The rest of the film follows their efforts to escape the mess they’ve been dragged into.

Although Karam opens impressively with a well-shot shootout scene, it also offers early glimpses of what awaits us over the next two hours: a series of unpolished and stilted dialogues that leave us with expressions of bafflement throughout. The biggest, or most obvious, shortcoming of Karam is its extremely shoddy writing. Like a ripple effect, its repercussions are evident across the movie, with even its technical grandeur getting overshadowed as a result. After Noble, who has also penned the film, introduces us to the subpar dialogues, he wastes no time in showing that even the individual incidents and the larger picture they create lack depth or subtlety and are hastily handled. Although it’s evident that Noble has attempted minimalism at certain junctures — avoiding over-explanations and trying to use single impactful shots/scenes/lines to convey important details and emotions — this intention never fully translates into his script.

For instance, early on, we see a flashback scene showing one of Dev’s childhood conversations with his late mother. The words that she speaks here and the bond that ought to be established are integral to the entire narrative, as they set the tone for Karam. However, the writing falters big time, robbing this moment of any emotional weight. Worse still, Vineeth’s direction also never manages to compensate for the narrative shortcoming here — or anywhere else in the movie.

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After establishing the concept of Rece Boga (The Hand of God), Karam conveniently taps into this theme and utilises coincidences far too often, further highlighting the shoddiness in Noble’s writing. Not only is Dev “coincidentally” an ex-Army officer, justifying all the action sequences, but Tara’s conference is “coincidentally” set in Lenarco, where Sana currently is. One night, he “coincidentally” walks into a bar exactly below which is the club where Sana has been forced into sex work. Although there are many other customers at the bar, the club’s manager “coincidentally” chooses Dev to be lured into the club below. There, he meets Sana “coincidentally” because she doesn’t have any customers at that moment. As his mission begins, even his tour guide Kamal (Kalabhavan Shajohn) “coincidentally” agrees to put his life on the line to help Dev. Although they manage to rescue her, Andre’s people start hunting for all of them. But fret not; Dev’s got backup since his father Mahendran’s (Manoj K Jayan) ex-girlfriend Nandita Bose (Shweta Menon) is, in the biggest of “coincidences,” the External Affairs Minister of India. If only our lives were filled with this many coincidences…

Almost equally deplorable as the emotional aspects in the script and the dialogues is the forced comedy track introduced through the out-of-place character Rosario (Baburaj) in André’s gang. Rosario’s one-liners and fumbles are not only unfunny but also detract from the film’s overall tone. Even the observational “joke” surrounding Malayalees’ obsession with Dolo 650 tablets, which could have worked well given its relatability, falls flat simply because it arrives too abruptly in the middle of a nail-biting moment. This is particularly frustrating since humour wasn’t part of the movie’s narrative until well into the second half, making it seem forced. Had the script been more effective in establishing at least the characters quickly and impactfully, all of this could have turned in Karam’s favour.

Although “ex-Army officers who left — or were forced to leave — the force for not playing by the rules and taking up a fresh mission years later” isn’t a new archetype in Indian cinema, such characters resonate with audiences quickly because of people’s blind devotion to uniformed personnel. Add in atrocities against women and a damsel in distress, a significant section of Indian audiences (particularly men) will go crazy, no matter how clichéd these tropes are. However, Karam fails to utilise even these elements effectively, as the technical finesse is completely lacking in the creative side.

Despite Noble having the advantage of not being a star, which allowed him to explore the character more, his handling of Dev — both as a writer and actor — is unimpressive. Even in the few moments of elevation, he fails to bring strength to the character. His dialogue delivery, stripped of emotion despite the character’s apparent depth, often made me wonder if he mistook the shoot for a table read.

Noble Babu Thomas, Reshma Sebastian and Nazhan Bin Najmal in Karam. (Credit: Facebook/@official.vineethsreenivasan)

Also Vineeth Sreenivasan, who the hell was this Umaid Bin Shah, “the most wanted militant,” that your characters talked about multiple times in the movie, starting from the opening sequence itself? Why was his name introduced to us?

Amid all these, Jomon T John’s spectacular cinematography and Ranjan Abraham’s astounding editing save Karam to some extent. Without resorting to stock aesthetics for convenience, Jomon captures the different shades of the city well, almost making Lenarco feel real. Jomon and Ranjan’s works shine brightest in sequences set in confined environments. Even a few stunts were impressively featured in such settings. Colourist Srik Varier also deserves praise for his contributions.

While every action sequence has a few seconds where both the visualisation and choreography shine — such as the 360-degree shot inside a kitchen in the second half of the movie — these moments fizzle out almost immediately, leaving us wondering what went wrong.

If there’s anything that has backfired as much as Noble’s writing and Vineeth’s direction, it’s Shaan Rahman’s music. Although the songs are good, the background scores fail to do justice to the movie, and their overt use at several junctures has drained Karam of the few qualities it possessed. There are several moments where the actions and dialogues are overshadowed by the music, leading to irritation. Vineeth’s inability to distinguish between moments that require music and those that call for silence is also to blame.

Karam movie cast: Noble Babu Thomas, Ivan Vukomanovic, Reshma Sebastian, Audrey Miriam,  Manoj K Jayan, Kalabhavan Shajohn, Baburaj, Johny Antony, Shwetha Menon
Karam movie director: Vineeth Sreenivasan
Karam movie rating: 1 star

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