Karam Review

Karam is a report on the life of a contract killer who finds out the hard way what Lord Krishna discovered so many centuries ago and sang a full-length highly-publicized song about: that what you do comes back to you. It's surprising how many people decide to reinvent the wheel and then have a whole movie made documenting their efforts.

So John (John Abraham) will like kill for money. This is the complete price chart:

Basic Hit Between The Eyes: Rs. 50,000

3 Extra Confirmation Bullets: Rs. 5,000
Body Delivery To Your Doorstep: Rs. 10,000

Making It Look Like Your Enemy Did It: Rs. 25,000
Making It Look Like Your Friend Did It: Rs.25,000
Making It Look Like You Did It: Rs. 15,000

Making It Appear Like A Suicide: Rs. 25,000
Making Victim Actually Write Suicide Note: Rs. 10,000
Giving You The Suicide Note: Rs. 25,000

Making Suicide Look Like Murder: Rs. 25,000

Family Package (Upto 4 Members): Rs. 1,25,000
Joint Family Package (Upto 12 Members): Rs. 2,00,000
Corporate Package (Upto 20 Persons): Rs. 10,00,000

Making Victim Pay For The Murder: Rs. 25,000
Making Your Employer Pay For The Murder: Rs. 30,000
Making Random Person Pay For The Murder: Rs. 40,000

Special Discounts
For Killing Wrong Person: 50%
If No Bill Required: 12.5%
If Murder Is On Your Birthday: 15%

Bulk Discounts
More Than 200 Persons Per Year: 33%
More Than 500 Persons Per Year: 50%
Gujarat Assignments: 75%

It's a good business and his share price is also doing well, and he also has a hot girlfriend Shalini (Priyanka Chopra). Now most girls like their boyfriends to be rich industry scions, academic genuises, dynamic entrepreneurs or handsome models, but this film shows that there are girls who would be in love with hitmen with no redeeming features, too. "Hi, what do you do?" "I'm a contract killer." "Oooh, let's have sex!"

Well, one day John poofs off a young girl and her entire family by mistake. For some reason he thinks this is more of a sin, and is all contrition - he wants to dog it all and move with Shalini to a sanguine seafront. But suddenly the rich and powerful Captain (Bharat Dhabolkar) wants him on an important assignment to kill 5 big rivals, and shanghais Shalini to ensure John delivers. After making a futile attempt to rescue Shalini, John gets onto the job. How he dies and Shalini is left a widow forms the rest of the film.

The redeeming feature of Karam is that it keeps you hooked all through, though the sentimental exchanges between John and Priyanka are hackneyed and stereotyped. The visuals are slick and the action sequences are gripping, but the film fails to be in the league of a Satya mostly since Satya has already happened, and since the dialogues in this one are simply not incisive enough.

John Abraham is just about okay in his role if you go in with low expectations, but Priyanka is a fairly good performer. She does manage to bring in the tenderness into their relationship. The performances are all fine, and the songs are good, too - especially the title song.

On the whole, just about worth a watch.