Kartam Bhugtam review: Shreyas Talpade, Vijay Raaz struggle to save this half-Shaitaan, half-Savadhaan India thriller

Director- Soham Shah
Cast- Vijay Raaz, Shreyas Talpade, Madhoo, Aksha Pardasany
Where To Watch- Theatres 
Ratings- 2.5 stars

When you believe in destiny and can't find answers to the questions related to life, you turn to astrologers who claim to have every answer you are looking for. However, what if the astrologer turns out to be a psychopath? Soham Shah's new thriller Kartam Bhugtam tackles this frightening question. 

The story of the film revolves around Dev (Shreyas Talpade), an NRI from New Zealand, who returns to his hometown Bhopal to recover his father’s investments and manage his assets. However, he faces an unexpected delay in the process. This is when his friend introduces him to an astrologer, Anna (Vijay Raaz), whose predictions never go wrong. He not only helps Dev solve his problems but also makes him a part of his family. But soon everything turns upside down for Dev and what follows next transforms this psychological thriller into a revenge drama. 

Set in the backdrop of astrology and superstition, Soham Shah's Kartam Bhugtam bores you in the beginning and picks up pace only after the interval. The first half goes in just establishing the characters with a back story and giving them relevance, all of which feels a bit stretched. Vijay Raaz's introduction as Anna gives major deja vu of R Madhavan's entry from Shaitaan. Even its background music, which does manage to give chills, is too similar to Shaitaan's background music.

Vijay Raaz excels in every way. His perfect dialogue delivery is enough to give you chills. He perfectly blends in the role of an astrologer but is usual and nothing extraordinary. Shreyas Talpade does justice to his part, especially the one where he plays a schizophrenic. However, in some parts, he leaves you confused. On one hand, he is depicted as a perfect boyfriend but on the other hand, he fails to keep his girlfriend in the loop with whatever is happening in his life. Madhoo adapts herself well to the challenging role of an old woman desperate to look like a 21-year-old. However, I think, had her character been written with more depth, she would have done better. Aksha Pardasnay plays the part of Dev Joshi's girlfriend flawlessly, but limiting her to just that soeone's love interest, seems a little unfair. She is underused.

The boring and predictable first half of the film is spiced up with a shocking, mind-boggling twist before the intermission. But, what follows after that makes the film look like a Saavdhaan India episode. The genre shift in the middle of the movie is definitely bizarre. Soham Shah could have easily explored the theme more to show how astrology is used by Indians as a means to seek solutions to some of their troubles and later end up being superstitious. However, Kartam Bhugtam turns into a revenge drama, which though justifies its title, ends up making us lose interest in the film. 

The second half of the series makes you question if a common man can really do the stuff Dev Joshi is pulling off. If the theme had been explored in depth and the story's execution had been better, the psychological thriller could have been better than Shaitaan. The powerful performances by the ensemble cast certainly deserved that.

Shreyas Talpade and Vijay Raaz-starrer Kartam Bhugtam might make you feel cheated at some points. It is meant to be a tale of lies and deceit rather than a psychological thriller, which is what it was billed as. If you are a fan of revenge dramas and psychological thrillers, then Kartam Bhugtam is a must-watch for you. Otherwise, it's strictly a one-time watch movie with a unique storyline that bores in parts. 

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