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No resemblances to the films of that name—the 1979 Dharmendra hit or the 1995 Sanjay Kapoor flop. Why I mention this is not without reason. This OTT release falls between the two films in caliber, the 1995 messy thriller and the slightly above-average earlier film. And when the title means ‘Duty’ in this era of reel crime, it is, needless to add, bound to be a thriller, right?
The protagonist here is Inspector Pawan Malik (Saif Ali Khan), speaking with a well-trained Haryanvi accent as the story is placed in a fictional town in that state named Jhamli. He has a devoted assistant, Ashok (Sanjay Mishra in an atypical and yet ill-developed role).
The story combines two angles: Pawan’s father Harihar (Zakir Hussain), who cannot tolerate that his younger son, Deepak (Saurabh Abrol) wants to wed the lower-caste Preeti (Suraksha Gaire)—traditionally, any such forbidden love culminates in this town with the honor killing of the ‘offending’ couple. The other side concerns a fake spiritual guru, Anand Shri (Saurabh Dwivedi), who is on the verge of being exposed by a journalist for multiple illegal and immoral activities. Ergo, he must have her killed, which he does. His next target is Harpal (Yudhvir Ahlawat), a teenager who he employs also for nefarious deeds like murder.
Ashok tells Pawan, who rescues Harpal, that he will arrange for the latter to go across the border to safety. Deepak and Preeti get married and Ashok provides an uncle’s empty residence in another town as a hideout even as Harihar and the entire panchayat want to eliminate them.
The rest of the film can be guessed by anyone who was watched such films or web series.
And that’s the main issue: Kartavya is predictable with a vengeance—incidentally, the emerging mosaic of the film! Nothing is new, newly-treated, gripping or even shocking. Honor killings stories have long been now in overdrive, ditto those of murderous ‘spiritual gurus’ (Aashram, Nikita Roy and more).
Writer-director Pulkit had treated a similar routine theme with gritty rawness in Bhakshak (2024). Here, it is a drab and predictable route taken, and there is not even an assembly of great performances to redeem the shortfall.
Yes, Saif does try his best, ditto Rasika Dugal as his wife in a sketchy essay, but the rest, except for Durgesh Kumar as the ruthless Amar, do not rise above the routine.
And nothing in the film does, either. Considering it is a co-production of Gauri Khan like Bhakshak again, there should have been much more pith here. In fact, there was plenty of scope, especially in the Anand Shri-Harpal story (no spoilers here), but the film does not get off the ground really. When it could have flown despite the routine plotline.
Rating: **
Netflix presents Red Chillies Entertainment’s Kartavya Produced by: Gauri Khan Written & Directed by: Pulkit Music: Anurag Saikia Starring: Saif Ali Khan, Rasika Dugal, Zakir Hussain, Saurabh Dwivedi, Saurabh Dwivedi, Manish Chaudhari, Yudhvir Ahlawat, Saurabh Abrol Suraksha Gaire, Durgesh Kumar & others
