2 Stars (out of 4)
Filmmaker Pulkit’s second Netflix Original feature Kartavya (“Duty“) deals with the failure of institutions to protect children, just as his gripping 2024 Netflix Original Bhakshak did. His sophomore effort is less successful than his first due to a disjointed plot that lacks surprises.
Since Bhakshak is about a reporter, it’s fitting that Kartavya starts with a journalist’s murder. Reema Dutta (Radhika Chauhan) arrives in the town of Jhamli to investigate a high-profile religious figure named Anand (Saurabh Dwivedi), who she believes is responsible for the disappearance of several children. Despite having a police escort led by Inspector Pawan Malik (Saif Ali Khan), two assailants on a motorcycle — one of whom escapes — kill Reema.
Pawan’s superior officer Keshav (Manish Chaudhari) wants to suspend him immediately, but Pawan talks his boss into giving him and his junior partner Ashok (Sanjay Mishra) a week to close the case.
Before the investigation even begins, Pawan meets with a calamity at home. His younger brother Deepak (Saurabh Abrol) has supposedly eloped with another student from his college, Preeti (Suraksha Gaire), but no one can find them. That’s for the best, as Preeti’s brother and the local panchayat want to murder them in an “honor killing” for marrying across caste lines. Pawan’s father Harihar (Zakir Hussain) insists on waiting for proof before executing the young lovers, but he’s not opposed to the idea.
Pawan and his wife Varsha (Rasika Dugal) find Deepak and Preeti and agree to help them leave town. But then Pawan learns that the escaped assassin who killed Reema is a 16-year-old boy named Harpal (Yudhvir Ahlawat) — one of the missing children she was investigating. Now Pawan has to get this kid safely out of town, too, while his boss and Ashok cower in fear of Anand and his goons.
The story bounces between Pawan working the murder case, Pawan trying to save his brother, Harihar dealing with Preeti’s brother and the local government, and Harpal running from Anand’s cronies. There’s little urgency in these disjointed sequences until they finally come together at the midpoint.
That leaves lots of time for characters to sit around and talk and for Pawan to smoke. Boy, does he like to smoke. The best moments in the film are conversations between Pawan and Ashok because Khan and Mishra are so good together, but Kartavya needs more action.
The story’s thinness is enhanced by a lack of subtext. Characters straight up admit what’s happening, with little in the way of twists. Despite plenty of characters, most of them have little to do. Pawan might as well have been single for as much as Varsha contributes. As the holy man Anand, ex-journalist and debutant actor Dwivedi looks like a creep (no offense), but he’s not as an intimidating as the cops make him out to be.
On the other hand, Saharsh Kumar Shukla puts in a menacing turn as Anand’s henchman Nirmal. Ahlawat also does a nice job portraying young Harpal’s fear and desperation.
Kartavya‘s casting is strange because Khan is playing much younger than he is. He’s 55, but Pawan is 40. I’m not sure how old Hussain is in real life, but he’s only got a few years on Khan, at best. All the grey hairspray in the world isn’t going to make him believable playing Khan’s dad. Even Mishra is just six years older than Khan, so the age gap between the partners doesn’t look as significant as it’s supposed to.
Despite being generally about the same social issue, Kartavya has little to say about institutional failings, compared to Bhakshak. Critique is sidelined in favor of man-on-a-mission directness that feels under-developed. I hoped for more.
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