KARMMA CALLING is the story of a woman on a rampage. Karma Talwar (Namratha Sheth) arrives in Alibaug and rents a bungalow named Aashiyana. It is located next to the palatial Kothari Mansion, inhabited by yesteryear actress cum socialite Indrani Kothari (Raveena Tandon), Kaushal Kothari (Gaurav Sharma) of Kothari Global and their children Ahaan Kothari (Varun Sood) and Mira Kothari (Devangshi Sen). Karma claims to be running a company and pretends to not know the Kotharis at all. In reality, her actual name is Ambika Mehra. She is the daughter of Satyajeet Mehra (Rohit Roy), who was a faithful employee at Kothari Global. 25 years ago, he was framed in a financial fraud case by Indrani, Kaushal and others. Satyajeet dies in prison. Therefore, Karma wants to exact revenge on all those who made her father suffer. Indrani gets curious about Karma and invites her to her parties. In no time, Karma wreaks havoc in their lives. She exposes to Indrani that her best friend Dolly (Walusha De Sousa) is having an affair with Kaushal. She is thinking of her next move but things don't go as expected for her. She falls in love with Ahaan. She also bumps into her childhood friend Vedant Kohli (Rachit Singh) and she realizes that she is still connected with him. What happens next forms the rest of the series.
KARMMA CALLING is adapted from the USA show Revenge (created by Mike Kelley; Written by Mark B Perry and Joe Fazzio). The story is interesting and is peppered with some intriguing and badass characters. Ruchi Narain's screenplay, however, is not up to the mark. The thrill is missing in most of the show. The drama is present in abundance and is somewhat interesting. Purva Naresh's dialogues are sharp but overall, could have been better.
Ruchi Narain's direction is average. On the positive side, she keeps one hooked to the goings-on. A few scenes stand out like the bond shared by Karma and Zane Khan (Viraf Patel). The manner in which two couples celebrate ‘Karwa Chauth’ in a helicopter is novel. Also, Karma’s actions affecting the lives of Kotharis and those around them makes for an amusing watch.
Sadly, the minuses outweigh the positives. Karma is able to teach a lesson pretty conveniently to all her victims. There’s no tense moment in the show as Karma outsmarts her opponents at every step. As a result, though one watches the show, one doesn’t get totally involved with the goings-on. Moreover, the Kotharis seem to be throwing parties almost every day it seems and after a point, it becomes laughable. The track of Krish (Masi Wali) is weak. The whole sequence of him hiding Ahaan’s phone is childish. The cliff-hanger ending does raise some hopes of a better subsequent season, though. At the same time, the makers don’t bring back the first scene of the show in the climax and how it’ll shape Season 2.
Speaking of performances, Raveena Tandon is the star of the show. From the poster, it seemed her character would be calling the shots. Instead, she’s depicted as the sufferer and the one at the receiving end. She looks great and also performs ably but one would have expected much more from her. Namrata Sheth is a surprise. She not only looks gorgeous but delivers a smashing performance. She’s sure to benefit the most from the show. Varun Sood seems dashing and is decent. Viraf Patel is entertaining. Gaurav Sharma, Rohit Roy and Rachit Singh leave a mark. Devangshi Sen is pretty convincing in her debut role. Walusha De Sousa does well. Masi Wali is let down by his character. However, his performance is fair. Amy Aela (Yana) is great while Vikramjeet Virk (Sameer; security officer) impresses with his dialogue delivery. Piyush Khati (Dash Kohli) shines. Alpana Buch (Dayamma), Shataf Figar (Muzzamil Syed), Mohan Kapoor (Nikhil Sethia), Mallika Chhabra (real Karma) and the actor playing Jyoti Minocha are good in their respective cameos.
Ketan Sodha's background score is in sync with the show's genre. The theme of the show is catchy. Bhushankumar Jain's cinematography is neat. Durga Prasad Mahapatra's production design is rich. Quba Syed's costumes are extremely appealing. The VFX is very tacky. Manendra Singh Lodhi, Vibhav Nigam and Nikhil Parihar's editing is okay.
All in all, KARMMA CALLING doesn’t impress due to its unconvincing writing and execution.
Rating – 2 stars
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