Kartavya: Saif Ali Khan’s ‘non-hero’ cop is so bad at his job that he doesn’t deserve sympathy

When an actor’s ‘range’ is of this nature, it’s difficult to slot them as good or bad. In fact, it is especially in these cases that the audience can instantly tell if the said actor was serious about the project they took on. And this is primarily why watching the latest Netflix film Kartavya is a bizarre experience. Saif looks like he is taking all of it a little too seriously, but the film itself isn’t serious enough to tackle all the issues it touches upon.

Kartavya is set in a fictional North Indian state where Saif is playing Pawan, an honest cop who isn’t scared of anyone – his bosses, the cult leader who abuses children, or the society at large. The film’s inciting incident, where a journalist trying to do some ‘parda-faash’ of the said cult leader is killed, happens under Pawan’s supervision, and he declares that he will solve the case and file a chargesheet, all within a week’s time. Meanwhile, his brother Deepak has eloped with his girlfriend, who is from a different caste. And he gives himself another task – to keep his brother and the girlfriend safe from the murder-happy khap panchayat. Shockingly, director Pulkit presents Pawan as the ‘hero’ who fails at both of these tasks.

Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Mishra in Kartavya.

As you try to understand the central theme of the film, while trying to ignore the theatrics, you cannot help but think why Pawan has decided to become the ‘inquilabi’ cop now. He is 40-years-old, has lived here all of his life, has a wife and a child who seem to be pretty well-adjusted, so why has Pawan decided to go against the established system now? And there is no other answer except that the plot will move forward only when the ‘hero’ does something heroic, or in this case, tries and fails in a spectacular fashion.

Pawan is excessively bothered when he finds out that Anand Shri, played by Saurabh Dwivedi, is abusing children, but it is rather unbelievable that a local cult leader’s crimes wouldn’t be known by the cops of the same town. We are told that the cops ignored the complaints made against him, but Pawan acts like this is his first day in the city and he has just learnt that sly looking cult leaders who live in fortresses are actually criminals.

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Even on the home front, where he has pledged to ‘protect’ Deepak, he casually talks about his ‘bua’ who was killed because the panchayat did not approve of her inter-caste union. Here, too, his violent outburst against his father doesn’t make much sense, for he has known of his father’s antics all his life, and would obviously be aware that his pre-teen son is growing up in the same regressive household. It is evident that Pawan isn’t cut from the same cloth as those around him, but there is no reason which explains why Pawan hasn’t revolted against the injustice around him so far.

Pawan has the anger and machismo of a traditional ‘hero’ but even in this fictional world, Pulkit doesn’t allow him to win. In fact, when you find out how he has failed at the two tasks that he took on voluntarily, it is obvious that Pawan is no hero material. He declares that he will protect the teenager Harpal, who is being abused by Anand Shri, but at the last minute, hands over his security to his sidekick.

In the case of Deepak, he is gullible enough to share his ‘secret’ location with the same mole, which eventually leads to his murder. And in both these cases, he only finds out the truth when another character gives a ‘filmy’ monologue while beating him up. Not only is Pawan not a hero, he is also really bad at his job.

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He gets the lead about Harpal from a superior officer, another team finds the boy and Pawan’s only job is to keep him safe. With his brother, it’s his wife Varsha who tells him about the girlfriend’s existence and their hiding place, and his only task is to transport them out of the state. Pawan does neither when he could have easily done so, and Pulkit expects us to feel sorry for his naive ‘hero’, who is a bad judge of character.

In Kartavya, the villain isn’t brought down, the innocent ones are dead, and the non-hero is a loser and you wonder – what is it that Kartavya is trying to say? And after spending hours watching this Shah Rukh Khan production, there is no reasonably good answer for this question.