‘Kartavya’
Dir: Pulkit
Actors: Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Mishra, Rasika Dugal
On: Netflix
Rating: 3/5
Among stars, Saif is probably my favourite Khan. Also, decades down, he still seems relatively underrated.
Of course, Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) can parade way more fans — and he’s produced this film for Netflix, starring Saif. As in, Kartavya, is Red Chillies’ relatively low-frills production.
Which is the sweetest film by the same producers, along the same budgetary mould, if you may? I’d go with Kaamyaab (2020), set in Bollywood, centred on the brilliant Sanjay Mishra, seemingly as good as playing himself!
Kartavya is a drama on the rot in the police system, society at large, and a small town in particular, with Saif and Sanjay as buddy-cops.
Frankly, you can’t find a finer pair for a film — also, as separate from each other, in terms of style + substance.
And that’s probably why you find Saif trying harder still, while the effort doesn’t show. He’s the only one going thick on the Haryanvi twang.
In the same way that audiences were first mesmerised, watching him similarly jam with Deepak Dobriyal, in the opening scene of Omkara (2006). Thus, a new Saif was born!
You witness bits of that easy, desi swag, once he rebuffs his brother’s friend in this film: “Kya chummi lega?”
The brother’s gone missing. It turns out he’s eloped with a girl. It’s a case of inter-caste marriage that the dad (Zakir Hussain) will tolerate none of — going for the kill, if it comes to that.
That’s this picture’s parallel plot. You’ll recall, Red Chillies had, likewise, produced an OTT feature, Love Hostel (2022), about an inter-caste couple on the run, starring Bobby Deol as the heavy hitman.
At the core, I suppose, Kartavya is about flipping established hierarchies — between a subordinate cop (Saif, Sanjay) & boss (masterful Manish Chaudhari); indeed, father (Zakir), & son (Saif)…
It’s placed in a fictional town named Jhamli, starting with a well-known journalist, who arrives on the scene. The movie’s buddy-cops have been entrusted with providing her security cover.
I don’t know if any scribe, in general, gets an escort car, with the SHO, no less, to pick them up from the railway station. I’ve been to small towns to cover stories, where it’s been hard enough to secure appointment with local cops!
Be that as it may, this reporter is shot dead soon as she reaches. She was investigating possible wrongdoings in a homegrown godman’s empire in the area.
Speaking of journalists, Lallantop’s Saurabh Dwivedi plays this self-styled godman, over a few scenes, much of it shot over the shoulder.
Such fun to discover an unlikely face in a familiar role! That said, I suspect, Saurabh makes for an infinitely better conversationalist, anchor, than an actor.
The prime suspect in the said murder case is a teenaged boy, raised in the godman’s ashram. He’s the finest performer of the lot.
Kartavya is written-directed by Pulkit. The last movie I watched of his, Maalik (2025), with Rajkummar Rao, stitched together every possible cliché of the small-town underworld/gangster thriller genre.
The other, thoroughly monotonous Bhakshak (2024, Netflix), also produced by Red Chillies, similarly touched upon atrocities on minors in a shelter.
This film surely feels more wholesome, although lacking in that same extra layer that gives a plot the depth it deserves. To begin with, cop dramas, mysteries, thrillers are the staple daal-bhaat on the OTT table.
As gods of algorithm must’ve ordained, only recently, I caught, back to back, the indefatigable Anil Kapoor, in uniform, defeated but daring in the boondocks — both in Subedaar (2026, Prime Video), and Thar (2022, Netflix).
Saif was the first among Bollywood’s A-list to debut on the web, as Cop Sartaj Singh, in the stellar Sacred Games (2018). He merits that sorta moment under the sun. This may not be it. It’s still a so-so script, suitably uplifted by the star alone.
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