Harry Baweja´s Karz - The Burden of Truth packs a number of surprises. It features two of Bollywood´s biggest action heroes, Sunny Deol and Suneil Shetty, in a family drama. It has Shilpa Shetty taking a break from the expected ´hatke´ sex-appeal roles to try her hand at emotional fare. And this mish-mash is directed by Harry Baweja who usually signs Ajay Devgan for romantic flicks like Dilwale, Diljale, and Deewane. So does the film manage the biggest surprise possible - and actually provide the quality-starved Indian film scene with worthwhile or even meaningful entertainment? Not quite.

Suraj (Sunny Deol) is abandoned by his mom at a young age and turns to an indulgent lifestyle for solace. He is a hot-tempered, angry young man (surprise surprise) who drowns his woes in alcohol. All this changes when he meets his dream girl, aptly named Sapna (Shilpa Shetty). Although Suraj´s character doesn´t really learn anything about Sapna´s personality, he falls madly in love with her. And this inspires him to become a better person. How sweet.

Of course umpteen plot twists and obstacles await Suraj. To begin with, he is tongue-tied when it comes to declaring his love for Sapna. He befriends her, but the relationship refuses to take off from there. To complicate things, a friend of Suraj´s, Raj (Suneil Shetty) turns out to be Sapna´s boyfriend.

Raj is the scion of a wealthy family but has renounced his home because his family wanted him to marry a woman he didn´t love. Suraj gets worried and angry when he realizes Raj´s girlfriend is none other than Sapna. Suraj sees Raj as a rich playboy, who will only keep Sapna around until he gets tired of her, and then move on to another pretty face.

Suraj begins actively antagonizing the couple and tries to tear them apart. Raj can´t take it anymore and reveals to Suraj the truth about why his parents abandoned him.

One fine day, Suraj finds his mother at a high-society gathering and he falls apart when he overhears her speaking to her friends about her "one-and-only" son Raj. Although he´s been virtually home-less all his life, he scoots over to the nearest piano and perfectly renders the lullaby his mom used to sing to him when he was a child. He then confronts his mother and begins to uncover the buried secrets of his family.

Obviously, Karz´s biggest problem is Anees Bazmee´s script. The story, an unintentional comedy of sorts, plays out like a dictionary of Bollywood clichés. Almost every new twist and turn in the plot is completely predictable, mainly because we´ve seen these very story elements in films as recent as K3G, Devdas, Indian, Annarth, etc. The initial reels of melodrama are entertaining in that one can at least laugh at the silly story unfolding on screen. But things get painfully uninteresting very quickly. By interval time, audiences are exhausted, but the script doesn´t relent; the inane plot twists keep on along with them tons of boring, derivative action scenes that go on way too long.

Baweja´s direction does nothing to uplift the script´s shortcomings; there is nothing novel or even interesting about Baweja´s dry techniques that make the film engaging on any level. He tries to pack in all the commercial Bollywood ingredients in to one film yet again, dividing up the film´s duration into comedy, action, romance, family drama, etc. but the result is as far from entertaining as it comes. Instead, the film ends up rambling, choppy, loud and overly dramatic. Even cinematography and editing are uninspired. Action scenes by Tinu Verma are as predictable and uninvolving as they come, completely wasting Sunny and Suneil´s expertise in that area. Background music is recycled from other films and the music to the film is pleasant but won’t stay with you. Song picturizations are boring.

Performances are severely limited by the fact that the characters in the film are very poorly written. Sunny Deol, as a troubled "young" man, does manage to impress in a number of sequences. His work here is sincere, but he is no longer the right actor for this kind of role. It comes off as very awkward when Sunny is portrayed as “young adult” trying to make sense of his life. Still, Deol is a seasoned performer underneath all the screaming and flying fists, and his talent shines through the poor characterization. He lends a good deal of both vulnerability and anger to Suraj. His presence and performance in the film are just about the only truly notable features in the film. His performance here isn´t a patch on his work in similar films however, and especially compared to his acting in Ghayal, this performance is useless. His work in the action/stunts department is solid as usual, but the scenes themselves are poorly constructed and not very entertaining.

Shilpa Shetty is commendable, but nothing more. Her performance here is an improvement over her earlier work in family fare like Badhai Ho Badhai and Dhadkan, but she still has a long way to go before critics and audiences can really take her seriously. She is beginning to shed the discomfort she wore on screen before, and has thankfully stopped trying to emulate Sridevi and Kajol. Playing to the masses and delivering what is expected from a heroine in a complete commercial flick, her performance is bubbly and energetic but manages to keep up traces of conviction throughout. As usual, Shilpa looks breathtaking and her dance skills are displayed well here.

Suneil Shetty is lackluster. The glimmers of hope we saw early in 2000 with Refugee and Jungle releasing back to back have faded, and Suneil has reverted back to tired, uninspired, and substandard work. He plays his character completely straight and what we see on screen is no different from what we’ve seen Suneil do in tons of movies before. One can’t completely blame Shetty, however. Of the three leads, he’s gotten the shortest end of the stick and his role is the least defined and written the worst. He’s hardly given anything worthwhile to do in the film. Hopefully his work in Kaante will be impressive enough for his fans to forgive him for this and the upcoming Maseeha.

There isn’t a single noteworthy performance from the supporting cast. Even Kiron Kher who was haunting in Devdas is just insipid and tired. Ashutosh Rana seems bent on proving that anyone who thought he was talented was wrong; as the lead villian he overacts like mad here. Sayaji Shinde is wasted. Johnny Lever is somewhat funny, but useless in the context of the film.

Karz was one of the big December releases this year, and one wishes there were more positive things to say about the film. But it’s just not a good movie. Only die-hard Sunny Deol or Shilpa Shetty fans should bother to watch. For the rest us, let’s hope this isn’t an indicator of the quality we can expect from the other Bollywood year-end releases in 2002. Truth be told, Karz is just a burden to watch.