The winner of the massacre is the one who never sought it out
This review is my opinion and contains spoilers.
“Carma” (2022) is a Pakistani love letter to Quentin Tarantino.
“Carma” is a 2022 Pakistani movie directed by Kashan Admani and written by Fawad Hai, starring Adnan Siddiqui, Naveen Waqar, Zhalay Sarhadi, and Osama Tahir. Said to be inspired by Quentin Tarantino, it explores some challenging ideas of human nature. The film resembles “Reservoir Dogs,” in which the sequence of consequences takes place in a warehouse. The question throughout the film is, “Who disclosed the plan to the cops?” Names are veiled through colors, so it’s unclear who anyone is. Carma involves a kidnapping,thath also goes wrong, butonly the audiencein. It is also just the audience that knows Hamza (Osama Tahoor) is using a false name, but it is because of his new identity assumption. There are different kinds of allies in the film involved in the plan to various degrees, and in both films, they risk losing an ear. The ally doesn’t lose an ear in Carma, but Hamza does lose part of his finger.
Both films showcase vignettes leading to the event, but with Carma, it’s a little unclear as to why. It’s only at the end that Hamza’s purpose is clear. Perhaps it would have been easier to follow if it had taken a more direct approach like Reservoir Dogs. Reservoir Dogs can seem slightly tedious in the vignettes as they don’t always expose a new layer. It’s expected that each vignette will tell more about the characters, as it is known that their names are hidden from each other. Carma does the same, but going into the characters’ backstory doesn’t always seem necessary. It sometimes seems to do so to strive for empathy, but it doesn’t have to explain what drew some characters to a life of crime. Learning of Sasha’s (Zhalay Sarhadi) backstory seems a little unnecessary, somewhat gratuitous in showcasing what has hardened her. It shows her bond with her lover, Jamal (Umer Aalam), which may add depth to the plot when he is shot, but knowing that she was involved with him would have made a similar point. Tarantino is liberal with his graphic sequences, but they are usually in service of creating greater depths of empathy for characters the audience already intends to root for. (Think “Django Unchained” (2012)).
What goes around comes around is a general theme of Tarantino’s work from Jackie Brown to Inglourious Basterds, etc. Carma (“car” meets “karma”) tends to do the same by favoring no one directly involved in the mess that unfolds. All the bad guys die, with the one person part of the Crime Circle who exposes the operation is shown to go to jail and the loyal torturer who conducts no ills during this mission being let off. Though the latter’s freedom is quick, it is reminiscent of how Mr. Pink, someone who was earnest in his approach to completing the operation and responded the least violently to the investigation of the snitch, was the only one who could leave the scene alive, accessible, and with the diamonds. Similarly, though she is not the protagonist but a somewhat innocent bystander, Maria (Naveen Waqar), the owner of the diamonds whose operation is geared toward stealing, walks away, having received her justice. Hamza had arranged the operation around her, though it’s not clear if he sought to marry her and become the CEO of her father’s company to become a faux target of kidnapping to begin with. All she had done deceptively in the operation was expose the plan to the police, a plan which Hamza’s supposed ally, Hashmat (Paras Masroor), conveyed to her, perhaps in interest to have a shot at another life or at least some compensation for the diamonds. He certainly feels hurt when he sees Maria identify him for the police.
The general theme is that the people closest to you hurt you the most. The film goes full circle, with each character being taken off-guard by another after trust is established, whether through a confession or a long-term relationship. The film is sometimes overzealous in its attempt to achieve stylistic merit equating to Tarantino’s. Besides its overuse of the orange and blue contrast, it also indulges in a montage with black and white freeze frames with bloody spots in what appears to be a beginning theme song. This sequence overviews the film to introduce characters in their violent moments along with moments of environment to foreshadow theme and motivation–without any of the credits that are expected to accompany it. These moments are sometimes distracting from what is otherwise a compelling and intriguing storyline.