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 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. 

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. 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. Shilpa Shetty is commendable, but nothing more. Suneil Shetty is lackluster. 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.