GHANCHAKKAR, is a movie which i & most of cine-lovers were looking for with bated breath for multiple reasons which include good actors known for giving excellent performances, a fine acclaimed director and even the promos were so promising enough that they further soared our expectations to the hilt. But Alias, this over expectation from the movie in fact has worked against it with audience as well as critics feeling disappointed despite of the fact that movie is not that bad. I've always liked Raj Kumar Gupta's cinematic vision as he has given cine buffs refreshing,daring and interesting cinema like Aamir (Hardboiled look at urban terroism ), No one killed Jessica ( Critique on the laxity of law & order). His latest offering "Ghanchakkar", was marketed like a romantic comedy (the posters tell you He’s Lazy, She’s Crazy), Rajkumar Gupta’s Ghanchakkar is nothing like the promos make it out to be. It’s not a romcom. In fact, there is no romance. It is is a domestic comedy that gets progressively dark and sinister. The pace of this black comedy is so somnolent that all
the characters,
and not just the ‘lazy lad’ of the film’s quirky opening song, appear to
be sleepwalking through it all. The rigmarole that ensues revolves
around the hero’s struggle to recall
exactly what he did that night and his two angry accomplice’s desperate
attempts to get their share of the plunder. The characters are
half-baked and aren’t given any context at all. Especially feckless is
the figure of the hausfrau who reads Vogue and Cosmo for fashion inspiration and then goes and dons the most outlandish of outfits.
STORY & SCREENPLAY : The story as well as screenplay of "Ghanchakkar" is the brainchild of duo Parvez Sheikh & RajKumar Gupta but lack of contemplation by Raj and
Parvez
Sheikh while penning down the premise, turns "Ghanchakkar" into a
tedious tale predominated by monotony, and less entertaining. The film’s heist-quotient is substantially sustained and aggrandized
by the crackling hissing and snarling chemistry between the bold and
fearless Balan and the endearingly restrained and under-the-top Hashmi.
Their mutual suspicion of one another’s marital integrity is
delightfully irreverent and yet disturbingly relevant in today’s times
when distrust is a dowry gift in a majority of marriages.In their delightful love-making sequence Gupta and his astute
co-writer Parvez Shiekh turn the politics of the bedroom on its head.
Hashmi appears seductively at the bedroom door wearing the night-wear
that his wife has brought him...Underwears and condoms are shyly
mentioned. What follows is funny and, er, unforgettable.The incidental characters appear unannounced... an inquisitive
neighbour, an over-friendly real-estate agent, a nosy
mother/mother-in-law whom we only hear on the phone, a sinister
crimelord who pops out of nowhere to create an illusion of a climax, and
an end-game on a local train that could have been more sharply rounded
off....But then all said and dumped Ghanchakkar is nothing like anything
we’ve encountered in the genre of dark comedy. Ghanchakkar may not be every moviegoer’s cup of tee-hee. The laughs
are often so ominous they cloud our comic responses to the characters.
For instance in the bank-heist sequence Emraan Hashmi, Rajesh Verma and
Namit Das wear Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra and Uptal Dutt masks. In the
police-identification line-up that follows three men show up in the
same star-masks.“Haan, yehi teenon they,” says the excited bank watchman. Every character in this out-of-the-box comedy is a bit of an ineffectual
self-important clown. In trying hard to be cool, they end up looking
like fools. And they don’t even know it.
STARCAST : Emraan Hashmi's blank gaze has rarely been used to better effect than in Ghanchakkar, RajKumar Gupta's
third movie. The actor, who has put his mouth and lips to work in most of his earlier films,
deploys his peepers in Gupta’s comedy, about a retired bank robber who
is coerced into one last multi-crore heist by two no-gooders but who
experiences partial memory loss after the job is done. There is definitely a marked improvement in his expressions and body language but his character in this flick is such that he has to look lost which comes naturally to him. Now coming to the character of Vidya Balan (Neetu), she is one helluva crazy Punjaban whose
kookie cooking drives her sullen husband up the nearest wall..She is not only imperfect in her culinary skills but also in her hideous fashion sense which she keeps on copying from models featured in fashion magazines without realizing her own body shape. As usual, Vidya Balan has given her best shot and has even put up lot of weight to justify her character in the movie and has managed to floor audience as foul-mouthed Punjaban. But a whole lot of fun ensues because of two notorious characters,namely Namit Das ( Idris ) n Rajesh Sharma ( Pandit ). Rajesh Sharma has further cemented his place in industry by giving another superlative performance in this movie and he is an actor who essays his characters convincingly whether it be his role in Special 26 or Luv Shuv tey Chicken Khurana. Coming to Namit Das, whom we saw earlier as friend of Ranbeer Kapur in Wake up Sid has also portrayed his character with applomb.So performance wise all the actors have given a good show.
TECHNICAL FINESSE : Music for this flick has been given by immensely talented Amit Trivedi who has given some real techno mixed chart-busters in his previous attempts but has failed to keep upto his standards this time. Music is catchy but has nothing extraordinary to sustain its presence in your mind for a long time. The background music has also been composed by Amit Trivedi which is perfectly in tandem with the proceedings on-screen. The movie has been shot by the camera of cinematographer SETU and while watching the movie Setu’s camera looks at Mumbai’s middle class with affectionate disdain, not judgmental but certainly not aloof either. Also, the movie being a dark comedy there is not much brightness or colors that are a part of visuals or even the background to give it a more peppy or charming feel. The movie has been edited by Aarti Bajaj who has kept the length of the movie to 137 minutes but even that looks a tad long. Some of the scenes seem to have been stretched a little extended which spoil the charm especially as most of the comedy movies these days are being made in short and crisp format. Coming to the director RAJ KUMAR GUPA, he has tried to create a world high on eccentricity in the uncaring city. Gupta opts for a mix of deadpan and mental, slowing down the movie ever so often to let a joke play out, and then speeding it up in order to reach the next humour zone. The best bits cover the time Pandit and Idris spend in Sanjay’s flat to get him to remember better. There, they encounter his voluble and sartorially challenged wife Neetu and endure her terrible cooking—the dinner-time running gag pays rich dividends each time it is played. Many chunks of Gupta’s storytelling seem excessively quirky capturing in languid motions, the vagaries of everyday life without whipping up an over-punctuated drama either through the background score or fancy editing patterns.
OVER THE HEAD : The climax scene of the movie becomes a tad too dramatized and extended where-in action happens at such a fast pace that you you go bonkers while digesting it and feel like rushing to a rest room. Apart from that the whole plot around Pravin Dabbas is very whimsical.
WOW MOMENTS : Watch out for the bank robbery scene which has been shot exceedingly well and depicts hilarity at its natural best through expressions only. The scene where Emraan is chased by Rajesh n Namit ( who's chasing wearing a frenchie ) also raises guffaws and of course the NOK -JHONK between married couple of Emraan - Vidya in some of the scenes is real funny.
CONCLUSION : If the truth be told, we’ve never seen anything like this film before. Gupta’s third film is wacky whimsical dark scrumptious and though not as lightly humorous as your average comedy, wonderfully innovative in the sparing use of dramatics. Its sinister thrusts especially towards the end eat ravenously into the comedy. This may not work for those who are comically regaled by the typical bolly comedies as the comedy in Ghanchakkar is entirely reliant on the principal characters’ ability to penetrate and make sense of the squalid world of greed and acquisitiveness that they seem to inhabit so casually.
ROHIT SHARMA.
Follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/smgr105
rohitreview@gmail.com
TECHNICAL FINESSE : Music for this flick has been given by immensely talented Amit Trivedi who has given some real techno mixed chart-busters in his previous attempts but has failed to keep upto his standards this time. Music is catchy but has nothing extraordinary to sustain its presence in your mind for a long time. The background music has also been composed by Amit Trivedi which is perfectly in tandem with the proceedings on-screen. The movie has been shot by the camera of cinematographer SETU and while watching the movie Setu’s camera looks at Mumbai’s middle class with affectionate disdain, not judgmental but certainly not aloof either. Also, the movie being a dark comedy there is not much brightness or colors that are a part of visuals or even the background to give it a more peppy or charming feel. The movie has been edited by Aarti Bajaj who has kept the length of the movie to 137 minutes but even that looks a tad long. Some of the scenes seem to have been stretched a little extended which spoil the charm especially as most of the comedy movies these days are being made in short and crisp format. Coming to the director RAJ KUMAR GUPA, he has tried to create a world high on eccentricity in the uncaring city. Gupta opts for a mix of deadpan and mental, slowing down the movie ever so often to let a joke play out, and then speeding it up in order to reach the next humour zone. The best bits cover the time Pandit and Idris spend in Sanjay’s flat to get him to remember better. There, they encounter his voluble and sartorially challenged wife Neetu and endure her terrible cooking—the dinner-time running gag pays rich dividends each time it is played. Many chunks of Gupta’s storytelling seem excessively quirky capturing in languid motions, the vagaries of everyday life without whipping up an over-punctuated drama either through the background score or fancy editing patterns.
OVER THE HEAD : The climax scene of the movie becomes a tad too dramatized and extended where-in action happens at such a fast pace that you you go bonkers while digesting it and feel like rushing to a rest room. Apart from that the whole plot around Pravin Dabbas is very whimsical.
WOW MOMENTS : Watch out for the bank robbery scene which has been shot exceedingly well and depicts hilarity at its natural best through expressions only. The scene where Emraan is chased by Rajesh n Namit ( who's chasing wearing a frenchie ) also raises guffaws and of course the NOK -JHONK between married couple of Emraan - Vidya in some of the scenes is real funny.
CONCLUSION : If the truth be told, we’ve never seen anything like this film before. Gupta’s third film is wacky whimsical dark scrumptious and though not as lightly humorous as your average comedy, wonderfully innovative in the sparing use of dramatics. Its sinister thrusts especially towards the end eat ravenously into the comedy. This may not work for those who are comically regaled by the typical bolly comedies as the comedy in Ghanchakkar is entirely reliant on the principal characters’ ability to penetrate and make sense of the squalid world of greed and acquisitiveness that they seem to inhabit so casually.
ROHIT SHARMA.
Follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/smgr105
rohitreview@gmail.com
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