Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Gang of Ghosts



Cast: Sharmaan Joshi, Parambrata Chatterjee, Mahi Gill, Anupam Kher, Meera Chopra, J. Brandon Hill, Rajesh Khattar, Asrani, Saurabh Shukla, Rajpal Yadav, Yashpal Sharma, Vijay Verma, Chunky Pandey, Jackie Shroff, Paoli Dham, Avinash Dave
Genre: Paranormal Comedy
Direction: Satish Kaushik
Production: Venus Records & Tapes Private Limited, The Satish Kaushik Entertainment
Story: Satish Kaushik, Rajesh Chawla (Based on Bengali Film Bhooter Bhabhishyat by Anik Dutta)
Cinematographer: Johny Lall
Editor: Hemal Kothari
Music: Dharam Sandeep
Lyricist: Satish Kaushik, Vikas Kumar, Qateel Shifai
Release Date: 21st March, 2014
Language: Hindi
Duration: 2 hours 09 minutes
Gang of Ghosts is a paranormal comedy. It is the remake of super hit Bengali film ‘Bhooter Bhabhishyat’. The movie begins with the site visit of a filmmaker Aditya (Parambrata Chatterjee) to a haunted mansion. He is excited to visualize the shots at the location. When he stays back at night in the mansion, Raju – a struggling writer (Sharmaan Joshi) comes to meet him to sell his script.  Rest of the story is basically the script narrated by Sharmaan Joshi.
The concept definitely seems to be unique in the beginning since it is a story of ‘good’ ghosts of different periods, professions who live together in Royale Mansion. But the story drags, since too many characters are introduced. Let me try to list down a few of them. Head of the Ghosts’ family is Gendamal (played by Anupam Kher) who actually interviews along with an Englishman’s ghost Mr. Ramsay (J. Brandon Hill) various ghosts before giving them shelter in the mansion. And that becomes the gang of ghosts: Actress Manoranjana Kumari (Mahie Gill), Musician turned drug addict (Vijay Verma), Brigadier (Yashpal Sharma), a refugee from East Bengal, now Bangladesh (Saurabh Shukla),  a poor driver Atmaram (Asrani) killed by a rich man’s vehicle while sleeping in the pavement, a Shef from Mughal Empire (Rajpal Yadav),  A rich man’s lovelorn daughter (Meera Chopra) committing suicide …
Their dream Royale Mansion stay is at stake now since a builder (Rajesh Khattar) wants to build mall there and the movie shows the efforts taken by the gang of ghosts to save their house. Jackie Shroff as a don has a guest appearance.
Every ghost has his / her own story addressing various social / personal issues. But it made me bewildered that what exactly Director (Satish Kaushik) and the Story Writers (Satish Kaushik and Rajesh Chawla) want to convey. Lot of matters viz. land acquisition, mill workers’ strike, demolition of existing properties for high-rise building, multiplexes and malls, reckless driving, drug addiction, refugees’ struggle, corrupt politicians, gangsters, gang rape, ghost writing, etc. are shown. The plot turns out to be chaotic due to this non-clarity.
The frames with Sharmaan Joshi and Parambrata Chatterjee are refreshing. The concept of using the social networking site spookbook.com by the ghosts raises laughter. All other actors have done justice to their characters in the limited frames given to them. Costumes for all the characters are styled as per their roles /the period which they represented. Music though intelligently composed to justify the KL Sehgal period, is completely misfit and not at all chartbusters.
Gang of Ghosts’ Bhootiyapanti and their satire got lost due to meekly designed plot.


Rating: 2.75 / 5 (Average +)

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