‘Ghoomketu’ Movie Review: Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s brilliant real-life inspired act squandered by some whimsical storytelling

Directed By
Pushpendra Nath Misra

Produced By
Anurag Kashyap, Vikas Bahl

Cast
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Ragini Khanna, Anurag Kashyap, Razzak Khan, Deepika Amin, Raghuvir Yadav, Ila Arun, Swanand Kirkire, Jayant Gadekar, Varun Kulkarni, Satya Ranjan, Amitabh Bachchan, Ranveer Singh, Sonakshi Sinha, Chitrangda Singh, Nikkhil Advani, Lauren Gottlieb

Bollywood Bubble Rating

What’s It About
Ghoomketu (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is the story of an aspiring writer from a UP village called Mahona. He has run away to Mumbai, to try his luck in films and gives himself 30 days to try and prove his worth as a Bollywood writer. Apart from UP, he is also carrying a special guide, called “How to be a Bollywood writer in 30 days” with him. Meanwhile, his family uses their political connections to pressure the police to bring him back. Badlani (Anurag Kashyap), a lazy corrupt officer is assigned the case to find him in 30 days or be sent on a punishment posting. Will Ghoomketu be accepted in Bollywood or will he return? Or Will Badlani be able to find him and save his posting?

What’s Hot
Ila Arun as ‘Santo Bua’ is fab. Her jibes and desi innuendoes make you want to see her in every frame of the movie. Her weird ‘burp’ story is something that’s truly a masterpiece, and the way she has enacted it also makes you want to burst out in laughter every time she talks about it.

Raghuvir Yadav as ‘Dadda’ who gets angry at the slightest of things and scorns out in loud vocal terms has put out his best foot forward. His love for son, Ghoomketu, along with his hatred and concern about his urging desire to be a writer in Mumbai has been very well summed up by Raghuvir. He trots that thin line of love and hate, which most Indian fathers deal with, and Raghuvir has brought out that with aplomb.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui as the central character ‘Ghoomketu’ has done a decent job. Anurag Kashyap as ‘Inspector Badlani’ has also come up with a cracker.

What’s Not

Nothing apart from the bunch of great actors does this film have to carry it through till the end. Even in that Nawaz, who tries really hard to carry this story on his back is made to break out of his character and giving a direct commentary to the audience, more so like he knows that he’s working in his own film. While it had been something new had the film released back in 2013-14, but since then audiences have seen the same technique being used in ‘Deadpool’, and there Ryan Reynolds just aced it to so much perfection, that Nawazuddin doing the same just looks like a pale afterthought.

Anurag Kashyap, as ‘Inspector Badlani’ has a great sense of what the scene needs out of him. But despite that, his potential seems to have been untapped. The character of the corrupt police officer, who is also very scared to solve any cases, could have been given more space and also some even funnier lines.

The numerous cameos by Amitabh Bachchan, Sonakshi Sinha, Ranveer Singh, Chitrangda Singh, Lauren Gottlieb have been put to no use at all.

The story-telling by writer-director Pushpendra Nath Misra faulters at every bit. The story, which seems like a great one at hand, seems to have been squandered with some amateurish direction. While the plot of a struggling writer coming to Mumbai isn’t something that’s new, but the fact that there is a total comedy angle to it made ‘Ghoomketu’ unique. But when your whole movie is based on the comedy angle and you mess up the funny parts, it’s not something that audiences appreciate.

Talking of the music by Sneha Khanwalkar and Jasleen Royal isn’t up to the mark at all. They have way more potential and we have seen that before as well in other ventures of theirs. Excepting the ‘Inspector Badlani Song’ there is nothing else that you would want to even hear twice.

The cinematography by Satya Rai Nagpaul isn’t bad per se, but there is hardly enough you can do when the direction you’re headed towards isn’t that solid on paper. The final product does come up to be a little bit below your own expectations.

The editing by Pushpendra Misra and Kratika Adhikari could have been way tighter and the film could have easily been cut down by another 10 minutes or rather a lot of the scenes could have been replaced and the direction in which the story was headed could have been altered slightly.

To be honest, it seems that a lot of the story wasn’t shot properly because of the numerous delays, and eventually, a lot of it was tried to recreate in a different way during post-production. It definitely didn’t look like a screenplay which might have been approved initially by the producers of the movie.

No wonder the movie was sitting on shelves without a release date for almost over 6 years.

Verdict
It’s a no brainer that it’s a total AVOID if it was releasing in theatres, but now that it’s released directly on OTT, that too amidst the lockdown where no new content is coming up for entertainment, ‘Ghoomketu’ might not be a bad one-time watch after all. I am going with one and a half stars.

Box-Office
Considering the movie has released direct to OTT, it’s already made a profit for the producers. Will the film be able to gain that much traction amidst the audiences on the digital media, well, it doesn’t seem likely. But with audiences in lockdown and wanting to get new content to watch every second, this might well be the necessary one-time watch for the audiences, who just want to while away their time.

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Also Read: ‘Angrezi Medium’ Movie Review: Despite the glaring shortcomings in the Homi Adajania directorial, Irrfan Khan proves why he is still the best ‘Khan’

Prateek Sur

Born a Movie Buff, working as a Film Critique and enjoying life as a Bollywood Reporter.

Email: editor@bollywoodbubble.com Phone: +91 8355910465