Gangster tale offers a bumpy ride
GHANCHAKKAR (6/10)
BACKGROUND
TWO years ago, Vidya Balan teamed up with filmmaker Rajkumar Gupta for an emotionally charged drama, No
One Killed Jessica, which earned commercial and critical success. Gupta now changes genres, producing Ghanchakkar, a quirky entertainer with Balan — who has been riding the crest of a wave with consecutive hit movies — and the ever-consistent Emraan Hashmi. STORY
ACE thief Suraj (Hashmi) is conned by two crazy gangsters, Pundit (Rajesh Sharma) and Idris (Namit Das) into doing one last bank robbery. The heist goes off smoothly and the trio decide that Suraj will hide the money for three months until the case has gone cold. The time passes but, while Pundit and Idris are eagerly awaiting their profit from the robbery, Suraj is diagnosed with amnesia. He has now completely forgotten where he stashed the money. Then Pundit and Idris move in with Suraj and his loud wife, Neetu (Balan) — which leads to trouble. PERFORMANCES
HASHMI and Balan are talented stars who do justice to their roles. Hashmi handles his confused character well, but it is Balan who lights up the screen as the fiery and strong Punjabi housewife. Sharma and Das are alright, but sometimes become annoying as the story gets a little stretched. DIRECTION
THE action starts straight away and Gupta does a good job keeping the viewer entertained with an unusual story and some enjoyable characters. But just as he builds the momentum to what could have been a fascinating climax, the story fizzles out, leaving many unanswered questions. MUSIC
GUPTA makes a wise decision to exclude music, which can sometimes distract the audience OVERALL
BESIDES the catchy story, one of the other reasons to enjoy this movie is the nice combination of Balan and Hashmi, who work so well together.
Ghanchakkar may not rank among their best movies but it does offer something different.