Movie Review: Ghanchakkar..ne kuch khaas nahi ghumaya

After creating unexpected magic at the box office with The Dirty Picture the unlikely hit combination of Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan came together for what sounded like a situational comedy with noir elements, with Ghanchakkar. With a trailer that gives away practically the entire plot, one still ventured to the theater hoping that there was more to this story than meets the eye. Unfortunately, there isn’t

First the good part. Let’s start with background score. Surprised? Well, I was too, but a large part of what makes this movie watchable is the near perfect background score that Amit Trivedi puts in place to make even the dull moments come alive with anticipation. That, and the unique and promising premise this movie starts with are its real heroes. Where the train goes off-track is when the director, quite evidently, wondered what to do after such a promising start. He could’ve taken it in 15 different directions; instead he chose to take it in – well, none (other than perhaps towards the climax but we can’t talk about that for obvious reasons)

As for the comedy. Well, it’s the subtle stuff that bring the real guffaws rather than the obvious efforts to make you laugh..the priceless dinner table moments after the hilarious bank scene to count a few. Emraan Hashmi’s rather confused character seemingly had potential to make you laugh too but considering its Hashmi doing the delivery, the humor element dries up considerably. I am also not sure why the script required a Punjaban housewife and am even more perplexed why Balan was chosen for such a role. While her Punjabi dialogues come in with spot on accent and fervour, her other dialogues seem far too forced and lack the natural Punjabi touch. To make matters worse her character, which had the potential to be the most complex isn’t really so; an actress of Vidya Balan’s calibre ought to have been given a lot more scope and this character even had the potential.

The writing is a real let-down – even when someone like Rajesh Sharma can’t make you laugh much with his one – liners, its clear that content must take the blame. This is even more obvious, down the line, where you’ll hear the main characters scream and shout the same dialogues you could swear you heard just 10 minutes ago and this happens multiple times. The movie relies more on frequent swear words than on good dialogue to interest its audience and for the most part – it doesn’t work

A big problem for Ghanchakkar is that its really not sure what it wants to be – an in your face comedy, a subtle and quirky satire or a crime thriller. By trying to be all three it ends up being neither. To make matters worse, Ghanchakkar is at least half an hour too long and could’ve been a lot more snappier – thereby becoming a more engaging watch

As it stands then, Ghanchakkar's premise promised a lot but its execution delivers little – had hoped for better when I walked into the hall.