Movie Review: 'Gang of Ghosts'

'Gang of Ghosts'
U/A: Comedy
Director: Satish Kaushik
Cast: Sharman Joshi, Mahie Gill, Anupam Kher, Meera Chopra

This is a remake of the hit Bengali film, 'Bhooter Bhabishyat'. You see Sharman Joshi playing a struggling writer, trying to sell a story to a budding filmmaker (Parambrata Chatterjee). You also see Anupam Kher playing a high-spirited ghost. And you want to believe that this film is going to be a fun ride. Well, to be fair, it is so in the beginning. Joshi narrates the story of a gang of ghosts who live in a dilapidated mansion and are soon to be uprooted as a greedy businessman (Rajesh Khattar) wants to raze it to the ground and construct a mall in its place.

'Gang of Ghosts'

The assorted gang, which includes an actress who died of alcoholism (Mahie Gill); a young girl who committed suicide after a failed affair (Meera Chopra making a debut); a Bangladeshi refugee (Saurabh Shukla); and a driver (Asrani), among others, decides to fight against the businessman. And for this, they hire the services of a tapori ghost (Jackie Shroff). In the beginning, the film shows excellent promise with spirited dialogues making fun of some Hindi films, evoking some laugh-out-loud moments. But that's just the first half hour of the film.

Soon after, the movie starts degrading faster than you can say boo and the dialogues slowly lose their steam. Soon, you have a Chunky Pandey hamming his way to death and beyond, a Mahie Gill with enough make-up to kill and the entire insufferable bunch going for an overkill. The humour gets more and more pointless and louder with each passing moment. By the time you reach the climax, you just want to run out of the theatre as if you have seen a ghost.

Satish Kaushik's direction seems as clueless as human beings are about after-life. After a point, everyone seems to be doing their own thing and it seems like Joshi and Chatterjee just want to get over with the damn story.

Give this film a miss. Get an Ouija board and visit your favourite ghost instead. That will definitely be far more entertaining.