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.
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