Movie Review : Ghanchakkar (2013)

Rating : 3.8/5
Genre : Comedy/Suspense
Year : 2013
Running time : 2 hours 17 minutes
Director : Rajkumar Gupta
Cast : Emraan Hashmi, Vidya Balan, Rajesh Sharma, Namit Das, Parvin Dabbas
Kid rating : PG-15

Now, Ghanchakkar is directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, the director of “No one killed Jessica”, which was OK, and “Aamir” which was fabulous. Given his more than decent track record I had high hopes from Ghanchakkar. Friday dawns and with it come the negative reviews. I was determined to watch this film though, because I didn’t think that Gupta could have stooped so low. And was I right! Despite all the poor reviews it is getting, I have to say that this film comes through – it is a pretty good comedy/thriller.

Sanjay Athray (Hashmi) is a top-notch safe-cracker/thief. Having decided to leave all his bad ways behind and walk the straight and narrow he is tempted into one last bank job by Pandit (Rajesh Sharma) and Idris (Namit Das). The robbery is a success and Sanjay and his partners decide to let things cool off and meet up again in three months to divvy up the loot. The money meanwhile, remains with Sanjay.

After three months, Pandit and Idris contact Sanjay but he refuses to recognize them. He’s apparently suffering from amnesia, because of an accident – i.e.; he’s forgotten certain things while remembering others. The money is one of the things he has forgotten about, along with his association with Pandit and Idris. Or at least, that’s what he says . . .

Ghanchakkar has a set of marvelous characters. There is Sanjay Atre himself – goofy and given to vacant stares, and his wife Neetu (Vidya Balan) a stout Punjaban who fancies herself well-dressed and “modern”. Then there are the bad guys – Pandit, an oily, avuncular goon, all stained teeth and cheap safari suit, and Idris, a rash, trigger-happy, youngblood. All four roles are essayed beautifully. Everyone is spot-on, except for one minor irritation – Vidya’s on-again-off-again Punjabi accent. She tries really hard too. She swallows the vowels like any self-respecting small-town Punjaban would – she says “Bhrosa” instead of “Bharosa” (meaning trust), and does a “hain?” like she means it, but on the whole it doesn’t sound very authentic. A flaw, but a very, very minor one.

Here a word about Vidya Balan and what a superb actress she is. As Neetu she appears in the most outlandish clothing – large crocheted hairbands with humongous bows, frilly capris, deconstructed blouses, misshapen mini-skirts and cleavage-revealing negligees with built-in-guitars (too weird to explain – hopefully you’ve seen the trailer). In short she has ghastly taste, but is sure she has a great flair for dressing and no one, least of all her husband, can appreciate it. Balan is not the thinnest of actresses and looks especially fattened up for this role. And despite all this, the woman looks beautiful, and acts the heck out of this role. She IS Neetu, so seeped in the character is she.

The film’s plot is punctuated by vignettes of humor. There is the recurring joke about Neetu’s clothes, and another about her terrible cooking. The dialogues are apt and so, so fabulous. While the film’s plot hinges around the missing money, the body of the film deals with the angst arising from it – the tension between Sanjay and Neetu, and the sliminess that pervades the atmosphere whenever Pandit and Idris come around sniffing for their money.

The film is decently paced. It doesn’t get to solving the money issue very quickly obviously, and spends it’s time developing the characters – time enough for us to get into their heads, and wonder who the liar is in these four goofballs. I’m really pleased with this film. I think it could have been tighter and avoided the few cliched pitfalls it did have, which is why it comes in at a rating of 3.8, instead of a full 4.

Regardless, this is a great watch – go see it.

Kidwise : Ghanchakkar has many adult situations and dialogues, which might be OK for 15+ and older. Also the movie is dialogue-heavy and will probably bore younger kids.