Ghanchakkar

Ghanchakkar is a refreshing comedy revolving around a laid back criminal Sanju (Emran Hashmi) and his "fashionable" wife Neetu (Vidya Balan).

The film begins with the uneventful life of Sanju having to deal with his wife's bland food and his mother's doting phone-calls. Living a passive life and having somewhat given up his criminal days as a safe opening expert, he takes on a bank robbery job with Neetu cleverly pushing him into the decision.

Enter two seemingly unlikely scheming bandits Pandit and Idris the played superbly by Rajesh Sharma and Nimit Das who create the 'master plan'. The heist itself is brilliantly hilarious - Utpal Dutt's mask still cracks me up. After the successful robbery they decide to stay low for three months and forcefully give Sanju the responsibility of safekeeping the money.

Three months pass....and Sanju has lost his memory of the robbery...or has he? What ensues is determining who is scheming who! The film does lose its steam in some parts and would have done with some more threads but to the director's credit he still manages to keep the suspense and doesn't dumb the film down. Add to that Hashmi's poker face,which doesn't give much away, adding to the intrigue. Vidya Balan is also quite good as the dominating Punjabi wife.

The final act is surprisingly good for a Hindi film and keeps a few threads still open, leaving the viewer to interpret it in his own way. Overall a good effort, I certainly would recommend this unconventional comedy.

Remember when Andaz Apna Apna failed miserably at the box office? No one would have guessed that it would become of the most religiously beloved Bollywood cult films of all time. Ghanchakkar is in a similar boat, where the complexity of both the comedy and suspense aspects of the films are completely outside everyone's comfort zone. The films ending is what most people complain about, but that was, in my opinion, the cherry on top of a brilliant dark comedy.

GHANCHAKKAR is a comedy/thriller directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, starring Emraan Hashmi and Vidya Balan.

The film revolves around Sanjay Atre, who receives a call to join two people; Pandit and Idris to steal a bank. Being a small time thief, he decides to end his career with this one last job worth 350,000. After pulling it, Pandit and Idris decide to keep the money Sanjay and only after three months, they will collect their respective shares of the loot. The only problem is that Sanjay has partially lost his memory due to an accident, and doesn't quite remember where he kept the money, but we don't even know if he's telling the truth, or just conning everyone.

Alright, the trailer of Ghanchakkar left me awaitng its release due to its premise and star cast. When the film released, I booked my ticket to see the film and it didn't quite live up to the hype I had created.

So let's start off with the plot of the film. From what I've written above, the plot seemed solid, yet when executed into a 2hr15m, the movie sinks.

I'm going to be honest with you; THIS FILM IS A DARK COMEDY. Yes, the trailer betrays you. Pandit and Idris are seen more comical in the trailer, but are much crazier in the film. And this movie isn't quite funny. Except for a few forced laughs here and there, it tries to keep you gripped to the plot. But we can never do that, due to the fact that no entertainment on-screen tends to bore a person. Inspite of the movie being quite alright, the film's BIGGEST flaw is the end. It is SUCH a letdown. I could have thought of tons of ways to make it better. After realizing the movie hasn't lived up to your expectations, everyone expects the ending to be a BIG one; one that you didn't even see coming from a mile away. But the director sticks to a very common one that literally irritates you. And later when you dwell upon the movie, you say to yourself, "What was the point of that movie?"

The acting was great; that I can tell you. Emraan Hashmi seems to be getting better with every movie he does. VIdya Balan was also good, but had much of a background role. And everyone else associated with the film did great. But it was wasted talent, as the plot played a spoiltsport.

In the end, GHANCHAKKAR is a pointless film. It builds up your expectations to a point where you watch the film and it just crumbles down to spots. It just proves that Bollywood is trying to hard to be Hollywood. The film would have been alright if the ending had a GREATER and more powerful twist, but it doesn't, so it makes you leave the cinema just disappointed.

GHANCHAKKAR- 5.5/10

Not sure why lowest rating.. i can watch this movie any time and any number of times .. cult classy and totally cool.. do watch it guys and you'll definitely love it.

This movie is not as bad as its reviews are. In fact, it very refreshing comedy/thriller. I think audience and critics didn't take it in its spirit or its ahead of its time. Any person can enjoy it at any time.

Story is very well written. There are no big loopholes in it. Director has done a great job. Though plot was very small but they spread it very well over 2 hours. Acting wise, Emraan has done a great job. I am and never was a great fan of his acting skills but he proved in this movie that he is great actor and you will love watching him. Vidya is miss-cast in my view. Though she is great actor but I think makers of this movie picked her because of her success streak. Otherwise a pure Punjabi actress would do much better job and brought more reality, particular culture and ascent in this role. Even Juhi Chawal despite her age was better choice than Vidya.

All in all, its a must watch. Its little bit experimental film but its very easy to digest. One thing I'll must say that it will glue you to your seat till the end though you might feel little boring at some instances. But you'll not regret watching it.