Ghost

Ghost- A convoluted complex heist thriller that will blow your mind at the end as the deep rock is carved to see the diamond. The plot is mixed with so many layers (like an onion) in the first half, and one will be thinking what's going on here?, but patience prevails in the second half as it is slowly peeled or revealed with a big bang! Shivanna is classic with his scary looks as "THE OG", and the role is perfected with class and style. The screenplay is as fast as F35 fighter jets, and races ahead with full force. Director Srini is a genius as he waves his magical screenplay with a masterstroke by tying all the knots at the end. BGM is loud and hits right to the moments they want to capture. GHOST indeed is a BOOST to Srini's creativity and a FEAST in the intelligent thriller genre.

Amidst the protest against privatization of prisons, ex-CBI officer Vamana Srinivasan wins the bid for the central prison. On it's inaugural event, a mysterious man with his gang successfully hijacks the prison and keeps the prisoners as hostages along with the jailer and Vamana himself. ACP Chengappa is assigned this case and he tries to figure out the motive behind this hijacking and how to nab the mastermind while the OG, is at times few steps ahead of everyone. What is the reason for the hijacking and who is this mysterious guy, the answers to all the questions is not present in this film for sure.

It's a treat to watch Shivanna shine on screen, completely surrending himself to his Director's vision. However, Srini has the overambitious vision, he doesn't have the writing or directorial skills required to pull it off. Once again the incoherent screenplay plays the spoilsport. The attempt is to give a non-linear narrative with constant jumping back in the timeline but the amateurish writing doesn't help Srini's cause and the disappointing dialogues too bring down the film. Every time Srini strikes gold with Shivanna and proper fan service, the scene jumps back to a dull flashback which barely match the excitement.

The main plot is as simple as one expects, a revenge story. The screenplay demands for the logic to be thrown out. But for the magic to happen, having Shivanna as your only magic trick isn't enough. Despite the short runtime, the scenes do lag. On paper, the scenes might have felt to be thrilling but the execution is so haphazard followed by the abrupt editing, multiple times the scene transition just feels like continuity errors. The hyped the final act too loses it's impact and even here, couple of scenes work really well to please the fans but considering the overall content, it is sadly a hugely missed opportunity.

Director MG Srinivas has had a collection of some interesting films in his belt. Although not perfect, his films have shown some promise and always offered something new. He kept the audience guessing from the time of announcement and through the promotions of the movie. The Big Daddy promo and the trailer showed two different shades of the film. Dr Shivarajkumar aka Shivanna hasn't had a great run himself after his successful experimental 'Tagaru' with Sur. With him gaining popularity among the whole South Indian film industry after his cracking appearance in Jailer, the expectations around this have been high.

Ghost seems like a heist thriller from the overall setup in the movie. But as the movie goes on, one can realize it is much more complex than that. The movie however does run very fast and needs complete attention to understand what is happening. The length of the movie is kind of both the positive and negative point for the movie. At times it almost feels like this script could have made a great mini-series on an OTT platform. There is a lot of stuff happening in the movie to comprehend at times and it is told mainly through the interaction of two main characters. While the first half is all about set-up, plan and the tricks by Shivanna and his gang it is during the second half we get to see some scope towards the role build of Shivanna. The movie's action sequences are focused more to be seen as clever moves than the grand. There are certain hype moments for Shivanna fans and some special easter eggs for the ones who would have keenly followed Shivanna's career. Arjun Janya's background score is apt to keep the movie's adrenaline going but slightly misses an USP element to it. Cinematography is excellent at times and at times it is too fast. While I understand the director's intention of non-linear screenplay the editing could have been much better. I also feel that there were much better opportunities to elevate Shivanna's character had the movie been slowed down a little. Looks like both the releases of the week Leo and Ghost ended up needing better elevation moments to their main characters at certain points.

Ghost is definitely a unique experiment for an actor of Shivanna's calibre. He runs the show from the beginning and peaks in the second half especially with the different shades that come along the character. While Jayaram plays the template role of 'chasing cop', his role seems a bit too tiring. The other characters in the movie doesn't really light up the screen any further. It is good to see both Anupam Kher and Jayaram having dubbed for their own roles in Kannada.

Ghost is definitely a stand out movie for the Kannada film industry which will be talked about more in the future. It is definitely a landmark in both Shivanna and Srini's careers in its own way. It is understandable if someone doesn't end up liking this movie in a theatre watch but this definitely needs a patient viewing with pause and analysis on OTT.

Srini comes back with a banger of a movie. Packs in Shivanna on the screen with sheer finesse and also makes sure to sprinkle the massy sections at appropriate time segments. Also the high pace screenplay ensures you have no dull moments in the story and also makes be on the edge of the seat.

The BGM by Arjun Janya ensues exhilaration throughout the movie. Especially the background score during flashback sequence is a cherry on top.

Apart from Shivanna even other characters were able to shine in their roles as well, the Jayaram's Character and Ex-CBI charcter were so nice to watch to name a few.

We have a special messenger in this movie, the conceptualization of that was a cinematic brilliance. Srini also has brilliantly integrated other technical elements aptly into the story.

Overall this movie was a great ride this is a multi-genre fast-paced mass-entertainer which we can enjoy in the theatre.

I am eager to watch further ventures from Srini in future, his direction is refined here compared to his older ones.

Movie Name: Ghost(2023) Director: M. G. Srinivas.

I am giving my rating only for Shivanna's superb and stylish acting. While the story had potential, the screenplay lacked any coherence and the story telling left much to be desired. There are many scenes like tanker burning scene etc, which left me curious when I watched it in trailer. But it left me very disappointed as there was no explanation of it's relevance. The ending leaves with a hope of a next part. I hope Srini takes some lesson and put more effort on making the screenplay logical and not only based on mass dialogue and scenes. The fights are well choreographed. Hiest plan could have been explained well instead of just rushing it in a backdrop.