Ghoomketu review: Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Anurag Kashyap’s film is a must-watch for 70s Bollywood fans

Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Ghoomketu is a laugh riot written and directed by Pushpendra Nath Mishra. The film also stars Anurag Kashyap, Raghubir Yadav and Ila Arun in pivotal roles.

Movie Name:GhoomketuCast:Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Raghubir YadavDirector:Pushpendra Nath Mishra

Asmall-town man aspiring to achieve big reaches Mumbai with a big metal trunk and a military holdall. Seems like a plot for a quintessential 70s Bollywood film? Well, it isn’t. Directed by Pushpendra Nath Mishra, Ghoomketu, which finally released on Zee5 after a waiting period of 5 years, stars Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the titular role of a 31-year-old aspiring Bollywood writer who flees his village, Mohena in Uttar Pradesh to realise his dream in Mumbai. From heavy and funny dialogues to melodrama and police chase, Ghoomketu is a film high on every genre one can think of while making a Bollywood blockbuster.

Ghoomketu is no Harivanshrai Bachchan, but has a flair for writing quirky dialogues that may sound cheesy, but surely are catchy. His writing style can be credited to the environment he has been brought up in and his family members. Dadda (Raghubir Yadav), Ghoomketu’s father, is a typical middle-class father who is never impressed by his son. A widower once, he remarries to find new love but only to be disappointed. Ghoomektu has an angel in his aunt Santo Bua (Ila Arun). She is loud and has a bizarre problem that we leave for you to find out. Ghoomketu’s uncle, Guddan Chacha (Swanand Kirkire) is an MLA who becomes a politician by accident, which is also quite interesting. If you thought that Ghoomketu is yet to marry, then you are wrong. He gets married in a samuhik vivah (group wedding) where his bride gets exchanged. Get you excited, already?

Hoping to land a job, Ghoomketu reaches the office of Gudgudi, the local daily of his village. He clearly doesn’t get a job offer, but instead, receives a book on how to be a Bollywood writer in 30 days written by Chief Editor Joshi (Brijendra Kala). He finally decides to test his luck in Bollywood and go to Mumbai. Santo Bua is his partner-in-crime and provides him with Rs 20,000 and, of course, some besan ke laddu.

Cut to Mumbai, Ghoomketu starts his struggle and rents a small room used as a boutique to lie down at night. Back in Mohena, his family is going berserk to find him. Guddan Chacha uses his contacts to exert pressure on the police officials. Enter Inspector Badlani (Anurag Kashyap), who has been asked to find Ghoomketu in a month or he’ll be transferred. He is a corrupt and bumbling cop, and at the same time extremely lazy.

Here starts the struggle for both, Ghoomketu and Inspector Badlani. While the former visits different filmmakers with his script, the latter only ‘thinks’ of how he can find Ghoomketu. Meanwhile, Ghoomketu loses his script and decides to go back to his village. But then, something happens which even Ghoomketu never dreamt of.

The film takes you on a roller-coaster comedy ride. Nawazuddin is as natural as ever. One cannot differentiate the actor from the character he is playing. As a small-town writer, he makes us believe in his innocence and stories. The way he narrates his tales feels like he is as amazed by them as the person listening to him.

Each and every character in Ghoomketu is written with heart and soul. Each one of them has a back story and supports the story in their own unique way. Raghubir Yadav’s energy is unmatchable. After TVF’s web series Panchayat, he epitomises a middle-class father in Ghoomketu. Ila Arun is a surprise package. While she tickles the funny bone with her over-the-top representation of a Bollywood bua, she is like the glue that binds Dadda and Ghoomketu. Swanand Kirkire is a delight to watch in the small screen presence he got. Anurag Kashyap as Inspector Badlani is believable, however, not impressive. He appears lazy, but not in the sense the character must have been perceived by the director. It appears he is just unwilling to act and has been forced into doing that.

Kudos to the writer and director, Pushpendra Nath Mishra. He said in an interview that the story of Ghoomketu came to him in a dream. Well, it must have been a fun dream. The way the characters transition from village to Mumbai and then again back to the village is so effortless. The dialogues have been written meticulously while keeping the comedy quotient intact throughout the film. Caricatures of Bollywood characters have been used to the audience’s delight in the film. The director has trusted the interactive style of narration that he earlier used in his project Taj Mahal 1989, currently streaming on Netflix. The same style of narration we saw in Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag, which can be watched on Amazon Prime Video.

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Even the decision to include some of the most popular actors in the industry in cameos works for the film. Sneha Khanvilkar and Jasleen Royal’s music adds the required punch to the story and mixes well with the narrative.

The only thing that works against Ghoomketu is its length. The 1-hour-48-minute story could have been easily told in 1 hour 30 minutes.

Ghoomketu is the dose of laughter each one of us deserve in these testing times. With such brilliant performances by Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Raghubir Yadav, this one can’t be missed.

Spoiler alert: Another reason to watch the film is Amitabh Bachchan. Why, you ask? You’ll know once you watch the film.