Ghoomketu (ZEE5)

Starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Ila Arun, Raghubir Yadav, Anurag Kashyap, Richa Chadha

Directed by Pushpendra Nath Misra

2.5 stars

The title of the film, Ghoomketu, intrigues. The trailer did induce excitement. After all, Nawazuddin Siddiqui features in it. He is ‘sacred’ in web space.

Having said that, the movie hails from pre-Sacred Games era, when Nawaz was, let’s put it this way, just an actor.

Now, he is a star and precisely for this reason, to harp on the Bollywood buzz, ZEE5 must have latched on to this not so impressive project.

The only saving and selling grace for Ghoomketu is Nawaz. Like my colleague and editorial consultant Subhash K Jha opines, the movie seems more like a series of gags strung together like a feature film when it actually seems designed as a Doordarshan serial.

There is an aspiring screenwriter from Uttar Pradesh played by Nawazuddin, who encouraged by his belching Bua (Ila Arun) runs away to Mumbai to try his luck in the mayanagri.

Funny in parts, the plot skims through the surface and never manages to capture the real inner struggle of an ambitious person in Mumbai.

Throw a stone at Nawaz and he would create magic with it on screen, doing what he does best, acting. In Ghoomketu, too, he does his best.

Nawazuddin’s Ghoomketu remains a happy soul through all the hurt and humiliation. There is a studio assistant who makes steeply sarcastic comments about every story idea that Ghoomketu comes up with.

When Nawaz suggests DDLJ with Ranveer Singh and Sonakshi Sinha, the two stars actually show up on screen to enact the ‘Ja Simran Ja’ train sequence for Ghoomketu’s screenplay.

Bringing in the stars is really a self-defeating exercize in a film about a struggler dreaming to make it big. Writer-director Pushpendra Nath Misra keeps interrupting his own narrative to show Ghoomketu’s father Raghubir Yadav and bua Ila Arun screaming their lungs out in what seems to be a mudslinging match where the mud splatters and sticks to the plot.

There are other noticeable star faces too, but none bring credibility to the cadence.

Ghoomketu creates the buzz, but misses the fizz. However, a better watch than other Bollywood drops on OTT platforms recently.

Watch it for Nawaz.

(With inputs from Subhash K Jha)