Hum Tum Aur Ghost: Review

Hum Tum Aur Ghost is me, you aur some laughs — and a whole lot of yawns!

Writing, producing and acting in HTAG is Arshad Warsi, who we all agree is a natural actor and can cut funny lines pretty sharp. As a fashion photographer he has this devastated, sleepless look on him. He sleeps on the benches of train stations, drunk, in spite of having an apartment in London, gets kicked by his friend and assistant Sandhya Mridul for always turning up late for shoot, is often mildly scolded by girlfriend Dia, an editor of a big magazine, and is severely insulted by Dia’s father Javed Sheikh, and remains as likeable as he usually is.

He has a problem. He hears voices inside his apartment and is scared to stay in his own place. Soon he sights people whom other people can’t see. And then he is told by one of them, a ghost, Boman Irani, who haunts his home and mind, that he has the special ability to see the dead and that they — the ghosts — need his help.

Arshad helps out three of them. First a little dead boy and his boxer father, though the story lacks focus. Then a woman who’s out in search of her son which turns out to be too predictable. Finally Arshad helps Boman to communicate with his wife after looting the bank at the dead man’s insistence.

Director Kabeer Kaushik has the difficult job of translating the concept — of the living seeing the dead that has been done to death in Hollywood — on to screen. It fails to sustain interest till the end. After the first half things fall apart in the absence of a strong script to support it. Ashok Mehta scores with the cinematography. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music is okay with the title number being a foot-tapping one.

Arshad is good, though he needs to break out of Circuit’s circuit. His chemistry with Dia is great. Dia looks uber gorgeous and also acts. The scene featuring Arshad, Sandhya and Dia, where Sandhya admits to being ‘gay’, is hilarious.

Boman’s presence is the most redeeming part of the film. He is a mix of emotion and funniness. Hats off to Boman who can make a poem like this sound most romantic.

‘Tumhari jheel jaisi ankho mein dub jana chahta hoon/ What to do?/ Mujhe tayerna aata hai!

Tumari zulfon ki ghataon mein kho jana chahta hoon/ What to do? /My sense of direction achha hain!

Following which we want to say — Bahut achha rating dena chahti thi/ What to do? Thoda neend aa gayi!


Madhuparna Das, t2