'Ghudchadi' review: Lackluster and flat film is a tedious affair
What's the story
Whenever a film starts with exposition, my heart sinks a little. Such pieces of cinema position themselves as "quirky," teem with unfunny jokes and supposed "modern" characters. Binoy Gandhi's Ghudchadi, on JioCinema, is exactly that. With a predictable story that makes you drowsy and jokes that will vex you, the film is the cinematic equivalent of a tiresome relative who gets on your nerves.
Story
This is what happens in the film
As needlessly explained in detail in the trailer, the film circles the life of Devika (Khushalii Kumar) and Chirag (Parth Samthaan), who have a rushed romance, and then plan to get married. However, they belong to different castes, and the situation worsens when Devika's mother Menka (Raveena Tandon) reconnects with her old love, Chirag's father Veer (Sanjay Dutt). Whose love will eventually persevere?
#1
Almost nothing clicks; you want film to come to point
Ghudchadi sounds—and feels—like a person narrating a story to a child hoping he would doze off, but that's not what you want your viewer to do! Its humor is banal and lowbrow—the usual husband-wife jokes, a woman calling maps "who" and not "what," and the worst—when a younger person addresses an elderly person by their name to appear "cool." A supremely dated, unfunny technique.
#2
How much voiceover is too much?
When voiceovers keep breaking down the scene, movies become utterly drab, boring, and tiring, and this is a trap Ghudchadi willingly walks into. Can we not fathom scenes ourselves? Moreover, slow shots, intended to show affection and attraction between two people, mean nothing because everything looks artificial and staged, and resultantly, we are never swept into the world the film builds for us.
#3
Too many unnecessary scenes, hardly any meat
Another factor that bogs the movie down is that it doesn't know when to give precedence to humor and when to allow drama to take the front seat. Unnecessarily lengthy, cumbersome, awkward conversations weigh heavily on Ghudchadi, and several needless sequences (and songs!) are stuffed in to (over)compensate for the lack of a rich, gravitas-laden story and a thriving screenplay.
#4
It will leave you tired and worn out
If you sat through the trailer, then you already know 95% of the story; the rest of the screenplay is merely an unsuccessful extension of that idea. There is no story here that you can invest yourself into, no memorable character your heart can beat for, and resultantly, it feels much longer than it really is because it sucks energy out of you.
#5
How does the cast fare?
When movies are so tragically predictable, overlong, and devoid of any spark, the only factor that may slightly work in their favor is the cast of its ensemble. But here, despite Tandon and Samthaan's optimum efforts, there's not much they can do to salvage this sunken ship. Kumar's acting is mediocre and unconvincing, and Dutt, unfortunately, looks like he would rather be somewhere else!
#6
More on Samthaan and Tandon's performances
Props also to Samthaan, who, in his film debut, shows promise and panache and sells his character well despite it being another regular "Delhi guy" role we see in every second movie. He and Tandon glisten the most out of the ensemble, and that's saying something considering Aruna Irani (who gets some of the worst lines), is also a part of the acting team.
#7
Makes some good points about social evils
As for credit where it's due, the film makes some well-thought-out, incisive arguments about a number of issues that deal directly with the Indian middle-class. For instance, it critiques India's unreasonable hatred for love marriages and the preposterous obsession with the caste system. If that was explored a bit better, Ghudchadi could have been a much better film than it currently is.
Verdict
Can skip the film altogether; 1.5/5 stars
If you have nothing better to do over the weekend and wish to kill two hours, I suggest you find better avenues that are worth your time. The film, with its middling storyline, predictable twists, and overall sub-par execution and presentation, is best stayed away from. The JioCinema film gets 1.5/5 stars. And, can we have decent stories worth senior actors, please?