This ‘Spirited’ Film Lacks Substance
A London based successful fashion photographer Armaan sleeps in the station for he hears voices in his apartment or even when he is alone. Realizing that he can not only hear them but also see them the dead contact him to complete their unfinished business on earth. Crazy as it sounds he starts helping them much to the disdain of his clueless girlfriend Ghena. The only people who know this is his psychiatrist and Mini, his lesbian assistant. Armaan starts helping Carol, a spirit murdered by her husband some 30 years ago, to look for her son. As Armaan gets more involved in Carol’s world his psychiatrist is convinced that he is schizophrenic. Unperturbed Armaan realizes that he isn’t just looking for Carol’s missing son but is, in fact, seeking to unearth some secrets of his past as well.
The screenplay of the film spirals out of control with each passing moment leading to sheer anger and frustration in the viewer. Think about it – Armaan has been helping real ghosts solve tangible problems but his psychiatrist is convinced that he is suffering from schizophrenia and even convinces Ghena of the same. Rather than confronting each other Armaan doesn’t tell Ghena about the ‘real’ ghosts that she believes are ‘imaginary’ and she won’t come out and tell him that he is nuts! If Armaan can take Mini on ghost problem solving mission then why won’t he ask her to explain things to Ghena or just take Ghena to meet the dead ghost Kapoor’s very alive wife!
In addition to a fistful of half-baked decent scenes legendary Ashok Mehta’s cinematography is all the substance in Hum Tum Aur Ghost. Three writers including Arshad Warsi are credited but it seems like they came up with scenes just to fill the interesting lines they conversed in. The treatment is contrived and stupid that physically we see Armaan the first few times when Kapoor enters his body but when it comes to ‘meeting’ his wife Armaan transforms into Kapoor!
Arshad Warsi plugs in a few good ones but takes a beating for trying his hand at drama as his emotional histrionics leaves the audience in splits. Boman Irani as Kapoor the main ghost is passable while Sandhya Mridul’s gay assistant photographer might be routine but enjoyable in parts. Dia Mirza puts in an earnest effort and is partly convincing as well but one thing’s beyond doubt she has never looked so pretty on screen!
Director Kabeer Kaushik who gave Arshad Warsi his only decent serious outing as an actor in Seher seems completely at sea here. Hum Tum Aur Ghost might have been interesting on paper but lacks luster and ends up being below average.
Cast:
Arshad Warsi, Dia Mirza, Sandhya Mridul, Boman Irani and Zehra Naqvi
Screenplay:
ArshadWarsi, Arshad Ali Syed, Soumik Sen
Directed by:
Kabeer Kaushik