Ghost Kannada Movie Review: Dr. Shiva Rajkumar And Jayaram Try Their Earnest Best To Salvage This Scattered Heist Thriller

Director: M.G Srinivas

Cast: Dr. Shiva Rajkumar, Jayaram, Anupam Kher, Archana Jois, Prashanth Narayanan

Where: Running in cinemas

Rating: 2 stars

The excitement for a Kannada film in recent times has doubled following the unprecedented popularity witnessed for K.G.F. and Kantara. The author’s personal favourite Kannada films in the past few years are Garuda Gamana Vrishabha Vahana and 777 Charlie. The latter was awarded the Best Kannada film at the 69^th National Film Awards, this year. With the Pan-Indian mania taking over all regional industries, the lines have blurred. More collaborations are happening between actors and technicians today irrespective of their backgrounds and languages.

In such scenarios, a film like Ghost comes as an exciting prospect that boasts of a fine cast. While Dr. Shiva Rajkumar is hailed as the ‘Big Daddy of the Masses’ by Kannada film fans, there is also Jayaram and Anupam Kher, both accomplished actors in the Malayalam and Hindi film industries, respectively.

Definitely, the excitement for a good film is bound to peak. But, is the presence of a good cast enough to elevate a story? Let’s decipher.

Ghost begins when a dreaded gangster (Rajkumar), who remains unnamed, plots to hijack a prison cell, with the help enlisted from its inmates and carry an unthinkable heist. Righteous and ruthless senior police officer Charan Raj (Jayaram) is summoned to thwart his moves. The rest of the film unfolds where viewers must also bring themselves to understand the gangster’s motives and why is he avenging the injustice doled out to him by the system.

Directed by M.G Srinivas, the plot begins with all the right ingredients in place required to execute a film of this scale. But the screenplay in the second half falters, resulting in a scattered broth. While the first half rests along smart introductory sequences and the story is set in motion, Ghost begins to lose steam post interval where things go helter-skelter and you are unable to fathom after a point as to what is exactly happening.

Which is a bit of a disappointment as heist thrillers make for edge-of-the-seat entertainers. But Srinivas’ strive to resort to more heroics than actually offer a convincing plot clearly derails the viewing experience further.

On the technical aspects, Arjun Janya’s music and the excellent cinematography by Mahendra Simha manage to enhance the prospects of Ghost. Simha’s lenses add the perfect tension and thrill to key crucial action sequences. But for those humble mercies, very little can be expected in terms of a convincing storyline.

It’s then left to the actors to save the film’s prospects. Rajkumar lets his sharp eyes do the talking. Even when he is de-aged (props to the make-up department and the VFX team for effectively delivering that), he is able to communicate his characters emotions, irrespective of the situation, effortlessly. Jayaram, who has always been popular amongst Malayalam cinema fans for his comic lead roles, makes for an engaging nemesis to Rajkumar’s character. Anupam Kher has very limited screen presence which allows very little time for viewers to engage with his performance. Archana Jois as a young journalist is frankly wasted. Prashanth Narayanan’s track in the film too is left unfinished.

Ghost, at the most, is an exercise to please fans. Should you choose to watch it, you can leave all your expectations aside and walk in to appease your fandom for the lead actor.