‘GHUDCHADI’ REVIEW | 9 August, 2024

Jio Cinema, T-Series Films and Keep Dreaming Pictures’ Ghudchadi is a romantic comedy. It is the story of two in-love couples.

Veer Sharma (Sanjay Dutt) is a widower who lives with his family. His son, Chirag (Parth Samthaan), falls in love with Devika (Khushali Kumar). But all hell breaks loose when the love birds realise that Chirag’s father, Veer, has decided to marry his ex-girlfriend, Menka (Raveena Tandon), who is the mother of Devika. Effectively, Chirag and Devika are planning to get married around the same time as their father and mother respectively are also planning to get married. To make matters worse, Veer’s mother, Kalyani Devi (Aroona Irani), is strictly against inter-cate marriages. Menka and Devika are of a different caste from that of the Sharmas. In fact, Veer had had to break up with Menka many years ago because of the inter-caste issue which did not go down well with Kalyani Devi. What happens finally? Do Chirag and Devika marry or do they call off their relationship? Do Veer and Menka sacrifice their love or do they get married?

Deepak Kapur Bhardwaj has written a story which does not have even a hint of novelty. Everything in the story has been seen in some film or the other and, therefore, the story completely lacks the excitement quotient. His screenplay, with additional screenplay by Binoy K. Gandhi, is dull and full of clichés. It is so predictable that one can guess every single scene of the drama. Obviously, the proceedings, therefore, fail to involve or engage the viewers. If the comedy is half-baked, the emotions absolutely fail to touch the heart. The romance is anything but heartwarming. Even the family drama is dull. The entire track of the underwear spiel (by Chirag on several occasions) is irritating rather than being funny or cute. Deepak Kapur Bhardwaj’s dialogues, with additional dialogues by Diksha Bhardwaj, are quite routine. Some of the dialogues (like the tatti-pishaab dialogue) are weird and even incorrect (as they are conveyed by a lady to her grandson rather than her son).

Sanjay Dutt goes through his role in a mechanical manner. Raveena Tandon is earnest and looks ravishing even now. Parth Samthaan tries hard in the role of Chirag but is hardly able to win hearts despite a fair performance. Khushali Kumar is just about alright in the role of Devika. Aroona Irani is adequate as Kalyani Devi. Akash Dabhade lends average support as Chirag’s friend and colleague, Mayank. Navni Parihar (as Veer’s sister), Naresh Gossain (as Veer’s brother-in-law), Neeraj Sood (as Dr. Bhatia), Achint Kaur (as Sunita) and Surendra Rajan (as house help Kaka) are okay. Ansha Sayed (as Veer’s daughter), Navdeep Tomar (as Veer’s son-in-law) and the rest provide ordinary support.

Binoy K. Gandhi’s direction is not up to the mark. He has narrated the routine script in such a manner that it fails to excite the audience. Music (by Tanishk Bagchi, Sukhbir, DJ Chetas and Lijo George) is fair. Lyrics (Kumaar, Sukhbir, Tanishk Bagchi, Yash Narvekar and Lijo George) are quite nice. Song picturisations (by Ganesh Acharya and Chinni Rekha Prakash) are alright. Amar Mohile’s background music is routine. Yogesh Jani’s cinematography is reasonably good. Nishant Abdul Khan’s action and stunts are functional. Production designing (by Rasheema Alva and Sangeeta Bherwani) and art direction (Baban Kharat and Satvir Kaushik) are fair. Mitesh Soni’s editing leaves something to be desired.

On the whole, Ghudchadi is a poor fare.

Released on 9-8-’24 on JioCinema.