Hum Tum Aur Ghost

Star cast: Arshad Warsi, Dia Mirza, Boman Irani.

Plot: Arshad can see and speak to ghosts. His girlfriend, Dia, thinks he is going mad. But that doesn’t prevent Arshad from wanting to help the benign ghosts.

What’s Good: A couple of comic scenes.

What’s Bad: The unclear ending: is Arshad a schizophrenic? Or can he really talk to ghosts? The ending has both the aspects.

Verdict: Although the ghosts in the film aren’t scary, its collections will definitely scare the daylights out of everyone!

Loo Break: None really.

Studio 18 and Shooting Star Films Pvt. Ltd.’s Hum Tum Aur Ghost is the story of a young man who can see and speak with ghosts. Armaan Suri (Arshad Warsi), a renowed fashion photographer, who is an orphan, realises one day that the voices that hound him every night when he is alone at home are those of ghosts. Even as his girlfriend, Gehna Sinha (Dia Mirza), and psychiatrist (Shernaz Patel) are convinced that he is a schizophrenic, Armaan goes about the task of helping at least two ghosts.

One ghost he helps is that of Mr. V.K. Kapoor (Boman Irani) who wants Armaan to break open his bank locker and give all the wealth inside, to his widow (Asawari Joshi) who is being tortured by their son (Ashwin Mushran) and daughter-in-law. Armaan accomplishes the almost impossible task with the help of Mr. Kapoor’s ghost and his (Armaan’s) colleague and best friend, Mini (Sandhya Mridul). He also helps the ghost of a little kid who begs of Armaan to save his boxer-father’s life.

Armaan is keen to help the ghost of Carol Fernandes (Zehra Jane Naqvi) reach out to her child, Danny, who she had left behind 30 years ago. In spite of his best efforts to locate Danny, Armaan fails. But then, Armaan sees something in a photograph clicked by him, which sets him thinking. Is he able to accomplish the task entrusted to him by Carol Fernandes’ ghost? Who is Danny? What happens to Gehna – does she stick around with Armaan whom she loves, or does she leave him because of his madness? Answers to these questions are revealed in the climax.

The film, coming as it does after films like Karthik Calling Karthik, 8 X 10 Tasveer, Aa Dekhen Zaraa and Click, seems similar in content or, at least, has some angle which matches an angle in these films. Also, not many among the public would be able to appreciate and enjoy the drama about a man conversing with benign ghosts. Because it is not clear whether Armaan can actually see and talk to ghosts or he is just living in an imaginary world of his own, the audience would be confused. In that sense, the story, penned by Arshad Warsi, is not completely enjoyable.

While some scenes are indeed entertaining, the overall impact isn’t one which makes the viewer feel satisfied. Among the really enjoyable scenes are the one of bank robbery and the one in which Armaan, prompted by Mr. Kapoor, tries to win over Mrs. Kapoor by reciting weird shairies. But other than these, the drama lacks light moments which would entertain the viewers. There are several emotional scenes too, but many of them do not touch the heart while a couple of them do moisten the eyes.

Probably, the biggest drawback of the screenplay – penned by Soumik Sen, Arshad Sayed and Arshad Warsi – is that the writers have succeeded in making it neither a comedy nor an emotional tear-jerker nor even a love story. Even the dialogues (Sen, Sayed and Warsi) could have been far better.

Arshad Warsi lives his role and acts extremely naturally. He gives his all to the role and adds to the drama with a performance that is very realistic. Dia Mirza looks pretty and also acts with ease. Boman Irani is suitably restrained and evokes laughter at places. Sandhya Mridul is superb. Shernaz Patel, Tinnu Anand, Ashwin Mushran, Asawari Joshi, Zehra Jane Naqvi, Jawed Sheikh, Rituraj, Farhan Siddiqui (as police inspector Arjun) and the rest lend able support.

Kabeer Kaushik’s direction is good but not of the kind which would find universal acceptance. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music and Javed Akhtar’s lyrics make a decent combination but the well-tuned songs aren’t very popular. Background music (by Julius Packiam) is truly nice. Camerawork (Ashok Mehta) is very good while the computer graphics (Red Chillies VFX) are average. Jai Singh’s action scenes are fair.

On the whole, Hum Tum Aur Ghost lacks entertainment in the sense in which the audience today wants it. Its story is also not so strong that the public would overlook the lack of the usual entertainment value and accept the film whole-heartedly. Given its fairly high budget on the one hand and its very dull start on the other, it will end up entailing heavy losses to all concerned.

Studio 18 and Shooting Star Films Pvt. Ltd.’s Hum Tum Aur Ghost is the story of a young man who can see and speak with ghosts. Armaan Suri (Arshad Warsi), a renowed fashion photographer, who is an orphan, realises one day that the voices that hound him every night when he is alone at home are those of ghosts. Even as his girlfriend, Gehna Sinha (Dia Mirza), and psychiatrist (Shernaz Patel) are convinced that he is a schizophrenic, Armaan goes about the task of helping at least two ghosts.

One ghost he helps is that of Mr. V.K. Kapoor (Boman Irani) who wants Armaan to break open his bank locker and give all the wealth inside, to his widow (Asawari Joshi) who is being tortured by their son (Ashwin Mushran) and daughter-in-law. Armaan accomplishes the almost impossible task with the help of Mr. Kapoor’s ghost and his (Armaan’s) colleague and best friend, Mini (Sandhya Mridul). He also helps the ghost of a little kid who begs of Armaan to save his boxer-father’s life.

Armaan is keen to help the ghost of Carol Fernandes (Zehra Jane Naqvi) reach out to her child, Danny, who she had left behind 30 years ago. In spite of his best efforts to locate Danny, Armaan fails. But then, Armaan sees something in a photograph clicked by him, which sets him thinking. Is he able to accomplish the task entrusted to him by Carol Fernandes’ ghost? Who is Danny? What happens to Gehna – does she stick around with Armaan whom she loves, or does she leave him because of his madness? Answers to these questions are revealed in the climax.

The film, coming as it does after films like Karthik Calling Karthik, 8 X 10 Tasveer, Aa Dekhen Zaraa and Click, seems similar in content or, at least, has some angle which matches an angle in these films. Also, not many among the public would be able to appreciate and enjoy the drama about a man conversing with benign ghosts. Because it is not clear whether Armaan can actually see and talk to ghosts or he is just living in an imaginary world of his own, the audience would be confused. In that sense, the story, penned by Arshad Warsi, is not completely enjoyable.

While some scenes are indeed entertaining, the overall impact isn’t one which makes the viewer feel satisfied. Among the really enjoyable scenes are the one of bank robbery and the one in which Armaan, prompted by Mr. Kapoor, tries to win over Mrs. Kapoor by reciting weird shairies. But other than these, the drama lacks light moments which would entertain the viewers. There are several emotional scenes too, but many of them do not touch the heart while a couple of them do moisten the eyes.

Probably, the biggest drawback of the screenplay – penned by Soumik Sen, Arshad Sayed and Arshad Warsi – is that the writers have succeeded in making it neither a comedy nor an emotional tear-jerker nor even a love story. Even the dialogues (Sen, Sayed and Warsi) could have been far better.

Arshad Warsi lives his role and acts extremely naturally. He gives his all to the role and adds to the drama with a performance that is very realistic. Dia Mirza looks pretty and also acts with ease. Boman Irani is suitably restrained and evokes laughter at places. Sandhya Mridul is superb. Shernaz Patel, Tinnu Anand, Ashwin Mushran, Asawari Joshi, Zehra Jane Naqvi, Jawed Sheikh, Rituraj, Farhan Siddiqui (as police inspector Arjun) and the rest lend able support.

Kabeer Kaushik’s direction is good but not of the kind which would find universal acceptance. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s music and Javed Akhtar’s lyrics make a decent combination but the well-tuned songs aren’t very popular. Background music (by Julius Packiam) is truly nice. Camerawork (Ashok Mehta) is very good while the computer graphics (Red Chillies VFX) are average. Jai Singh’s action scenes are fair.

On the whole, Hum Tum Aur Ghost lacks entertainment in the sense in which the audience today wants it. Its story is also not so strong that the public would overlook the lack of the usual entertainment value and accept the film whole-heartedly. Given its fairly high budget on the one hand and its very dull start on the other, it will end up entailing heavy losses to all concerned.