Horror, parody, zom-com or whatever you wanna call it, there is no denying that Go Goa Gone is the first of its kind. But being the first of its kind doesn't necessarily mean you're automatically deemed a brilliant piece of cinema. At least not in my books. Innovative has to be teamed with great cinema to leave any impact. So is Go Goa Gone all talk with nothing to really warrant its place in the history books of Indian cinema? No, no and hell no!
Don't really know what the highest honour for brilliant writing is in the country but whatever it is, it has to come Raj & DK's way. The two writers come up with as full proof of a script as they come. Every tiny thing that you expected to be tacky, cheesy, annoying, unexplained etc is taken care of before you even get a chance to complain or at least before even I got a chance to complain. They anticipated the critique that would come their way because perhaps they were possibly targeting the well rounded informed cinema enthusiast who really would leave no stone unturned in pulling apart their ambitious project. From the acknowledgement that zombies are a well explored Hollywood or non-Indian theme to the cliched rules of supernatural species we've come to know, Raj & DK have their characters deal with it all and ensure you're not unimpressed in the least bit.
I'm really not going to bother with a synopsis like the traditional reviews becomes come on, its a film about zombies do really need to know more! But don't be fooled by that statement either. There's a lot of underlying subtext that you walk away with which generally the typical foolish (yes I really do find them foolish) horror parody style flicks don't offer.
A stellar cast takes the film forward and honestly without them being 110% effective the film really wouldn't have worked. Pioneers in the comedy genre often say that the right actors ensure half the job is done for a good comedy film and you truly understand that with Go Goa Gone. Kunal Khemu and Vir Das are as impressive as each other. When one delivers a brilliant scene, the other exceeds him in the next scene and this race to blow you away with their performances continues till the very end. Add to that Puja Gupta who follows her debut film Faltu with a great choice and is more than just the only girl on the team. Anand Tiwari is top notch but I think we've come to expect nothing less than that from the man. Saif Ali Khan who you really suspected to be the chef who spoils the soup is thankfully nothing like that. He doesn't hog the limelight, which he so effectively could have done as the producer, and gives us just what we needed from a character like Boris.
Go Goa Gone impresses extensively not only because of writing and performances but more importantly because of the way its shot. Whilst I'm not cinema guru and can never discuss the technicalities of whatever went on behind the scenes to bring us what we saw on the screen, but what I can say for sure is that there was a lot unconventional approaches, for perhaps Indian cinema, taken that was evident onscreen. Be it the manner in which Boris's highly skilled keeling of zombies is captured or the way in which the makers shot the final attack by the seaside.
Sachin-Jigar's music go hand in hand with Raj-Dk's vision for the film. No doubt the chart buster status of Slowly Slowly is very much justified however what comes as a sweet surprise is Shreya's melodious number which not only makes for a great listen but is so brilliantly utilised in the film. That softer/emotional moment of the film was a portion when the makers could have fallen into the Hindi-cinema-trap and over exploited it unnecessarily but thankfully they don't and only explore it just to the right extent to get the message/emotion across and then move on with the task at hand.
Its talked about, its raved about and its probably filling up your Twitter timelines but Go Goa Gone's hype is in no way unjustified. Two of the finest young minds of the industry, Raj & DK, deliver what is a movie that goes down in Indian cinema's history for a very worthy reason and that is that its a damn good film! Its entertainment delivered in a brand new package that you'll be crazy to miss out on!
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Ye Hai Mohabbatein
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