Cast: Nawazudin Siddiqui, Anurag Kashyap, Raghuvir Yadav, Ila Arun

Director: Pushpendra Nath Mishra

Rating: ***

Ghoomketu is Pushpendra Nath Mishra's funny yet weird tribute to 'Mungerilal Ke Haseen Sapne' - the Indian television series directed by Prakash Jha and written by Manohar Shyam Joshi featuring Raghubir Yadav.

The film begins with the struggle of the main character Ghoomketu (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who is an aspiring writer. Ghoomketu reaches the office of 'Gudgudi', the local daily of his village hoping for some work but clearly doesn't get a job offer, instead, he receives a book on how to be a Bollywood writer in 30 days written by the Chief Editor of 'Gudgudi' Mr Joshi (Brijendra Kala).

Ghoomketu is the story of a wannabe film writer from a small village in Uttar Pradesh who wants to write scripts for Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan one day. Aided by his Bua (Ila Arun) and unhappy with his plus-size new bride, he runs away from home. Armed with just a book on writing for cinema and a terrible hairstyle, he lands in the city of dreams where begins an engaging yet fun journey our hero which takes us along and it is simply lovable.

The director-writer Pushpendra Nath Mishra has portrayed every character perfectly. The character transition of Ghoomketu is throughout his journey is just beautiful from his village to Mumbai. The dialogues have been written meticulously well while keeping the comedy quotient intact throughout the film.

The screenplay of the film is aptly entertaining and each and every character in Ghoomketu is written with heart and soul with a backstory of each one of them that supports the story in their own unique way.


On the performance front, Nawazuddin is as natural as ever. One cannot differentiate the actor from the character he is playing. As a small-town writer, he makes us believe in his innocence and stories. As always his screen presence and little punches are commendable. Siddiqui is excellent at shifting gears from the comic to the manic.


Anurag Kashyap as the corrupt and greedy cop Badlani is unbelievably good. However, he seems a little disinterested at some points which is turn off and his performance also feels a bit over the top in some scenes.

Raghubir Yadav's energy is unmatchable and outstanding here. After TVF's web series 'Panchayat', he epitomises a middle-class father in Ghoomketu too and you can do nothing but appreciate the man for his stellar performance.


Ila Arun as Santo Bua is a surprise package. While she tickles the funny bone with her over-the-top representation of a Bollywood bua, she is like the glue that binds Dadda and Ghoomketu. Swanand Kirkire as Guddan Chacha is also a delight to watch in the little screen time that he has.

Sneha Khanvilkar and Jasleen Royal's music adds the required punch to the storyline and mixes well with the narrative making the ride a bit more amusing.

Overall, Ghoomketu is the dose of laughter each one of us deserves in these testing times. With such brilliant performances by Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Raghubir Yadav, this one makes up for good one time watch.