Ghost

Director MG Srinivas has had a collection of some interesting films in his belt. Although not perfect, his films have shown some promise and always offered something new. He kept the audience guessing from the time of announcement and through the promotions of the movie. The Big Daddy promo and the trailer showed two different shades of the film. Dr Shivarajkumar aka Shivanna hasn't had a great run himself after his successful experimental 'Tagaru' with Sur. With him gaining popularity among the whole South Indian film industry after his cracking appearance in Jailer, the expectations around this have been high.

Ghost seems like a heist thriller from the overall setup in the movie. But as the movie goes on, one can realize it is much more complex than that. The movie however does run very fast and needs complete attention to understand what is happening. The length of the movie is kind of both the positive and negative point for the movie. At times it almost feels like this script could have made a great mini-series on an OTT platform. There is a lot of stuff happening in the movie to comprehend at times and it is told mainly through the interaction of two main characters. While the first half is all about set-up, plan and the tricks by Shivanna and his gang it is during the second half we get to see some scope towards the role build of Shivanna. The movie's action sequences are focused more to be seen as clever moves than the grand. There are certain hype moments for Shivanna fans and some special easter eggs for the ones who would have keenly followed Shivanna's career. Arjun Janya's background score is apt to keep the movie's adrenaline going but slightly misses an USP element to it. Cinematography is excellent at times and at times it is too fast. While I understand the director's intention of non-linear screenplay the editing could have been much better. I also feel that there were much better opportunities to elevate Shivanna's character had the movie been slowed down a little. Looks like both the releases of the week Leo and Ghost ended up needing better elevation moments to their main characters at certain points.

Ghost is definitely a unique experiment for an actor of Shivanna's calibre. He runs the show from the beginning and peaks in the second half especially with the different shades that come along the character. While Jayaram plays the template role of 'chasing cop', his role seems a bit too tiring. The other characters in the movie doesn't really light up the screen any further. It is good to see both Anupam Kher and Jayaram having dubbed for their own roles in Kannada.

Ghost is definitely a stand out movie for the Kannada film industry which will be talked about more in the future. It is definitely a landmark in both Shivanna and Srini's careers in its own way. It is understandable if someone doesn't end up liking this movie in a theatre watch but this definitely needs a patient viewing with pause and analysis on OTT.

Amidst the protest against privatization of prisons, ex-CBI officer Vamana Srinivasan wins the bid for the central prison. On it's inaugural event, a mysterious man with his gang successfully hijacks the prison and keeps the prisoners as hostages along with the jailer and Vamana himself. ACP Chengappa is assigned this case and he tries to figure out the motive behind this hijacking and how to nab the mastermind while the OG, is at times few steps ahead of everyone. What is the reason for the hijacking and who is this mysterious guy, the answers to all the questions is not present in this film for sure.

It's a treat to watch Shivanna shine on screen, completely surrending himself to his Director's vision. However, Srini has the overambitious vision, he doesn't have the writing or directorial skills required to pull it off. Once again the incoherent screenplay plays the spoilsport. The attempt is to give a non-linear narrative with constant jumping back in the timeline but the amateurish writing doesn't help Srini's cause and the disappointing dialogues too bring down the film. Every time Srini strikes gold with Shivanna and proper fan service, the scene jumps back to a dull flashback which barely match the excitement.

The main plot is as simple as one expects, a revenge story. The screenplay demands for the logic to be thrown out. But for the magic to happen, having Shivanna as your only magic trick isn't enough. Despite the short runtime, the scenes do lag. On paper, the scenes might have felt to be thrilling but the execution is so haphazard followed by the abrupt editing, multiple times the scene transition just feels like continuity errors. The hyped the final act too loses it's impact and even here, couple of scenes work really well to please the fans but considering the overall content, it is sadly a hugely missed opportunity.

I am giving my rating only for Shivanna's superb and stylish acting. While the story had potential, the screenplay lacked any coherence and the story telling left much to be desired. There are many scenes like tanker burning scene etc, which left me curious when I watched it in trailer. But it left me very disappointed as there was no explanation of it's relevance. The ending leaves with a hope of a next part. I hope Srini takes some lesson and put more effort on making the screenplay logical and not only based on mass dialogue and scenes. The fights are well choreographed. Hiest plan could have been explained well instead of just rushing it in a backdrop.

Yes!! Shivanna is Boss of Mass. A Gangster Theme is made for shivanna. Overall Experience was awesome. But there were many scenes and concepts influenced from many known Webseries like Money Hiest etc. Director Srini Would have planned much more ideas as there was no Timeline Reference in the overall film. As seen, there's only one song in this film. Would say it's a mass Entertainer. Shivanna's Energy, Fights, Dialogues, Looks are the main attractions of this film. No loss on watching it for once. Would hope more improvements in ideas in next part of this film. Dear Srini plz don't take it easy. We want more work from You.

Srini fails to deliver in this fan tribute kind of movie. The main draw back is the screen play is not well written or gripping. It is undoubtedly fast paced. The Dalavai flash back is nice and good. But the movie is not worth the watch on a silver screen, the movie is more fit for a small screen. Scattered and Un even screen play. First half is just average, but the ending is messed up. The problem might be with us the audience as we are pampered by too much content on ott post the pandemic Era. It is really difficult to find a satisfying movie. But this movie fails utterly. Three big hyped movies this year all revolved around prison and a jailer. Such a 2023 co incidence. All three movies though very average, was saved by some or the other element.

In this movie, it is the screen presence of Shivarajkumar which saves us from boredom. He has managed to carry the whole movie on his shoulders. It is sad to see no other director could use his screen presence properly after Tagaru. Jailer cameo is undoubtedly very good, but not full fledged movie for shivanna.

Music is mashed up version of so many other movies. It kind of feels too loud at places and it is very irritating. The only positive note was the De aged Young Shivanna and screen presence of Anupam Kher at the end. It was worth the torture of watching this movie in a theatre from the start to end.

I don't understand the bad luck of Sandesh Nagaraj, inspite of being a rich producer, all Directors fail under his production.