GST Movie Review:
Titles can be misleading. GST wears that mischief on its sleeve. It is not about taxes, systems, bills or the country’s favourite alphabet soup. It is about ghosts. Not the horror variety, but the emotional remains of people who left with stories half-spoken and wounds half-stitched. And walking into their silence is Lucky (Srujan Lokesh), a man who believes he is a mistake wrapped in skin. When your most honest friends turn out to be dead people, the film quietly asks what that says about the living.
Srujan Lokesh’s directorial debut arrives with the comfort of a known face. Television made him a household name with the reality show, Majaa Talkies, and it shaped his timing, his comedy and the easy charm families lean towards every weekend. Anyone who has watched him closely knows he can slip into seriousness, too. In GST, he blends humour and gravity with natural ease.
Cast: Srujan Lokesh, Rajani Bharadwaj, Girija Lokesh, Shobraj, Ravishankar Gowda, Tabla Nani, Sharath Lohitashwa, Girish Shivanna, Aravind Rau, Vinod Gobbragala, Nivedita Gowda, and Sukruth Srujan Lokesh,
Director: Srujan Lokesh
Lucky is convinced that fate has singled him out for failure. His father (Ashok), tired and defeated, asks him to leave after the family loses his wife and Lucky’s mother (Vinaya Prasad). The moment is not cruel. It is a portrait of helplessness. Lucky spirals into despair and finds himself in a burial ground after a failed attempt to end his life. This is where the film truly begins, in a space where endings slowly turn into beginnings.
The ghosts he meets are not gag machines. They carry ordinary fractures from everyday life. Shanthamma (Girija Lokesh) avoids speaking about her son, an auto driver, because some wounds do not heal even after death. Prabhakar (Tabla Nani) and his son (Sukruth) carry the weight of an accident that society moved past without thought. Hanumanthu (Vinod Gobbagaragala) became another forgotten name during the pandemic. Tanya (Niveditha Gowda) grew up under relatives who value control more than care. Ramesh (Aravind Rau) is a reminder of dreams cut short by greed.
None of these stories scream for attention. They are quiet bruises that shape middle-class lives. Srujan does not sentimentalise them. He presents them with restraint, giving the audience space to recognise truths they have seen in their own circles.
Lucky and his friend (Girish Shivanna) are the only living people who can see these spirits. They form an understanding. The ghosts piece together Lucky’s broken confidence, keep him steady and help him to express his gentle affection for Nidhi (Rajani Bharadwaj). In return, Lucky tries to help them close the chapters they left incomplete.
Their plan to solve their problems is wildly filmi, a little absurd and oddly fitting for the world GST builds. It involves a bank and a very particular type of money. The less said, the better, because the delight lies in how the film uses this idea to flip its tone.
Just when things seem manageable, real chaos walks in. Lucky and his group enter the bank. A gang led by Shobaraj arrives with confidence, followed by more trouble. The bank locks down. Lucky pretends to understand the situation while the ghosts create havoc that only he can sense. This stretch is GST at its liveliest. Sharp edits, strong reactions and clean comic beats combine with a brand of comedy Kannada cinema often forgets. Ravishankar Gowda as the confused bank manager, Shobaraj as the unpredictable burglar and Sharath Lohitashwa as the inspector turn the segment into playful chaos.
As a director, Srujan stays focused and steady, sometimes casual enough to let the characters take the lead. As an actor, he avoids overplaying emotion and stays committed to the film’s tone. Rajani Bharadwaj fits the film’s gentle emotional pitch. The supporting cast from Girija Lokesh to Tabla Nani, Girish Shivanna, Vinod Gobbagaragala, Aravind Rau and debutant Sukruth perform with ease and blend into the film’s fabric without overreaching.
Technically, the film remains committed to its mood. Cinematographer Gundlupet Suresh keeps the visuals colourful. Chandan Shetty’s music shifts between comic, serious and spectral without losing balance. The editing keeps the narrative tight and avoids unnecessary detours.
GST is not a ghost story. It is a story about the living, told through the dead. In a world that rarely pauses to listen, it is strangely poetic that the only voices willing to sit with someone’s pain are the ones that have already crossed over.