Ghamasaan Review:
After over a decade of the release of Paan Singh Tomar, director Tigmanshu Dhulia returns to the gritty, ruthless world of dacoits and their dealings in Ghamasaan. The setting, however, this time isn’t water-blessed Chambal but the sunny, arid Bundelkhand. This is also not a biopic but a catch-me-if-you-can confrontation between the law and those who consider themselves above it.
In a detour from his usual, comic roles, Arshad Warsi plays Maharaj, a secretive, often sadistic dacoit leader. Like an old lion (Arshad also resembles one with his heavy abdomen and flowy, salt-n-pepper beard) Maharaj dwells along with his gang in the jungles of Bundelkhand, an easy hideout from the authorities. He has the whole political and police system under his thumb. The villagers are terrified of him. The state CM harbours him for votes. The local cops are on his payroll. An argument with the sitting CM, however, turns the machinery he frequently oils against him.
Enter Aditya (Pratik Gandhi), an easygoing yet determined senior outer-state cop, who is tasked with leashing Maharaj till elections wrap up in the region. Aditya is a family man, adept in telling white lies to his wife in order to execute his side missions. He even has a suspect trapped in his trunk as he attends his anniversary party. The criminal, however, tries to escape leading to a chase show in front of the guests and ultimately Aditya spends the night on the sofa. Nonetheless, he is a good fella.
Aditya enters the big-bad world of Bundelkhand and forms a Special Investigative Team not just to contain Maharaj but to ultimately neutralize him. There is phone-tapping to understand and crush the dacoit’s networks. Also, frequent over-the-phone challenges between Aditya and Maharaj. Pratik and Arshad never share screen space but have an easy, enjoyable chemistry (The actors, reportedly, also never met on the sets). But what the film cackles with is detailing. Notice a scene in the beginning where a just-married couple arrives in a village for their nuptial night. Contrary to the usual practice, the groom kicks the rice-kalash at the door of his house as the wife fills the ingredients back in before he kicks it again. A minor, effective detail. An impactful introduction to a patriarchal world where women mostly clean up after the men. Another brief scene of the STF trailing a guy based on a little detail of the latter buying over 30 tubes of mosquito-repellant, is indicative of the studied detailing of the makers.
Visually, the film is also a welcome return to the vast, cinematic landscapes of a Western, a needed respite from the made-up set plasticity most “realistic” OTT films and shows are infected with. The pleasures are also very old-school. It’s a showdown between the good guy and the bad guy sans any mass appeal fanatics. The story leads the film and is aided by able performances of both Pratik and Arshad. The latter is menacing, even a bit psychotic but has only a few tricks up his sleeves. Pratik, on the other hand, balances charm with determination. There is also Rajpal Yadav, in a crucial, colourful role.
The film, still, loses steam by the climax which in itself feels hurried and shoddily executed. An otherwise riveting thriller, Ghamasaan constantly scores but misses out on that home run. The track with the kids being the victims of violence doesn’t exactly come through (it’s hauntingly done in 2019’s Sonchiriya). The movie impresses technically, everything from the production, to the lingo, to the costumes feels spot on but what it fails to provide is a more impactful emotional closure. It misses out on the essentialness a Tigmanshu Dhulia film came with. “Beehad mein baaghi hote hain, dakait milte hain parliament mein ( In Chambal there are rebels, the dacoits sit in the Parliament),” the late Irrfan Khan delivers this iconic line in Paan Singh Tomar. Ghamasaan has all the colours of an engaging dacoit drama, it just lacks that rebel streak.
