The
sheer
delight
of
watching
Arshad
Warsi
play
the
lead
rather
the
supremely
self-assured
sidekick
gives
this
otherwise-pale
rom-com
a
cutting
edge.
Arshad
in
his
own
words
plays
a
guy,
who
van
see
dead
people.
Wish
he
could
see
dead
plots
too.
The
screenplay
by
Arshad
Warsi
,
Soumik
Sen
and
Arshad
Ali
Syed
is
a
deadweight
carried
forward
not
by
any
inward
propulsion,
conviction
or
compulsion
but
by
the
producer-leading
man's
will
to
create
a
slick
and
cool
space
for
himself
within
the
stifling
space
allotted
to
a
one-note
film
about
friendly
spirits
and
a
disbelieving
girlfriend.
The
romantic
lady
Dia
Mirza
is
very
adept
at
expressing
energetic
exasperation.
She
is
whiny
clingy
and
bossy
just
like
over-protective
girlfriends
tend
to
be.
Arshad
is
very
skilled
at
conveying
the
killing
anxieties
of
cautious
courtship.He
reminds
one
of
Saif
Ali
Khan
in
Dil
Chahta
Hai,
though
we
and
this
baggy
film
are
not
even
going
there.
Warsi
is
ill-
supported
by
poor
writing.
His
character's
three-layered
encounter
with
ghosts
and
their
pre-burial
trauma
is
at
the
most,
cinematic
knick-knack
bereft
of
any
subtext
or
layering.
Director
Kabir
Kaushik
was
far
more
successful
getting
Arshad
to
play
a
tough
gritty
idealistic
cop
in
Saher.
Here
the
bewildered
lover-boy
with
a
hotline
to
the
supernatural
is
just
not
in
his
element.
The
narrative
is
so
shallow
at
times
that
you
wonder
if
there
are
ghosts
of
relevance's
hovering
beyond
the
range
of
vision.
But
no.
What
we
see
is
what
we
get.
While
the
plot
totters
along
at
a
sluggish
pace,
sporadic
moments
of
humour
and
warmth
creep
in
willy-nilly.
These
are
too
infrequent
to
sustain
our
interest.
However
the
chemistry
between
Warsi
and
Mirza
is
first-rate.
They
clutch
at
each
other
without
awkwardness
and
speak
to
one
another
as
though
the
words
were
not
conscious
of
the
camera.
Wish
this
film
was
just
about
Hum
and
Tum.
The
Ghost
could
have
been
left
to
the
Shyamalans
and
Vikram
Bhatts
of
the
cine-world.
Some
of
the
music
by
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
is
hum
ably
romantic.
Ashok
Mehta's
cinematography
creates
a
picture-postcard
world
of
over-cute
confections.
Sadly
these
are
not
even
true
confections;
Just
artificial
chocolates
packed
into
a
neat
box
and
gift-wrapped
for
a
unit
desperate
to
do
a
desi
take
on
the
American
rom-com.
Arshad
gets
it
right.
The
rest
just
don't
get
the
point.
They
see
dead
people.
We
see
a
dead
film.
Story first published: Monday, March 29, 2010, 12:16 [IST]