The makers of Gayab had a very novel idea in their hands, but they fail materialize it due to poor screenplay and a lackluster development of story in the second half when the protagonist becomes invisible.
The
movie starts off quite well in the first half, depicting Tushar as a loser who is clumsy in everything he does. The credit chiefly goes to the young actor who brings out the right body language and the facial expressions to convincingly portray a flunky who is low in self-confidence.
The film becomes quite engrossing in the sequence when the protagonist is insulted and manhandled by the boyfriend of the woman of his dreams. Our shattered hero goes and cries out his heart before a statue and prays it to make him invisible. And bingo! His wish is granted.
But the second half of the movie is a complete letdown. Although cinematographer Pietro Zuercher believably depicts the invisible man in the story, an amateurish screenplay takes all the juice out of the movie just when one expected it to become really humorous. The director resorts to few selected gimmicks – like objects flying in the air, the touching of tugging of people by the invisible man – as the means to create laughter.
Another drawback is Amar Mohile's background score, which stand apart from the already shoddy screenplay like a sore thumb.
In a nutshell, Gayab could have been a gripping movie had there not been the lack of creative imagination on the part of writer and director.
Veteran filmmaker O P Dutta passes away
