Watch at your own risk

Gurnaaz Kaur

Three elements need to be in place for a movie to be called good. The story has to be worth telling, the cast does justice to their roles and the director does no compromise on the artistic and dramatic aspects of the screenplay. In fact, he has to make sure that the overall vision of the film is realised. Unfortunately, none of these stand true for Khatre Da Ghuggu. For the first Punjabi film of the year, it is a sheer disappointment.

So, there is a man named Kanwar Mahinder Singh (BN Sharma), who works for the Punjab Electricity Board. He has a weird wife. She seems more like his acquaintance or maybe a distant relative at most. He has troubles with his co-workers. Actually, he has a problem with everything in his life. Throughout the film, it’s the same expression, tone and body language to convey everything that this character has to. He resorts to see an astrologer and then one more and then another. Superstitions follow.

Does that sound like the plot? Well, wait. Now, meet Fateh (Jordan Sandhu). This young boy leaves his village and parents to become a singer. In a city (Chandigarh) to earn money, he starts working as an RJ. The whole city is his fan. He is hardworking, philanthropic, polite and helpful. In short, the perfect boy next door.

Moving forward, there is a girl named Meet (Diljott), who is the daughter of the electricity board employee. Thanks to her job, she meets a gunda, who falls in love with him. It’s love at first sight. Meet is Fateh’s fan and when they meet, love brews between them.

And that’s pretty much it. However, you want to connect these characters and their stories, please do. The director sadly couldn’t. Till the end, you keep wondering what really is the story or who is the protagonist or for that matter the antagonist or if there is any.

Perhaps the team wanted to say don’t go to astrologers; maybe it wanted to tell don’t get into superstitions; or that work hard and achieve your goals. In all this, the movie fails to achieve anything at all. The only thing that can be appreciated is Jordan Sandhu’s acting. He is endearing and a natural. Even Diljott has a screen presence but her talent has been wasted.