Among the stranger movies I’ve ever seen, Gumnaan is part Agatha Christie murder mystery, part Bollywood musical comedy, part mid-60s LSD freak-out. The musical sequences are great fun (this is what Enid was watching at the beginning of Ghost World) and the alleged drama is fun for camp (Raja Nawathe never saw a reaction shot he didn’t like.) Mehmood, the comic actor in the delightful Padosan and 9 million other Hindi films, as the Rowan Atkinson-esque wacky butler, while completely out of place, is nonetheless welcome.
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Jordan Hoffman is a New York-based writer and film critic working for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, Thrillist, Times of Israel, NY Daily News and elsewhere.
He is the host of ENGAGE: The Official Star Trek Podcast, a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and challenges you to a game of backgammon.