Ranchi Diaries

Story: As Gudiya’s plan to elope with Monu goes awry, the duo along their good-for-nothing friends, decide to carry out an audacious heist.

Review: Pinku (Taaha Shah) is a wannabe gangster who runs a food stall where he munches on Chow Mein all day with his young, wasted lieutenants. His friend Monu (Himansh Kohli), a small-time safe-cracker, hangs around the joint thinking up elaborate plans to go to the city with his childhood sweetheart, the local YouTube sensation Gudiya (Soundarya Sharma). Strong-willed and with talent to match, Gudiya has her own problems in life --- chief being the local politico Thakur bhaiya (Anupam Kher) who has some serious hots for her. When Thakur’s attention gets too much for the small-town Shakira, she decides to run away with Monu and give her singing aspirations a shot. But there’s no money for it. That’s when she plans a bank robbery with Monu and gang.

As far as comic capers are concerned, 'Ranchi Diaries' is all over the place. While it does have an interesting premise and a few funny characters, it fails to translate into a fun watch because the story wanders aimlessly. Even that could have been excused, if the wandering segments were executed well. You see some promise in the first half, where the filmmaker sets the stage for a big-ticket robbery. But the second half deflates any hope you may have of getting laughs. Absurd sequences, where the getaway men start to learn driving as the bank is being looted, and the bit with the police turning up fashionably late, are hilarious. Still, the bank-heist sequence is way long and not always entertaining.

Himansh Kohli with his forced Bihari accent is painful to watch. Anupam Kher and Jimmy Sheirgill have small roles and don’t contribute much. However, the rest of the younger cast does a credible job especially Tahaa Shah and Soundarya Sharma. There’s a very interesting and topical twist at the end, but you have to endure a lot until you reach there, which is a poor bargain.