A teaser for the original

Here’s a genre that offers you something both funny and scary in one go.

Scary because it reflects a hard-to-digest truth and funny because despite the truth, it’s funny how a human being can think! ‘Gaddam Gang’ is a perfect blend of both contrasting human sentiments.

Meet Gaddam Das (Rajasekhar), a kidnapper with a mental disorder (schizophrenia). And funnily, he has accepted the condition and his hallucination – a certain Sheela (Sheena) has become, as he says, an important part of his life!

Well, you get what’s funny yet scary, don’t you now?

So the ‘Gaddam Gang’ comprises of three other members – Pandu (Deepak), Ramesh and his brother Suresh (Satyam Rajesh and Achu). Well their characters are interesting too! The first is a societal outcast for intending to build a temple with an actress as the presiding deity. The second has resigned from his job as he “drove off with a guest’s Rolls Royce”. The third has been fired on false allegations of sexual harassment. Well life isn’t going great for any of them. But for the viewer, their plight is a wee bit hilarious yet daunting. And the funny circumstances that bring the four together (or shall we say five, including Sheela?) as they go on to become kidnappers forms the gist of the story.

The interesting part of the story is the rules Das sets to ensure they have a risk-free kidnapping process. We would like to tell you that too but then there would be nothing left for you to anticipate and ‘enjoy’ the film.

A remake of a Tamil super hit ‘Soodhu Kavvum’, ‘Gaddam Gang’ has a very fresh premise, especially for Rajasekhar who has been doing formulaic cinema for long.

However, though he has tried a new avatar and renders to an extent, one can’t help notice that he is uncomfortable in the new skin. Unfortunately, while the original was simple and funny, ‘Gaddam Gang’ caricaturises it. A dragged out screenplay, unnecessary characters and mediocre acting by most of the cast spoils the fun.

Rajasekhar is good but for the way he goes about dialogues. Sheena is a revelation. You can feel that she has enjoyed her character thoroughly. Noel and Achu have interesting characters with shades of grey and they do justice to it. Naresh, who enters in between, does a good job too.

Weak links of the film include the camera work and the inconsistent music.

To summarise, we’d just say that this film is a teaser, which will tempt you to watch the original but sadly doesn’t reach the level the original managed to.