Bollywood Review: ‘Go Goa Gone’ serves up entertaining bite of zombie fare

For those of you who have grown up on a diet of Sam Raimi and George A Romero will experience a twinge of nostalgia when those bloodthirsty walking dead descend onto the beaches of this remote, tropical isle that moonlights as Goa.

Certainly, ‘Evil Dead’ and ‘Dawn of the Dead’ will forever remain the cult favourites of the zombie classic collection, but what Bollywood has experimented with is not something that will fade away into the deep dark recesses of the now defunct Grindhouse horror film genre or be ridiculed as a cheap knockoff that Ramsey brothers have mastered down to an art.

‘Go Goa Gone’ is a witty, refreshing sampler that serves up a tasty alternative to the standardisation in Bollywood that only ever offers romance, action or slapstick comedy on the menu.

Credit here goes to the filmmakers, Raj and DK, with a bonus input from one of the film leads, Kunal Khemu (surprisingly entertaining), who has penned the Hindi dialogues that are already making waves since the sneak peek through the film’s trailers.

The ‘zomcom’ as referred to by the cast and crew, puts forth a slice of urban India, where drugs, sex and a dead-end job are all part of the growing pains that sums up an regular day for Gen Y.

When two such average Joes, Hardik (Khemu) and Luv (Vir Das), hit a roadblock in their messy lives, they decide to ditch the urban jungle by freeloading on their friend and colleague Bunny’s (Anand Tiwari) business trip to Goa.

However, these murky waters get bloody 10 minutes later, as a rave party drug sends the revellers systems into overdrive and turns them into flesh-eating zombies.

Trapped on this party island, our band of merry men, along with the token glamour girl Luna (Puja Gupta), encounters their saviour in the form of a foul-mouthed Indian conman disguised as a Russian Mafioso (a hilarious Saif Ali Khan).

Khan’s Boris is deliciously cocky at intervals, with that deadpan humour that the actor excels at if his previous films are anything to go by. And even the fake Russian accent has just the right measure of false pronunciations in it to complete the fraud that he really is.

Whether the gang escapes off the island or not is a spoiler not meant for this review, but what can be said is a word of appreciation for the director duo, who don’t let up the humour or the punches for even a minute.

This roller coaster ride has moments where you can be at the edge of your seat, while the next rolling in the aisles courtesy a witty one-liner.

Needless to say, a zombie comedy is not for the masses. But even with its niche audience, the film excels at the experimentation it has attempted and kudos to Khan’s Illuminati Films for finally giving a platform for scripts that show reel-life is finally evolving in these 100 years of cinema that Bollywood seems to be celebrating.

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