'404' has a lot of room for improvement

Film: 404 (U/A)

Cast: Nishikant Kamat, Tisca Chopra, Imaad Shah, Satish Kaushik, Rajvvir Aroraa

Director: Prawal Raman

Rating: **1/2

404 begins with an amateur video of a boy named Gaurav, a first-year student on his first day at college. The boy, subjected to ragging, hangs himself in his room (number 404) of the DIMS Hospital hostel.

Three years later Abhimanyu (Aroraa) asks to be allotted the room, which has been lying locked after rumours of being haunted by Gaurav’s ghost. The bright first-year student won’t put up with seniors’ ragging and, expectedly, finds himself talking to Gaurav’s ghost. Does the ghost really exist or is Abhimanyu only hallucinating? You will have to give 404 a chance to know that.

The husband-wife professor duo Aniruddha (Kamat) and Chopra are keen to help Abhimanyu, who, rational as he is, believes he has been hallucinating and that Gaurav isn’t a ghost.

A profound story and interesting concept stimulate the mind, only to see the experience marred by the presentation, which is poor. The screenplay looks like the work of a confused mind: bipolar disorder, ill-effects of ragging, the power of the mind, the eternal do-ghosts-exist debate, all are explored in conjunction with one another. You can’t decide which one is more prominent. The misplaced premise could be confusing too if enough attention is not paid. But all these demerits are taken care of by satisfactory performances by Kamat, Chopra, Shah, Kaushik, Aroraa, and others.

Shah as music director offers nothing phenomenal, but as actor his charm as the intelligent and eccentric Chris is mesmerising. Director Raman’s story demands full attention, something the restless mind is mostly unwilling to give.

Go for this one with a bottle of patience. It runs for so long that you could start hallucinating whether the movie is real.