Movie Review: Khosla Ka Ghosla ...

By Subhash K. Jha, Indo-Asian News Service

Film:

"Khosla Ka Ghosla"; Starring: Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Parveen Dabas,

Tara Sharma, Ranveer Shorey; Director: Dibakar Banerjee; Rating:

****

"Khosla Ka Ghosla" tells you that sometimes you need to lose the

plot to gain it.

When Kamal Kishore Khurana (Anupam Kher) loses his precious plot of

land in Delhi's rapidly degenerating concrete jungle, he gains a son

who was about to leave for greener pastures (US).

Lucky Khosla! But we, the viewers, are even luckier. In Khurana's

loss and gain, there lurks a hugely rewarding morality tale for us.

If "Lage Raho Munnabhai" goes Gandhian with a vengeance (no pun

intended), "Khosla Ka Ghosla" tells us, through delicious tongue-in-

cheek satire, that it's okay to use unfair means to get what's

rightfully yours.

"Khosla Ka Ghosla" is a very rare, tender and life-giving plant that

needs careful nurturing for it to yield its optimum fruits. The film is

straightforward in its depiction of the working-class stress (done

earlier in works as varied as Mahesh Bhatt's "Saaransh" and Raj Kumar

Santoshi's "Ghaatak").

It is done so simply that you tend to miss the immeasurable amounts

of unassuming talent that underline almost every scene of this

remarkable film.

Jaideep Sahni's writing talent is put to exceptional use. The

narrative captures the muddle and poignancy, irony and humour of

Delhi's middleclass through a storytelling device where less is always

more. A delectable understatement underlines almost every character's

propulsion in this film about how to lose the plot to gain a much

larger plot.

The real estate isn't the real asset of this robustly populated

mellow-drama. The human values that one discovers in Khosla's journey

from loss to redemption make the film several notches above your run-

of-the-mill morality tale.

Debutant director Dibakar Banerjee fills the narrative with sharply

cut incidents and episodes of an ordinary family caught in an extra-

ordinary crisis. Apart from a few deliberately thrust thematic songs,

Banerjee economises on the drama to focus on the characters and their

quirks.

Khosla's dismayed realisation that his dream-house, into which he

has invested his life's savings, is in the danger of being razed to the

ground even before construction, brings to the surface the disturbing

question of the fragmentation of the joint family.

Besides bringing father Kher and son Dabas together, this heart-

warming film also brings other characters together in unlikely ways.

The Muslim travel agent (Vinay Pathak) and the Khosla heir who prepares

to fly off to America come together to plot the defeat of the real-

estate shark (Boman Irani replicating to some extent his "Lage Raho..."

act).

While the narrative preserves the blithe spirit to bring out the

crises of the working-class, there are numerous moments that bring a

lump to your throat.

Admirably, the story of humanism and victory of the human spirit

gets progressively dramatic without losing plausibility. Scenes where a

drama group led by a frazzled Navin Nishchol help Khosla regain his

plot are done in an endearingly dare-devilish spirit.

After "Lage Raho..." this is the second film in a month to make us

feel so positive about the pitfalls of urban existence. The credit must

go above all to the writer and the actors for infusing an effortless

candour into the working-class satire.

Every performer, from Anupam and Boman to Parveen and Tara Sharma,

blends into the film's mottled fabric. Watch Tara give spunk, substance

and sensitivity to the potentially trite girlfriend's role.

But for Anupam, this film is a special triumph. He puts an extra

amount of heart into Khosla's character making him more real than

almost anything the actor has done lately.

On the journey to Khosla's happy ending, we encounter characters who

seem like our next door neighbours - Khosla's Sardar friend, the

cunning tout who cheats Khosla, the stage actress who smokes her way

through the plot to hoodwink Boman. Every character seems like someone

you've met in that long and cumbersome journey called life.

Thank God for stopovers like "Khosla Ka Ghosla".

Bollywood.com Rating: 3

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