Khosla Ka Ghosla!

How many times have you come across a film that makes you smile while you have a lump in your throat at the same time? Such are the dwellers of this nest that you feel sorry for them for the trouble they land themselves into but such is the treatment of the film that rather than being a compulsive tearjerker it has that feel good effect on you (without being overtly mushy either).

Never since the times of Sai Paranjpe or Basu Chatterjee has one come across as authentic portrayal of the middle-class in films as you get to see here. Khosla Ka Ghosla talks about a family in Delhi headed by Mr. Khosla (Anupam Kher) who invests all his life's savings to buy a plot on which he dreams of building his own bungalow. But after buying the plot he finds the land being encroached by a builder Khurana (Boman Irani). He uses paisa, pehalwan and politics to get his land back but is too diminutive in front of the mammoth Khurana. Finally the straightforward family attempts devious ways to get back their land.

Despite the film being delayed for long, the narrative still comes out as fresh and original. An average audience can so much relate to the characters of the film since none of them play the conventional larger-than-life Bollywood hero but a common man. Where else can you find the male lead of the film (Parvin Dabas) with a name that goes as Chiraunjilal? Kiran Juneja playing Khosla's wife, in her minuscule bit, is such a refreshing change from the sugar sweet Farida Jalal or the melodramatic Reema Lagoo kind of on screen mothers. Or for that matter Ranvir Shorey as the elder brother isn't the usual dominating or over-protective type clichéd character.

The scenes that unfold come out so much out of real life situations. The only inspiration that the film derives is from real life. The semi-autobiographical script by Jaideep Sahni is original, amazing and entertaining. Debutante director Dibakar Bannerjee extracts fine performances from every member of the cast and never lets anybody go overboard or under-act. The comic timing of the characters is simply flawless. The theme of the film might be a serious issue but the treatment is very light-hearted. Songs are restricted just to the background and Kailash Kher's 'Chak De Phatte' gels perfect with the proceedings. The background score attributed to Boman Irani's character, every time he enters the scene, needs a special mention.

Post Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Maara, this is Anupam Kher's best performance. He has performed such common man characters before and plays his part effortlessly even here. From Munnabhai MBBS, Being Cyrus to Khosla Ka Ghosla, Boman Irani perhaps is the only villain who can successfully add a natural comic effect to negative characters. Parvin Dabbas, Vinay Pathak, Navin Nischol and Kiran Juneja are apt in their roles. Ranvir Shorey plays the most hilarious comic characters to have come out in recent times without being goofy at any time. The actor is simply amazing.

Khosla Ka Ghosla is an appetizing pure vegetarian thali in the age of non-veg junkies. Go relish it!

Khosla ka ghosla is a movie that gives you a bit of masala and a bit of realism all packed in a single movie. There is conventional Hindi movie stuff like background love angle, family ties, revenge, predator-become-prey .. and then there is Ram Gopal Varma type realism .. and what you get at hand is a hilarious movie with awesome performances from everyone.

The movie revolves around a typical middle-middle class family consisting of a housewife mother, a not-so-well-paid government employee father, a jobless big-on-plans elder son, a computer engineer working-in MNC younger son and a probably-student daughter. A family as muddled and comic as most of our families are.

The movie has awesome performances by two of the most versatile actors of the industry - Anupam Kher and Boman Irani, who lead the show. Equally good is Ranveer Shourey whose slightly haryanvi accent and matter-of-fact dialogue delivery sets him apart. Navin Nischol is a veteran who was a really good choice for the role. Tara Sharma is also quite well cast, though Koel Purie could have been a better choice.

The things that strike you in the movie are the typical characters, the sarcastic humor, the realism and the wonderful Delhi feel that is hard to miss. The actors are really well chosen and all the offices/homes etc. are also pretty typical of the characters. The characters themselves are typical of the kind of people you come across in real life, which adds humor to the whole story.

Overall, the movie is really good fun to watch.

Indian film industry is the most prolific in the world and yet very few of our movies make their mark on the global scale and I am not talking about the financial aspect of this industry but the lack of imagination and finesse. Hence the Indian masses cannot be blamed for their taste in cinema simply because they have rarely been exposed to truly magnificent cinema.

This is partly because most of the commercial movies are profit-centric as they ought to be but these movies revolve around a nucleus of a few 'stars' and the producers bank on these 'brand-ambassadors' to make the movie click; plus the profit from the sales from the movie soundtrack is a very crucial part in the success of a movie and this incumbency on songs is unparalleled which leads to so many abrupt speed breakers in the narration of a story so that these songs can be accommodated. And it works sometimes but the calamity is that every movie is focused around the same philosophy.

This movie stands apart because it does not fall prey to any of the above. There is no 'brand ambassador' for this movie. The forte of this movie lies in its simplicity, sincerity and substance and much of that credit goes to the director Divakar Banerjee.

At the crust of the movie are two of the finest actors in the country today; Anupam Kher as the ordinary middle class fifty six year old man (Khosla)in Delhi whose only drive in life is to build a new house for his family that has his wife (Kiran Juneja), his elder son Balwant(Ranveer Shourie), his second son Chirounjilal aka Cherry (Parvin Dabas) and his daughter. Balwant is a jobless waster and Cherry works for an MNC but wants to leave the country for a better job in America.Navin Nishcol (Bapu) and Vinay Pathak (Asif Iqbal) are also assets to this movie.

Boman Irani(Khurana) is a very wealthy and sly business man who captures the plot of land that Khosla had bought for building his dream house. Now if Khosla wants the plot of land that belongs to him he must buy it from Khurana, the problem though is that he doesn't have the money as he spent his life's savings to buy that plot of land. This movie is about how an ordinary middle class old man tries to reclaim his stolen (robbed) dream back from the powerful clasps of this crooked property dealer.

The film looks real. Actors don't wear designer costumes, there are no exquisite locations but what it does have is ingenuity and a sense of realm. The movie does not focus on a couple of 'brand ambassadors' but does justice to characters and all the actors have done a commendable job in keeping it real. The characterization is superb. The dialogues are witty and have a subtle Indian flavour in them. It also has a hint of dark sense of humour. The opening scene is funny but is inconspicuously and heavily sarcastic which is excellent dark comedy material. You will see many of those in the movie. I would agree that Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron is an excellent reference point.

The movie does not exaggerate and neither does it take itself lightly. There are many scenes in the movie that manifest the problems of the common man who lives a mundane life and is helpless. Those who watch movies are these common men and they would love to see something that they can relate to.

The best Hindi movie that I've seen since Lagaan. Will remember it for is originality, sarcasm and its intrinsic common man appeal.

After Lageraho Munnabhai...Bollywood could not have got any better than...THIS. All along these years, we've been watching films that crawl without any story or soul...only effort going into them being a good make up in terms of ostentatious song and dance routines only to make it more sale-able. and all these years, even I've been watching all this. Appreciating some...sulking at others, craving for the movies as they were in times of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Sai Paranjape. Khosla Ka Ghosla comes straight out of that genre and sweeps you like gust of fresh air. Since most of you must be knowing the story, and for those who don't, they must be going and watching this at all cost, Khosla Ka Ghosla is one of the finest examples of storytelling in recent times. Every character is sketched out so immaculately that for even a second you can't say that you don't know this person in real life.

An absolutely brilliant background score makes this movie a thorough joyride with the highs and troughs dealt with extreme intelligence.

As for the performances, we know what Anupam Kher is capable of and Boman Irani is definitely a class apart. Navin Nischol, in spite of his personal troubles, makes a very impressive comeback. Kiron Juneja is very good. Parvin Dabas and Tara Sharma give perfectly restrained and energetic performances respectively.

But the one who takes the cake away for my money is the support cast lead by Ranvir Shorey... Every time he opens his mouth, he leaves you in splits....and mind you...no slapstick there...everything very common...very everyday like... but brilliantly delivered. His chemistry with Vibnay Pathak in The Great Indian Comedy Show seems to have rubbed off onto KKG too and both give absolutely mesmerizing performances along with the rest of the cast.

Every scene, every dialog...gives you a great sense of happiness...which you might not identify then and there itself in the theater, as in the case of Lageraho Munnabhai, but you'll definitely ponder over it and a smile will cross your face even after you've come out of the theater and it will stay with you for a long long time.

Brilliant piece of Cinema...Go watch it!!!!

Nine and a half on Ten!!!

In the beginning, i thought that it was a pure comedy movie. It was a bit slow in the beginning but later on it turned out to be a nice informative flick. Had a pinch of romance also. The movie tells us how some people help you in your bad times and how some are the other way. Khosla's role (played by Anupem Kher) was finely played and he was entertaining as ever. As the title suggests, the movie revolves around how khosla's try to get back their home from a bad guy. They try all means from being straight and then finally how they manage with other means to get back their plot. You can compare the title even with 'Lage Raho Munnabhai'. The movie is also very inspiring. Khosla had two sons, both tried their ways of getting back the plot and how the one ( computer engineer from IITD ( i saw him wearing IIT-DELHI T-shirt) ) makes a plan along with one of his Visa granting chap to get their plot back. Earlier they tried police, social groups and also wrestlers but all in vain. Police and even social workers were also up for money. Everybody, all khoslas and the bad guy did superb acting and portrayal of the society today. Overall, a great movie to watch with your family and kids.