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!

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.

Last night I woke up at 8.30 in the night after sleeping for like 6 years at a stretch after the overnight stay me and my friends had. 9 PM. On air is "Khosla Ka Ghosla". Now I really wanted to watch that movie when it was released but just didn't had the time to and right now, I wasn't in the mood for it but since nothing else on TV was worth a watch, I decided to see the film.

After a while I realized that 40 minutes had gone by and not for one moment did I feel that KKG had a scene so far which was boring or unnecessary. KKG is truly gripping. It sucks you into it and you'll start getting concerned about Kamal Kishore Khosla (Anupam Kher). Khosla is a very innocent middle-class service man who gets a plot of land from Kishan Khurana (Boman Irani) out of his life-savings, a lump amount of 30 lacs but things get terrible when Khurana doesn't exactly let Khosla get the land until Khosla would pay Khurana another 10-15 lacs.

As much as I would love to say that Khosla Ka Ghosla was a movie which belonged to Anupam Kher and Boman Irani, I cannot deny that it belonged to the other artists as well. What I like so much about Khosla Ka Ghosla is that it does not star big mainstream artists in it except Boman Irani & Anupam Kher and if it did, maybe it would have lost its simplicity. Anupam Kher has been doing really lesser number of roles as compared to what he used to in the 90s but after Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara, Kya Kool Hain Hum and Rang De Basanti, Kher almost steals the show again. Khosla Ka Ghosla is very very realistic and that is its USP. Of course there are a few little flaws in the script but that does not stop KKG from becoming an entertaining ride without moving away from the realistic world. The brand of humour used in the movie is simple and enjoyable and one thing which I liked very much about this film is its characterization, I cannot deny that I liked every character present in the movie and it felt that they were straight out of someone's lives. Although Khurana and his assistant reminded me of Lucky Singh & Kuku in Lage Raho Munnabhai bit, basically because of the role they played.

Boman and Anupam of course do play the parts beautifully but one performance which I liked a lot was that was Bappu's (Navin Nischol). Now what Bappu is doing in the film, I cannot say because I feel that would give out a part of the story. Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak come together again after they did once in Jism. Ranvir as Anupam's elder son and Vinay as the guy whom Boman had betrayed play their parts with ease and rock it. Tara Sharma's accent is weird but I liked her here and the director gets credit for that. Parween Dabas too... actually its not the actors that are there but the characters. Such is the magic of débutante director Dibakar Banerjee and writer Jaideep Sahani. Full marks to the director who's earned my respect.

The music by composers Bapi, Tutul and Dhruv too is great. "Chakk De Phadde" sung by Kailesh Kher which is also the OST of the movie is nice and totally in mood of the film. The other tracks too offer great help in carrying the story forward.

When Anupam Kher had said that this is a tribute to Hrishikesh Mukherjee's film-making style, I'm sure he truly meant it. Khosla Ka Ghosla is simple, innocent, realistic and entertaining. Go watch it if you want to see a quality film. Much better than the Karan Johar or Rakesh Roshan flicks which are recognised by Filmfare, not for their creativity but commercial success. Khosla Ka Ghosla made my mood. Three cheers to the movie! 7.5/10 from http://muviegeek.blogspot.com

Khosla ka Ghosla is one of the best films in 2006. But because of its simple cast, it has been underrated and has not got the recognition it deserves. In fact, before I went for the movie, I myself thought that this was a bore. It is a beautiful and realistic film. There is simple humour, which just helps in 'digesting' the plot. The good thing is that all the actors, (even the ones speaking just one or two dialogues) give a superb performance. Anupak Kher acts really well. I have no words to describe Boman Irani's acting. He is amazing. he just does not act the same in any movie. I also liked Navin Nischol's acting a lot. Apart from that, Parvin Dabas, Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey give terrific performances. Dibakar Banerjee has directed the film beautifully. It is beautifully paced. Every scene is an important scene in the film. It is not dragged. As far as music is concerned, music is not really needed. But I think Bapi-Tutul and Dhruv Dhalla gave superb background score. KKG just reinforces the fact that there is no dearth of acting talent in India, just that one must not go for a film just because it has a star cast. A star would have taken the simplicity of the film. In short, KKG is an awesome film, and one which everybody will relish.

Very original and well made with great acting,Khosla ka Ghosla is really one of the better bollywood movies made at low cost.

Boman Irani is just too good as a crooked property dealer,he delivers another masterpiece.

Ranvir Shorey comes good again after Pyar ke Side Effects.I have never seen such a good Vj turned actor. :)

Anupam Kher,Parvin Dabbas,Tara Sharma,Vinay Pathak,Navin Nischol all of them are very good in their roles.

The originality,simplicity of every character and script are strong points of the movie,and it struck right at time,when demolitions in Delhi are being carried out.