Khosla Ka Ghosla

I know I am too late on the subject, but better late than never. This is the only movie I have seen in last three months, since Omkara, and that too on a pirated DVD.

I doubt whether it is still running in any of the cinema halls near by you, but those who haven't watched it yet, you must have a dekho on DVD, at least. It is as refreshing as was the last year release Mai Meri Patni Aur Woh.

I am not telling the story, but somewhere down the line, it quite reminded me of Not A Penny More, Not A Penny Less the first novel attempt by Jeffery Archer, but later I changed my mind because though the revenge was not a penny less, it was quite a many pennies more.

Actually speaking, the whole story is quite simplistic, but its the scenes, characters and dialogues which make the movie refreshing and believable.

Khosla(Anupam Kher), as an honest, simple and gullible person to the fault makes you pull your hairs out in frustration. For once, you wonder whether a person like this can exist, but look around and you would find many. Agreed, as a government servant, it is impossible for a person to lead his full life in honesty, and remain successful to cling on to his values till retirement, but yet, you would find them many.

And Kher pulls off as Khosla like a dream. Khosla who is irritatingly idealistic; who is a father who wishes good for his children, but in his own way, without listening to their view point; who thinks that this world is an ideal place to live, until he meets Khurana.

Khurana(Boman Irani) is a wily land grabber. He grabs lands with fake papers, deep contacts and money & goonda power. He is the type of person who guzzles the likes of Khosla without even a burp. And Irani plays the part as if he has been a land grabber all his life.

Credit goes to script writer Jaideep Sahini to able imagine and write such characters.

Just look at Khurana's body language - flashy clothing, lavish jewelry, deliberately protruding belly, measured gait - everything is so imposing about him, and yet he is not a Mogambo type, strike-terror-in-your-face type villain, rather he is wily, smooth talker, with a ready smirk, and he is a Bhakt of Mata Rani like an every devout Punjabi. He never verbally threatens, but gives enough hints which are enough to run chill down the spine of his victims.

The meeting between Khosla and Khurana is one of the finest scenes of the movie. Every dialogue is well chosen, I especially liked the fact that Khurana calls Khosla as "Uncle Ji", despite being of roughly same age. The message is simple - "You are an aging, bungling, middle class, loser and I am the boss."

Also, the way he dismisses the shocked, dumbfounded Bunty(Ranveer Shourie), the eldest son of Khosla, who was accompanying him to the meeting, it was an intelligent trick. Khurana immediately realizes that he can be a nuisance during the negotiation, and that his father would be an easier prey to feast.

Coming to Ranveer Shourie, I must say he has the best character and best dialogues in the movie, and surprisingly he is the most effortless performer.

As the jobless, idiotic youth, who derives scant respect in the house because of his joblessness, and rank stupidity of his remarks on the various situations. Aimless and looser though he may be, he means no harm. Tries to help the family in his own way, just that his cerebral faculty just can not come up something which makes sense.

Ranveer Shourie cake walks the role. His fluent Punjabi accent, his eternal perplexed expressions are the special features of his acting in this movie. He is the character next door, indeed.

Again, in one of the better scenes of the movie - when Khoslas find out that someone else has been squatting on their plot, then there is a confrontation between the Haryanvi guard, and Bunty. Its a laugh riot. Both Shourie and the guard made the scene memorable.

Bapu(Navin Nishchol), who runs an acting school, takes part in the con job of hoodwinking Khurana. His character is a reluctant one, and he does an admirable job there. But he really lifts himself when he masks himself as suave, filthy rich Sethi from Dubai who wants to get rid off one of his property.

When Sethi and Khurana meet in a 5 star hotel to discuss the deal, this, to me, is the best scene of the movie. In this scene Sethi and Khurana want to assess each other. The scene is very well conceptualized, as both the parties don't give an inch to each other. Both act recklessly cocky.

In the same scene the demure Bapu beats the daylights out of his assistant(another conman), when as a bold Sethi, without giving any expressions, he brazenly asks Khurana - "Aap Broker Hain Ya Party?" Khurana is visibly shaken, but puts a brave face and answers in negative. Hats off to director, scriptwriter and not to mention Irani and Nishchol!

Well, there are other amazing scenes like when Khurana goes to visit and revisit(even more amazing) the land site he is going to buy from Sethi, or when Khosla and his younger son Cherry(Pravin Dabas) have a confrontation over going US and later over Cherry's ridiculous name (his real name was Chiraunji Lal), or when exceptionally talented Vinay Pathak as Asif Iqbal, who was the mastermind of the whole plot to cheat Khuarana himself, breaks into "Jai Mata Di" after plan's success, surprising Cherry, since the former was a Muslim.

There are so many of them.

The other character which I found soothing was of Sardar Sahini played by the person who was the only link between this film and Mai Meri Patni And Woh - Vinod Nagpal. Sahini was the good old friend of Khosla, with whom latter shared his problems. He was very likable in the film.

All this while, it would appear whole plot is about to get revealed by some unwanted, unexpected situation, but it didn't. Jaipdeep Sahini had added enough ups and down, and they were all very well written.

What I didn't like was Tara Sharma, and the tele-serial like production quality of the movie. There were a few minor flaws in the script, for eg, just too many people knew about the whole plot to cheat Khurana, and this was the not good for plot's success.

But these can well be ignored. One must watch this one at leisure with family.