By Shoma A Chatterji, TWF, Bollywood Trade News Network

The great Indian middleclass quest for a house may throw many unforeseen challenges as upcoming film KHOSLA KA GHOSLA amply proves. Shoma A. Chatterji reports.

Indian films are replete with the stories on the problems of land grabbing. For example, MOHAN JOSHI HAZIR HO (1983) directed by Saeed Mirza which tackles the problems of an ageing Mohan Joshi (Bhisham Sahni) who wishes to bring in certain legal renovations in his dilapidated abode. KABZA (1988), directed by Mahesh Bhatt, had Alok Nath playing a principled teacher who refuses to bend to the pressures of the goons hired by land-grabbing mafia to uproot him and his school. KABZA portrays not merely the defeat of law but the defeat of Gandhian morality to justify the use of violence, a rare example of a popular film in recent times facing up to the moral dilemma of standing up to the terror in our cities.

The main problem with these films, which miserably failed at the box-office was that they were projected in too serious a manner though to draw the audience the former did have a certain amount of acidic satire clothed in humour. Within this ambience of serious celluloid statements that failed to gel, Dibakar Banerjee's KHOSLA KA GHOSLA, based on a similar topic but dealt more at an individual level, comes like a whiff of fresh air. It takes potshots at the gullibility of the Great Indian Middle Class represented by Kamal Kishore Khosla (Anupam Kher) vis-a-vis the absolute nonchalance and conning of the no-holds-barred conman Kishan Khurana (Boman Irani).

"KHOSLA KA GHOSLA is a story that feels so real that you think it might have happened to you. That's how Jaideep Sahni (story, screenplay, dialogues, lyrics - whew!) wanted it to look and feel like," says director Dibakar. The film presents the urban Indian middle class family as a cartoon character within the larger framework of a place like south Delhi where relationships can be made, sustained and broken on the ground of what you have and how much of it rather than who you are. "We've presented the Khosla family as comic and as muddled-up as our real families are and above all, focuses on a problem that almost all Indian families have faced once in their life - The Great Indian Middle Class Home Purchase," elaborates Dibakar.

On retirement, K K Khosla invests his entire life's earnings in a plot of land to build his dream house. But he has a man like Khurana to contend with. Khurana is six feet two in vertical terms and four feet around his middle. He owns three mobiles, has one cute secretary and makes regular pilgrimages to Vaishno Devi. A hungry and greedy land broker, he pretends to be an "industrialist" though his only industry is to cheat men like Khosla. Apart from being diabolically and steadily conned by Khurana, Khosla has major problems with his son (Parveen Dabas) who chooses to have himself called Cherry instead of the more sedate and very boring Chironji Lal that has failed to add any spice to his life. Despite his utter hatred towards his mundane roots and his family, his father still believes that Cherry will engineer the construction of his new house. But Cherry is a computer engineer and his father's dream house is the last thing on his agenda. His girlfriend Meghna (Tara Sharma) is ambitious but doesn't care about Cherry's priorities in life. She brings about a twist in the tale that makes all the difference to a heady and rollickingly funny climax.

The choice of Boman Irani as Khurana and Anupam Kher as Khosla could be termed as a casting coup of sorts because both these actors are brilliant in comedy with their perfect timing, fluidity of their facial expressions, body language and last but never the least, their appearances. They don't need any special effect, tools, equipment and make-up to make them look and act funny. They are almost structured to exude fun wherever and whenever needed.

So, throw away all those soppy, simpering and weepy family melodramas that make it mandatory for you to tuck in large-sized handkerchiefs to weep into as the film slowly grinds to a boring and predictable climax and instead, watch the mental wrestling match between Khosla and Khurana on the housing field.

"I didn't want to make films that were run of the mill. But I didn't wish to make offbeat films either. I wanted to make a film I would enjoy watching myself. Something along the lines of what the late Hrishikesh Mukherjee used to make. And, most importantly, I wanted the story to rule the image instead of it being the other way round as it usually is in all our big banner, multi-star-cast films today. In short, a film with a good, believable story and with loads of fun," says Savita Raj Hiremath of Tandav Films Production.

"We shot the film in a blitzkrieg schedule of 45 days of burning heat, maddening fun and inspiration and one hell of an ensemble performance by a superb cast. It shows - I think," sums up Dibakar. So, let the fun start on this quest for a home, sweet home!