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rajesh-bachani
Reviews
Khosla Ka Ghosla! (2006)
The Fight for the Ghosla
Khosla Ka Ghosla, comes as another pleasant and welcome delivery from the 'Bollywood' which seems to be getting back on the right track now. The name of the movie might indicate that we have a hardcore comedy flick at our hands, which might just have some funny, complicated and golmaal script, good enough to keep the audience gaping all through, rather than questioning the sensibility of the movie. But Khosla Ka Ghosla is not anything of that sort. The audience gapes, but this time to appreciate the content of the movie, apart from its comic feature.
The movie depicts the story of a very middle-class family, with a very orthodox patriarch, played by Anupam Kher (Khosla). Khoslaji's sons, as one might imagine, are not at all like the father, they are some different entities, wanting to move on with their own lives, when possible. One son is through with the plan to go to USA, without even discussing it with his father, while the other is another real-life-reel-personification - he doesn't know what he has to do!!! But how things change, and for the betterment of their relations, is what is showed so beautifully in the movie.
It's the high-level land scams which happen so commonly in our country, that have been used as the foundation of the movie. Once Khoslaji is duped by Khurana (Boman Irani), for the land that he had bought for 30 lacs, is when the movie really picks some pace. Khosla's sons then realize their father's pain, who goes through what not, to try to get his plot back, but fails at the hands of corruption, where he is finally asked to pay money to get his own plot back. And fits in here is the trick: dupe the decoy, just the same way. Khurana's old-friend-but-now-enemy Asif Iqbal (Vinay Pathak) comes into the scene of to help Khoslaji dupe Khurana. The story then goes on, showing how Khosla's son's befool Khurana to get some extra 30 lacs, which they use to pay for their lost land.
The story is definitely a depiction of the real corruption that exists in the land markets. But the kind of comedy that is included in between all this is just amazing to see. Initially one gets the impression that the movie is quite serious and possibly negative, when Khosla hits various doors in need of help and fails. It shows the pain the common man goes through, to let the truth out in the open and get justice. But right from the second half through the end, the movie brings a smile on everyone's face, simply because its the common man who wins considerably. In addition, the movie lays a lot of stress on relationships, showing how a USA-bound son, who might have never thought about his father, comes out with the pledge to get his father's plot back, and also in the end, realizing that he is never meant to be away from his family. The movie, I think, is all about simple living, but intelligent thinking.
The performances, they all have been just spectacular. Anupam Kher, has just been as natural as he was in his first film, Saaransh. Boman Irani, from the Munnabhai fame, has proved it again, that the kind of roles that he can carry through, is not a chutki ka khel for everyone. Vinay Pathak, plays an extremely strong role in the movie, and with high sophistication. Though, I have some complaints on the roles of Naveen Nischal and Tara Sharma, who have just been hunky-dory, there is nothing that I at least might remember them for in the movie.
The songs of the movie are laudable as well, which make the movie a complete and overall entertainer. Kailash Kher pulls off an amazing number, the wordings of which are just so relevant and true. Other songs by Adnan Sami and Kunal Ganjawala, make the album quite with variety. But the song 'Intezar, Aitbar .. ' by Soumya Raoh, is my favourite, for its mellifluous nature, as well as its capability to remind me of someone.
To wrap up, Highly Recommended..!!!
Dor (2006)
The DOR Effect..!!
Nagesh Kukunoor, and his new installment, DOR, seem to be making raves in the media these days. His IQBAL was an instant hit, for quite conspicuous reasons, and the same was being expected of DOR. But, overall, the movie just doesn't stand at par with Kukunoor's typical sophistication of delivery. The concept of DOR is a bit too simple, in fact too simple to develop a full two-hour movie.
I was introduced to the movie by a friend, who had just been back from the cinema hall, along with some very sweet memories. And I downloaded the movie immediately. DOR starts off in a very romantic way, depicting parallelisms between two stories, happening in different parts of the country and relating to people of different religion to make it multicultural. And some minutes into the setting, the two stories get linked by a terrible incident, involving death of the husband of one of the protagonists, Mira (played by Ayesha Takiya). This is the moment when the story, and also the second protagonist, Zeenat (played by Gul Panag), who is the wife of the presumed killer, get a goal to run for. The next one and a half hour are devoted to how the goal is achieved, involving a myriad of messages being passed on the way. These include themes like the Hindu-Muslim relation, human values of self confidence and believe (which was precisely the theme of IQBAL) and also the grim situation of widows, that still exists in the rural parts of India.
Though the concept of DOR has been more like a series of good thoughts, and aspects on which the Indian society still needs awakening (the definition of the Kukunoor style), there has been a momentum lacking in the movie. At points in time, one might feel the pinch of the story being elongated a bit too much, all but for no reason. But that was inevitable, since the concept of the movie dwelled on was too simple. Rather, there could have been a short movie on the same concept, but with a greater impact on the audience. So maybe, the script should have been stuffed with more concreteness to look at. Kukunoor tried to make the movie hip-hop type, with some foot-tapping Bollywood songs, and a sequence of dancing in the middle of the desert, which I believe failed to leave any impression. They were more like aggravating the lost-feeling I had in the middle of the movie.
But, there were two aspects in which the movie is appreciable. First, the actors (especially Shreyas), who performed their jobs with a great degree of sophistication. Kukunoor, though, was not able to gel together in the scenes with these full-time actors. He seemed to be passing time in front of the camera, and it was for sure not one of his memorable appearances. Ayesha Takia, whom I always under-estimated, maybe because I had never fully seen any of her roles, came out as a pleasant surprise. She looked amazingly young in the movie, which I guess she is (Teen Queen!!!), with good level of maturity. And Shreyas was just awesome with those short pasquinades. He looked just so perfect in them, rather giving the impression that he was some professional comedian, working as an actor to earn some money.
Secondly, the music of DOR has left a mark on me. And without doubt, thats because it was very much Classical. Kukunoor seems to be too impressed with Shafqat, the lead singer of Fuzon, to have him to sing in DOR. If you note, Hyderabad Blues - 2 had two songs from the album Sagar by Fuzon, which were actually how Fuzon got popular in India. Shafqat appears in Bollywood in this album, after Mitwa in KANK.
Overall, the movie was quite satisfactory, but without the kind of depth that a Kukunoor movie should have had. But, there always is this guy, who is at least trying to make movies on the problems of India, trying to focus on issues which seem to have been dumped into obliviousness. Thats the most appreciable thing about the legacy called Kukunoor.