This is the next movie I saw immediately after LRMB with my family. I took the risk to take my wife and kids for a no-big-star movie by a debutant Bengali Director!
After seeing , I must admit that a genre of movies that was somewhat lost is definitely reviving. The genre, which is akin to real life stories with real life characters, told in a casual and believable way that reminds us about Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Comedy, when dealt with great care and detailing- dovetailed with a strong script, can trounce situational slapstick version and result a great package of two and a half hour of pure entertainment. Khosla ka Ghosla has the same taste and that fairy tale like simile of “Bawarchi”. Dibakar Banerjee, the director took quite some time to make the movie, and its worth it.
The film is a story about a middle class family set in Delhi. Mr. K K Khosla ( Anupam Kher) is a wrong-side-of-50 head of family who is nearing retirement. He lives with his wife, two sons, a daughter and a white Santro in a typical middle class locality. The elder son (Praveen Dabbas) is a serious non-alcoholic type software geek, working with a MNC and trying to move to America. The younger son (Ranvir Shorey) is good-for-something munda with a stubborn Punjabi accent and has a typical Delhi arrogance. Mr. Khosla has put his life’s’ hard earned money into the best possible investment- a plot of land in South Delhi. While he is extremely excited about building a new home, the family members reluctantly follows him for the Bhumi pujan to discover that the plot had been encroached by a land mafia Khurana (Boman Irani) with nexus to a broker they entrusted. Khosla family was shell shocked to learn that the only probable way to get back the plot is to buy the same from Khurana at half the price. While Khosla gradually succumbs to the deceit and Ranvir tries his best to help his father and makes further mess of the things, the story slowly but convincingly takes a turn. To see what happens and at the end and how Khosla’s deal with the situation you must watch the movie.
The anchor of the movie is undoubtedly Kher. His role as a passionate, responsible and caring father and his reactions to different situations in the movies will touch a chord of everyone’s heart. Dabbas has done a sharp job with support from Tara Sharma, who plays the chirpy and loving girlfriend, and Navin Nischol ( as Bapu, but not exactly as Gandhi). The great part of the credit goes to Khurana ( Boman Irani), Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak. Ranvir and Vinay has definitely grown up from their VJ-ing days and played two critical characters beautifully. Boman Irani is again at one of his greatest characterization after Lucky Singh in LRMB. He has superbly played Khurana, with his body language, dress and attitude. Though after seeing Boman in LRMB and KKG, I am keen to see him in Iftekar’s shoes in the Don remake. Boman definitely deserves a different role now before he is stamped as Lucky Singh or Khuranas of our life.
On small but crucial roles, the small time broker and secretary to Bapu (remember seeing him in some prime time soaps) is notable.
The movie has many good situations to enjoy . I have liked the interaction of Khurana with Insaan Singh while he walks around a plot. Another good sequence is the meeting at five star Hotel with Bapu.
The camerawork is appreciable, dialogues are intelligently written, witty and the story line moves well. In fact the intermission came pretty fast, to be honest !! The sets of the movie is fabulous, one of the best was Khurana’s house and his home office.
The movie has few song and dance sequence, but the music could have been better. I think there was a song called “Chak de phatte” a catchy tune, but I don’t remember it now. The movie has an effective and impactful start and ending. However the ending resembled the style of Bluffmaster.
Overall the movie was a nice experience and I strongly recommend KKG. However kids may get bored, as the humour is just subtle. For the same reason the movie may fail to hit the mass, as the movie does not “awaken a generation” of “revolutionize thinking”, but surely gives movie lovers a hint that Hindi movie has a right direction to go!
PS: Let me humbly admit that this is my very first review attempt on MS. I am strongly influenced by a friend, a star writer on MS and I have somehow gathered enough courage to write a review without going into much of facts and research. So, dear friends, if you find any factual errors or wrong information, do correct me.
So, here I am, ready for the brickbats….( bouquets do not hit hard, anyway :-).