Khosla Ka Ghosla is the result of minute observation
KKG is about observation. Observation about happenings around us and observation about people and their behaviour and their mannerisms have been included in the film.
On one side deep observation of day to day life of middle class characters are presented in a very good cinematic manner and on other side larger than life touch also has been given in the second half of the film and this blending looks so good on screen. KKG has observation about changing times and it touches the contemporary theme/s.
Authentic characterization is also a strong merit present in the KKG.
Khosla Family:
Aging parents, younger son is quite established and enjoying the success of IT area but elder son is not settled professionally because either he has got traditional studies which can not give him a good career in changing times or he was not good in studies and being a middle class family now he will take more time to go on the right track because business has got no tradition in his working class family but nevertheless he is understood as a failure guy at present. Father can not understand or he is denying to understand the point of view of his children. Elder son is not in a position to go against every wish of his father because he is not working in any technical area where his father’s common sense is failed so he has to follow more his father’s wishes than his younger brother who thinks in different terms because of his profession.
Younger son, CL Khosla, is successful in an area which is alien to rest of the family. KK Khosla has rough idea that his younger son works in a multinational firm. If IT was not there then perhaps younger son also could have been struggling to get a good career but at present he represents the people living in the phase of INDIA SHINING.
He is busy all the time in his work and thoughts of personal career and progress. He lives in the family but he lives like a completely detached person. He thinks every family matter is an unnecessary kind of tension and he tries to avoid everything happening in the family. He has no time to pay attention to family matters.
His family tries to include him in a small celebration party held inside the four walls of their home but he is not interested in sitting with them. He has to check emails in the dark corner of his room.
Perhaps he can not afford these things because if he pays too much attention to family matters then he can not compete in his fast progressing area.
Transition phase is shown through his character. When new things happen in a society then people riding on new wave often leave behind people who are unable to take a ride on these new waves. A gap comes between them.
CL Khosla (Praveen Dhabas) or Cherry’s character is established by small happenings.
He is visiting the apartment of his friend, Meghna (Tara Sharma), where he finds her doing Sheershashan (Standing on the head/ Up side down yoga posture). She is extrovert and more open with him than he is with her. He is introvert.
They are pole apart as far as personal natures are concerned.
They are going towards scooter of Meghna and she jumps from a high place to make a short cut but he takes proper but long route to reach there. A small thing to show but it can only be used by an intelligent writer and/or director in his film, a writer and/or director who pays an attention to human psychology and keeps minute observation in real life.
Meghna asks cherry to hold her waist while she drives the scooter and he refuses to do this. She says that she is his girlfriend and he should hold her like her boyfriend would hold.
He says,”I am not your boy friend”.
He is unable to accept the reality of their relationship.
He has not told her about leaving India to work abroad. She is obviously angry and frustrated but these things calm down when she realises that this man has not told even to his parents and brother and sister and he is saying that he will leave soon and perhaps in a week time.
Matter of plot is a tension for him. But changes in human being come in a blink. A change may happen to anyone in no time.
As the old saying goes, “Pal mein Tola pal mein masha”.
Human mind is an amazing thing and it may pass through a feeling, a thought or an idea which was simply impossible to imagine few minutes or even fee seconds before.
Cherry is also transformed though change in him does not come swiftly but it’s a journey where he finds his old father getting humiliated and his family suffering.
His girl friend says to him,” Cherry, how can you even think to go away and leaving them in this crisis”.
She leaves him sitting in a restaurant.
His elder brother says,” You go ahead Cherry, don’t waste your time and career in these tussles. Here something or other will always be happening. I will take care of it”.
Cherry is the most capable member in the family as far as education and successful profession is concerned and he is running away from the problems of his own family.
His transition is humane. Its social and it uplifts the social and family values and this is one true face of cinema that it makes people more humane and lively.
KKG thrives on such small moments when one character is smiling because he is touched by the help given by other character.
KKG is about lively people who are living the life and something is happening in their lives.
KKG progresses on the moments where Bunty (Ranveer Shaury) comes to his room and talks about his plans to go abroad and says not to forget him and the family after reaching there.
And Cherry asks about his shares business and Bunty says that he is planning to do something in real estate.
KKG travels smoothly on smallest moments where you blink and scene is gone like in the scene where Meghna and her theatre party has come to Cherry’s house and Cherry’s younger sister Nikki is guessing about the dense friendship between her brother and Meghna and she smiles and laughs and asks Meghna, if she would like to drink anything.
She is watching her would be sister in law in Meghna and she is happy and thrilled and wants to interact more with her.
Or the scene where KK Khosla is angry because Cherry is spending a lot of money and Kiran Juneja comes to him and he shows his anger and says,” Today food will be cooked or not”?
Patriarch of the family has chosen isolation himself and he is unable to break that ice. He is interested to know what is happening among young people but on surface he is showing all they are doing is worthless and he does not care what they are doing.
His wife brings him something, which Cherry has ordered from the market, to eat and he is angry on this additional expenditure also.
And dramatic and hilarious moments come when Kiran Juneja is going out of his room and he asks,”Kuch Chatnee wagairah hai ya nahin”.
KKK remains angry with Cherry because he thinks he is going away from the family but outside he boasts on his son’s achievements. He even complains that these bloody multinationals throw net over talented young people and exploit them because they have to work on holidays and weekends also.
That’s a typical moment where a middle class person says something for sake of keeping continue the conversation. KKK is sitting in the office of a real estate agent and Bunty is also accompanying him and he is talking about Cherry with the agent that all money matters are handled by his younger son only.
Agent simply shows his disinterest in his glib and cuts him short, “Cheque denge kee cash”
KKK replies,”Cash”.
This whole sequence till they leave the place, is amazing and based on minute observation of the different people living in the society around us. We see these things in real life and it is replicated so beautifully on screen.
Dramatic touch is another interesting merit present in the treatment of the film.
In the very beginning KK Khosla sees a dream where he is died and his family members are busy in shedding crocodile tears and they all are busy in their usual manners. His younger son is going to the office. Elder son is busy in talking with people and showing off.
His daughter is busy in checking her looks whether she would look good in jeans or not. His wife is worried about food. How she would feed so many people is her worry?
His best friend, Sahni (Vinod Nagpal) is worried about who would sit in his neighbour in chartered bus from tomorrow and at same time he is taking care of tea also.
And when this horrible scene is finished then we find it was a dream seen by KK Khosla and he blames that he has got indigestion because of the dish his wife had fed him last night and that’s why he got to see weird and awful dreams.
He has got up so early and his wife wants to sleep a little longer. Khosla’s early morning activities are giving troubles to all the family members who are still sleeping at 5 O`Clock.
Drama brings thrilling moments also.
Sethi (Naveen Nischol) has already run away the real estate agent, Vijendra, and now he has come back with Kishan Khurana (Boman Irani) and Munjal.
Sethi says in a flat and strict voice,” Aap broker hain ya party”.
Khurana,”Party”.
Vijendra tries to intervene in between and Sethi rebukes him,”Apse to mein baa thee nahin kar raha”.
Everybody is silent.
Audiences are under the grip of the director’s imagination and they don’t know what would happen next? They are clueless because they know Sethi is pretending and Khurana is a mafia type man.
But Dramatic treatment creeps in and Kishan Khurana starts laughing and first Munjal and then Vijendra follows him, Sethi smiles a little, and his secretary is relieved and audience may also feel a smile on his face.
This is cinema. This is good cinema. When scenes can bind the audience’s attention and take him on a curious and interesting journey and give him unexpected twists or elements also.
And its all done through human behaviour only and not by maintaining some kind of mystery in the plot.
Importance of Drama in the cinema is proved by two scenes which are repeated. Kishan Khurana is on a tour on the land shown by Sethi. He is with Insaan Singh and both the times, Insan Singh becomes worried when they reach near the dry well because if kishan Khurana sees inside then they are trapped. But film maintains the drama and on the both the occasions Khurana is irritated by Insaan Singh’s question whether he would like to take a bath there at well.
He goes back.
Khurana represents a bad man. Khosla group is fighting for their right and they are fighting to get justice so naturally sympathy of audiences are with Khosla family and film has gripped audience to that extent that they don’t want Khurana to go and see inside the well.
Director plays in favour of the emotions of the audience also.
Director and writer, both know this thing and weave their plot in such a way where it can associate majority of people.
Kishan Khurana’s character is not established in a typical filmi manner where personal mannerisms are given too much importance but this job is done through his behaviour with others. How he treats other people become the way to understand his character.
In the very first meeting with Khosla’s he says in a very smooth manner as if playing with the kids,” Achcha wo plot apka hai. Apka hai to le lo” and he laughs heavily. He knows these simple people can not fight with him.
He deliberately calls Insan Singh as Shaitan Singh. He ridicules everybody in his vicinity. He ridicules KKK and Cherry when they go to give him money.
Film should be seen for the extraordinary use of simple things which we face in day to day life.
Film has got top quality performances from Anupam Kher and Boman Irani.
Anupam Kher acts as if he is KK Khosla and camera is fixed to catch his own life.
He has entered too deeply into the skin of the character. Character of a middle class person suits him most and it has been proved many times.
Since the days of his play Wapsi where he had played a middle class patient lying in a hospital, he has been showing his brilliance in playing such characters who may represent real life characters who are weak before mighty people and situations. He excels in films like Saransh, Sansar, Maine Gandhi ko Nahin Mara and Khosla ka Ghsola. This is his territory where he walks like an achiever and a king. He is simply superb even in a small role in God Tussi great ho where he plays the frustrated father of Salman Khan. He understands deeply the psychology of middle class characters and therefore plays them with an '©lan.
Boman Irani has started bit late his filmi innings but this actor is the biggest entry in Hindi cinema in last few years as far as character based films are concerned where focus is not to promote actors playing lead character. He brings in an authentic character actor. He carries the legacy of highly talented character actors who often beats actors lead characters by their brilliant portrayals.
Naveen Nischol is a veteran actor and he has been playing character roles with so much ease and command and his performance in KKG is very good. His caring attitude towards Meghna or complaints with Cherry was so genuine and he played a good theatre person in those scenes. His transformation in to Sethi was also so authentic.
Vinod Nagpal was every inch Sahni of Delhi. He is such a fine actor that he did not look even like an actor on screen. Since the days of Hum Log, whenever he has been given a good role he simply absorbs the character inside him and brings out a good performance.
Ranveer Shaury was very good as Bunty. He was able to go little deeper in his character and he was performing on a better level.
Tara Sharma and Praveen Dhabas’s performances could be improved. Their expressions and dictions could be improved. They look fine as part of the film but when consider on individual basis then it seems that they could have also joined the club of better performers, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Vinod Nagpal, Naveen Nishchol and Ranveer Shaury if they had performed on much deeper level. For their own progress as actors they could have tried little more.
Actors in small roles were also good. Watching Khosla ka Ghosla has always been a satisfying experience.
To have fun one can watch it again and again. This film touches a social crime and it can not be eradicated by spreading awareness so we can not expect from the film that it will hit hard on the people like Khurana so in the end it gives us joy of being a good film. Its not a social messenger film. Its not about change of hearts in that portion.
It is a film about change of heart for characters like Cherry or where family association is concerned. So that part which resembles with Hrishikesh Mukharjee kind of films may change few families and few people.
Khosla Ka Ghosla certainly makes work difficult for its director because expectations are high from his next films.
First part Khosla Ka Ghosla : Hrishi Daian cinema fried with a heist
Tags: Anupam Kher, boman irani, Hrishikesh Mukharjee, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Kiran Juneja, Naveen Nishchol, Praveen Dhabhas, Ranveer Shaury, Tara Sharma, Vinod Nagpal
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
This place is beginning to get intimidating.
Long detailed posts with a lot of insight – might I say articulation of minute observation of every little aspect of films.
Every time I try to write I compare my thoughts to some of those in well thought and well written posts like this. In the end I just go back to reading articles on PFC.
Bitter Sweet – indeed, c’est la vie..
Loved the post.
“Their expressions and dictions could be improved”
im very sceptical of people who measure acting in expressions
then according to you kajol and shah rukh khan are the best actors in the world ?
i second u neeraj….
wonderful article….
but i guess…this is expected from RK….
KKG was pitch perfect. the humor comes from character, and situations.
the scene where i knew that i was in good hands, was when anupam kher buys beer, brings it home delicately to drink with cherry. he is finally willing to accept that his son is a grown man, and treat him as an equal. pass on the reins so to speak, and bond with his son. this is a big deal for him cos he is not a drinker, and it is not casual drinking. it is a rite of passage.
the scene has been set.
this is where jaideep and dibakar show their chops in the pay off.
we have seen anupam be the cool dad with SRK in DDLJ. we have also seen this being used as a short hand to show dad as “cool” in many movies.
Under the circumstances, the character work alone shows us the dramatic import of this scene.
How do you end a scene like this?
Cherry comes home, smiles, bonds with dad, and drinks beer. That’s what you expect, so it becomes boring, or mildly heartwarming.
D&J don’t want that. Why get heartwarming when u can get a funny, and drama?
Cherry has no desire to drink and bond with his dad. Why? HE DOES NOT DRINK (or he does not want to drink with his dad).
So Khosla is upset, about the jurrat of his son, that he’s become too big for his shoes, and an argument follows where cherry says he’s leaving for america.
cherry doesn’t know how to tell his father. this is a delicate matter, but when tensions rise, these things come out in the most dramatic way.
That’s good writing. and good direction. and great performance.
@Rk, i know what u mean by the expression/diction of tara/parveen. could it have been richer, on an individual basis? definitely. is this a limitation they have? I believe so in terms of the other roles i have seen them do.
but when surrounded with such rich characters, and “emoting”, it helps to have some characters blanker than others. The example i want to use is of richard gere in pretty woman. the character is a foil to the pretty woman.
i think dibakar struck just the right chord in extracting and balancing performances.
Dabba,
It was not beer. I guess they even had soda over. So it could not be beer.
Well my friend.. you have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way by displaying such indifference to details
I second you Neeraj.
This place is so intimidating.
RK, That was one heck of a post!!!
Awesome!
A great movie.This is what movie making is all about.superb characterizataion,natural acting.Dibakar will make more good films like this I hope
khosla ka ghosla is picturization problems faced by expectatnt ashaina makers..ashiana dhundhte hain.
good Movie