Khosla Ka Ghosla

Kamal Kishore Khosla is a middle-class man living in New Delhi where he has purchased a plot of land to build a house. His family includes his wife Sudha, the younger son, Chirauonji Lal a.k.a. Cherry, elder son Balwant a.k.a. Bunty and his daughter Nikki. Kamal has invested all his savings into buying the plot. Cherry is not too interested in his father's plan to settle together in the new house. He is a software engineer and intends to move to the US to take up a job there. However, Cherry has not let his family in on his plans. The only person he discusses this with is Asif Iqbal, the agent helping him with his passport and visa paperwork. Much later, he shares this news with his girlfriend Meghna. Later Cherry reveals to his family about his new job in America.

During a visit to their land for Bhumipujan, they find their plot encroached upon by someone. Further probing reveals the squatters are part of a property usurping nexus headed by the corrupt and powerful Kishan Khurana. Upon being urged so by the property dealer who had facilitated the purchase of the plot, Kamal and Bunty visit Khurana who demands ₹1.5 million to vacate the plot, an amount which Kamal neither has nor agrees to pay. He appeals to authorities and agencies for help. None of them offers more than to get the amount Khurana demands reduced by a few lacs in exchange for a hefty commission for mediating.

Spurred by his father's helplessness, Bunty gets help from a gang of local wrestlers who demolish the boundary walls built by Khurana's men and take back possession of the plot by force. This success is short-lived when Kamal is arrested on trumped-up charges of trespass. Released at Khurana's guileful behest after spending a day in jail, Kamal's will is broken and his pride battered. He tells his family to avoid taking any further action as he is incapable of fighting back and wants Cherry to concentrate on the job that he is arranging abroad. Cherry discusses the grim situation with Iqbal who is revealed to have been an old partner of Khurana's and who has been cheated by him, having usurped Asif's own ancestral land. Asif offers to help the Khoslas with a group of Meghna's friends, and they set up a plan to deceive Khurana. They portray some land (owned by the fisheries department, but which has been vacant for decades) as their own, and seek the help of Meghna's mentor, Bapu, to act as the owner of the land looking for a buyer. Bapu, who is the manager of a drama theatre group, acts as the owner of the vacant land. With the help of the rest of his theatre group, they manage to create a situation so that Khurana believes the authenticity of the land and its owner. The deal is almost finalised and Khurana asks to visit the land. They successfully dupe Khurana and take his cash. From that money, Kamal pays the ransom to Khurana and regains possession of his plot; the remaining cash is divided equally between the Khoslas, Asif and the theatre group. Cherry scraps his plans to migrate to the US, marries Meghna and settles with his family in their new house built on the plot.

• Anupam Kher as Kamal Kishore Khosla
• Boman Irani as Kishen Khurana
• Parvin Dabas as Chiraunji Lal "Cherry" Khosla
• Vinay Pathak as Asif Iqbal
• Ranvir Shorey as Balwant "Bunty" Khosla
• Tara Sharma as Meghna
• Kiran Juneja as Sudha Khosla
• Rajendra Sethi as Vijendar
• Rupam Bajwa as Nikki Khosla
• Vinod Nagpal as Mr Sawhney
• Navin Nischol as Bapu / Mr. Sethi
• Nitesh Pandey as Mani
• Anusha Lall as Katori
• Rajesh Sharma as Munjal

Dibakar Banerjee, who was making advertisement films in Delhi, wished to make a feature film "which portrayed Delhi as it is".[2] The initial idea of the generation gap was conceived by Savita Raj Hiremath and his writer friend Jaideep Sahni, who had worked with Banerjee on advertising films. Sahni said the soul of Khosla Ka Ghosla was derived from their experience of growing up in a middle-class house in Delhi.[2] The first half of the film was based on Sahni's personal experience of an incident in his family which left an impression on him. He thought about "how our entire system can so callously and efficiently come together in no time to exploit a common man in trouble."[2] Later Sahni informed Banerjee that he had found a producer from Delhi and asked him if he wanted to direct the film; Banerjee agreed to do so.[3] Banerjee said a real life experience when Sahni witnessed his father being insulted by someone powerful, helped them to develop the character of the antagonist Khurana.[3] Sahni worked on the story for a year-and-a-half and finished in 2003.[4] Both Banerjee and Sahni first approached Anupam Kher to play Kamal Kishore Khosla; he was "hooked" after their discussions.[2]

Vinay Pathak had auditioned for Khurana's character for which Boman Irani was eventually selected, but the team liked Pathak's audition and offered him the role of Asif Iqbal. Ranvir Shorey was selected for the role of Balwant after two or three rounds of auditions.[2] The role of Khurana was also offered to Rishi Kapoor who refused it. Hiremath felt this was because "commercially, it (the role) wasn't working for him."[2] Irani had also initially refused the offer to play Khurana as he felt he was unsuitable for the role of a builder from Delhi since he was a Mumbai-born Parsi. He accepted the role after "a lot of people had raised their eyebrows" at his decision and he felt determined to make it work. Irani drove around and listened to interviews recorded with actual property dealers.[2] He also watched real footage captured using hidden cameras to understand how they behaved.[5] Kher said that he tried to boost the team's morale as the film was made while enduring a lot of stress. Tara Sharma was selected for the role of Meghna after an audition.[2] Banerjee was initially reluctant to give Parvin Dabas the role of Chiraunjilal as he thought the latter would not be able to do justice to the "layered character." Dabas but later cast in the role after a recommendation and an audition.[2] Navin Nischol was cast as Bapu.[6]

During the course of filming, Banerjee kept Irani separate from the rest of the cast as he did not want them to meet.[7] During filming, the investors demanded the addition of action sequences, an item song and changes in the cast. The team did not fancy these changes so Padmalaya Telefilms, their first investor, backed out of the project. Hiremath said that she had to "shell out cash" from her other company.[2] The film's small budget meant there were limited reels to shoot. After the filming finished, the team had no money for post-production. The entire film was shot in 45 days in Delhi during the summer.[2][8]

The entire opening dream sequence was filmed in one take using a hand-held camera to give it a "separate look from the rest of the film".[7] Amitabha Singh served as the director of photography, while Sejal Painter was the editor.[6] Banerjee had a different, sad ending for the film, but opted for Sahni's version of a more optimistic ending after realising his idea would make the film darker.[3] The film did not have any buyers for two years. During this period editing continued. The team showed the film to several people who loved it but were unwilling to back it.[9] Banerjee said that he gave up on releasing the film after several rejections.[7] Later, in 2006, UTV Motion Pictures stepped in and distributed the film.[2]

The soundtrack album of Khosla Ka Ghosla was composed by Dhruv Dhalla and Bapi–Tutul while the lyrics were written by Jaideep Sahni.[10] It consists of five songs with vocals by Kailash Kher, Kunal Ganjawala, Sowmya Raoh, Adnan Sami and Qadar Niazi Qawwal. Savita, the film's producer, managed to raise some funds for the music and Sahni wrote the lyrics the same day as he was worried they might miss the opportunity.[2] This was Dhalla's debut film. Banerjee called him after hearing his music samples and asked him to create "a Punjabi number based on the loud attitude of Delhi." Dhalla composed the tune for "Chak De Phattey" in three hours.[11]

The album received moderate reviews. Joginder Tuteja of IndiaFM called it an "average soundtrack with two songs standing out." Further writing: "While 'Chak De Phattey' is a potential chartbuster, 'Intezar Aitbaar Tumse Pyaar' makes for an easy-on-ears listening."[10]

Khosla Ka Ghosla was screened at the 2006 Kara Film Festival and the Hay Festival in 2012.[12][13] It was released theatrically on 22 September 2006 on 125 screens throughout the country.[14] The film was released on the DVD format on 6 November 2006 and is also available on the online streaming platform, Netflix.[15][16]

Khosla Ka Ghosla is considered by many critics as one of the best films by Banerjee.[31][32][33] It was included in Filmfare's 100 Days series—"With no big stars, relatively unheard of a director and a subject that you wouldn't rate on paper as the most exciting, Khosla Ka Ghosla manages to impress one and all."[5] It was also mentioned in critic and author Shubhra Gupta's book, 50 Films That Changed Bollywood, 1995–2015.[34]

In 2013, The Delhi Police Crime Branch caught a gang of cheats who duped several people by selling them plots belonging to the Delhi Development Authority by using forged documents. The officials said that the method adopted by the gang appeared to have been inspired by the film.[35] The film was remade in Tamil as Poi Solla Porom. Directed by A. L. Vijay, the film starred Karthik Kumar, Piaa Bajpai, and Nedumudi Venu in the lead roles. It was released on 12 September 2008.[36] It was unofficially remade in Kannada by T. N. Nagesh as Rame Gowda Vs. Krishna Reddy in 2010.[37][38]

• Chaturvedi, Preeti; Kumar, Nirmal (2015). Brave New Bollywood: In Conversation with Contemporary Hindi Filmmakers. India: SAGE Publishing. ISBN 9789351504955.

• Khosla Ka Ghosla at IMDb