In the ’80s, Kundan Shah captured the Mumbai builder-politician nexus with spoof and satire in his cult comedy Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. Dibakar Banerjee gave Delhi a real-estate-mafia film in the comedy genre with a more realistic retelling in Khosla ka Ghosla (2006), capturing in one fell swoop the South Delhi aspirations of a West Delhi middle-class family, intergenerational conflict, and a young man clearly uncomfortable in his own skin—as son, brother, and boyfriend.
Ostensibly about a plot of land that the family comes on the verge of losing to land sharks, the self-image of Chiraunjil Lal Khosla, played by actor Parvin Dabas, and his tussle with his father—played by Anupam Kher—is the bigger drama.
‘Cherry puttar’, as he is called in the film, wants to escape to greener pastures in the US, but the exit plan also seems to indicate that he wants to pull out the roots of his ties with his family. Much of the film has him fretting about wanting to drop the name he was given at birth as he thinks it is fuddy-duddy, something especially wants done before he leaves for the land of cool—at least what America seemed to Indians in the 2000s.
KKG was a breakthrough for Dabas, a Delhi boy who, after spending his formative years in Canada, graduated from Hansraj College. He had come to be identified with the upper-middle-class wedding drama, Monsoon Wedding (2001). In Mira Nair’s film, also set in Delhi, Dabas plays the suave desi but US-based groom Hemant, who has come back to Delhi to wrap up his Indian wedding. In Nair’s film, his job entailed meeting the girl, losing the girl, and then charming her back. It was a world away from the existential hustles of Cherry, and Dibakar needed “something else”, says Dabas.
Interestingly, both characters had limited stakes in Delhi. Hemant was dropping in for a rushed wedding; Cherry was dropping out for the ‘fresh start’.
Khosla Ka Ghosla (KKG) is a cult Delhi classic, picking on a particular local vibe, drive, lingo and colour that Delhiites recognise as their own. A sequel -- directed by Prashant Bhagia -- is slated for an August release. Excerpts from a conversation with Dabas in Delhi.
In KKG, your character made a big deal about changing his name. At the end of the film, he manages to do so. Now that Chiraunji Lal Khosla has become Chirag Khosla, is everything going to be all right with him in KKG2?
He's still the same person, but he's grown up a little more. In the first film, the father and son are still coming to terms with their relationship. It starts with them and ends with them. In the beginning, Cherry may want to leave, still, he ends up staying back to fight for his family, especially his father; so I think people also relate to the sometimes uncomfortable nature of the father-son relationship.
Fathers expect a lot from their sons. It is a slightly tenuous relationship, but the son also looks up to the father. So, the basic characters of both are the same in the new film. If they suddenly became backslapping buddies, the audience would be like ‘what the hell is happening…’.
We saw the entire family move into one house at the end of the first film. Is the new film about finding a second home, then?
Like you don’t expect Mr Khosla, a retired person, to become an Ambani, the cheats stay cheats in the new film. That is what the audience expects as well. All I will say is that the film's plot and the Khosla plot of land are intertwined.
Why do we mostly see you as the serious guy in comedy films? Is that how Dibakar Banerjee saw you, too, when he cast you in the film?
Dibakar didn't actually want to cast me in this film. His reference point was Monsoon Wedding, and Cherry’s a very, very different character—most of what or who Cherry is, is subtext. The other guys have the funny lines. He’s generally uncomfortable with people around him; he can't even admit to his girlfriend (Tara Deshpande), who now plays the wife in KKG2, that they are ‘seeing each other’.
Dibakar met me and told me ‘Listen, I’ve seen you in Monsoon Wedding, I don't think you can do this role. I don't think you're right for it…anyway, during the improvisation, he started feeding me lines as a father, and I had to respond as the son. Finally, when it ended, he told me that ‘until now, I hadn’t seen the character like this, but now this is exactly how I want the character to be’.
Khosla ka Ghosla seems unthinkable without Dibakar Banerjee? What was the experience like working with Prashant Bhagia?
Prashant Bagia has directed Jamnapaar and other serials. I love working with new directors. You have to remember even Dibakar was new when he made Khosla ka Ghosla. It was his first film.
You studied at Hansraj College. How much of a Delhi boy are you still?
From the age of about three to 11, I lived in Canada. I went to school and college in Delhi. I would say a lot of Delhi is still in me. On a normal day, I'm very much a Mumbaiite where I now live, but my road rage is very Delhi!