Khoobsurat is Sanjay Chhel's first directorial venture. It is easy to understand the spirit of the movie when you read this quote of his on the Khoobsurat website, "The modern age Indian, as exemplified by the advent and the success of cable television, is not willing to stomach fancy jugglery of words. All he or she wants is escapism set in a realistic scenario." No wonder, intelligence and a good story get thrown out of the windows. He is credited with having written the scripts for the television programs, 'Filmi Chakkar' and 'Philips Top Ten', which apparently did very well, three-four years ago. What he and the others don't seem to realize or if they do realize, pretend to ignore, is the fact that these programs, even though they sucked, did well only because the concept of satellite television was new at the time; anything and everything was popular in those days. Yet, Chhel has also worked on the screenplays for 'Rangeela' and 'Yes Boss', which makes you wonder.

So what is the movie all about! It is loosely based on "Bawarchi", the Rajesh Khanna, Hrishikesh Mukherjee film, where he goes as a cook into a large family and endears himself to everyone, patches up troubled relationships and helps out those in need. In this film, Sanjay Dutt, plays Sanju who is forced to become a con artist after a 'bhai' named Jogiya (an over-the-top Paresh Rawal) kidnaps an orphan girl that Sanju dotes on, in return for Rs 50 lakhs, which was the cost of the drugs that Sanju had helped the police seize from Jogiya. To steal money, using a false identity, he enters the house of a big Barjatya-wannabe family that consists of an elderly father (Anjan Srivastava), mother (Farida Jalal), three sons (Om Puri, Ashok Saraf and Jatin Kanakia), their wives (Supriya Sachin, Himani Shivpuri), children and Om Puri's daughter, Shivani played by Urmila. Sanju manages to get close to each one of them and soon becomes part of the family.

Urmila's Shivani is supposed to be an intelligent, angsty, brooding girl who blames herself for her mother's death at the time of her birth. But as soon as Sanju comes into the picture, he tries to change her. According to Sanju and the movie, the only way to stand out and be confident (read ability to snare husbands), is by wearing miniskirts, Western clothes and adopting a funny accent. The metaphorical scene on the parapet of the terrace, where Shivani finally sheds her pupa to emerge as a butterfly is so pathetically done, it makes you cringe. Even worse, is the fact that Shivani goes through this entire personality change only so that she can do well at the 'interviews' with prospective grooms, in her quest to get married. Eventually of course, the two fall in love.

Sanjay Dutt looks old and haggard. His attempt at a change of style and image just don't work, considering his innate limitations as an actor. Urmila looks fresh and good, but is thoroughly unbelievable in the first half when she plays the brooding, shy Shivani, unlike in Satya, where she was able to pull off an unglamorous role. The rest of the cast is good, but then most character actors are good, given half the chance.

If at all this movie was to win a prize, it would be for ensemble acting. Some scenes, in which the entire family acts together, as in a sitcom, are done well and showcase Chhel's origins as a TV director. Especially, the scene where the brothers and Sanju work out an impromptu advertisement for underwear - this is the kind of stuff collegians do in programs such as "It's a Mad Ad World' during college festivals. Unfortunately, the transition from television to films cannot be made by just extending five-minute sitcomish scenes to three hours.

The music by Jatin-Lalit is very average without any memorable tune. The editing at times is awful. The movie overshoots by at least half an hour and two songs.

There are a couple of nice surprises though. In the first song, which is a Bhangra-pop number in a discotheque, ex-VJ Sofiya Haque plays the customary, mini-skirt girl dancing with the hero - she looks good in her first appearance in a film. The other bit of good casting is Supriya Sachin from the television serial 'Tu Tu Main Main', who plays one of the daughters-in-law. Paresh Rawal's dialogues are all rip-offs of famous ad jingles and copy lines, while Jatin Kanakia plays the stuttering, confused middle brother. In the early parts of the movie, they sound funny and interesting, but as the movie chugs along, Chhel, realizing he is onto a good thing, goes overboard with them, so that eventually the novelty palls - like having too many chocolates at one go.

I wonder when our industry will mature and make intelligent, interesting movies, rather than repeating the same themes using different dressings. Can Bollywood ever aspire to a "Sixth Sense' or "The Matrix"? Until then, all we can hope to do is to look for a scene here, a scene there, trying to be optimistic that one day these will bloom into decent, sensible movies.