mohan joshi haazir ho

seems very prescient of the film when in 1984 when the film was released there was no section 33/7 when amjad khan tells the evil promoters to give the chawl dwellers some small houses on the plot and on the rest build big houses as ‘delux’ flats on the open market. the proposal is refused by the promoters who would rather let the building collapse to clear the land completely for the older tenants. the film is a simplistic dark farce that follows idealistic mohan joshi and his wife as they make the rounds of courtrooms with their pair of slimy lawyers naseeruddin shah and satish shah trying to get their decrepit chawl repaired. bombay is a decaying mess of a city with the only spaces of romance being marine drive (naturally) and the terrace of the chawl from where the surrounding skyline of the defunct mills can be seen.