Presented by Sujit Kumar and directed by Rakesh Roshan, Khel is a romantic comedy movie. The movie seems to be inspired from the English movie Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988). With a multi star cast, good comedy scenes and music, it is an entertaining proposition.

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The Plot

Sulakshana Devi (Mala Sinha) is a widowed and extremely rich lady owning an estate in Chandipur comprising of plantations and industries. Her only son Ravi (Vijayendra Ghatge) had died in a car accident. Ravi was planning to marry Kamini (Bharti) before his death. After his death Kamini comes to meet Sulakshana informing she is pregnant with Ravi’s child. Sulkashana insults her, calls her a gold digger and throws her out of the house. However a few days later Ravi’s friend confirms the truth about Kamini. Efforts made to trace Kamini are unsuccessful.

Sulakshana is depressed. She has no living relatives except a distant relative Balwant (Prem Chopra). Balwant works for Sulakshana and is a villainous character. It was he who had arranged Ravi’s accident with an intention to grab Sulakshana’s property as the only remaining heir. Sulakshana is engaged in social work including running of the local school. Father (Sujit Kumar) is the school principal. Ravi had been his student and he is trusted by Sulakshana.

We come to the other main characters. Seema (Madhuri Dixit) stays with her mother who is none other than Kamini but now called Sharda. Seema is a con woman who works with her business partner “uncle” (Anupam Kher). The pair’s job is fooling rich people and earning money through different schemes. They seem to be fairly successful.

Arun (Anil Kapoor) is another con man. He is an orphan raised in an orphanage run by Sinha (Satyen Kappu). Arun is also engaged in fraud schemes for earning money. It is not revealed why these three have taken up this lucrative profession instead of more decent “shareef” jobs.

All three are in Tikamgadh waiting for the arrival of a rich heiress Tara Jaisingh (Sonu Walia) at a resort. Tara is engaged in philanthropic activities and they are planning to fool her and earn Rs 5 lakhs in return. Arun’s plan is simple. He poses as a handicapped person who has lost his ability to walk when his girlfriend ditches him leaving him heartbroken. He needs Rs. 5 lakhs for getting his leg operated by an imaginary doctor called Dr. Khatpatiya. He hopes to impress Tara and get the money from her.

But Seema and uncle are not far behind. They are keeping an eye on Tara and Arun. They discover Arun’s plan and step in to counter attack. They meet Tara with the fake identities of Dr. Khatpatiya and Dr. Jadibuti. Tara is overjoyed that the doctor is available at the resort and willing to treat Arun right away for a fee of Rs 5 lakhs. Through some funny and so called emotional scenes, Arun gets “cured” to Tara’s delight. Unfortunately its uncle and Seema who get the Rs 5 lakhs. But Arun fools them convincingly and manages to run away with all the money. Tit for tat!

Arun is already making the next plan. Tara is Sulakshana Devi’s family friend and he comes to know about her enormous wealth and opportunity to earn more money by fooling the old lady. He manages to impress the lady with a brilliant first meeting posing as an educated, jobless hungry man and she offers him a job at her estate.

In order to execute his plan, he needs the help of uncle and Seema and goes to meet them. Both are still licking their wounds from the earlier plan’s failure and refuse to work with him. But he manages to convince them and they join him in Chandipur.

The plan is to convince Sulakshana that Seema is her long lost grand daughter. Sulakshana’s acceptance of Seema will be their key to the estate and all the money! Things are arranged skillfully and Seema joins the school as a music teacher and uncle is employed as a butler.

And they are successful. Through their clever actions and planted proofs, Sulakshana is convinced she has met her grand daughter and the last link to her dead son. One person not happy with the development is Balwant who will have to let go of the wealth after getting so close. He decides to find what happened to Kamini and her child to bring out the truth.

Things take a turn when Arun and Seema fall in love. Sulakshana wants them to get married. But with all the trust shown by Sulakshana, Arun, Seema and uncle do not want to deceive the old lady any longer. Will they tell her the truth? Will Balwant be successful in exposing them with some startling information? Who will win this game?

The Music

Rajesh Roshan provides some inspired music and most songs are good. Ek Baat maan lo tum, Na hain zameen na aasmaan, Khat likhna hai were popular.

My Thoughts

The movie is shot in Nairobi, Kenya. The casting is good and they perform effectively. Mala Sinha is good in the emotional as well as comedy scenes. Anil Kapoor and Madhuri were the hit couple in the early 1990s. Surprisingly, they are shown to fall in love at a much later stage in the movie. Anupam Kher is in his usual comedy cum irritating character who has the habit of remembering old songs for every situation and sing them. Sonu Walia, Prem Chopra, Sujit Kumar, Bharti provide good support.

The film was a flop when it released. While the comedy schemes are good, it is difficult to believe that rich people can be so gullible. Anyone can fool them so easily! The climax is pathetic. The viewer would be expecting a nail biting sequence featuring Balwant showcasing his villainous traits ending in a final fight and action scene but that doesn’t happen. Things end in a not so funny cake fight involving the main cast.