“Among the brightest and most articulate of new Indian filmmakers is Saeed Mirza, whose earlier features (The Strange Tale of Arvind Desae, 1978, and What Makes Albert Pinto Angry, 1980/PFA, March ‘82) marked his concern for a ‘cinema of struggle' as opposed to the status quo. Mohan Joshi continues in this vein of social protest, and in a rare format for India, that of political farce. The film tells the story of a retired government clerk, living in a dilapidated old ‘chawl' of Bombay. The sewage pipes leak, the plaster peels, the whole structure is rickety. For generations the ‘Mohan Joshis' of the world have lived in such conditions without uttering protest. But this old man is unreasonable (his neighbors call him a fool), and he decides to sue his landlord. Thus unwinds this broad-ranging farce which focuses on the painful costs of a battle for basic human dignity. Mirza wields his humor in a pointed fashion, and although slightly more caricatured and broad than western audiences are used to, his film engages us and laughingly underscores the plight of human rights in a society where principles and the law have little relevance to reality and need.” Geoff Gilmore, San Francisco International Film Festival ‘85