Kingsley a likely Oscar contender

Ben Kingsley looks to be a likely Oscar contender for "House of Sand and Fog," but the lauded British actor isn't listening to the buzz surrounding his superb performance.

"I try to stick my fingers in the ears and look the other way and whistle a very loud tune to myself while all this is going on," Kingsley said, laughing, by telephone from Los Angeles.

But Kingsley, who won the 1982 Academy Award for best actor for the title role in "Gandhi," is grateful for the attention such praise brings to "House of Sand and

Fog," a dark, tragic drama based on Andre Dubus III's best-selling novel. It also stars Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly and Ron Eldard.

"It's a long road, and the thing is, if we can get an American audience — if we can invite them into the cinema to partake in, to watch, to witness a tragedy, I think we'll have done something quite special," Kingsley said.

Kingsley portrays Massoud Amir Behrani, a former colonel in the Shah of Iran's air force who attempts to return his family to the prosperity they once knew by purchasing a seized property on the shore near San Francisco. The house, which Behrani plans to sell for a substantial profit, was taken from Connelly's character, Kathy Nicolo, over nonpayment of business taxes.

But Kathy, a recovering drug addict whose husband recently left her, was wrongfully evicted because of a bureaucratic error. She fights for the house with the aid of a deputy sheriff, portrayed by Eldard, engaging Behrani in a fierce, destructive battle of wills.

However, none of the characters are driven by greed so much as their desire to attain the American Dream.

"They are very, for various reasons, dispossessed souls, who desperately need to come home," Kingsley said.

Ironically, Kingsley served as Dubus' inspiration for the Behrani character. The actor, who turned 60 Wednesday, was born Krishna Bhanji and is of British and Indian descent.

"I received the novel maybe a year and a half before I met (director) Vadim (Perelman) and read the screenplay, and Andre Dubus' dear wife wrote a beautiful letter to me accompanying the book," Kingsley recalled. "She said, my husband has always held you in his mind's eye while writing the character of Behrani."

At the time, Kingsley was unaware that the book would become a film or that he would play the Behrani role.