Paheli (1977)

India lives and breathes in its villages. Unfortunately most of us city bred people don’t even appreciate this fact (till the day we take a train and realize that cities are like small traffic lights on a long expansive road). Our movies of today don’t really appreciate this fact either. I personally have always loved the rural settings in movies and books and such movies act have a great cathartic effect on me. The languid and all encompassing life of villages with limited means and limited ambitions has always had a great pull on me. The days in such settings somehow seem rather unhurried and more meaningful to me. I have always wondered whether other people also feel the same way about rural life (or do I have a strong past life connect). I have no answer and frankly I don’t care. When I saw this little gem of a movie from Rajshri- Paheli, I got so much sucked into its world that I found it very hard to get back to my world. It was really difficult to get it out of my head.

Paheli is a sweet story of a city boy visiting his grandmother in his ancestral village and a village girl who becomes his companion there. The movie has no big known names and was the launch vehicle for all its young actors including Arun Govil. Montu (Satyajeet) has just completed his school and decides to visit his grandmother in their village in his summer vacations along with some friends. There, he meets Gauri, an exuberant and full of life village girl who initially teases him a lot for his city ways and then strikes a great companionship with him. Montu’s friends find it difficult to adjust to the village life despite the love and affection thrown at them from all quarters and leave for the city after two days. Montu stays behind and falls in love with the village and its people. He and Gauri spend some great and joyous time together- exploring the vistas and everything else the village had to offer. They run around, they fight, they argue, and they learn from each other. Theirs is the sweetest age of first love, and the movie revels in their joys of discovering it without actually realizing it.

Finally the time comes for Montu to leave the village and return to the city where he has to enroll in a college. He makes a promise to both his grandmother and Gauri that he would return to the village in his next summer vacations one year later. That one year passes rather quickly and he hurries back to the village, only to realize that many things have changed in the one year that has gone by, including Gauri who has started behaving rather weirdly in his company. Montu cannot make any sense of this frustrating paheli (puzzle/riddle) that he had to contend with. He wants Gauri to be the same way as she was one year back, but cannot realize a simple truth that was staring at them from all quarters- The simple truth that she and he were grown up people now. But everything gets sorted out at the end of course.

The movie is a delightful take on adolescent love. It smells of and exudes our Indian values and culture- the values that getting somewhat diluted in the current times. It is like an experience and transported me to a different world altogether- a world that is peaceful and compassionate. But most of all it introduced me to Gauri- a character that I absolutely loved. Nameeta Chandra, the girl who plays Gauri, does a great job of it and is truly the life and soul of the movie. After watching this movie, I did quite a search on her and realized that she almost disappeared after doing this movie (she did a devotional movie Ganga Dham with Arun Govil and a bit appearance in a Masala potboiler in the late 1980s- that’s it). It is unfortunate as I found her enthralling and would have loved to see more of her. I guess I will have to make do with watching bits and pieces of Paheli every now and then. It is truly an unknown gem by Rajshri, and it’s quite strange that there are not many reactions on the movie online. Though many people have commented really fondly about this movie and Nameeta on its YouTube songs links. So I guess I have not really gone mad! 

Signing off with few of the wonderful songs of the movie (by Ravindra Jain)

Chhoti Si Baat (1975)

X: I just love that girl; I don’t know how to tell her- it is driving me crazy…

Y: Big deal man; just look into her eyes confidently and tell her how you feel for her…

Sometime later, some other place, some other confidante- the same man but on the other side-

Y: I love that girl man; I have no idea how to say it; I just go weak in the knees when she comes in front of me…

Telling a girl how you feel for her can be the toughest task for most, but it usually appears to be no big deal from a third person perspective. It is after all a pretty small thing- just three small words-‘Chhoti si baat’. When you have to do it for yourself, however, there cannot be a more complex thing in the world. But ideally this should not be the case, and this is the premise that forms the backbone of this Basu Chatterjee offering starring Amol Palekar, Vidya Sinha, Asrani, and Ashok Kumar (in a cracker of a role). There is also a larger context in the movie, which is essentially how two different personalities approach their lives in general and how in this cut-throat world it is very important to be sure of oneself and street-smart to survive and win.

Amol Palekar plays Arun, a shy young man far away from any kind of cunning or manipulative behavior.  He loves Prabha (played by the demure Vidya Sinha) but is unable to express his feelings to her. Arun works in a firm at a middle level post, and Prabha works in some another company that has its office near to that of Arun’s firm. Every morning Arun waits for Prabha at the bus-stop, follows her all the way to her office and then makes his way towards his own. In the evenings too he waits for her to come out of her office and follows her right back to her place. This does not go unnoticed at Prabha’s end, and she quite enjoys teasing the nervous and naïve Arun in some way or the other. Things go the same way, until a disruption in the form of Prabha’s friend Nagesh (Asrani is a very lively role) comes into Arun’s life. Nagesh is exactly what Arun isn’t- confident, smart, crooked, manipulative, and always ready with a witty excuse to escape from doing any work. Nagesh, Prabha’s co-worker, starts driving her to work in his scooter, snatching Arun’s joy of meeting Prabha in the bus.

Soon Nagesh makes out Arun’s feelings for Prabha and starts to make things difficult for him in more ways than one. Unable to accept things as they are, Arun decides to take help from a counselor and problem solver of the name Col. Julius (Ashok Kumar in a scorcher of a role), who lived in the outskirts of the city and was famous as someone whose advice was even valued by eminent personalities of that time. Arun stays with Col. Julius for a few days and gets training in love, life, and much more. Armed with various tricks and techniques taught by the Colonel, he returns to the city as a much more self-assured person and ends up wooing Prabha and beating Nagesh at his own game.

The plot is simple, but it is the sequence of events that are delightful to watch. The narrative keeps us involved at each and every turn and manages to evoke sympathy for Arun’s character in the initial few portions, and dislike for the smart and calculative Nagesh who dupes the naïve Arun more than once. In the final few minutes, one may actually find himself rooting for Arun to succeed. The dialogues are smart and the humor is simple but crackling. No one gets slapped, no one farts or makes silly faces, no one uses double entendres, and no one uses cuss words- this movie is a study on all the things that are missing from our comedies these days.

The performances are so natural that you will hardly think that anyone is acting in the movie. All the actors are the characters they play, and there cannot be a bigger achievement for people who indulge in this craft. Amol Palekar stands out in a role of a working class simpleton madly and hopelessly in love who has no clue about how to make that love materialize. Vidya Sinha is amazing as a middle class young woman. She is supremely charming and alluring; especially in scenes when she is hoping that Arun will transcend the barriers of shyness and make a move to initiate conversation between them. Asrani plays a brat with aplomb and Ashok Kumar plays the retired Colonel with such Joie de vivre that it is a treat to watch him at play. The movie also boasts of some melodious songs by Salil Chaudhary including “Na Jaane Kyun, hota hai yeh zindagi ke saath’, and ‘Jaaneman Jaaneman tere do Nayan'.

Basu Chatterjee tried keep a similar light hearted mood in almost all his films, and got is spot on most of the times (Though there were certain misfires like the Dharmendra and Hema Malini starrer Dillagi which could not achieve the cheerfulness and likeability of his other movies like Chitchor, Khatha Meetha, Baaton Baaton Mein, Rajnigandha etc). Let’s hope that someone comes and revives the genre mastered by him and Hrishikesh Mukherjee, in the same way as the Masala genre is being revived by the powerhouses of our movie industry.

Parting Note- Chotti Si Baat is a must watch- and there is no better way to put it. It is one movie that will keep you smiling throughout.

Chashme Buddoor (1981)

On friendship day, recalling an on-screen friendship that is closest to how friends are in real life....

Three students renting a flat in a big city- all of them single, lazy, carefree, and most of the times out of cash. Sounds familiar? It is the story that plays out in our cities, especially Delhi and Mumbai, at more places than one. Sai Paranjape’s ‘Chashme Buddoor’ is a delightful take on bachelorhood and friendship. The three guys Siddharth, Omi, and Jai are played by Farooq Sheikh, Rakesh Bedi, and Ravi Baswani repectively. While Omi and Jai are quite exuberant and overtly desperate to have girlfriends, Siddharth is a shy person more interested in books than girls (He is made to wear thick spectacles to drive this point home I guess).

A delightful intrusion in their daily routine comes in the form of a charming young girl (Deepti Naval) that they spot from the window of their flat. Omi and Jai decide to take turns at attempting to woo her. The urgency and the excitement that this mere sighting of a pretty girl in the neighborhood brings to these two is quite relatable to what actually happens even in this time and age. They offer Siddharth an attempt at wooing her, but he declines. Then one by one Omi and Jai visit the girl’s home in the neighborhood. While Jai gets thrown out by the girl’s hefty brother, Omi walks out of her place after being mistaken for a plumber. Subsequently both of them, instead of admitting their failures in front of Siddharth, hatch up false stories of how they managed to woo the girl successfully and how she went on a date with both of them. Then on the pretext of sacrificing the girl for each other, they end the matter and vow to never think about the girl again.

Unknown to both of them, the same girl visits their home on a sales assignment for the ‘Chamko’ brand of detergent powder. Siddharth, being the only one at home, interacts with her and watches the whole sales demonstration, completely dazed by her charm and affability. In a not entirely chance encounter, they meet again. Slowly Siddharth and Neha, or Miss Chamko as he calls her, fall for each other and start meeting quite frequently. Siddharth also manages to get a job and later on, to his utmost surprise, he discovers that his boss is none other than Neha’s father. Things couldn’t be more perfect of Siddharth, but then Omi and Jai get to know about his affair with Neha. Slightly jealous of the fact that their friend had managed to woo a girl they couldn’t- they false a false picture about Neha in the mind of Siddharth.

The story is really uncomplicated and light hearted. The director creates an engaging set of characters and gives complete focus to their interplay and interactions instead of introducing unnecessary twists and turns and sub-plots. The actors do a good job and pitch in with truly natural performances. All of them are highly commendable, even the interesting role played by Saeed Jaffery of that of a neighborhood ‘panwallah’ who continuously keeps reminding them of their rising debt on cigarettes, but despite that takes keen interest in their affairs and wishes the best for them.

The one thing I didn’t like about this movie was its climax, which was probably designed as a tongue in cheek take on the way most Bollywood movies were at that time. Another instance the director tried using this tool was when Siddharth and Neha ridicule how film couples singing songs in gardens etc. when a plethora of people can watch them, but subsequently break into a song themselves. This sequence however is quite cute and brings a smile to your face. As a parting note- that can be said for the whole movie too…

PS- As per reports David Dhawan is remaking this film pretty soon- In my opinion he will murder the film by introducing unnecessary gags and songs- and will kill the soul of the film- i.e. its simplicity.