Inkaar (1977)

After watching Chhoti Si Baat, I was browsing through Vidya Sinha’s filmography on Imdb, and there I discovered Inkaar. Described as a thriller on the website with an average rating of 7.9 (40 odd votes), I decided to check it out. And thankfully, watching this movie starring Vinod Khanna as a CID officer turned out to be quite a good call.

A taut, fast paced thriller from the 70s, Inkaar is a stylishly made highly entertaining movie directed by Raj Sippy. The movie is a kidnapping drama and has its central theme right in sight throughout its run-time. The movie opens with a very interesting scene in which Inspector Amarnath Gill (Vinod Khanna) enters a restaurant where a man has reportedly suffered from a heart attack causing quite a concern amongst its patrons. Inspector Gill, however, identifies in a jiffy that the man is faking the attack to escape from paying the restaurant bill. This scene firmly establishes Gill’s character as a sharp, no-frills inspector who keeps emotions out of his already very tough job.

The focus then shifts on the professional and personal world of a successful businessman Haridas Choudhary (Shreeram Lagu in a typical patriarchal role). He is shown to be living a near perfect life; a fact thumped down by a typical ‘sukhi ghar sansaar’ family song featuring a special appearance by Rakesh Roshan; and like it happens in so many of our Hindi movies, as soon as the song ends disaster strikes. Choudhary receives a ransom call from a maniacal criminal Raj Singh (Amjad Khan) and his two accomplices, claiming that they have kidnapped his son. Chaudhary starts hyperventilating and immediately agrees to pay the ransom. However things change rapidly when they realize that the kidnappers had taken the wrong kid with them. Instead of the businessman’s son, they had abducted his driver’s young boy (Master Raju) of the same age.

Things take an interesting turn here, as the story runs on two parallel paths. While a team of CID officers led by Amarnath Gill start chasing the kidnappers, on the other hand there is the emotional melodrama involving the faithful ‘almost family’ driver and the Choudhary family which also includes inspector Gill’s love interest (and Choudhary’s young sister) Geeta (Vidya Sinha). The movie then becomes a riveting crime thriller with an intelligent team of CID inspectors chasing an intelligent and dangerous villain. The good thing is that it stays that way till the end. The narrative is highly engrossing, and despite a few clichés, manages to keep you interested. The last ten minutes or so are somewhat protracted, but the way they have been shot is very interesting (though they remind of the climax of another Vinod Khanna starrer Achanak).

Films like these don’t leave much scope for histrionics, but Vinod Khanna is superb as a plain clothes cop (mostly dressed in black suits throughout the movie). His character is suave and unrelenting and has a strange cool quotient that is hard to explain. Amjad Khan is equally impressive as the mad villain, and adds a lot of weight (no pun intended) to the enterprise. Shreeram Lagu gives the impression of overacting, and the same goes for the actor who plays his driver. Vidya Sinha has nothing much to do, and unfortunately neither does Master Raju.

The songs by Rakesh Roshan are forgettable. Ah wait! The movie also boasts of one of the most favour Helen number ever ‘Mungda Mungda’ (Katrina’s item number in the upcoming film Agneepath seems designed on the same lines). This song, and a small portion following it, seems forced into the otherwise hiccup free screenplay.

Parting Note: ‘Inkaar’ is an extremely engaging movie and fans of the thriller genre will definitely enjoy this one. It would have been rated as one of the best Hindi thrillers ever had it evidently not been a scene by scene copy of a Japanese classic Tengoku to Jigoku by Akira Kurosawa.

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.