Decoding Chhoti Si Baat (1975)

Movie 3/100

April 25, 2018

If you gew up in the 90s like me, you will remember watching movies like Satte Pe Satta, Chaalbaaz and Golmaal umpteen number of times on TV. There was a phase in the 1970s and 1980s, where directors such as Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee (coincidentally, both were Bengalis) brought in a slice-of-the-life cinema that showcased the majority of Indian population on celluloid – the Middle Classes! The third movie in my movie marathon is Basu Chatterjee’s 1975 hit, ‘Chhoti Si Baat’, starring Amol Palekar, Vidya Sinha and Ashok Kumar. Years before ‘Hitch’ and ‘Partner’ were made, Chhoti Si Baat invented the concept of a ‘Love Guru’, who helps an under-confident man win over the girl he loves.

Set in the beautiful Bombay of the 1970, Chhoti Si Baat traces the journey of a novice in love, Arun (played by Amol Palekar) who is unable to confess his feelings to Prabha (played by Vidya Sinha), a girl he meets at a bus stop. While Arun is hopelessly in love with Prabha, owing to his under-confidence, he is never able to confess to her. Adding to his woes is Nagesh (played by Asrani), another friend of Prabha’s who has his chivalrous ways of impressing Prabha and intimidating Arun. When he gets no help or respite from fortune-tellers or fake babas, Arun  visits a life coach, Col. Julius Nagendranath Wilfred Singh (played by Ashok Kumar), who is known to help people in their matters of love and life. The rest of the movie is about how the newly transformed Arun wins over Prabha.

Performance wise, Amol Palekar overshadows everyone else. He is rightly described by Col. Singh as the one with ‘Improper conditioning and defective verbal abilities.  As a naïve, under-confident and righteous man, he uses his lean physique and awkwardness to brilliantly build a character that the viewers would sympathize with. From being childlike and inexperienced in love to becoming a confident and chivalrous man, he displays honesty in his performance. Vidya Sinha, with her beautiful large eyes, plays his perfect muse – she is always subtle and uses a typical 70s-heroine style of shyness. Asrani as Arun's bete noire, provides comic relief, playing the hunk/stud of the 1970s. Ashok Kumar as Col. Singh is perfectly cast and his ‘rules’ for ‘Three steps from drawing room to bedroom’ are funny, though some of them can be real life lessons as well.

With simple writing, real-life setting and authentic costumes, Basu Chatterjee creates a world which every middle-class office goer would relate to. Co-written by Sharad Joshi with beautiful melodies composed by Salil Chaudhary, Chhoti Si Baat is a feel good movie, which evokes subtle emotions. There are scenes when you sympathize with Arun and there are sequences where you can’t help but smile at his innocence. Like all Basu Chatterjee movies, humor is under-stated and performances are never overdone. The dream sequences that Arun frequently breaks into evoke quite a few laughs. A frustrated and puzzled Nagesh in the second half makes you enjoy his miseries. It is such a fluffy movie that it seldom arouses any strong feelings in the viewers. It remains light, fresh and feel-good.

While some may argue that Arun’s antics amount to stalking, it is important to note that nowhere does he cross the line or behave erratically. Unlike movies such as Ranjhana and Tere Naam, the protagonist here is not a stalker. Rather, he is a man awkwardly stuck and unable to confess his love. The movie is largely relatable even in today and makes for a good watch on a laid back Sunday. If you are a fan of simple film-making like me, then even the opening credits with words like ‘Dhvani’ and ‘Prabhandak’, will induce nostalgia and take you back to your childhood.

You can catch this movie on YouTube.