On the fourth day of Film Fest ‘Ekagra,’ Hindi film Chhoti Si Baat was screened here on Friday at Abhirang Auditorium, Bharat Bhavan.Chhoti Si Baat is a 1975 Hindi romantic comedy film directed by Basu Chatterjee.
Considered as one of the best Hindi comedy films of the 1970s, it is a nostalgic favourite for its quirky take on pre-hypercongested Bombay. The film became a box office hit and also earned Filmfare nominations and a Filmfare Award for Best Screenplay for Basu Chatterjee.
It also established Amol Palekar as having an uncommon comic talent for playing mousy characters, a role he would go on to repeat several times in his career.
This movie is based on "School for Scoundrels", a 1960 British Comedy which itself was based on the "Gamesmanship" series of books by Stephen Potter.
Arun (Amol Palekar) is a shy accountant in Bombay who dreams of romancing Prabha (Vidya Sinha), but never gets past following her around without managing to actually speak up. Arun is attracted to her, but is not confident enough to tell her. He tries various ways to impress her, even buying a dilapidated motor-bike to give her a ride, only to find out, to his vast embarrassment, that this bike is nothing but junk, and loses out to the assertive Nagesh. He tried various pundits, palm-readers, psychics, and counselors - all in vain.
Then he decides to try out Col. JNW Singh, who lives out in the country. When he gets to meet Singh, he is asked to pay a fee, which he does, and then begins his training in assertiveness. But the kind of training he gets is for seducing a woman — which Prabha may not appreciate at all — and he may end up losing her to Nagesh.
A huge crowd was spotted to watch the show as it is one of the favourite movies of all times. Bhopalites enjoyed watching the movie on a big screen.