Exactly twenty years before Dil Chahta Hai there was a movie called Chashme Buddoor which was also about three friends (and also roommates in this case). One of the characters is also named Siddharth by coincidence. The conversation between the characters is real life like and non filmy.
There is a scene in the movie where Farooq and Deepti Naval sit in a park and wonder how couples sing and dance in movies. There is also a spoof of some old songs with Ravi Baswani and Deepti Naval just as there was spoof of old songs with Saif and Sonali Kulkarni in DCH. Just as Akshaye hits Aamir when he speaks badly of Dimple, Farooq hits his friend Ravi Baswani when he speaks ill of Deepti Naval. While that causes the rift between the friends in Dil Chahta Hai its the friends who cause the rift between the couple in Chashme Buddoor.
Check out this funny “Miss Chamko” scene from the movie Chashme Buddoor (1981). The scene does play. You have to click on the video. For some reason the image from the movie is not showing up on the video.
Here is the song spoof scene.
Tags: Aamir Khan Akshaye Khanna Chashme Buddoor Deepti Naval Dil Chahta Hai Farhan Akhtar Farooq Sheikh Rakesh Bedi Ravi Baswani Saeed Jaffrey Sai Paranjpye Saif Ali Khan Scene of the Week
CB is GEM. Period-
Movie one can revisit any time and in any mood…
Sai paranjape, Alas, could never better that even though she made another brilliant film “Sparsh”..
For Me CB, will alwys be remembered for brilliance of Farooq, Vasvani, Bedi and Naval and some scenes are etched in my memory for ever..
Chamko Chamko Washing Powder..
Rakesh bedi and Ravi vasvani saying to Saed Jaffery every time when they go to his shop for cigs ” deejiye hamara wala Gold 🙂 ” and
Brilliant scene when both Sheikh and Naval go to one restaurant and ask waiter, ” Yaha kya Accha hain” and waiter replying brilliantly and succintly, “Mahool” …
In the pursue of Grandeur and 100 crs, BW seems to lost the movies and characters that were so real and true… Sigh .. Sad
I have not seen Sparsh but I liked her Katha too. Farooq Sheikh who usually plays goody goody characters is cast against type and plays a conman.
Found this old (2003) recco online. Almost half of it is about the scene I posted above.
A chuckle of a film
Chashme Buddoor is that rare comic Hindi film which is funny without being puerile. This Sai Paranjpye humourfest was a frothy hit when released in 1981 and brought about a mini revival of clean, homespun comedies.
Sai made a film whose off-the-cuff insights rang true and were funny as well. With the zaniness factor kept within believable limits and with its frantic pacing, this whacked out comedy is simply bags of fun.
Witness this frenzied early scene which sets the tone for the film. Neha (Deepti Naval [ Images ]) is a motormouth salesgirl who hawks Chamko washing powder from door to door. When she turns up uninvited at a bachelors’ pad in a Delhi [ Images ] colony, two semi-clad bachelors, Jomo (Ravi Baswani) and Omi (Rakesh Bedi), quickly jump out of the balcony — she is the next-door-neighbour whom they had pluckily tried to woo but failed.
It is left to the third bachelor, the dizzy, scatterbrained Siddharth (Farooque Shaikh), to receive the full benefit of her prattle.
Oozing the false sincerity of a sales pitch, Neha settles down in his room and with rehearsed ease rattles off, “Chamko. Kapdon ke liye behtareen sabun. Azmaiye baar baar. Lagatar. Chamko.” A snowy napkin is proffered as a test for Chamko and the fidgety couple wait for five long minutes for Chamko to do its work.
The tragicomic tension between the sexes is excellently, and perceptively, played out in the following sequence: To escape Siddhartrh’s gawky gape, Neha looks around till her gaze falls on the various pinups plastered over the walls. A towel falls off just then to uncover a pinup of a nude woman. Siddharth springs up and replaces the towel, quickly claiming that this particular part of the wall belongs to his room-mates. He nervously says he would have offered her tea but there is no milk. Instead, he insists that she eat a ladoo he has got from home.
While she struggles with the crumbly ladoo, he switches the cassette player on. The song Hum tum [ Images ] ek kamre mein bandh ho rings out. She is flummoxed; he is embarrassed. He springs into action and quickly ensures the door is ajar. She looks relieved.
This peerless comic scene climaxes with a loud guffaw. Neha proudly waves a clean napkin after drawing it from the bucket. But her joy is shortlived. Siddharth pricks the bubble by naively admitting that the napkin had been freshly laundered in the first instance.
The film carries a similar sting in many of its punchlines, which add a knockout little coda after the completion of the main scene, and fluidly strings together funny set pieces.
Things move along at a rapid clip between the delightfully different Neha and Siddharth. Neha is waiting at the bus stop wielding an imaginary baton (the after-effect of her singing class), much to the amusement of onlookers when Siddharth, her knight on a shining bike, offers to whisk her off for coffee. When Neha remarks on the coincidence that brought them together once again, he baldly admits he has been circling the vicinity for half an hour.
Refreshingly, Neha admits that she too had deliberately leaked information about her singing classes to Siddharth.
In keeping with Sai’s signature, her heroine refuses to kowtow to conventional phillumi women or to pander to politically correct feminist sentiments. When Siddharth suggests that Neha quit her saleswoman job after marriage, she asks for time — just enough to finish her Tutti frutti ice-cream — before she assents.
Jealous that Siddharth has scored with Neha, Jomo and Omi spin yarns about Neha being a flirt and as proof, trot out intimate details about her flat which they have accumulated on their misadventures. The scene where Farooque Shaikh comes for tea to Deepti’s house and discovers the tell-tale signs that lend credence to his friends’ story has a rushed rhythm.
The film veers towards a corny climax. Omi and Jomo, abetted by Neha’s granny (a doughty Leela Mishra), plan to kidnap Neha and let Siddharth rescue her, but some real-life kidnappers beat them at the game!
Sai deserves brownie points for abstaining from slapstick, for her detailing even in cameo roles (like the waiter who witnesses the Neha-Siddharth romance with the I-know-it-all expression). After painting Neha out to be a heartbreaker, Mojo and Omi discover poison in Siddharth’s drawer. In their attempt to stop Siddharth from committing suicide, they blurt out the truth — only to be told that Siddharth had purchased the bottle of Tik 20 to kill not himself, but some pesky bugs.
Sai also juggles the comedy with moments of genuine feeling, best illustrated in the scenes between the granny and Neha. The manner in which she orchestrates the interaction between the three bachelors is like a symphony.
And she seems to be a fan of Hindi cinema, laughing at and simultaneously drawing on regular Hindi film staple: songs in a park, a breezy appearance by Amitabh Bachchan [ Images ] and Rekha [ Images ] and a very watchable parody of hit songs from films ranging from Mughal-e-Azam to Teesri Manzil.
There is great chemistry between the tutti frutti-coffee couple, Deepti and Farooque. In comic subtlety, Farooque has few rivals. Deepti looks every inch the girl-next-door and is at her lustrous best in the Chamko scene.
Ravi Baswani displays tremendous comic brio for a first-timer, and teams well with Rakesh Bedi. He looks like he believes every word of the hokum surrounding his imaginary romantic victories, though the tales are as tall as
a giraffe’s neck.
Sidelights:
* After the success of Chashme Buddoor, an impressed Dharmendra [ Images ] signed Sai to direct a big-budgeted comedy for his home banner. The film was titled Bichhoo, and Shabana Azmi [ Images ] was cast opposite Dharmendra. Unfortunately, Bicchoo was never completed.
* Ravi Baswani had assisted Sai as the properties-in-charge during the making of her Naseeruddin-Shabana starrer, Sparsh. Originally, Jayant Kriplani was considered for the character essayed by Ravi Baswani.
* Farooque Shaikh and Deepti Naval formed a pair after the success of Chasme Baddoor and did half a dozen films together including Saath Saath and Katha.
Music:
* Despite the much-appreciated song Kahan se aaye badra, and though Sai Paranjpye repeated Rajkamal in her next venture Katha, his career did not take off. The Kolkota-based Haimanti Sukla too did not make much headway in the Hindi film industry.
Link
Rajeev Masand interview with Farooque Sheikh & Deepti Naval where they talk about this Miss Chamko scene.
Deepti Naval on how media has been writing stories about her with sensational headlines
I’ve been pretty upset the last few days over something that the print media has been distorting hugely . . . each one of you on Facebook has been totally silent about it – no comment whatsoever – and I appreciate that – and since I know you people care, I’d like to, to explain what has really happened –
Just before the release of ‘Listen Amaya’ me and Farooque Shaikh were doing an interview for Rajiv Masand in my Versova terrace flat. I had been keeping unwell those days and had requested Rajiv’s camera team to come over to my house instead of me having to go to his studio. Rajiv came over with his three camera setup and we were in the middle of this interview, when three members from the Society barged into the flat and demanded that we stop ‘this activity’ – they thought we were making a movie – I explained to them that they can sit here and watch – we are not making a movie, we are doing an interview – but they threatened to call the police on me. Rajiv, Farooq, my director Avinash Singh and his wife Geeta were all very embarrassed hearing this sort of conversation. We tried to wind up fast. Then one neighbor Mr Rajan Khurana was sent up to convey to me that the Society has threatened to call the police if we don’t stop ‘this activity’ right away. I explained again, but to no avail. After that I got a call from the Secy of the Society who was very irked and repeated that ‘We’ll have to call the police on you’. We cancelled all other interviews after that.
I was hugely embarrassed; I apologized to my colleagues and they quietly left.
I felt so humiliated and felt my rights as a resident were violated. I decided to pack my stuff from the Oceanic residence and come and stay at my Madh Island house.
I am an artist and have always given interviews in my own home – artists do that all the time – there is nothing illegal about it – it is their right.
Never mind, now this is what follows the incident.
A week / eight days ago a journalist friend asked me what I was doing sitting in Madh – and I gave vent to my frustration. I told him over the phone that –
‘The Society treated me so badly and kept threatening me with “WE’LL CALL THE POLICE, WE’LL CALL THE POLICE”, as if I’m running a RACKET here!’
Next day it was out in print – in Mumbai Mirror – the sensational headline –
‘I’M NOT RUNNING A PROSTITUTION RACKET” – and the story about the society fiasco, stating how badly me and Farooq Shaikh were insulted by the members of my building.Except for the scandalous headline, nothing wrong with the contents of the article. It was in my favour – But this is what follows . . .
Other papers have picked up the SENSATIONAL HEADLINE and implied that the Society has ACCUSED me of running a prostitution racket. I’ve been appalled! I will post those articles so you all can see how the press distorts everything to make eye-catching news! One of the tabloids has said –
DEEPTI NAVAL OUSTED OUT OF HER ‘PROSTITUTION DEN’
A dear friend, shell shocked at reading the contents in a Calcutta tabloid, called me frantically – ‘What is all this? Who has been accusing you of running a racket?’
I explained to her that no one is ACCUSING me of running anything like that – it is the PRESS that is IMPLYING . . .
Of course I’ve been back at Oceanic in the last days and have conducted my meeting there as well – I’m a little confused – should I take action against the print media or should I let it go. If I let this go, then there are people who’ve said –
‘KUCH TO HOGA NA . . . AISE HIS TO NAHIN SOCIETY ITNA OBJECT KAR RAHI’ – Imagine?
Friends from the industry feel, ‘Let the dogs bark . . . you move on!’
I was sitting there at my terrace flat yesterday evening – after Farooque and I had spent a whole day going to various radio stations giving fresh round of interviews before the re-release of the old Chashmebaddoore on April 5th – and I was looking around at my beautiful spacious home where I sit and dream, do all my writing work, invite friends, spend quality time with myself – and I was in tears . . . this sanctuary of mine to be called a ‘PROSTITUTION DEN’ –
In my heart, I apologized to my father who is no more in this world, and quietly prayed –
‘I’m sorry, Piti, see what all this has catapulted into? Please help me learn to ignore it and move on – but I will not disappoint you – I will fight for my right!’
Thank you for bearing with me – I can’t go around explaining to the whole world, but I can, to a few of you who I know, care . . .
Deepti