DesiDabba - Boss, Thoda Sa Roomani Ho Jaye

Thursday night I had the opportunity to watch one of my favorite old Bollywood clicks on Zee Premier.

My all time favorite actress the South Indian siren Sridevi, who is undoubtedly one of the finest actresses to hit the big screen. I can watch any of her movies time and again and as a kid had most of her movie dialogues on the tip of my tongue. This once again tempted me to go through Chaalbaaz all over again.

Chaalbaaz was a 1989 hit film directed by Pankaj Parashar, starring Sunny Deol, Rajnikanth, Anupam Kher, Rohini Hattangadi, Shakti Kapoor and Sridevi doing the double role of Anju and Manju. The original plot was adopted from the old Hema Malini flick Seeta Aur Geeta but the revamp was way better than the original version. A fine example of how a re-make should be done – if only Farhan Aktar had taken some tips from Mr. Parashar, maybe his Don could have been a bit-more bearable.

The story line of Chaalbaaz was no different than many other Hindi movies, with the double role concept but it still exerted the “hatke” factor. Anju and Manju played by Sridevi were separated at birth thanks to their mentally un-stable nanny. An evil uncle Tribhuvan (Anupam Kher) gets their parents killed in a car accident. He brings up Anju as a shy, frightened girl and Manju who was taken away by the nanny, grows up in a basti as a carefree bar dancer cum tapoori gal.

Anju, growing up with Tribhuvan and Amba (Rohini Hattangadi) is constantly faced with physical and emotional abuse. The uncle and aunt are solely interested in her inherited wealth and hence make sure she is drugged and dependant on them all the time. This part of the movie does get quite tense at times due to the gut-wrenching horror cast upon poor Anju, specially the scenes where she is injected and beaten up black and blue.

But then again its nothing compared to the violence that out current movies possess.

Amongst all the agony Anju is put though with the housework and prevention from pursuing her dancing hobby, the movie introduces her look-alike, the bindaas Manju. It’s funny to see her fighting scenes with hideous looking men, having her way with them no matter what and making sure she is fed free beer at all times. Manju’s friend here is the quiet, soft-spoken Jaggu (Rajnikanth), which of course as the movie unfolds is the lead pair with Anju who eventually runs away from home after a rape attempt from Balma (Shakti Kapoor) Amba’s nephew.

Suraj (Sunny Deol) a rich brat and son of Tribhuvan’s friend Vishwannath (Saeed Jaffrey) meets Manju in a bar and even pays for her drink as she is forever kangaal. Love at first sight and here comes the chartbuster song ‘Naa Jaane Kahan Se Aayi Hai’. Sridevi looks great in the song and dances amazingly well to Saroj Khan’s choreographed hip-swirling jhatkas. Her facial expressions, her drunken gait and comic timing are perfect with the capital P.

The real drama starts when Suraj saves Anju from some robbers and by the time Anju again runs Manju arrives. Manju takes a car lift for Suraj as he is hurt badly, the man sitting in the car is Tribhuvan and he thinks Manju as Anju. He nicely takes her back home and she teaches both Balma and her uncle a good lesson. It’s hilarious to see the sudden shock and torture that the family goes through due to Manju.

The added entertainment was the role of ‘Balma’ played by Shakti Kapoor. He was hilarious in most parts with his paan-chewing habit, his oiled chapat hair and specially the way he pronounced “Balmaaaa” and the ever-popular dialogue “Mein chota sa, nanha sa, pyara sa, Balma hoon”. On the other hand, equally matching Shakti Kapoor’s character we had Rohini Hattangadi and her vampish hair-dos and loud colored costumes render an extra spice to the movie. The nonsensical comedy in the song “Socha Tha Kya” has me in splits every bloody time!

A guest appearance by comedy king Kader Khan is one of the main highlights of the film. His comic scene with apna Balma is in all probability one of the best scenes in the history of Hindi cinema.

Chaalbaaz being an 80’s film does have technical flaws which are quite tolerable. It portrays both sides of the female nature. One being the subtle, hardworking, disciplined woman and the opposite which is the bold, no-nonsense, strong willed one. One of the very few films where an actress plays the central lead and enjoys maximum footage whereas her male co-stars are served just as side-dishes.

On the whole it’s a complete entertainer and a must have DVD for all Bollywood enthusiasts.

Check out the song, “Socha Tha Kya” on YouTube.