Its love in the time of koyla. When aspiring wrestler with a huge Rustam-e-Hind Dara Singh complex Charan Das meets Chameli,the daughter of Kallumal Koylewaala,the stage is set for a wedding which,as the title song describes,is jahaan se anokhi niraali. They meet when he holds her hand and says,Aaj tum sach mein Chameli lag rahi ho. She,who is in her school uniform and two pigtails,humours him,Pehle kya lagti thi? He quips,Chudail. This is just the beginning of Charan and Chamelis sweet romance. She has flunked her Class VIII exams four times. He has made a no-marriage-till-Im-40 pact to his Ustad Mast Ram (Om Prakash) who has told him,Aurat ganne ki rass nikaalne waali machine hai jo mard ko khokla bana deti hai. But that vow is broken when the lover in Charan comes to the fore,and he has to decide which way to swing. You see,according to his Vakeel Bhaiya (Amjad Khan),a lover has only two choices: either he goes the Majnu way or the Prithviraj Chauhan way. If he chooses the former,Charan doesnt need to do anything Bas Laila Laila chillate raho aur nikal jaao jungalon mein. But if he does what Prithviraj did,then aage Sanyukta,peeche Prithviraj aur ghoda bhaag raha hai. Of course,our gutsy Charan chooses to be Prithviraj and does all that he can to free Chameli from the house arrest her parents have put her under. Basu Chatterjee directs this good-natured satire across caste lines. The film is especially relevant when honour killings still make news in our country. The film was inspired by Meerut-based writer Om Prakash Sharmas Hindi novel Dhadkan. It is said that when producer Prakash Mehras financier Satyen Pal Chaudhary asked Sharma to come to Mumbai to discuss the adaptation,the latter refused. He only agreed when he got to know that Basuda would be directing the film and went on to collaborate on the dialogues. Basuda had an instant connect with the story since he knew the world of these characters. Since I grew up in Mathura,I could relate to the characters as the ethos of Meerut and Mathura are similar, he says. Basudas genius lies in the little nuances that he gives his characters be it the umbrella that Kallumal (Pankaj Kapur) wont be caught dead without,the akhaada ways of Ustad Mast Ram and all his patthas or even the way Anil Kapoor walks like a budding pehalwaan. In this atypical love story,the heros biggest act of love is smuggling a transistor into the girls house so that she can listen to Hindi film songs when they are away from each other. As Charan and Chameli,Kapoor and Amrita Singh are a perfect foil to each other. He is shy,earnest and romantic. She is gregarious and full of chutzpah. Singh is exceptionally watchable in key comic sequences. Like when she kicks her friend Anita under the table in the Pintoo Restaurant sequence because she feels she is flirting with Charan,or when she whacks her alcoholic Mama (played by Annu Kapoor) and beats the daylights out of him. Basuda opted for Singh since she came closest to Moushumi Chatterjee. But she refused to sit on the horse during the Prithviraj-Sanyukta flash cut. She was reluctant to do the horse riding scene so when we shot,we made sure the horse wasnt there. It was all make-believe, says Basuda. As for Kapoor,he was brought in on Mehras insistence because they needed to sell the film. Anil was an upcoming actor then and he was very hardworking. Prakash felt the Amrita-Anil combination,his showmanship and my handling of the story would click. He was right as the film did very well, remembers Basuda. Kapoor also crooned the title song he was learning music from Kalyanji-Anandji for a while and the music directors felt his voice would add real-time flavour to the song. As the potbellied and toothbrush-mustachioed coal trader,Pankaj Kapur is simply brilliant. The way he says hainji.bataojiadds comic nuances to even simple sentences. The way he says,Lo ji Chameli toh baaligh ho gayi,hainji in the climax,during her pheras,is sure to make you laugh every time. And to think he played father to Singh when he was just 29 years old! Basuda says,There are few actors as gifted and talented as Pankaj. He started with me in Ek Ruka Hua Faisla and he has never disappointed me. Just like this film never disappoints us. Play List Film: Chameli Ki Shaadi Year: 1986 Director: Basu Chatterjee Cast: Anil Kapoor,Amrita Singh,Pankaj Kapur,Amjad Khan,Bharti Achrekar,Annu Kapoor,Om Prakash Music: Kalyanji Anandji DVD: Priya Play It Again l Chameli ki shaadi: Anil Kapoor l Utar aayi akhaade mein: Asha Bhosle l Tu jahan bhi chalega: Asha Bhosle l Mohabbat ke dushman: Anwar l Peena haraam hai: Kishore Kumar,Alka Yagnik
