Chupke chupke (1975)

चुपके चुपके

I always enjoy coming across an Indian comedy that doesn't rely on the slapstick and shouting that tends to characterize the genre and that isn't really to my taste.  Chupke chupke ("secretly") is a funny, cute comedy that works because of a wacky script, the natural direction of Hrishikesh Mukherjee, and, most of all, because of the engaging and adorable charm of its leads.

Parimal (Dharmendra) and Sulekha (Sharmila Tagore) meet on a hill station holiday in which Parimal, a professor of botany, impersonates hill station's caretaker in order to give the real caretaker a few days off.  Parimal and Sulekha fall in love and marry - they are joyful and playful in marriage, but Parimal finds himself half-pretend jealous of Sulekha's brother-in-law Raghav (Om Prakash), whom she idolizes.  So Parimal hatches a scheme - with Sulekha's full cooperation - to play a practical joke on Raghav, whom he hasn't yet met.  He poses as a driver and gets himself hired to work in Raghav's household.  Then Sulekha comes for an extended visit - ostensibly while her husband is away on business - and together they fool Raghav into thinking that they are having an illicit affair.  Parimal has a couple of friends who are in on the joke - Prashant (Asrani), a Bombay businessman, and his colleague Sukumar (Amitabh Bachchan), a professor of English.  Wacky hijinks ensue -  Sukumar turns up impersonating the real Parimal, and falls in love with Prashant's sister Vasudha (Jaya Bhaduri).  It's a massive prank for the ages.      

It's a totally stupid plot, and that's part of what makes it so funny - the other part is the utter good-enough-to-eat cuteness of the characters.  Dharmendra and Sharmila, as Parimal and Sulekha, have a delightful tenderness and mischief that just bursts out of the screen every time they give one another a naughty look. It's clear that they have fun with the pretense - as Darshana keenly observed on BollyWHAT, all the indiscreet sneaking around turns them on, so making their hosts think they are having a reckless and improper affair is easy.  Parimal sneaks into Sulekha's bedroom nightly, once "accidentally" leaving his monogrammed hanky outside her door where Raghav will find it.  And they gallivant openly in front of their hosts' five-year-old daughter, knowing that the little girl will tattle on them.  The film is full of cute moments like that - the best of them is the song "Ab ke sajna sawaan mein," in which Sulekha sings a passionate song of longing to Parimal while Raghav looks on, vibrating as though he is about to pop a gasket.

Amitabh is also wonderful as the nerdy, shy intellectual Sukumar.  I love Amitabh's trademark angry young man persona, but even more than that I love his early roles where he gets to really show his range in a role that is different.  Chupke chupke is one such -  Sukumar is bumbling and bookish and not at all comfortable with the charade he's taking part in (unlike Parimal and Sulekha, who lie through their teeth with natural ease), and he's simply adorable.

Adding to the comic absurdity of the whole situation, Raghav wants a driver who speaks perfect shuddh Hindi (why is not entirely clear - perhaps to protect his young daughter from the rough tapori spoken by the laborers available to him in Bombay) and the erudite Parimal, in his charade, is more than happy to oblige, offering language so pure and high-tone that others in the household can't always understand him - he takes Raghav's desire for pure language and throws it back in his face, with hysterical results.  Obviously, to appreciate fully this set of running jokes, some knowledge of Hindi is helpful.  But even without, if the basic idea is grasped - that there are different registers of Hindi, some perceived to be coarser and others more refined - then the humor is clear enough, and the subtitles on the edition I had (Bollywood Video) do work hard to make the concept clear, translating Parimal's high-register Hindi into overbearingly purple English.

As enjoyable as it is, Chupke chupke isn't perfect.  The songs are fine, but they lack the wacky energy of the most sparkling portions of the film.  Moreover, there are a couple of spots where the pacing is off - the opening scenes at the hill station could have been expanded to show more of Parimal and Sulekha's nascent romance, while other parts drag with needless exposition.  But when it fires on all cylinders, Chupke chupke shines - the weak parts are only so-so, but the good parts simply outstanding.

Comments

[Sanket]

Agree with your review that when this film works it does so mainly due to the incredible star power in it. There are HK movies that are much better in my opinion (Abhimaan & Mili for example) but this movie is just sweet and fun to watch without getting too heavy. Also agree that early Amitabh roles that gave him a chance to show his range is nice to see for us true Amitji fans - like this or his character in Anand. The song 'Sa Re Ga Ma' by Kishore Kumar & M.Rafi is one of my favorites and the lyrics/acting/music in the picturisation are just great.

[Daddy's Girl]

'Chupke Chupke' is thoroughly enjoyable - I watched it on my birthday this year and it left me with a huge smile on my face and a little spring in my step. Of all the songs, 'Sa Re Ga Ma' is my favourite - and I still listen to it pretty often. And I agree with Sanket about the picturisation - I love the way it was done.

[Darshana of Bollywhat]

Such a nice movie - I saw it around the same time you did and I can tell already that I'm going to remember the essence of the people and the story. Every time I find a new Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie I am so grateful to have opened this door - to Indian cinema - in my adult life.

I love the "other" Bollywood too but it is surprising in a way that there is so little of this kind of movie, where the people are like real people vs characters in tales.

[Akshay Shah]

Fantatsic review Filmigeek of what I regard as one of the finest comedies ever made in Hindi cinema. Dharmendra was at his charming best, and agree with everything you've said about Bachchan too. Agree that the movie isn't perfect, but it's hard not to love this one IMO....

A.Shah

[Meera]

Some of HK's memorble movies are Satyakam (Dharmendra & Sharmila Tagore - some great songs) , Anupama (Dharmendra & Sharmila Tagore), Anand (Rajesh Khanna, AB Snr), Namak Haram (Rajesh Khanna & AB Snr), Jurmana (AB Snr & Rakhee), Bemisaal (AB Snr, Vinod Mehra and Rakhee) Golmaal (very popular comedy - Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutt and Bindiya Goswami), Khubsoorat (Rekha and Rakesh Roshan), Milli (AB Snr & Jaya Bachan), Guddi (Jaya Bachan's first movie)

[carla]

Thanks for the comments, all.

Sanket and Daddy's Girl: I should give the music another chance. I think the reason I was a little disappointed with the music was (a) there were only four songs, and (b) they weren't quite as wonderful as the best parts of the movie. They felt like an afterthought, an obligato.

Darshana: you introduced me to the term "middle cinema" and while it is a problematic term in some ways I love the concept it espouses, the idea that movies can walk a balance between art-house gravity and masala nuttiness. *Chupke chupke* seems all the more special to me for being a brainy comedy that is both silly and laugh-out-loud fun and yet still real, in that you can (almost) imagine it happening among people you know. I loved your comment on BollyWHAT about the realness of the friends gathering in the evening to talk and laugh together over the progress of the joke.

Akshay: My favorite early Amitabh movie at the moment is *Saudagar*, it's so different from what he later got famous doing and he's so, so good in it. I just picked up *Anand* so eventually I'll be watching and reviewing that one.

Meera: Thanks, again, for the recommendations - you do more to stretch out my "to be seen" list than anyone! I feel at the moment that I can't get enough of Sharmila Tagore, and the combination of Sharmila, Dharmendra, and Hrishikesh Mukherjee is really too good to resist right now!

[Nirvana]

Hi,

Visit me at http://nirvana73.blogspot.com/ where i have dedicated my first movie review blog to you

Warm Regards

Nirvana

[carla]

Hey, thanks Nirvana! That's really sweet of you. I am so happy to know that you felt inspired to write up your own thoughts about movies and I look forward to reading them!

[akshay shah]

Looking forward to your ANAND review:-)! SAUDAGAR I've had for a while, but haven't had a chance to see it so far. One of Bachchans only films I haven't seen in the last 10 years.

BTW I managed to catch AGNEEPATH the other night-WHOA!

A.Shah

[anjali]

i saw this movie wen i was in 3rd std or something n since den i see it every time it comes on d tv...its amazing how adorable it is...every character has its own charm and there is not one second in d movie where one might get bored...its one of those movies which u can see to relax n laugh out evn though d humour is subtle...

[Jo Pattabiraman]

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Jo