The Hare and the Tortoise in a Chawl

Now,meet Basudev Bhattacharya aka Basu Bhatt aka Washu who can talk his way out of any situation. A college dropout,he believes “naukri dhoondi nahin jaati,aasman se tapakti hai”. He comes to stay at Rajaram’s house but ends up wearing his shirts and ripping him of his savings. He walks around with a key chain,which he calls his “sudarshan chakra”. Women,including Sandhya,fall for his charm. Washu calls his way of life “kalakar ki bechain aatma”.

Director Sai Paranjpye retells the classic hare and tortoise fable in the delightful Katha. The film raises the debate between the good-hearted and the smart-alecky,between genuine and fake. If it’s all about winning the race,what really works — the tortoise’s small but sure steps or the hare’s giant but unsure leaps? The lovely dadi amma (Leela Mishra) tells her grandchild in the film,“Ab to kamchor,nathkhat,chichora kharghosh hi jeetta hai.”

The film hinges on its two protagonists. Naseeruddin Shah brings alive the self-sacrificing Rajaram,careful not to make him boring by retaining his impish quality,while Farooq Shaikh adds his devilish charm to Washu.

How did Paranjype get the actors to do their respective parts? Well,she did a bit of Washu. “When I narrated the script to Farooq,he asked me who was playing the badmaash guy and I said,‘You’. When I went to Naseer,he wanted to know who was playing the decent guy and I said,‘You’,” says Paranjype. The sales pitch worked. Shaikh didn’t want to reprise the “goodie-goodie” hero of the 1981 hit Chashme Buddoor,also directed by Paranjpye. “I wanted to do the mischievous role and Sai agreed. I saw Washu as a villain who doesn’t do villainy per se; rather,he comes across as a loveable scoundrel. I trusted Sai completely and the only thing that I told her was to make sure that I’m as wicked as I’m required to be. I didn’t want to lose the favour of the audience,” says Shaikh.

The way the actors play off against each other in the film shows neither as lesser; rather,it ups the ante. Paranjype says the vibe on the set was competitive in a good-natured way. “Farooq used to say,‘Main neeche chala jaata hoon otherwise Naseer nervous ho jaayega.’ Naseer used to joke,‘My back is more expressive than Farooq’s face’,” she says.  

Film lore has it that Shaikh’s character was named after filmmaker Basu Bhattacharya,who incidentally,had produced Paranjype’s Sparsh in 1980. It is said that the two had fallen out with each other,and Paranjype decided to name her anti-hero after him. Shaikh admits having heard the story but prefers to be noncommittal. “Sai never confirmed it,so I don’t give it any credence,” he says.

Katha is also a love triangle,with Sandhya (Deepti Naval) as the prize. With a flower tucked in her plait,Naval is the quintessential Marathi mulgi. She dreams of a “robeela,smart jeevansathi.” With no clue about Rajaram’s love for her,she calls him Rajaramji. When he asks her to drop the ji,she says,“Kya karun. Aapki personality mein hi ji hai.” She falls for the flirtatious Washu,and declares to him,“Waise main kaafi liberated hoon… matlab baat-waat kar leti hoon.” When she is jilted,she has the courage to tell Rajaram about her past indiscretions with Washu.

Katha’s genius lies in its authentic portrayal of middle-class life. The film was shot in the now-demolished Salukhe chawl in Kesari Wada,near Pune. Paranjype remembers screening the film at the chawl and terms it the “the biggest flop show in the entire history of Katha”. “Throughout the screening,they kept saying,mazha (my) table cloth,mazha popat and nobody concentrated on the film,” she says.

Katha is replete with Paranjype’s deft comic touches. When Washu encounters his boss who comes to know about his affair with his wife,Anuradha (Mallika Sarabhai),the scene suddenly changes into a cartoon strip. In another scene,when Washu tells a naughty joke to the chawl-wallahs,Paranjype freezes the scene with the word,“Censored”.

As for the film’s central point,dadi amma feels the tortoise’s eventual win after such an agonising wait is overrated. “Yeh bhi kya jeet hui,” she says. While you might differ with her,depending on whether you are the hare or the tortoise,the film Katha is an all win-win. n

harneet.singh@expressindia.com