Storyline

A mild-mannered accountant, Arun Pradeep (Amol Palekar) is infatuated with pretty young Prabha Narayan (Vidya Sinha), but his withdrawn nature prevents him from asserting himself. When the slick Nagesh Shastri (Asrani) sets his sights on Prabha, Arun realizes that he has to make a move soon or risk losing her. In order to get a crash course in romance, he enlists the help of love expert Col. Julius Nagendranath Wilfred Singh (Ashok Kumar) and attempts to win the girl of his dreams.

Plot Keywords

accountant, beautiful woman, rival, mentor, amusing, playful, mumbai, india, office, romance, courtship, self-esteem, competition, love triangle, love, rivalry, transformation, 1970s

Short Review

Basu Chatterjee's Chhoti Si Baat is a cult classic love story that has one of the finest screenplays I have ever seen in romance genre. Basu brilliantly mixes reality with surrealism & that too all in light hearted manner. I am glad that he won Filmfare for Best Screenplay. He deserved it.Script itself is so brilliant that there is no need to sell this film on music (unlike recent romantic films are) but Salil Chaudhary composes some great songs. Title track to be specific.Amol Palekar's transformation from shy "bhola bhala" guy to confident one is superb. Palekar effortlessly plays both characters while Vidya Sinha as girl next door looks drop dead gorgeous even in floral printed sarees. But it is veteran actor Ashok Kumar & Asrani that generates the maximum laughs, former with his persona & latter with his buffoonery.Basu even incorporates some stellar cameos by Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra & Hema Malini unlike today where Stars are roped in film to do a special song just to increase film's publicity & sell the film.Wish Love Stories made now-a-days were so subtle & so old world charm-ish. Fell in love with this.

Trailer

Streaming Service

1. Amazon Video : Rent from $1.99, Or $0.00 with a Prime membership