Chupke Chupke (Hrishikesh Mukherjee, 1975)
Charming albeit laboured. Essentially an elaborate but petty little prank that is 2 hours of set up for a punch line that we knew all along. Multiple riffs on the same joke, even so, it does tease out the latent biases concerning language, class and familial piety. I do wish this had spiralled out of control but it is too controlled and committed to playing this straight. Reminded me of Bogdanovic’s Noises Off and I wanted this to be more What’s Up Doc. Feels stuck on loop in that final half hour but amitabh bacchan’s bumbling aadarsh-balak act helps keep the smiles on.
Ah, I feel nostalgic for the days we could communicate the many tints and shades of desire using poetic innuendoes. The romance here doesn’t feel lustful nor does it feel sexless. Captures that giddy energy of an uncomplicated school-boy-girl romance.