Basu Chatterjee

Happy go-lucky Ajay Prasad lives with his wife, Sunita and a small son, Raju, in Jaipur, India. The family receives an invitation to attend a wedding in Mumbai; as Sunita & Raju are unable to attend, Ajay agrees to go. In Mumbai Ajay is introduced to Ravindranath Tagore, who arranges his stay in a high-end flat with an air-conditioner. Ajay gets acquainted with his next door neighbor, an actress named Chandni, who usually acts in commercials and short advertisements. He find out that Chandni is a single woman and after some time began flirting with her. For fear that Sunita will learn of his actions, Ajay decides to travel back to Jaipur. —gavin (racktoo@hotmail.com) Naive and easily influenced Ajay Prasad has been married for several years, and lives in remote India with his wife and a son. The family receive an invitation to attend a wedding in Bombay. As Mrs. Prasad and their son are unable to attend, Ajay is asked to attend on his own, which he agrees to do so. Upon arrival in Bombay, he is met at the airport by Ravindranath, who welcomes him, and drives him to his apartment, located in a good upper class locality. Ajay finds out that his next door neighbor is a single woman, who acts in commercials and short advertisements. Ajay decides to indulge in an affair with her, with hilarious results. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

A daughter of poor parents was engaged to a man when she was 13. The man is away working in Calcutta. In the meanwhile, she befriends a truck-driver who promises her parents a huge amount of money. The girl is snatched away by her father-in-law and raped by him. But she is punished for his crime.. —Anonymous

Kamla Ki Maut is a 1989 Hindi drama film directed by Basu Chatterjee. The film set in Mumbai, deals with issue of love, pre-marital sex and relationships in modern India. Sudhakar Patel meets with young Anju and both fall in love with each other. Hoping to get married soon, both get intimate, resulting in a pregnancy. Both do not have the means to look after a child and decide to abort it. After the abortion Sudhakar disappears from Anju's life. Sudhakar relocates to another town, falls in love with Chameli, and promises to marry her when confronted by her irate father and townspeople, but subsequently disappears from her life also. Sudhakar then has an affair with Laxmi, who is the wife of his friend, Prakash, and gets a sound beating from Prakash when he finds him half-naked in his house. Shortly thereafter Sudhakar marries Nirmala, a young woman who wanted to marry her tutor. Years later, Sudhakar is still married to Nirmala, he now has two daughters, Geeta and Charu, who are of marriageable age and having affairs with Ajit and Deepak respectively. Their next door neighbor is Kamla Thakur who is to get married to Bhaskar soon, but kills herself by throwing herself from the 5th floor of her apartment building. This suicide shakes up the entire Patel family and each one must deal with their individual demons - a struggle that may change their lives forever. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

Three friends, in their 60s, try to do everything that they couldn't do in their younger days - before death arrives. Choudhry, Jagdishbhai, and Inder Sen are old friends in their early sixties, but believe they are in still in their forties. While Choudhry lives with his wife, Sita, Inder is widowed, and Jagdish is divorced. Their weakness is smoking, alcohol, and women. While they are able to satisfy they need for the first two vices, they are unable to openly indulge with women to their hearts' content while in Bombay. When Sita decides to take a religious pilgrimage, the three decide to travel out of town, and have fun with women. They hire a car driver named Sakharam, who takes them to Goa, and once there, he drives them to a night-club, which has a dancer and singer named Anita. All three friends find Anita gorgeous, and would love to be intimate with her. They plan to individually spend time with her, but Murphy's law prevails with hilarious results. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

This is a story of two lawyer brothers Advocate (Utpal Dutt) & Harish (Girish Karnad), their half-brother Chandranath (Amol Palekar) (son of their father's brother), their wives and children. Siddheshwari (Ashalata Wabgaonkar), wife of the eldest brother has left the operational details of the household to Sheela (Shabana Azmi), wife of the half-brother Chander. Chander is a happy go lucky musician, who fails in successive business ventures (like selling mustard oil. He lost Rs 8000 in selling rice & jute previously. He wants another rs 6000 for the mustard oil business). Sheela ensures that the household runs smoothly, while Siddheshwari is the fount of love and affection in the joint household. Chander has kids Ramu (Master Vikas), Pappu (Master Pappu), Kanhaiya (Master Rajesh). Neela (Manisha) Siddheshwari's daughter and Mahendra (Gopi Sapru) plus Hari are her sons. Harish and his spouse Naintara (Bharati Achrekar) rejoin the household. Atul is their son. Naintara gets expensive clothes for Atul and expects Siddheshwari to pay for them. Naintara wants control over the house money, but the house keys have been entrusted to Sheela. Atul makes fun of the way Hari dresses and Sheela scolds him badly. Naintara is offended, but Siddheshwari won't say a word. Naintara complains to Siddheshwari that she will escalate the matter to Harish. Siddheshwari is alarmed and calls Sheela and scold her for her behavior. Sheela shows maturity, apologizes to Naintara and organizes a party for Atul. But Atul is also offended that Sheela yelled at him and is no mood to compromise. Atul enters the kitchen with his shoes on and won't back down when Sheela asks him to get out. When Atul starts insulting Sheela, Mahendra intervenes, and a fight breaks out between Atul and Mahendra. Harish tries to intervene and tells Sheela to come to him if she has a problem with Atul. Siddheshwari shuts up Harish by saying that in that case, he should bring all complaints against Sheela to her. This is a women's matter and asks him to back down. Naintara & Harish decide to leave the house, but Siddheshwari tells them to stay. Naintara says that Sheela has told all the kids to ignore Atul and that is unacceptable. Siddheshwari asks the kids, who tell her that until Atul apologizes to Sheela, they will ignore him. Siddheshwari is convinced at Naintara's allegations. When Siddheshwari confronts Sheela, she says Atul is a spoiled brat and she will not allow any kid of the house to be influenced by him. Siddheshwari speaks to Sheela alone, but she refuses to budge. Siddheshwari gets angry and says that she cannot ask her blood relation (Hairsh & Naintara) to leave the house for the fear of society opinion. Siddheshwari escalates the matter to Advocate and tells him that Chander needs to start earning his share around the house. due to this insult, Sheela stops speaking to Siddheshwari, but continues to perform all her duties around the house. Naintara sweet talks Siddheshwari and tries to take over the kitchen. She gets Siddheshwari to admit that they are blood relations and need to care for each other. Sheela is hurt even further. But even Siddheshwari knows that she is saying these things to make Naintara happy and doesn't really believe in them. Advocate tries to handle the situation in his own way. He scolds Chander in front of Harish for being a failure at Mustard business but gives him Rs 10,000 more to start the sawdust business. But Harish tells Advocate that he should not destroy another Rs 10,000 on Chander as he doesn't know anything about business. Advocate is convinced and asks Chander to start teaching the kids as the teacher also charges Rs 50/month. Despite the coldness, Siddheshwari pines for Sheela's care and warmth, which she never gets from Naintara. One day Harish brings Rs 500 from his work. Naintara gives this money to Siddheshwari and makes her point that Harish is contributing to the house, but Chander is not. Sheela is so hurt that she gives back the house keys to Siddheshwari. Siddheshwari is also hurt at Sheela throwing the keys at her and asks Sheela when she is leaving the house, and how much money she has stolen already. Sheela decides to leave the house and tells Chander that they will stay in the village house from now on. Siddheshwari believes that Sheela will not leave if she doesn't allow her to touch her feet, and shuts the door. Sheela pays her respects at the doorstep and leaves with her family. Chander and Sheela reach the village house with their kids, where Manohar Lal (Manik Dutt) was the sole caretaker of the property. Manohar was in charge of growing crops on the family land, but he was selling a portion of the produce on the side and profiting personally from it, without declaring that income to the family. To get rid of Chander, Manohar decides to stop sending money to Calcutta, and plans to create a hue and cry in front of Advocate that Chander has decided to take over the farms himself. Meanwhile Manohar asks Chander that the repair of the house is due and asks Chander to visit Advocate and ask for money. Advocate gives Rs 1000. Manohar now meets Harish and tells him that Chander has ordered not to send any money to Calcutta. Harish sends a letter to Chander to vacate the house. Chander and Sheela shift into a hut in front of the house but refuse to go back to Calcutta. Chander also decides not to use the farm income for home repairs. Chander and Sheela decide not to respond to Harish's letter. Harish takes this as a declaration of war and proceeds with a court case against Chander. Harish even sends the police to search for stolen money in Chander's possession. Siddheshwari is alarmed at these allegations but backs off when even her husband calls Chander a thief. Meanwhile Manohar tells the village grocer to stop giving supplies to Chander on credit. Sheela starts selling her jewels to keep the house going. Siddheshwari is very close to Pappu and senses that he is not well. This is when Pappu is indeed very sick. She tells the advocate to go to the village and check on the family. Advocate reaches the village and finds Pappu was indeed sick. He was not aware that Chander was fighting a case that Harish had started against him. He also finds that Chander and his family stay in a hut opposite the family house. He finds that Sheela has sold off all her jewels. Sheela breaks down saying that Chander always followed the orders given to him. He came to the village and stayed in the servant's quarters. He was accused of falsehoods and even a police search was conducted against him. He fired Manohar since he caught him stealing from the family farms and income. Advocate is heartbroken and transfers all the property to Sheela. As a result, Harish loses the case in court. Harish decides to go back to Patna with his family. Advocate brings Chander and his family back from the village. Siddheshwari thanks advocate for fixing her family. Advocate knew that Chander was depositing all the property income in advocate's bank account, and that Manohar was stealing from them, and Chander fired him.

Rosie Perreira (Pearl Padamsee) is an overly anxious widow, living with her violin-obsessed son, Sabby (Ranjit Chowdhry) and a lovely daughter, Nancy (Tina Munim) whom she would like to marry a wealthy young man. Nancy is heartbroken after a guy, Peter, whom she loved, betrayed her and dumped her.. Since then she has isolated herself. Henry (Uday Chandra) lives on the same street as Nancy and secretly loves her. ROsie dislikes Henry.. Rosie's brother and neighbor, Tom (David) and Nancy take the 9:10 AM local train daily. Tony Braganza (Amol Palekar) is a young eligible bachelor who is also travelling by 9:10 AM Western Railway local train from Bandra to Churchgate (he is late to office by 30 mins due to this). Tony is an artist and makes sketches of strangers on the train. One day Nancy notices Tony staring at her and complains to TOm. Tony passes a note in the train to Tom and introduces himself to TOm. Tom likes Tony and they both share info about each other via notes. Tom tells Tony that Nancy is his niece and is unmarried. Tony lives with his parents Mr. Braganza (Arvind Deshpande) & Mrs. Braganza (Piloo J. Wadia).. Tony gets permission to be 30 mins late daily in exchange for staying 2 hrs late in the evening. Tony is happy as he now take the 9:10 AM train daily and see Nancy and Tom. One day Tom asks Tony to get down at Marine line station. They go into a cafe where Tom introduces Tony and Nancy.. Tom manipulates the situation and gets Nancy to invite Tony for dinner that night, on the pretext of explaining his work (he specializes in cartoons) Tom also asks Nancy to introduce Tony to Rosie, which she does. Rosie is initially apprehensive about him as he only drawing a mere Rs.300/- compared to Nancy's Rs.700/-, but soon changes her mind when she finds out that after his probationary period he will draw a monthly pay of Rs.1000/-. Rosie goes out of her way to make Tony feel comfortable in her house. Rosie is not thrilled to see that Tony is a cartoonist and makes caricatures using animal figures. But Tom intervenes and controls the situation. Nancy and Tony are permitted to meet on a regular basis and both eventually fall in love. Nancy admits that she has a past where she was betrayed by a boy, Peter (when he cheated on Nancy with another girl Julie), whom she loved, she still likes Tony. On one of the visits Rosie invites Nancy's friend Hazel to meet Tony. Hazel wears a provocative dress and Tom rebukes Rosie for inviting her in the first place. Henry also keeps dropping by, but he is super nervous and Rosie always discourages him and kicks him out of the house with one pretext or another. Meanwhile Hazel introduces herself to Tony when he comes to meet Nancy.. Hazel throws herself on Tony and he likes the attention, which irritates Rosie and Nancy. Again TOm has to intervene to cool tempers and get Tony and Nancy to go out on a movie.. It helps that Hazel is now engaged to another guy.. Rosie is worries that Tony has been dating Nancy for 3.5 months now. Rosie and Philomena Aunty (Leela Mishra) ramp up the pressure on Nancy to find out Tony's intentions about marriage. Tony is hesitant in taking the next step with Nancy, and this is what costs him Nancy's love. Philomena Aunty feels that he will not come through with the marriage. she asks Rosie to meet Tony's parents and start wedding talks. Rosie runs into Mrs Branganza and Tony at a movie hall, when she is seated right next to them. Mrs Branganza is not happy to learn that Tony has been dating Nancy for 4 months now and that he likes her. She leaves in a huff.. Nancy blames Rosie for talking needlessly too much.. Nancy feels she and Rosie have been insulted and decides not to meet Tony again. Meanwhile Mrs Braganza is pissed at Tony for almost finalizing his own wedding without her knowledge. Tony is defensive and says there is no talk of marriage. Nancy and Tony have a fight and stop meeting each other on the train as well. Rosie starts looking elsewhere for a son-in-law. Nancy does not like this, but she at first accepts whatever her mom wants. When Tom comes to know about this, he speaks to Tony's dad. Henry professes his love for Nancy, but she lets him down very gently. Tony's dad tells Tony that if he is still reluctant to make any commitments (he is not willing to commit to a marriage just yet, although he loves Nancy), he should tell Nancy about it. So Nancy and Tony meet each other and Nancy tells him that she will never meet him again. It is then that Tony feels that he actually loves Nancy and cannot live without her. Then Nancy also confesses her love for him and they marry.

Gauri and Prakash are in love and get intimate. Their ways are separate, and Prakash must marry Renuka, as she meets his family's approval. Gauri gets pregnant as a result of this intimacy, gets ill, and is hospitalized. It is here that the truth surfaces about Gauri and Prakash, as details are revealed of their past birth, in which they were lovers - Gangadhar Upadhyay, and Gauri, and Kalavati (presently Renuka). During this previous birth too, Gauri gets pregnant, gets ill, and passes away, because of Kalavati's interference. The child in her womb does not survive, and as a result Gangadhar also gets killed. In this birth, the only way Prakash can survive is after someone who loves him sacrifices their life for him. And that person cannot be Gauri, as her death will leave to the death of the child in her womb, and subsequently to Prakash's death. Renuka is now prepared to kill Gauri so she can get Prakash all to herself.

Saudamini falls in love with Narendra but her family gets her married to a middle-aged widower. She finds a confidante in her husband but one day her former lover returns.

Geeta`s sister suggests Vinod as a prospective groom for her. The family likes him and the two fall for each other, but chaos ensues when he turns out to be the wrong man!

Chhoti Si Baat is a romantic comedy about a painfully shy young man Arun Pradeep (Amol Palekar), who lacks self-confidence and fails to stand up for his convictions, in the process letting all and sundry walk all over him. Arun works as a Chartered Accountant at a private firm named Jackson Tolaram. Arun is a Supervisor, Grade 2. At work, Arun is pushed around by his juniors, who are busy hearing Cricket commentary, while Arun has to catch flak from his boss for unfinished work and has to work late nights to complete it. One fine day he comes across Prabha Narayan (Vidya Sinha) at the bus stop in route to work and finds love at first sight for her. Lacking enough courage and unsure if his feelings are reciprocated, he pines for her from afar and follows her around, at a safe distance (or so he thinks). Prabha, fully aware of his affections, secretly relishes his discomfort, while waiting for him to make the first move. Deepa (Nandita Thakur) is Prabha's best friend at work, and with whom she shares everything that happens with Arun. Arun imagines himself being suave and sophisticated and asking Prabha out on date, but the minute he sees her, he is tongue tied and awkward. One day Prabha comes to Arun's company and Arun believes that she has come to complain about his behavior. But it turns out that Prabha has come from Frank Lloyd company to inquire about some missing invoices. This is start of Arun and Prabha's friendship. While Arun is hopelessly stuck, in comes the suave, brash Nagesh Shastri (Asrani), a colleague of Prabha's, and emerges a serious rival for her attention. It doesn't help that he appears to be miles ahead of Arun in the "race" and is all that Arun is not. Nagesh is gregarious while Arun is shy, he's confident and boastful, while Arun is besieged with self-doubt, he's smooth, while Arun is awkward, he's street smart, while Arun's naive, he's assertive while Arun is timid. Plus, Nagesh owns a scooter and ensures that he has opportunities to offer Prabha a ride, while Arun can only look on. Arun gathers the courage to call Prabha at work and to ask her out for lunch. Nagesh butts in when Arun takes Prabha on a date. He bosses around, orders all the food, chats Prabha up, and leaves Arun to pay the bill. Nagesh also invites Prabha to partner with him on the inter office table tennis tournament. Arun even has dreams of shooting down Nagesh in cold blood. A gullible Arun, trying to match Nagesh with a motorbike of his own, is conned into buying a dud (the garage owner had been trying to sell it for 6 months and was even contemplating selling it to a junkyard before Arun came along and was conned into buying it for Rs 3000), further embarrassing him in front of Prabha. Nagesh tells Arun that the bike is not even worth Rs 300. He seeks salvation in astrology, tarot cards, dubious god-men only to land with egg on his face. In desperation, he finally turns to Colonel Julius Nagendranath Wilfred Singh (Ashok Kumar) of Khandala, who has made it his mission to assist those in love find their true destiny. Colonel is famous for having seen the world and people come from all over the country to seek his counsel. The location of Colonel's mansion is a bit of a trek from the railway station of Khandala. It is by design to test the resolve of the person who has come to seek guidance. Colonel Singh agrees to help Arun and thus begins the turnaround as Singh begins to transform Arun into a mature, confident young man through meticulously designed lesson plans, peppered with philosophy and "hands on" training. Training includes stuff like: Chess and Tennis training, how to check if the girl is interested in you, how to be authoritative, how to get the girl from drawing room to bedroom, eating with chopsticks etc. Col Singh tells Arun that he has graduated, and he considers Arun as his own son. He used to love a girl named Prabha and he let her go as he couldn't gather the courage to make her his. He wants Arun to succeed. A "born-again" Arun returns to Bombay with a distinguished swagger, brimming with newly discovered self-esteem, ready to take on the world and win over Prabha. Arun starts using his tricks to frustrate Nagesh, keeps him waiting, gets him to pay for lunch (by switching restaurants on him where Arun has the upper hand and Nagesh doesn't know how to use chopsticks) and so on. At work, he is very firm with his subordinates and gets them to do his bidding. He even convinces the garage that the dud bike he bought is a vintage and a customer willing to make big money on it. The garage buys the bike back and Arun makes a profit on it. Arun also introduces Prabha to Col Singh. Arun also beats Nagesh at Tennis and chess. Nagesh notices Col Singh everywhere. Nagesh finds out Col Singh's truth and his path from drawing room to bedroom in 3 easy steps. Nagesh tells Prabha everything about what Arun is planning to do. Nagesh tells how Arun to invite her to his house. He will be alone and romantic music will be playing. Arun will light a cigarette and drop the match on Prabha. She will have to remove her India traditional wear. A knock on the door will force Prabh in the bedroom, where Arun will push her into having sex with him. Prabha decides to go and see if Arun truly loves her. when Col Singh finds out that Arun has invited Prabha, he rushes to stop him as Prabha really loves him and he doesn't need to play tricks on her. Prabha enters Arun's house and sees all the preps he has made to bed her. Arun lights the match, but can't do this to Prabh and walks out. Prabha smiles. She hugs Arun. Col Singh and Nagesh arrive, but all is well. Prabha and Arun have decided to get married.

Deepa is engaged to Sanjay but one day she chances upon her ex-boyfriend Navin and his endearing ways rekindle her feelings for him. Whom will she choose as her partner for life?

Malti marries Ram and moves to the city to live with him and his family, but the one-room apartment doesn`t give them any privacy. Will the couple find love in the crowded house?