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.
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