Rajan Haksar

Garage Mechanic Rajkumar lives a middle-classed lifestyle in Bombay along with widower father, Shantidas. One day he is informed that his father has been arrested for robbing a jeweler. He goes to visit his father and finds that he has been hospitalized in Nanavati Hospital. The doctor informs him that chances of recovery are good. The next day, however, Shantidas passes away, and Rajkumar notifies the Police of foul play but they refuse to believe him. Rajkumar has a glove that was in his deceased father's hand, and with this he sets out to find his father's killer - not realizing that this will take him from Delhi, then to Bikaner and thereafter into a dessert where his efforts will be interrupted by an assorted group of gangsters, city folk, and gypsies on the hunt for an elusive treasure that is hidden in a mountainous cave. —rAjOo (gunwanti@hotmail.com)

The story begins with a happy lower-middle-class family - Arun Verma (Anil Kapoor) an 8-year-old boy, his sister Komal Verma (Khushboo) a 5-year-old girl, his mother (Nutan) and his father Deepak (Girish Karnad) - living a peaceful life. Arun's parents teach their children through the famous title song "Zindagi Har Kadam Ek Nayi Jung Hai, Jeet Jayenge Hum, Jeet Jayenge Hum Tu Agar Sang Hai" which means that life is full of challenges at every step and still we will overcome all these if we are together. Arun's father is trapped in a murder case, for murdering a rich philanthropist Mr Oberoi, who refused to support his plan to start a music academy. A famous criminal lawyer G. D. Thakral (Amrish Puri) proves him guilty (with a false testimony of Oberoi's neighbor who gives a narration of happened on the night of the murder), and he is sentenced to be hanged by the court. Pleas by Arun's mother fail to convince Thakral to be truthful and spare her husband. Thakral asks her to give evidence for his innocence, to which she sadly quotes, "Jiske Paas Koi Sabut, Koi Gavah Nahi Hote Kya We Begunah Nahin Hote" ("one who does not have any proof or witness of innocence, are they not innocent?"). Thakral was determined to let her husband hang as this would get him lots of publicity (plus he was paid Rs 5 Lakhs by Oberoi's younger brother, who wanted control over his wealth). That night Oberoi's brother tries to kills the witness, lest he changes his testimony. The injured witness reaches the temple where Deepak's wife was sitting, desolate, and tells her that Deepak is innocent. But he dies there and then. She is not able to reach the jail on time. Deepak is hanged as per the court's decision. Arun's mother becomes mentally unstable from shock and is sent to a mental institution. Later Advocate Gupta (A. K. Hangal), the lawyer who defended Arun's father, finds out that Thakral had known all along that he was innocent, but only wanted him to be hanged. Arun finds out that Thakral abused the law. Arun's house and all his property are auctioned off by the court. Arun and his sister are not offered help. He grows up with the seeds of revenge in his heart. He becomes a successful defense lawyer and keenly follows every case of Thakral so that some day he can stand up in court against the unbeaten Thakral and beat him. One day Geeta Srivatsav (Meenakshi Seshadri) comes to him and asks him to fight the case of her sister, Dr. Asha Mathur (Bina), who is accused of killing a patient on duty with her medicine, which she gave from her purse. Arun refuses saying that if she can produce even a piece of evidence of her sister being innocent he will fight for her. Geeta replies coincidentally the same sentence "Jiske Paas Koi Sabut, Koi Gavah Nahi Hote Kya We Begunah Nahin Hote." Arun is instantly reminded of his mother's pleadings before Thakral. Geeta storms out of his office, but Arun is convinced to take the case. He meets Asha Mathur in police custody. He learns from her that on that fateful night she got a call from her ward assistant that her patient (who is a police witness) is in the ICU and needs her. She stops on the way (due to a traffic jam), and she impatiently moves out of her car to ask the reason. Meanwhile, somebody replaces the medicine bottle with the look-alike bottle of poison from her purse. On arrival in the hospital, she gives the liquid from that bottle to stabilize the patient. This resulted in the patient's death. It is shown that Asha Mathur's husband, Dr. Dinesh Mathur (Parikshit Sahni), had gone to meet Thakral and had asked him to fight his wife's case. Thakral says no, claiming he is very busy at the moment, but later tells his assistant that there is no way that this case could be won. Arun meets Dinesh Mathur and informs him that he will fight the case. He asked him about the nature of poison and for how long a person can sustain the poison; he learns that poison might result in death within 2 to 15 minutes depending on the body's resistance. The case begins with the prosecution lawyer recounting the events of that fateful day and telling that the medicine given to the patient was actually poison. Arun defends the case says that the patient did not die of this medicine. To prove himself right he drinks the medicine in court and refutes the claim. The court declares Geeta's sister not guilty. Just after the judgment, Dr. Mathur rushes Arun to hospital. It is revealed that the medicine contained poison, and Arun is saved in the nick of time. Geeta calls him on a beach to appreciate his efforts and kindness at the canteen. They fall in love. Thakral's son Vikram Thakral (Javed Jaffrey), a spoiled brat, not knowing anything about Arun, teases Geeta, which irritates the couple. Soon things take an ugly turn and Arun beats up Vikram. Dr. Mathur wants to appreciate and compensate Arun for the risky effort he took to save his wife. He calls him for a get-together in his mansion. Dr. Mathur gives Arun a blank check. Arun rejects the offers politely and says he did for his self-satisfaction. He then finds the same piano with the sticker of Bhagwat Geeta of Krishna which his father used to play and was auctioned. His memories are refreshed again and with the emotional request he tells Dr. Mathur that this piano is very significant to him and asks for it. Dr. Mathur very happily gives him the piano. One day at Arun's home, Mr. Mathur sees a photo of the former's mother hanging on the wall. He immediately recognizes the face with the patient he was handling for mental disorders. Arun and his sister request them to take them to her. In the mental hospital they see their mother. Her memories had stopped on the day of the incident; she feels that their children are eight and five, staying with father. Arun brings her mother to his house and tries to make her come back to normal; she regains her memory on hearing the song "Zingadi Har Kadam..." Meanwhile, Vikram wants to exact revenge on Arun and devises a plan to trap Komal who studies in the same college. He tries to impress her by his charms, dancing skills, and ways of flattering people. The plan works. Komal falls for him and he convinces her to run away with him (so that he can publicly defame Arun by leaving his sister). At the planned moment, when one of Vikram's ex-girlfriends Indu (Rabia Amin) shows up and tells Komal of Vikram's evil intentions. In the ensuing argument, Vikram murders his girlfriend which is witnessed by Dr. Mathur's family (as Arun had kept Komal with Geeta to keep her away from Vicky). Arun had been waiting for this moment to take revenge on Thakral. He steps in as the prosecutor against Thakral who is defending his son. The case moves to and fro (Thakral contends that Komal wanted to frame Vicky to extract revenge on his dad for hanging her father. Asha Mathur had weak eyesight and hence could not be relied upon to identify Vicky from a distance. Dr Mathur was also wearing a coat and trouser that night (as was Vicky), and Thakral alleges that Dr Mathur was having an affair with Indu and killed her when he saw Indu in his house and was afraid that Indu would reveal the truth to Asha) and, in the end, Arun has the upper hand (He produces a fake coat and knife and gets Thakral to admit that that night Vicky was wearing a white coat). That night Vicky bribes the police station inspector to release him for an hour so he can destroy the coat and knife. But this was a trap and Arun was waiting for Vicky. After a fight, Vicky manages to destroy the evidence, but letters from Indu fall into Arun's hands. Thakral kidnaps Arun's mother and attempts to blackmail him. Arun goes to save his mother and is beaten up by Thakral's goons. Even though injured, Arun fights back. In an attempt to shoot Arun, Thakral shoots his friend's son and is jailed. He is unsuccessful in saving his son, who is given the death penalty. Thakral becomes a mentally unstable person. Arun and his family are reunited.

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.