Chhoti Si Baat is not the feel-good Amol Palekar film you remember, it proudly flaunts that stalking is the way to a woman’s heart

There is a scene in Basu Chatterjee’s Chhoti Si Baat where a life coach (Ashok Kumar), teaches Arun (Amol Palekar) the tricks of how to get a girl to disrobe while she is in his apartment. The girl in this role-play like scenario is one of his assants and it seems like this isn’t the first time that she is being used in a situation like this. It is here that you can’t help but think about the many workplace harassment claims that this man would be subjected to in 2022.
Chhoti Si Baat is somehow remembered as this feel-good romantic film that follows a mousy Arun who is in love with Vidya Sinha’s Prabha but can’t muster up courage to talk to her. But upon revisiting it now, one can see that there is no saving grace for Arun, or his coach Colonel Julius Nagendranath Wilfred Singh, played Ashok Kumar. Walking into Chhoti Si Baat, director Basu Chatterjee establishes that this is a story about sticking to tradition. Even before we meet Arun, we are introduced to many of his colleagues (who have nothing to do with the plot of the film) and are told that all of them have one thing in common – they married the woman they loved. That’s the mission of this movie, that no matter what happens, Arun has to abide tradition, and so his journey begins.
The scene where a middle-aged man demonstrates to a much younger Arun as to how to hold a woman, who is almost his daughter’s age, is extremely uncomfortable. (Photo: Express Archives)
Arun is one of those underconfident men who appears harmless but his behaviour is far from acceptable. He follows Prabha to her workplace every single day, then follows her back home after work, and never speaks to her. It is important to note here that Prabha enjoys this attention. She looks forward to Arun’s presence. Prabha does belong to a time when ‘aankhon aankhon ka pyaar’ was a real thing and women were not allowed to be uninhibited about their love, and it is the effect of this society that has normalised Arun’s behaviour in Prabha’s opinion.
Arun visits godmen, astrologers, palm readers, but no one can tell him the secret trick that can help him to get to Prabha, and so he heads to Khandala to meet this suspicious life coach. From a tertiary point of view, this man offers lessons in personality development; he is a problem-solver for anyone who comes in contact with him but his creepy side awakens when he guides Arun in wooing Prabha. This includes being physically comfortable while holding a woman her shoulders, where again the poor assant is made to suffer. As per Col Singh, all women react the exact same way when they like a man so there is only one meaning behind her smile, and her nod. He doesn’t hold back in judging a woman who has been with someone else and tells Arun that if she is too forthright with her love, it is a sign that she has had lovers before. No wonder someone like Prabha, even if she wanted to, would not express her love because it wouldn’t be interpreted the right way.
The director isn’t in on our assessment of this life coach as he underlines that this man is the ultimate problem-solver. In one scene, we see Amitabh Bachchan playing himself, visit him for a casual chat and a conversation about his career. This is the 1970s, and there was no bigger star than Bachchan at this time.

Arun follows Prabha to her workplace every single day. (Photo: Express Archives)
When Arun returns from his stay in Khandala, he is a changed man. He is confident at work, isn’t intimidated others, and has learnt not to show his desperation. We are shown that little tricks like knowing how to play table tennis, or learning to eat with chopsticks have transformed this man but in fact, he has learnt to have faith in himself. He considers Col Singh to be his mentor who has taught him everything. But, when the time comes for Arun to use the technique where he has to push Prabha to disrobe, he abandons his plan. The director treats it like this is a win for Arun, for he is a good man and would never do this, which makes us question the decency of his mentor. Much like in real life, the bar for men is set so low that when Arun decides to abandon his disgusting plan, Prabha finds it impressive.
Chhoti Si Baat is a film that belongs to simpler but just as problematic times. The men and women in these kinds of ‘realic films’ travel in buses and gossip during lunch breaks so the idea of stalking a woman here becomes even more threatening because it isn’t shielded cinema’s fictional grandeur. And when this ‘realic’ sense of filmmaking is sprinkled with songs like ‘Jaaneman Jaaneman Tere Do Nayan’, it just gives out the kind of message that would definitely get one cancelled in 2022.