''Bawarchi'' (

translation Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

: ''The Chef'') is a

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...

Indian Hindi musical

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

directed by

Hrishikesh Mukherjee Hrishikesh Mukherjee (30 September 1922 – 27 August 2006) was an Indian film director, editor and writer. He is regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of Indian cinema. Popularly known as ''Hrishi-da'', he directed 42 films during his ca ...

starring Rajesh Khanna and

Jaya Badhuri Jaya Bachchan (''Birth name, née'' Bhaduri; born 9 April 1948) is an Indian actress and politician. She is a member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party, serving four terms since 2004. Known primarily for her work in Hindi ...

with

Asrani Govardhan Asrani (born 1 January 1940), popularly known simply as Asrani, is an Indian actor and director whose Bollywood career has spanned five decades. He has acted in over 350 Hindi films. Asrani has played the lead roles, character roles ...

, A.K. Hangal,

Usha Kiran Usha Kiran (22 April 1929 – 9 March 2000) was an Indian actress. In a career spanning over four decades, she acted in over 50 Hindi and Marathi films, notably '' Daag'' (1952), '' Patita'' (1953), '' Baadbaan'' (1954), '' Chupke Chupke'' (1975 ...

and

Durga Khote Durga Khote (14 January 1905 − 22 September 1991) was an Indian actress, beginning as one of the foremost leading ladies of her times, she remained active in Hindi and Marathi cinema, as well as theatre, for over 50 years, starring in around ...

in supporting roles. This was a remake of

Rabi Ghosh Robi Ghosh ( bn, রবি ঘোষ) (24 November 1931 – 4 February 1997) was an Indian actor known for his work in Bengali cinema. He is known for his comic appeal, though his versatile acting talent brought him success in various kin ...

starrer Bengali film ''

Galpo Holeo Satti ''Galpo Holeo Satti'' ( bn, গল্প হলেও সত্যি) is a 1966 comedic Bengali film directed by Tapan Sinha. It stars Bhanu Banerjee, Jogesh Chatterjee, Bharati Devi, Chaya Devi, Ajoy Ganguli, Rabi Ghosh, Rudraprasad Sengu ...

'' (1966) by

Tapan Sinha Tapan Sinha (2 October 1924 – 15 January 2009) was one of the most prominent Indian film directors of his time forming a legendary quartet with Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen. He was primarily a Bengali filmmaker who worked both ...

. The film was ranked the eight highest-grossing film of the year 1972. In an interview, Khanna quoted "In 'Bawarchi' I did exactly the opposite of what Hrishida had made me do in ' Anand'. He allowed me to interpret the role and perform my way. I had done enough intense roles, and 'Bawarchi' gave me the opportunity to interpret and perform the role the way I wanted. So I let myself go." Mukherjee's style here is typical, in that the film contains no violence, and focuses rather on "the milieu of the Indian middle-class who have larger-than-life foibles and whose major concern is to survive the day ..:which ''bahu'' will cook, which brother will use the bathroom first, who will get up first to make the morning tea, tc. Khanna won his second

BFJA Awards for Best Actor (Hindi) {{Unreferenced, date=March 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) The Bengal Film Journalists' Association Awards is the oldest Association of Film critics in India, founded in 1937. Frequent winners include Rajesh Khanna (4 awards), Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor ...

for his performance in this film. The movie is a remake of the Bengali film ''

'' (1966) by

. The film was remade in Tamil as ''Samayalkaaran'' with

M. K. Muthu M. K. Muthu is an Indian actor, singer and politician. Muthu is the eldest son of late former Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi and his first wife Padmavathi, sister of actor-singer Chidambaram S. Jayaraman. According to the internal e ...

. It was remade twice in Kannada - first as ''Sakala Kala Vallabha'', starring

Shashikumar Shashi Kumar (born 2 December 1965) is an actor and politician from Karnataka. He works predominantly in Kannada films. Acting career Shashi Kumar's first released film was ''Chiranjeevi Sudhakara'' starring Raghavendra Rajkumar. In 1989 h ...

and second as ''

No 73, Shanthi Nivasa ''No 73, Shanthi Nivasa'' is a 2007 Indian Kannada-language musical drama film directed by Sudeep, starring him, Anu Prabhakar, Deepa. The film background score and soundtrack were composed by Bharathwaj and Produced by Kiccha Creations. The fi ...

'', with

Sudeep Sudeep Sanjeev (born 2 September 1971), also known as Sudeepa, is an Indian actor, director, producer, screenwriter, television presenter and singer, who primarily works in Kannada films. He has also worked in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. He i ...

. It served as a great inspiration for the 1997 Hindi film '' Hero No. 1''.

Synopsis

The story is centered around the squabbling Sharma family, headed by their eccentric Daduji, which has a dubious reputation of the inability to retain a cook for more than a few months due to their ill treatment of their domestic helps. The family's disrepute spreads to such an extent that no person wants to be employed as a cook in their home, named Shanti Niwas (abode of peace). Then one day a young man named Raghu offers to work as a cook, and is hired. Raghu, however, lives up to this challenge and becomes the apple of the eye of every inmate of Shanti Niwas. He even defuses the internal squabbles and re-unites the family.

Plot

The film starts by the introduction of Shanti Niwas and its residents by Amitabh Bachchan, who is the narrator here. He points out that Shanti Niwas is a pot of ironies: Even though its name means "Home of Peace", there is no peace here. The home, which houses the Sharma family, has members who hate each other for reasons unknown. Even a servant cannot withstand the Sharmas for more than a month. After every month, the search for a new servant has to start. Then, suddenly a servant named Raghu comes in. Even though nobody remembers asking for Raghu, they hire him. But Raghu has his own surprises in store for them. Gradually, the whole home discovers that Raghu is not only an accomplished chef, but also an expert singer and dancer. Raghu tells his masters that he worked for reputed veterans of given fields, who taught him something or the other. Gradually, many aces start falling out of his sleeves, causing the Sharmas to develop an attraction to him. Even Daduji, the disgruntled patriarch of the family, develops love for Raghu. The family puts so much trust in Raghu that they even unwittingly show him the box containing the family jewels. Krishna is the recluse daughter of Daduji's dead son and daughter-in-law. On learning this, Raghu tutors her and brings her talents to the fore. He also helps in clearing up the misunderstandings and calling truces between the family members. Daduji cannot help but think that Raghu is actually a saviour sent by god. Meanwhile, nobody notices that Raghu is suspiciously eyeing the jewel box the whole time. Meanwhile, Raghu learns that Krishna loves a boy named Arun, but the Sharmas are strictly against the union of Krishna with him. The boy also loves Krishna, but is helpless before Krishna's relatives as well. Amongst all the tangle, Raghu suddenly disappears. The Sharmas are also aghast to know that the box is missing as well. It does not take the Sharmas long to put two and two together. At the same time, Arun shows up. The people are already angered at the turn of events and the boy's arrival, but they receive a shock when he shows them the jewelry box. He explains that he saw Raghu in a suspicious condition with the box. When he asked Raghu about the box, Raghu tried to run away. He tried to stop Raghu, even beat him up (the boy is a wrestler), but Raghu somehow managed to escape. Stunned by this unexpected turn of events, the attitude of Sharmas towards Arun changes and they agree to get him married with Krishna out of gratitude. Krishna, however, refuses to buy the story. When the Sharmas start abusing Raghu, Arun wasn't able to take it anymore and tells them what really happened. He tells them that he met Raghu at his own wrestling ground. He had a little friendly match with Raghu, where he suffered minor injuries from Raghu. He saw the box and asked Raghu about it. Raghu said that the box was the real reason he came there. Raghu had asked him to take the box to the Sharmas and tell them that Raghu had stolen it so that Krishna's lover can get back his place in the house. Meanwhile, Krishna sees Raghu outside the house and asks him why did he do all this. Raghu told her that his real name was professor Prabhakar, but he took the fake name of Raghu. He had seen many families like the Sharmas which were on the brink of breaking up and hence decided to use his knowledge to stop this. Raghu explained to him that if he lies about the box and what happened between him and Raghu, the boy will be able to marry Krishna. Raghu had promised the boy to secrecy, but the latter couldn't stand up the abuse to Raghu. A stunned Sharma family has to accept that Raghu went out of his way to save several homes like Shanti Niwas. Krishna manages to stop Raghu in time from going somewhere else. Raghu tells her that this is his life's mission and now he has to go. The film ends with a scene of him traveling to a new destination and narration from Amitabh Bachchan that "Raghu is going to a new home. Let's hope it is not yours." The movie was a hit. It was the 8th highest-grossing film of the year.

Cast

* Rajesh Khanna as Raghunandan aka Raghu (Bawarchi) / Professor Prabhakar *

Jaya Bhaduri Jaya Bachchan (''née'' Bhaduri; born 9 April 1948) is an Indian actress and politician. She is a member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party, serving four terms since 2004. Known primarily for her work in Hindi and Bengali ...

as Krishna Sharma *

as Shobha Sharma (Choti maa) *

Harindranath Chattopadhyay Harindranath Chattopadhyay (2 April 1898 – 23 June 1990) was an Indian English poet, dramatist, actor, musician and a member of the 1st Lok Sabha from Vijayawada constituency. He was the younger brother of Sarojini Nai ...

as Shivnath Sharma (Daduji) * A. K. Hangal as Ramnath Sharma (Munna) *

as Seeta Sharma (Badi maa) *

as Vishwanath Sharma (Bubbu) *

Raju Shrestha Fahim Ajani or Raju Shrestha, initially credited as Master Raju or Master Rajoo, is an Indian film and television actor, who started his film career as a child actor, in the 1970s. Raju has acted in films like Gulzar's '' Parichay'', Hrishikes ...

as Pintoo Baba *

Kali Bannerjee Kali Banerjee (20 November 1920 – 5 July 1993) was an Indian actor, who worked in the 1950s–1970s in Bengali cinema. He is best known for his work with film directors like Satyajit Ray in '' Parash Pathar'' (1958) and Ritwik Ghatak in ' ...

as Kashi * Paintal as Dance Master (Guruji) *

Seema Kapoor Seema Kapoor Chhibber is an Indian actress, dancer and model from 1970s and 1980s. She appeared in the films ''Dharmatma ''Dharmatma'' () is a 1975 Hindi thriller movie and the first Bollywood film to be shot in Afghanistan. It was produced ...

as Dancer #2 (Dance performance night) * Amitabh Bachchan as Narrator

Crew

*Director -

*Story -

*Screenplay -

*Dialogue -

Gulzar Sampooran Singh Kalra (born 18 August 1934), known professionally as Gulzar, is an Indian Urdu poet, lyricist, author, screenwriter, and film director known for his works in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of greatest Urdu poets of this ...

*Editor - Das Dhaimade *Producer -

, N. C. Sippy, Romu N. Sippy *Cinematographer - Jaywant Pathare *Art Director - Ajit Banerjee *Animation - S. G. Naiksatam *Choreographer - Gopi Krishna *Narrator - Amitabh Bachchan

Music

Awards

, - , 1973 , Rajesh Khanna ,

, , - , 1973 , Paintal ,

Filmfare Best Comedian Award The Filmfare Best Comedian Award was given by ''Filmfare'' as part of its annual Filmfare Awards for Hindi films, to recognise an actor who had delivered an outstanding performance in a comic role. Although the awards started in 1954, awards fo ...

References

External links

* {{Hrishikesh Mukherjee 1972 films Indian family films Indian comedy-drama films 1970s Hindi-language films Films directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee Films scored by Madan Mohan Films about dysfunctional families Hindi remakes of Bengali films Cooking films 1972 comedy-drama films