Katha (English: Story) is a 1983 Indian

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

directed film by Sai Paranjpye starring Farooq Sheikh, Naseeruddin Shah and

Deepti Naval Deepti Naval (born 3 February 1952) is an Indian-born American actress, director, and writer, predominantly active in Hindi cinema. Her major contribution has been in the area of art cinema, winning critical acclaim for her sensitive and 'clos ...

in the main roles. The film is about the daily lives of people living in a Mumbai ''

chawl A chawl is a type of residential building found in western India, similar to a tenement. Typically low quality housing, chawls are generally associated with poverty. The first chawls were constructed in the early 1700s, as housing for industri ...

''. The story is based on S.G. Sathye's Marathi play ''Sasa Aani Kasav'' (Hare and Tortoise), which was also adapted into the 1988 movie ''

Mukunthetta Sumitra Vilikkunnu ''Mukunthetta Sumitra Vilikkunnu'' () is a 1988 Indian Malayalam-language romantic comedy film directed by Priyadarshan and written by Sreenivasan. It stars Mohanlal, Sreenivasan, and Ranjini. The story is based on the Marathi play ''Sasa Aani ...

''. It was shot on location at ''Salunke Chawl'' in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

Jalal Agha Jalal Agha (11 July 1945 – 5 March 1995) was an Indian actor and director in Bollywood films. He was the son of the popular comedian actor Agha. Jalal studied acting at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune. Career He made his d ...

and

Sarika Sarika Thakur is an Indian actress and costume designer. In 2005, she won the National Film Award for Best Actress for the English-language film '' Parzania''. She was also awarded the National Film Award for Best Costume Design for her work ...

made guest appearances in the movie. The principal character played by

Farooque Shaikh Farooq Shaikh (25 March 1948 − 28 December 2013) was an Indian actor, philanthropist and television presenter. He was best known for his work in Hindi films from 1973 to 1993 and for his work in television between 1988 and 2002. He returned to ...

was named Bashu Bhatt after film maker Basu Bhattacharya.There's a lot in a name: The names of characters in movies are often well thought out..

The Tribune ''The Tribune'' or ''Tribune'' is the name of various newspapers: United States Daily California *'' Oakland Tribune'' * ''The Tribune'' (San Luis Obispo) *''San Gabriel Valley Tribune'' Indiana *'' Kokomo Tribune'' *'' Peru Tribune'' * ''The Tri ...

, 27 April 2008. "Basu Bhattacharya who had earlier produced Sparsh (1980) which Sai directed. Some bitterness was generated between the two over the film's release."

Plot

The film is loosely based on the classic folktale of the hare and the tortoise, providing a modern interpretation. It is based on S.G. Sathye's Marathi play ''Sasa Aani Kasav'' (Hare and Tortoise). The tortoise — Rajaram P. Joshi ( Naseeruddin Shah) — is a middle-class clerk living in a chawl (a common lower middle-class apartment complex which has several families living in small rooms with common toilets) in Bombay. He is secretly in love with his neighbour Sandhya Sabnis (

), but is unable to express his love due to his timid nature. Rajaram is a good natured and hardworking man. His neighbours and colleagues take advantage of his simplicity. One day Rajaram's smooth-talking, roguish friend Vasudev aka Bashu (

) — the hare — comes visiting as a house guest and makes himself at home in the chawl. Bashu makes a good impression on everybody by his charming, friendly behaviour, his extraordinary good looks and exaggerated stories of success. Bashu starts wooing Sandhya, and she falls in love with him. He then joins Rajaram's company Footprint Shoes by impressing the owner Mr. Dhindhoria with untrue stories about his work experience in "good 'ol' England" and his newfound love of golf. Dhindhoria has a passion for golf and is easily impressed. Typically, Bashu soon starts flirting with Dhindhoria's beautiful and young wife Anuradha (

Mallika Sarabhai Mallika Sarabhai (born 9 May 1954) is an activist and Indian classical dancer and actress from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Daughter of a classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai and space scientist Vikram Sarabhai, Mallika is an accomplished Kuchip ...

) as well as his daughter Jojo ( Winnie Paranjape) by his first marriage, courting both women at the same time. In the chawl, meanwhile, the Sabnis family decides to get Sandhya married to Bashu much to Rajaram's shock and disappointment. But on the day of the engagement Bashu disappears. The footloose and fancy free youth does not wish to be tied down by marriage. The engagement is called off. Rajaram then offers to marry the devastated Sandhya, but she hints that she has been very intimate with Bashu and is therefore unworthy of Rajaram. Still, Rajaram shows his love by offering to accept her and finally expresses his long repressed love towards her. They get married. Meanwhile, Bashu ensnares an Arab employer and flies off to the Middle East on his next adventure.

Cast

* Naseeruddin Shah as Rajaram Purshottam Joshi *

as Vasudev (Bashu) Bhatt *

as Sandhya Sabnis * Nitin Sethi as Mr. Dhindhoria * Sudha Chopra as club singer * Arun Joglekar as Bhau Sabnis (Sandhya's father) *

Suhasini Deshpande Suhasini Maniratnam (born 15 August 1961) known mononymously as Suhasini, is an Indian actress, director, producer and writer in the Tamil film industry. She has worked as an actress in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She made he ...

as Mai (Sandhya's mother) * Winnie Paranjape Joglekar as Jojo a.k.a. Jaijaiwanti Dhindhoria *

Yatin Karyekar Yatin Karyekar is a veteran Indian actor in the Bollywood film industry. He was also part of long running television serial '' Shanti''. He appeared in the role of Aurangzeb in popular Marathi serial Raja Shivchhatrapati. Early life He wa ...

as Dancer * Rita Rani Kaul as Rajaram's colleague *

Leela Mishra Leela Mishra (1 January 1908 – 17 January 1988) was an Indian actress. She worked as a character actor in over 200 Hindi films for five decades, and is best remembered for playing stock characters such as aunts (''Chachi'' or ''Mausi''). She ...

as Old granny ('dadi amma') *

as Anuradha Dhindhoria *

as Himself *

as Herself *

Tinu Anand Tinu Anand (born Virender Raj Anand, 12 October 1945) is an Indian actor, director, writer and producer in Hindi cinema and a few Telugu and Tamil films. Early life He is the son of veteran writer Inder Raj Anand, brother of producer Bittu ...

as Himself Sai Paranjpye was very annoyed with producer Basu Bhattacharya when the release of Sparsh got delayed. 3 years later when she made Katha, she purposely named Farooque Shaikh's character, which had negative shades, Basu Bhatt.

References

External links

* {{National Film Award Best Feature Film Hindi 1980s Hindi-language films 1983 films Films scored by Raj Kamal Films set in Mumbai 1983 comedy films Indian comedy films Best Hindi Feature Film National Film Award winners Films directed by Sai Paranjpye Indian films based on plays