- Secretly in love with his neighbor, a mild-mannered clerk is heartbroken when his much bolder, more charming friend wins her heart instead.
- The film is loosely based on the classical Indian folktale of the hare and the tortoise, providing a modern interpretation of the same. Even though the good (tortoise) may win in the end, is it worth the wait? 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 (middle-class apartment complex) in Bombay. He is secretly in love with his neighbor, Sandhya Sabnis (Deepti Naval), but is unable to disclose his love for her, mainly due to his timidity. Rajaram is a very good natured and hardworking man. Most of his neighbors and colleagues take advantage of his goodness. One day Rajaram's fast-talking friend Vasudev alias Bashu (Farooq Shaikh) - the hare - comes for a visit and makes himself at home. Bashu generally impresses people by his false success stories and his over-the-top attitude. 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 false stories about his work experience and love of golf. He also starts flirting with Dhindhoria's beautiful wife Anuradha (Mallika Sarabhai) and daughter Jojo (Winnie Paranjape) at the same time. In the chawl, the Sabnis family decides to get Sandhya married to Bashu, much to the shock of Rajaram. But on the day of the engagement, Bashu disappears after being caught red-handed, romancing Anuradha, by Jojo. The engagement is called off. Rajaram then offers to marry the devastated Sandhya, but she tells him that she has been very intimate with Bashu and is perhaps pregnant. Rajaram shows his greatness by accepting her in spite of all this and expressing his long hidden love towards her.—wilburjpereira@gmail.com
- The film is loosely based on the classical Indian folktale of the hare and the tortoise, providing a modern interpretation of the same. Even though the good (tortoise) may win in the end, is it worth the wait? 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 colony (middle-class apartment complex) in Bombay. Dadi Amma (Leela Mishra) is the elder of the colony. Rajaram is secretly in love with his neighbor, Sandhya Sabnis (Deepti Naval), but is unable to disclose his love for her, mainly due to his timidity. Rajaram is a very good nature person and hardworking man. Most of his neighbors and colleagues take advantage of his goodness. One destitute uncle uses Rajaram to do his house chores whenever he comes to visit and ask for his well being. Sandhya lives with her dad Bhau Sabnis (Arun Joglekar) ..
One day Rajaram's fast-talking friend Vasudev alias Bashu (Farooq Shaikh) - the hare - comes for a visit and makes himself at home. Bashu generally impresses people by his false success stories (he says he was the manager of a hotel, when he was working there as a busboy. Says he directed films, when he was merely the clap-boy. Says he was in advertising, when he was selling fake oil on the streets) and his over-the-top attitude (he says he has trained Vengsarkar and Gavaskar). In reality, he is inter fail and never completed college. He says he was in Delhi for the last 4 yrs. Vasudev insists that he will pay Rajaram rs 300 per month for his stay in his room, but never actually pays him anything. He takes Rajaram for expensive lunches, but always seems to have forgotten his wallet and gets Rajaram to pay for it.
Bashu charms everyone in the colony and gets them to do chores for him. He also mooches off them by charming his way into their homes and treating himself to free stuff like food, tea, beers etc. Meanwhile Rajaram's colleague Kamla (Rita Rani Kaul) hits on him at work, but he is not interested. he has eyes only for Sandhya. Sandhya's mom likes Rajaram as a potential match for her, but she wants an impressive and smart groom, like Bashu.
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 false stories about his work experience (as editor of a sports weekly in the UK, and says he is doing a feature on Amature golf in India. He also tells him that he worked for a shoe company in the UK) and love of golf. He also starts flirting with Dhindhoria's beautiful 2nd wife Anuradha (Mallika Sarabhai) and daughter (from the 1st wife, who died) Jojo (Winnie Paranjape) at the same time. Dhindhoria gives Bashu a job at his company in Advertising and gives him an office with a cabin. In office Bashu spend his time pleasing the boss or charming the ladies.
Next, Bashu turns his gaze to impress Bhau and Sandhya's mom. Bhau is very impressed that Bashu has a officer job.. Bashu gets Rajaram to work all night and then passes off Rajaram's work as his own in front of the boss. Bashu also takes Rajaram's place in the colony annual function, in a play, where he gets to romance Sandhya with lines from Rajaram's favorite play. Soon, Bashu is dating Sandhya, Anuradha and Jojo simultaneously. Rajaram loses his temper at Bashu when he finds that Bashu has stolen Rs 300 from his cupboard and says that Bashu has never paid any rent or any other money that he borrowed from the beginning of his stay. Rajaram is forced to borrow money from his parents to pay his bills.
In the conoly, the Sabnis family decides to get Sandhya married to Bashu, much to the shock of Rajaram. But on the day of the engagement, Bashu disappears after being caught red-handed, romancing Anuradha, by Jojo. Bashu was fired from his job, and even told Rajaram that he was not serious about his engagement to Sandhya. The engagement is called off. Rajaram then offers to marry the devastated Sandhya, but she tells him that she has been very intimate with Bashu and is perhaps pregnant. Rajaram shows his greatness by accepting her in spite of all this and expressing his long hidden love towards her.
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