BAWARCHI
(“the cook”)
1972, Hindi, approx. 2 hours
Directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Produced by N. C. Sippy
Cast
* Rajesh Khanna ... Raghu
* Jaya Badhuri ... Krishna Khanna
* Usha Kiran ... Chotti Ma
* Harindranath Chattopadhyay ... Daduji
* A.K. Hangal ... Munna
* Kali Banerjee ... Kashinath
* Durga Khote ... Badi Maa
* Asrani ... Babbu
To the often-heard middle-class Indian lament that “You can’t get good servants anymore!,” this comedy—by India’s master of the so-called “middle class” film —has the answer: a talented cook and all-around handyman who appears out of the blue, gladly takes on extra and even demeaning tasks, manifests unfailing good cheer, and actually requests a salary lower than he is offered, because of “inflation” (afflicting his employers, that is!). Incidentally, he is also a soulful poet, gifted musician, enchanting storyteller, master psychologist, and—in a word—Mahatma, who takes charge of dysfunctional families and turns the petty animosities and irritations of everyday life in extended households into a succession of opportunities for the manifestation of selfless love and service. More surprisingly still, he transforms (with the help of Hrishkesh Mukherjee and his talented team) this potentially saccharine scenario into a highly original, witty, and entertaining film that truly deserves the adjective “heartwarming.”
Later, during the morning raga sung by Raghu, Bhor aayee gaya andhiyara (“Dawn has come and darkness fled”)—a light classical tour-de-force which gets the entire family singing—would-be music director Babloo (who, we have been told, has “stolen countless foreign melodies,” though he has never yet crafted a hit) breaks into a guitar riff that parodies the Western-pop-influenced style of the then-prominent R. D. Burman.
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