''Bawarchi'' (

translation Translation is the communication of the semantics, meaning of a #Source and target languages, source-language text by means of an Dynamic and formal equivalence, equivalent #Source and target languages, target-language text. The English la ...

: ''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 Solar time, ...

Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

comedy drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

film 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 car ...

and produced by Mukherjee himself along with N.C. Sippy and Romu N. Sippy. Released in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

on 7 July 1972, the film stars an

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that comprises many principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to the po ...

Rajesh Khanna Rajesh Khanna (; born Jatin Khanna; 29 December 1942 – 18 July 2012) was an Indian actor, film producer and politician who worked in Hindi films. Considered as one of the greatest and most successful actors in the history of Indian cinema, h ...

Jaya Bhaduri Jaya Bachchan (''née'' Bhaduri; born 9 April 1948) is an Indian actress and politician. She is regarded as one of the greatest actresses of Hindi cinema. She is serving as member of the parliament in the Rajya Sabha from the Samajwadi Party ...

Asrani Govardhan Asrani (born 1 January 1941), known popularly by mononym Asrani, is an Indian actor and director whose Bollywood career has spanned over five decades. He has acted in over 350 Hindi films. Asrani has played the lead roles, character ...

, Harindranath Chattopadhyay, A.K. Hangal, Durga Khote, Manisha, Kali Banerjee,

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

Raju Shrestha Raju Shrestha (born Fahim Ajani; 15 August 1966), known by his stage name 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 ' ...

. 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'' (1971). 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. TC, T.C., Tc, Tc, tc, tC, or .tc may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television * Theodore "T.C." Calvin, a character on the TV series '' Magnum, P.I.'' and its reboot * Tom Caron, American television host for New England Sports Netw ...

Khanna won his second BFJA Awards for Best Actor (Hindi) for his performance in this film. The movie is a remake of the Bengali film '' Galpo Holeo Satti'' (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 remade in Tamil as ''Samayalkaaran'' with M. K. Muthu. 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 also appeared in Telugu and Tamil films. He acted with many leading ladies in 1990s and he acted as Rajnikanth's broth ...

and second as '' No 73, Shanthi Nivasa'', with

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

. 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

After the opening graphics, which use the cooking theme for good effect, the film begins with

Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He is often considered one of the greatest, most accomplished and commercially successful actors in the history of Indian cinema.* * * * * With a cinemati ...

, being the

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

, announcing the credits against a rather oddly static red curtain, and then introducing the various characters in the story. Firstly, there are the fractious Sharma family members, who all live in the ironically named "Shanti Niwas" ("Abode of Peace"). The never-ending conflict in the house means that the family cannot keep their servants, which in turn, leads to further discord and argument. The family is controlled by the aging, disgruntled patriarch named Shivnath Sharma a.k.a. Daduji ( Harindranath Chattopadhyay), who always complains about his sons, his daughters-in-law, and the lack of a decent cup of tea in the morning. Despite his grumpy demeanour, he is the only person in the house to think about the welfare of Krishna Sharma (

), the orphaned daughter of his late second son and daughter-in-law, who both died in a car accident several years ago. The recluse Krishna is at everyone's beck and call, and yet she has a pleasant and sunny disposition, which leads her to wait on everyone with a smile and not much thought of her own comfort. Also in the house are Daduji's first son Ramnath ( A.K. Hangal), his wife Seeta ( Durga Khote) and their daughter Meeta ( Manisha). Ramnath is a harried clerk whose family life is impacting on his work, and also drinks to combat his woes and possibly even to help him deal with his wife and daughter, although this actually makes him more pleasant to deal with. Seeta complains of her

gout Gout ( ) is a form of inflammatory arthritis characterized by recurrent attacks of pain in a red, tender, hot, and Joint effusion, swollen joint, caused by the deposition of needle-like crystals of uric acid known as monosodium urate crysta ...

which makes her unable to help with the various household chores, while Meeta is just plain lazy and does get out of bed only for dance lessons and party visits. Daduji's third son Kashinath ( Kali Banerjee) is a pompous

schoolteacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. w ...

, who lives in the house along with his wife Shobha (

) and their young son Pintoo (

). The last member in the family is Daduji's fourth son Vishwanath Sharma (

), a

music director A music director, musical director or director of music is a person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert ...

for films, who copies English songs, adds

lyrics to them and records them as Krishna aptly puts it. The final two characters in the film are Guruji ( Paintal), Meeta's dance teacher, and Arun, Krishna's tutor and also love interest. The family squabbles are based on their own selfishness, and none of them wants to take on the responsibility of looking for new servants. Into this unhappy household steps Raghunandan a.k.a. Raghu (

), who just appears on the doorstep one day, volunteering to be their new cook. Raghu seems to be the answer to everyone's prayers as he insists in a low salary, cooks amazing food and also has talents as a

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and dance instructor to name but a few. Raghu seems to be a gift from the deities as his unfailing happiness and good cheer start to have an impact on the family, as does his willingness to tackle even the most demeaning of tasks. However, Raghu does seem to have an unhealthy interest in the large box chained under Daduji's bed. This large box happens to contain the family jewelleries and added in to reports of a thief in the area makes Raghu's arrival a little suspicious. However, Raghu's unique ability to cook and his constant stream of knowledge about anything and everything soon make him indispensable to the family. At the same time, Raghu also tutors Krishna and brings her talents to the fore. He even 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 the deity. Meanwhile, Raghu is well-aware that Krishna is in love with Arun, but the Sharmas are strictly against the union of Krishna with him. Arun also loves Krishna, but is helpless before Krishna's relatives as well. Amongst all the tangle, Raghu suddenly disappears from the house, while the Sharmas are also aghast to know that the jewellery box is missing as well. It does not take Daduji, Vishwanath and the Sharmas long to put two and two together. At the same time, Arun shows up and 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 jewellery box. He explains that he saw Raghu in a suspicious condition with the box, and when he asked Raghu about the box, Raghu tried to run away, while he tried to stop Raghu, even beat him up (Arun is a wrestler), but Raghu threw down the jewellery box and 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 and Meeta, however, refuse to buy the story. When the Sharmas begin abusing Raghu, Arun is not able to take it anymore and confesses to them what really happened, revealing that he actually met Raghu at his own wrestling ground and had a little friendly match with Raghu, where he suffered minor injuries from him. Further, he saw the jewellery box and questioned Raghu about it, to which, Raghu answered that the box was the real reason he came there. Thus, Raghu had asked Arun to take the box to the Sharmas and lie to them that he had stolen it, so that Arun can get back his place in the house and win Krishna and the family over. Meanwhile, Krishna sees Raghu outside the house and approaches him, asking him why did he do all this. Raghu reveals to her that his real name was "Professor Prabhakar", but he took the fake name of Raghu and posed as a servant as 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. A stunned Sharma family has to accept that Raghu went out of his way to save several homes like Shanti Niwas. Even though 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 Raghu travelling to a new destination and

narrating that "Raghu is going to a new home. Let's hope it's not yours."

Cast

as Raghunandan a.k.a. Raghu (Bawarchi) / Professor Prabhakar *

as Krishna H Sharma *

as Vishwanath S Sharma a.k.a. Babbu * Harindranath Chattopadhyay as Shivnath Sharma a.k.a. Daduji * A.K. Hangal as Ramnath S Sharma a.k.a. Munna * Durga Khote as Seeta R Sharma * Manisha as Meeta R Sharma * Kartar Singh Sikh man set in theatre song (More Naina Bahaye Neer Sakhi Ka) * Kali Banerjee as Kashinath S Sharma a.k.a. Kashi *

as Shobha K Sharma *

as Pintoo K Sharma * Paintal as Guruji (Meeta's dance teacher) * Seema Kapoor as Dancer #2 (dance performance night) *

as Narrator

Crew

*Director -

*Story -

*Screenplay -

*Dialogue -

Gulzar Gulzar (born Sampooran Singh Kalra; 18 August 1934) is an Indian Urdu poetry, 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 era. He starte ...

*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 -

Music

Awards

, - , 1973 ,

, BFJA Awards for Best Actor (Hindi) , , - , 1973 , Paintal , Filmfare Best Comedian Award ,

References

External links

* {{Hrishikesh Mukherjee 1972 films Indian family films Indian comedy-drama films 1970s Hindi-language films 1970s Indian 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