Stop me if you’ve heard this one - a handful of youngsters,
bullied at school, harassed by a cruel teacher, and with troubles at
home, learn that a local house is haunted by a powerful and dangerous
spirit. The kids quickly become obsessed with summoning the spirit,
believing that it will punish their enemies and make all their dreams
come true. But when the spirit finally arrives, there are unexpected
consequences . It sounds like a great set-up for a horror film, but Chhota Chetan
(1998) is instead a children’s fantasy of the “kids befriend a
supernatural being, learn valuable life lessons, and then must say
goodbye” variety. It’s also almost literally two movies in one, but
I’ll get to that later.
The kids are Laxmi (Sonia), Raju (Suresh) and Chintu (Mukesh). Laxmi is the important one, though, and her main problem is that her father (Dalip Tahil), an artist, fell into a drunken stupor when his wife died and never quite came out of it. Laxmi wants revenge on the school bully and her cruel Biology teacher (Rajan P. Dev), but what she really wants is her father back.
The spirit in question is named Chetan (which, we are frequently reminded, rhymes with “Satan"). Chetan is supposed to be a powerful yet mischievous spirit with a fondness for alcohol who guards a mysterious treasure, and in a rare case of truth in urban legend, Chetan turns out to be a powerful but mischievous spirit with a fondness for alcohol who guards a mysterious treasure. When Chetan finally appears, he shows off his shape changing powers for a bit, but eventually settles into the form of a small boy (Arvind) taken from a drawing done by Laxmi’s father, though he makes it clear that only the kids will be able to see him.
And so the kids set out to do the sorts of things kids do when they have the aid of an invisible but powerful spirit. They take (mostly harmless) revenge on their enemies. They play pranks. They try to cure Laxmi’s father of alcoholism, and dismantle the bar owned by Raju’s father (G.K. Pillai) in the process. And in one of the film’s best sequences, they sneak into a burlesque show. All the time, though, Chetan is worried about what will happen if his master catches them.
Chetan’s master is an evil sorcerer (Kottarakkara), who uses the spirit to chase away anyone who might come looking for the treasure buried in the house. This is bad news for Raja (Ravi Baswani) and Rajkumar (Harish), two hapless treasure hunters. The pair have tried exorcists (Shakti Kapoor and Satish Kaushik), but Chetan dealt easily with both, and seems to have eaten one. So Raja and Rajkumar decide they need more magical firepower, and find it in the form of Miss Hawa Hawai (Urmila Matondkar), a shapely magician/dancer who I am sad to say never dresses up as Charlie Chaplin, or even as a trumpet playing Greek maiden. (She does, however, spend much of the film dressed as Prince of Space, and performs a long stage number which seems to involve freeing the Oompa-Loompas from an evil giant.)
Miss Hawa Hawai has her own tragic back story which intersects with Chetan’s, and quickly sets out to defeat the evil sorcerer, while Raja and Rajkumar slip into the role of sidekicks. (because when Urmila in a leather catsuit tells you to do something, you do it.)
Miss Hawa Hawai and the kids never really interact, though, and there’s a very good reason for that. Chhota Chetan was originally made back in 1984, and the current version has been remade for a new audience - the special effects were spiced up, Urmila’s plotline was added, and Greedo now shoots first. (The original Chhota was also India’s first 3-D film, so there are many “Doctor Tongue’s 3-D House of Stewardesses” moments, when an ordinary object is thrust toward the audience in order to show off the 3-D effect.)
On a technical level, the two films are blended together quite well, and both old and new footage have the same basic look. The script never quite syncs up, though; while I’m generally pretty good at making sense of sloppy plotting, I’m still confused by a few points in Chhota Chetan. But that’s not enough to make it unwatchable. It’s an inoffensive bit of fluff, and Miss Hawa Hawai is a hoot. It’s a fun movie, and if you happen to have a couple of sarcastic robots on hand to watch it with you, all the better.
The kids are Laxmi (Sonia), Raju (Suresh) and Chintu (Mukesh). Laxmi is the important one, though, and her main problem is that her father (Dalip Tahil), an artist, fell into a drunken stupor when his wife died and never quite came out of it. Laxmi wants revenge on the school bully and her cruel Biology teacher (Rajan P. Dev), but what she really wants is her father back.
The spirit in question is named Chetan (which, we are frequently reminded, rhymes with “Satan"). Chetan is supposed to be a powerful yet mischievous spirit with a fondness for alcohol who guards a mysterious treasure, and in a rare case of truth in urban legend, Chetan turns out to be a powerful but mischievous spirit with a fondness for alcohol who guards a mysterious treasure. When Chetan finally appears, he shows off his shape changing powers for a bit, but eventually settles into the form of a small boy (Arvind) taken from a drawing done by Laxmi’s father, though he makes it clear that only the kids will be able to see him.
And so the kids set out to do the sorts of things kids do when they have the aid of an invisible but powerful spirit. They take (mostly harmless) revenge on their enemies. They play pranks. They try to cure Laxmi’s father of alcoholism, and dismantle the bar owned by Raju’s father (G.K. Pillai) in the process. And in one of the film’s best sequences, they sneak into a burlesque show. All the time, though, Chetan is worried about what will happen if his master catches them.
Chetan’s master is an evil sorcerer (Kottarakkara), who uses the spirit to chase away anyone who might come looking for the treasure buried in the house. This is bad news for Raja (Ravi Baswani) and Rajkumar (Harish), two hapless treasure hunters. The pair have tried exorcists (Shakti Kapoor and Satish Kaushik), but Chetan dealt easily with both, and seems to have eaten one. So Raja and Rajkumar decide they need more magical firepower, and find it in the form of Miss Hawa Hawai (Urmila Matondkar), a shapely magician/dancer who I am sad to say never dresses up as Charlie Chaplin, or even as a trumpet playing Greek maiden. (She does, however, spend much of the film dressed as Prince of Space, and performs a long stage number which seems to involve freeing the Oompa-Loompas from an evil giant.)
Miss Hawa Hawai has her own tragic back story which intersects with Chetan’s, and quickly sets out to defeat the evil sorcerer, while Raja and Rajkumar slip into the role of sidekicks. (because when Urmila in a leather catsuit tells you to do something, you do it.)
Miss Hawa Hawai and the kids never really interact, though, and there’s a very good reason for that. Chhota Chetan was originally made back in 1984, and the current version has been remade for a new audience - the special effects were spiced up, Urmila’s plotline was added, and Greedo now shoots first. (The original Chhota was also India’s first 3-D film, so there are many “Doctor Tongue’s 3-D House of Stewardesses” moments, when an ordinary object is thrust toward the audience in order to show off the 3-D effect.)
On a technical level, the two films are blended together quite well, and both old and new footage have the same basic look. The script never quite syncs up, though; while I’m generally pretty good at making sense of sloppy plotting, I’m still confused by a few points in Chhota Chetan. But that’s not enough to make it unwatchable. It’s an inoffensive bit of fluff, and Miss Hawa Hawai is a hoot. It’s a fun movie, and if you happen to have a couple of sarcastic robots on hand to watch it with you, all the better.
No comments:
Post a Comment