Page 36 - Seniors Today Dec 2019

Once Upon A Time
Films

An affair not to remember

The casually blatant sexism of the 1978 movie Pati Patni Aur Woh may have seemed
funny at one time, but it is nothing short of tragic that the film is being remade in this
age, writes Deepa Gahlot

Any plot can be updated and recycled, but one
thing is certain—no current leading man will
be seen dead in striped kuchhas, unashamedly
displaying an overweight body, as Sanjeev
Kumar did in the 1978 version of Pati Patni Aur
Woh, singing “Thande thande paani se” in the
bathroom.
The BR Chopra film was a hit, but the casual
misogyny of the plot would be rejected today, so
the new film retains just the title and bare bones
of the plot.
Sanjeev Kumar and Vidya Sinha in the old Pati Patni Aur Woh
The film begins with a surprisingly good
animated sequence about Adam and Eve bawdy advice by his paan-chomping poet friend
tasting the forbidden fruit and being cast out Durrani (Asrani), which includes the old “billi
of heaven—the fruit being the temptation of marna” chestnut. He tries to be a dominating
‘woh.’ Cut to a portly Ranjit (Kumar), and a husband for just a day, when the wife protests,
svelte Sharda (Vidya Sinha) cycling down empty and the relationship evens out.
streets and colliding. For him, it is love at first Eight years later, he has progressed in his sales
sight, for her it takes a friend’s wedding and a job, they live in a bungalow and have a son
song (Ladki cycle wali) to marry him. (Master Bittoo). His flirtatious nature is alluded
At 28 years of age, the man does not know what to when he offers a lift to a woman in a dress,
to do on a wedding night, and is given some sweet-talks her, and unceremoniously offloads
her on the street when she mentions a husband.
36