Happy Birthday Amol Palekar: Iconic Films Of The Versatile Actor

Amol Palekar is an actor, who gave an image of a simple person to Bollywood. Amol could hardly be in action or thriller film, but he played many such characters who became memorable. Today, on November 24, 2017, he is celebrating his 73rd birthday. There are many films like Golmaal, Chhoti Si Baat and Chitchor in which his character can't be forgotten. Let's take a look back to those comedies that make him evergreen.

#.1 Rajnigandha (1974): This was the first Hindi film of Amol Palekar, who at that time was a less-known theatre actor. Deepa Kapoor (Vidya Sinha) falls in love with Sanjay (Amol Palekar), a college friend, and agrees to marry him. However, a chance meeting with Navin (Dinesh Thakur), an old boyfriend, leaves her unsure of who should be her life partner. Amol Palekar as nobody’s idea of a dream man. He, however, has all human follies: he is usually late, often disorganised, forgetful and clumsy. That does not prevent him from bringing his girl all the flowers she needs — Rajnigandha. You see, in ordinariness lie so many virtues! The love triangle makes way for laughter and makes Amol Palekar stand tall with his common man character. 

#2. Chitchor(1979): Chitchor is a romantic, musical film made under the banner Rajshri productions and produced by Tarachand Barjatya. Geeta (Zarina Wahab) ends up with two suitors - Vinod (Amol Palekar) and Sunil (Vijayendra Ghatge), after her father goes to bring home a prospective groom and mistakenly picks up the wrong man. It is based on Bengali story, Chittachakor by Sudha Gosh. Palekar scores once again in the sweet simplicity of Chitchor’s romance. The song ‘Gori tera gaon bada pyaara’ with Zarina Wahab blushing, is priceless.

#3. Chhoti Si Baat(1976): Chhoti Si Baat is a rom-com and it is not hard to believe that Palekar could play a lover’s character. In the movie, Palekar plays a shy accountant residing in Mumbai. He is the silent lover who follows his crush Prabha (Vidya Sinha) to the office every day. While Arun is despairingly struck, Nagesh Shastri (Asrani), a colleague of Prabha manages to get her attention. Feeling humiliated, Arun meets Nagendranath (Ashok Kumar), who helps him. Kumar plays the role of someone on a mission to assist those in love and find their destiny.

#4. Golmaal (1979): Golmaal remains Amol’s most classical performance till date. The movie has a brilliant combination of Utpal Dutt and Amol, which makes it iconic by itself. In the movie, Amol played a double role as diverse as chalk and cheese - Ramprasad Sharma and Laxmanprasad Sharma - to save his job. The chemistry between Palekar and Dutt was a hit. Songs like ‘Aane wala Pal jane wala hai’ and ‘Gol maal hai bhai sab gol maal hain’ still fascinate the audience.

#4. Naram Garam (1981): After the success of Golmaal, Amol, Utpal and Hrishikesh Mukherjee were back with ‘Naram Garam’. The story of the film was very simple and again Amol is an employee of Utpal Dutt’s office. Naram Garam revolves around Kusum (Swaroop Sampat), who made her debut in Bollywood and her father (AK Hangal) who are left homeless due to non-repayment of debts of the local money lender. They are helped by Ramprasad (Amol Palekar), who is in love with Kusum, and hatches a plan to marry her. Shatrughan Sinha also played a pivotal character in the movie. The innocent chaos never created cacophony but hilarious moments that mark the audience's hearts.