Three is a Riot

Eventually,Ranjeet (Sanjeev Kumar) and Sharda (Vidya Sinha) enter into holy matrimony… but not without the button. Every day,she lovingly buttons up his coat,which he promptly unbuttons the moment he is out of her sight. It’s his one act of rebellion,a shot at freedom away from his wife’s prying eyes. That is until real temptation walks in,in the form of his secretary Nirmala (Ranjeeta).

Director BR Chopra presents a comic take on the mind of a married man in Pati Patni Aur Woh. The idea of the movie is credited to Chopra’s wife,Prakash,who was quite taken in by a Japanese film on the same theme. Chopra,who was keen to shed the baggage of a serious filmmaker after Naya Daur,Waqt,Gumraah and Humraaz,ventured into comedy with this film.

Chopra was sure that only Sanjeev Kumar with his light-as-soufflé comic timing could play the philandering yet loveable character. When Chopra went to Sanjeev with the idea,the actor agreed instantly. “Agar aap yeh film mujhe nahin bhi denge toh bhi main karunga… main ise chodunga nahin (Even if you don’t offer me this film,I’ll do it. I won’t let it go),” he told Chopra.

Chopra demanded 30 days at a stretch from the busy star and even asked him to take a pay cut. “Comedies then had little commercial success. I told Sanjeev that I would not be able to give him his usual fee but I’d give him 20 per cent of the earnings of the film. After the film released,Sanjeev told me that he had earned the most from this film,” the late Chopra once said in a radio interview.

Vidya Sinha,who worked in Chopra’s Chhoti Si Baat and Karm,played the Patni. The actress was a match for Sanjeev. Sharda isn’t the kind to take infidelity lying down,she clicks pictures of her husband with his secretary and then confronts them. She doesn’t forgive her husband easily but decides to forget the incident because of their child. “It was a dream come true to be paired with Sanjeev Kumar,that too in the beginning of my career,” Sinha says.

For the other woman’s role,Chopra cast Ranjeeta,impressed with her work in Aankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se.

Nirmala’s character was of a working girl from a lower middle-class household who has her values in place,yet is gullible enough to fall for her boss’s “I’ve-an-ailing-wife” trick.

Pati Patni Aur Woh is a Sanjeev Kumar show all the way. He plays Ranjeet as a man-about-town with a casualness that is most endearing. He walks around with a tape recorder that blares Samantha Fox’s Ooh love to love you baby. When he sees Nirmala for the first time,he tightens his belt,which later results in stomach cramps. Sinha says Sanjeev was a master of improvisation. “He would add these little things during the takes. It was his idea to call me ‘biwi’ throughout the film. He was always one step ahead of us and we would end up laughing during the takes because he would do something so funny,” says Sinha.

Pati Patni Aur Woh also gave us the anthem for bathroom singers,Thande thande pani se. That song is also a testament to Sanjeev’s courage. He’s hairy and bare-chested,and not in the best of shape. He’s wearing a long,striped kachcha and dancing with a bucket and a showerhead. But he is having such a ball that you go along with it.

Sanjeev was apprehensive about the song and even went on a diet to get into shape. But the foodie in him triumphed and he ended up putting on more weight. The story goes that when he saw the rushes of the song,he was mortified,and feared his mother would not like it. He insisted on shooting it again,wearing a lungi. But he realised the original was funnier and went with it.

The film’s end was quite controversial. Chopra was advised to show Sanjeev’s character as a reformed rake but the director stuck to his guns and had Parveen Babi in a buttercup yellow dress come in as the new temptation in Ranjeet’s life. Chopra wanted to show that a man doesn’t change overnight. Ranjeet’s words,“Aurat pyaar ko pakad kar baith jaati hai,aur aadmi pyaar ko baatta rehta hai,” is the defining statement of this extramarital tale.

The bottom line: Love them or leave them,men are like that only. So long as they make us laugh. Like Sanjeev Kumar did.

harneet.singh@expressindia.com