| Name | Bawarchi| |
|---|
In Mukherjee's classic style, the film contains no violence or obscenities, and focuses on spreading family values and morals through clean comedy.
The story is centered around the squabbling Sharma family, headed by their eccentric Daduji (Harindranath Chattopadhyay), which has a dubious reputation the inability to retain a cook for more than a few months due to their ill treatment of their servants. The family's disrepute spreads to such an extent that no person wants to be employed as a cook in their home, ironically named Shanti Niwas (abode of peace).
Then one day a young man named Raghu (Rajesh Khanna) offers to work as a cook, and is hired. Raghu, however, lives up to this challenge & becomes the apple of the eye for every resident of Shanti Niwas. He even defuses the internal squabbles & re-unites the family. But is Raghu's slate clean, or there is more to his character?
After every month, the search for a new servant has to start. Then, suddenly a servant named Raghu comes in. Even though nobody remembers asking for some Raghu, they hire him. But Raghu has his own surprises in store for him. Gradually, the whole home comes to know that Raghu is not only an accompolished chef, but also a singer & expert in dancing.
Raghu tells his masters that he worked for reputed veterans of given fields, who taught him something or the other. Gradually, many aces start falling out of his sleeves, causing the Sharma's to develop an attraction to him. Even Daduji, the disgruntled patriarch of the family, develops love for Raghu. The family puts so much trust in Raghu that they even unwittingly show him the box containing the family jewels.
Krishna(Jaya Bhaduri) is the recluse daughter of Daduji's dead son & daughter-in-law. On learning this, Raghu tutors her & brings her talents to the fore. He also helps in clearing up the misunderstandings & calling truces between the family members. Daduji cannot help but think that Raghu is actually a saviour sent by god. Meanwhile, nobody notices that Raghu is suspiciously eyeing the jewel box the whole time.
Meanwhile, Raghu learns that Krishna loves a boy, but the Sharma's are strictly against the union of Krishna with him. The boy also loves Krishna, but is helpless before Krishna's relatives as well. Between all the tangle, Raghu suddenly disappears. The Sharma's are also aghast to know that the box is missing as well.
It does not take the Sharma's to put two & two together. At the same time, Krishna's love interest shows up. The people are already angered at the turn of events & the boys arrival, but they receive a shock when he shows them the jewelry box. He explains that he saw Raghu in a suspicious condition with the box. When he asked Raghu about the box, Raghu tried to run away. He tried to stop Raghu, even beat him up(the boy is a wrestler), but Raghu somehow managed to escape.
Stunned by this unexpected turn of events, the attitude of Sharma's towards the boy changes & they agree to get him married with Krishna out of gratitude. Krishna, however, refuses to buy the story. When Sharma's start abusing Raghu, Krishna's lover cannot take it anymore and tells them what really happened.
He tells them that he met Raghu at his own wrestling ground. He had a little friendly match with Raghu, where he suffered minor injuries from Raghu. He saw the box & asked Raghu about it. Raghu said that the box was the real reason he came there. Raghu told the boy that his real name was professor Raghunandan Verma, but he took the fake name of Raghu. He had seen many families like the Sharma's which were on the brink of breaking up & hence decided to use his knowledge to stop this.
Raghu explained him that if he lies about the box & what happened between him & Raghu, the boy will be able to marry Krishna. Raghu had promised the boy to secrecy, but latter couldn't stand up the abuse to Raghu. A stunned Sharma family has to accept that Raghu went out of his way to save several homes like Shanti Niwas. Krishna manages to stop Raghu in time from going somewhere else.
Raghu tells her that this is his life mission now & he has to go. Krishna requests him to stop until her marriage, as she regards him as her brother. Raghu obliges & leaves Shanti Niwas after her marriage. The film ends with a scene of him travelling to a new destination & narration from Amitabh Bachchan that "Raghu is going to a new home. Let's hope it is not yours."
Category:1973 films Category:Indian films Category:Hindi-language films Category:Films directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee Category:Compositions by Madan Mohan Category:Films about dysfunctional families
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