Anyone who has ever lived with roommates and romanced an unassuming girl or, for that matter, a bespectacled bookworm would instantly claim this movie as his or her favorite. Not that the rest of the population can't enjoy it - from gangsters to musicians, to old grannies, to salesmen, to poets, to shopkeepers - everybody has something to take home from this movie.
Siddharth (Farooq Sheikh), Omi (Rakesh Bedi and Jomu (Ravi Baswani) are three Delhi University students who share an apartment and a permanent fixture on their countenance - their beloved cigarettes. Their personalities are reflected over their bed on their respective walls - Omi and Jomu wear their heart on their sleeves and have colorful cuttings of beautiful women. In contrast, Siddharth, an M. A. in economics, has photos of Gandhi and Vivekananda and doesn't take any interest in women. Their lives one day take a turn for the unexpected when Omi spots a beautiful girl in the neighborhood. Subsequently, both Omi and Jomu take their turn impressing the girl and her family, failing which they come back and paint a rosy picture to their roommates of all their good times. Ironically, the same girl Neha (Deepti Naval), turns up at their apartment as a saleswoman to sell her detergent powder. Omi and Jomu scramble to hide their faces, and it is up to Siddharth now to face his fear of talking to a woman. While he is only as right and bright as the clean towel that he hands over for her detergent demonstration, needless to say, both are smitten by each other, and their chemistry crackles on the screen.
Chashme Buddoor is not just funny because it has numerous gags, running jokes, and movie parodies - it works mainly because it takes the archetype, polishes it, and infuses it with likable and realistic characters of that of Omi and Jomu as sweet and likable loafers who address their girl chasing habit as "girl hunt," and Siddharth as a handsome but humorless geek - a quality that draws Neha to him and a fact totally lost on the other two friends, who in their envy and ignorance try to stop the spinning wheel of love. The look and feel of the movie, some may argue, looks dated. Still, compared to the natural performances, especially that of Saeed Jaffrey as Lalan Mian, it is like fussing over the old jewel box when what really matters is the box's content. Never before has a subplot in a movie been so enjoyable than that of Lalan Mian's continuous harassment of Omi and Jomu for not clearing their escalating tab of cigarettes. Their humorous banter, Lalan's indulgence in their girl hunt, and Omi's poetical deflections are a treat to watch.
Though a light romantic comedy at heart, Chashme Buddoor works on so many cinematic levels that its simplicity belies the heights it wants to achieve. On the one hand, it takes likable characters and spins a beautiful yarn around them and, on the other, makes little riffs on the film trends of the time, such as the clichéd boat ride against the background of the setting sun; singing in the park (that too in New Delhi - a city full of concupiscent people) with music coming out of nowhere, and onlookers basically making fun of the whole absurdity. On the same note, the ending is equally predictable but in spirits with any good Bollywood flick that never fails to titillate and tickle.
