Katha (1983)

Satire adapted from the director’s own play Sakkhe Shejari, and inspired by the tale of the hare and the tortoise. Set in a lower-middle- class tenement in Bombay, it features the slow- but-sure upwardly mobile clerk Rajaram (Shah), who loves his neighbour Sandhya (Deepti Naval). The energetic Basu (Shaikh) arrives and dazzles everyone with his go- getting charm. He rapidly acquires three girlfriends: Sandhya, Anuradha (Sarabhai), Rajaram’s boss’s 2nd wife, and Jojo, the boss’s daughter. When things get too hot, Basu departs for new pastures and life settles down again in the tenement. The fairly successful musical included signs on the screen officially censoring some of the lewd jokes presumably being told.