Cheeta Chalbaaz (1978)
Cast: Mustafa Qureshi, Naghma, Aalia, Badar Munir, Iqbal Kashmiri
Director: Altaf Hussain
Synopsis: Intriguing, indeed mind-boggling and convoluted plot is delicious fun.
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

This film is an intoxicating and deadly cocktail of succulent, intertwining bits and pieces—a dazzlingly convoluted plot that will have a viewer’s head spinning dizzily in sheer wonder at its fangled and fantastically twisted storyline. Cheeta Chalbaaz is an epic of magnificent intent, if not execution and is a genuinely intriguing and mind-altering experience.

Sadly, the film arrived just as the military dictatorship of General Zia had usurped power—therefore, an element—and such a necessary element of sauciness and sleaze is sadly missing.

However, the movie does boast a vintage Naheed Akhter number,filmed on the seasoned Lollywood crumpet, Chakori!

The film begins with Mustafa Qureshi, the “Cheeta”, dressed in his finest leopard-skin Cheetah-Print outfit, heading for his local kotha for an evening’s entertainment. His nagging wife intervenes, trying to reason with him through the philosophy that a husband’s place is with the wife and kids at home and not at the feet of some smelly tart at the Kotha. Mustafa Qureshi isn’t impressed by her reasoning and feels increasingly hen-pecked. As is the case in all Lollywood films, “fate has the last word,” and things come nastily around when Cheeta’s favourite girl is stolen by archrival Ilyas Kashmiri, if only for one night. Humiliated beyond redemption, Cheeta now sets about exacting revenge from Kashmiri, whatever the cost maybe.

Naghma grows up as Cheeta’s relatively modern, liberal-thinking daughter who gets snagged in her father’s web of intrigue.

Sadly, she is torn away from the handsome, honourable Pashtun, Badar Munir, whom she had sworn eternal love. However, circumstances are cruel and their passion remains unfulfilled. Thrown into the mix are various villains, spouses and soutens and, therefore, tens of feuds and grudges to sort out in the usual bloodbath ending.

Sadly, the film didn’t click at the Box Office—perhaps due to the missing oomph factor, as it seems to offer every other mind-boggling ingredient that seems a prerequisite to a successful formula movie. Maybe the film lacked a racy Madame Noor Jehan number, or perhaps the hero wasn’t heroic enough by Sultan Rahi’s standards. Whatever the case, Cheeta Chalbaaz is an intriguing pot-boiler and contains enough fantastic events to make it a strangely enduring experience. Naheed Akhtar’s glorious Dil Di Guitar, filmed on the bombshell Chakori, more than makes up for most inadequacies.

Mustafa Qureshi is solid in the title role. Naghma shines as the lovelorn teenager, turned into the faithful wife, turned into the vengeful woman, and then finally turned into the benign mother figure, carrying off her role with admirable spirit and aplomb.

Aalia lends good support while Ilyas Kashmiri is all bombast, on auto mode, and there is comic relief (that is what they call it) withKashmiri’s son not proving to be the man his father hoped.

A memorable moment that reveals the Pashtun psyche comesup in the movie in an exchange between Naghma and her Pashtun suitor Badar Munir. When she implores him to give up the gun, he informs

Cheeta Chalbaaz her that a Pathan can never be separated from his rifle; the two are intrinsically and almost biologically linked. A real Pathan is virtually born with a gun attached to his limbs, and he only detaches it from his being when he is visiting the bathroom or creating more Pathans! According to the wisdom of this particular film, a gun is a natural extension of the Pashtun experience. To be without it would be equivalent to a man without manhood. Incredible but true.

Cheeta Chalbaaz is well worth a look for the curious and those with a taste for the gritty golden age of Lollywood.