‘Good script will help David Dhawan remake `Chashme Buddoor`’

Mumbai: Remaking old classics is a risky business, but comedy king David Dhawan is going ahead in any case.

The director with the funny bone is all set to remake Sai Paranjpye`s 1981 cult comedy ‘Chashme Buddoor’, and one of the original film`s leads believes Dhawan will succeed only if he comes up with a brilliant script. Veteran actor Farooque Sheikh, who played one of the three students around whom the story revolved, says the original film`s success was a result of Paranjpye`s excellent effort as a writer. "In `Chashme Buddoor` the best work was of Sai Paranjpye. She wrote such a good script and (also) successfully extracted that out of us on screen as well. The film was 80 percent Sai Paranjpye`s efforts," said Farooque, who romances Deepti Naval in the original. "Now, if David Dhawan can get something equally good with the remake, the film will turn out to be really good." The original ‘Chashme Buddoor’, produced by Gul Anand, was about three students of Delhi University -- Siddharth (Farooque), Omi (Rakesh Bedi) and Jai (Ravi Baswani) - who stay back during one summer vacation and how a girl Neha (Deepti) comes into their lives. Farooque, meanwhile, will soon be seen in the film ‘Listen Amaya’ in which he works with his ‘Chashme Buddoor’ co-star after almost 28 years. Directed by Avinash Kumar Singh, ‘Listen Amaya’ stars Swara Bhaskar in the title role while Deepti plays her mother. The film, which hits theatres on Feb 1, needs to be watched with patience, says Farooque. "The film is about being happy… about the right to be happy so long as you don`t take away from someone else`s share of happiness," says Farooque, best known for his roles in classics like ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’ and ‘Umrao Jaan’. "Everybody has the right to be happy, that is really what the film is about. That`s why it requires people to settle down and watch the film. It is not a film that you can view and appreciate in a hurry," he said. IANS