Asrani & Chicken Ala Poos
It was Diwali 2025 when the legendary Govardhan Asrani, popularly
known as Asrani in Bollywood passed away. He was one of those most legendary artists
and comedian who left his mark in Hindi Cinema Industry with some unforgettable
performances for generations.
Two of his famous dialogues has become history in Bollywood
and will be remembered for generations to come. “Hum Angrejo ke zamane ke
Jailer hai” in film Sholey and ordering “Chicken Ala Poos” in the film Choti Si
Baat. The film Sholey itself was a blockbuster hit and the dialogue. “Hum
Angrejo ke zamane ke Jailer hai” became cult comedy scene even after 50 years
have gone passed.
While Chicken Ala Poos was even more interesting. This being
a dish which never existed anywhere in the world, not a real historically
documented dish, and a fictional one which was used by Asrani in the film Choti
Si Baat where he orders the Chicken Ala Poos dish in a restaurant called
Samovar Café in Mumbai. Asrani’ s Character Nagesh Shastri expresses his craving
for this dish and this name was made up for the script of the movie. This
fictitious dish became so famous that later on many people searched on
internet about the history of this history and a lot of food vloggers tried to
create their own renditions on its charismatic legacy . It was Asrani Sahab who by his realistic
sense of acting made this dish immortal and in spite being a fictitious
scripted name, made it so popular that people believed its existence for
generations.
Being in Mumbai I tried to locate the Samovar Cafe inside Jahangir
Art Gallery in Kala Ghoda area of Fort area. Unfortunately, this Cafe shut down
10 years back in 2015. The word Samovar is a Russian name and it means “Boiling
Local beverages” to prevent from freezing cold. Various types of Samovars can
be found in almost every teashop in Kashmir and later it became a name in
Mumbai which can be todays “Chai Pe Charcha”. The Samovar Café was one of kind
Persian café in Mumbai which was opened in 1964 and it was favourite and affordable
haunt for students from nearby colleges and Bollywood celebrities like Basu Chatterjee,
Amol Palekar , Girish Karnad who used to have intellectual discussion sitting
there . Basu Chatterjee was the director and dialogue writer of film “Choti Si
Baat” and he made this dish name “Chicken Ala Poos” immortal when Asrani ordered
the same in this café.
Asrani Sahab is no longer with us but his “Chicken Ala Poos”
will be with us for rest of our life.
A glipmse of Samovar Cafe
