Asrani & Chicken Ala Poos

 

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