Anju and Manju are twins separated at birth.Their nanny runs away with Manju while Anju is grown in her father's palatial house.After her parents death Anju life is made hell by her uncle Tribhuvan and wife Amba.While Manju is a street smart stage dancer and spends her time with Jaggu.Anju his about to marry Suraj as he mistakes her being Manju.A twist comes when both the twins land up in each other's place.Where Anju comes in life of Jaggu and he is shocked by her sudden change. Whereas Manju lands up in Tribhuvan's house where she makes his life hell.And also creating a confusion of love triangle between Jaggu and Suraj. Anju lives with her Uncle, Tribhuvan and aunt, Amba, who abuse her both physically and emotionally all the time, and also keep her drugged, so she is dependent on them all the time. They live in a big mansion, and therefore, Anju is forced to do all the housework. Anju's passion is dancing and her Uncle prevents her from perusing this. Dayal does his best to protect Anju from the frequent beatings. Meet Anju's look-a-like, who lives in small tenement, drinks beer, fights with men, dances, lies, amongst other things. Manju's mom has psychological problems and is hospitalized, and Manju's friend is Jaggu, who is quiet and soft-spoken, and will only get into a fight to protect Manju. Tribhuvan's friend's name is Vishwananth, who wants his son, Suraj to marry Anju. Suraj is a lot like Manju, and he has even met Manju in the beer bar, and thinks the photograph of Anju is Manju. And on the other hand Tribhuvan and Amba want Anju to marry Batuknath Lalanprasad Maalpani, who is the nephew of Amba. One day Anju and Manju are taken for each other and what results is absolute chaos, as each try to fit into the other's shoes. Entertaining bollywood film based on the often repeated twins formula, mostly a remake of Seeta aur Geeta. The film shines due to some inspired comic villainy by Anupam kher and deft comedy by Rajnikant and Sridevi. There are no surprises but it remains fun to watch. It's no match for the Hema Malini 'original' and the songs are passable. Still OK. <br/><br/>7/10 Getting straight to the point, what makes 'Chaalbaaz' immensely enjoyable is Sridevi. Displaying her comedic skills to the max, she proves again why she's among the best. Dual roles weren't anything new to her and here she plays mirror image twins. There's the tough kickass no nonsense Manju and her (separated at birth) pushover sister Anju who's brutally abused by her maternal Uncle. The story falls on the lines of 'Seeta aur Geeta'. Those were also the days when Sunny Deol was quite likable as an actor that he would do a little more acting than the over the top action sequences. Rajnikunt isn't bad either. Anupam Kher and Rohini Hattangadi are good as the caricature evil Uncle and Aunt. Shakti Kapoor is quite annoying and a young Aftab Shivdasani is unintentionally funny. One ought to keep in mind that 'Chaalbaaz' is a masala entertainer and not to be taken too seriously. On the down side, many of the songs are terrible but there are a few that are worth watching only because of Sridevi's dance and comedy. On the technical side, it's not very impressive as cinematography, sound and lighting is quite poor (which was the case with most 80s commercial Hindi films).<br/><br/>However, 'Çhaalbaaz' provides plenty of laugh out loud moments to make it worthwhile and that is due to the divine Sridevi. Thanks to her, this one woman show is worth watching.
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