General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Khatta Meetha (खट्टा मीठा) (1978 film)

Khatta Meetha (खट्टा मीठा; also known as Sweet and Sour) is a 1978 Hindi comedy-drama directed by Basu Chatterjee, in which a Parsi widower with four sons and a Parsi widow with two sons and a daughter marry for companionship and practical support, and their children from previous marriages must learn to live under one roof.¹^•² It is counted among the defining works of Chatterjee's middle-class, middle-of-the-road cinema of the 1970s.³

Key fact	Detail
Director and writers	Basu Chatterjee (direction, screenplay, dialogue) with Keka Chatterjee as co-writer¹
Release	January 1978 in India; sources give 5 January⁴ and 6 January⁵
Principal cast	Ashok Kumar (Homi Mistry), Pearl Padamsee (Nargis Sethna), Rakesh Roshan, Bindiya Goswami, Deven Verma, Preeti Ganguli, Raju Shrestha, Ranjit Chowdhry¹^•⁶
Music	Rajesh Roshan (composer), Gulzar (lyricist); "Thoda Hai Thode Ki Jaroorat Hai" sung by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar¹
Production	Intra Films and Rupam Chitra; Hindi language; color; mono sound¹
Runtime	128 minutes per IMDb; the Directorate of Film Festivals catalog lists 134 minutes¹^•⁶
Audience rating	7.5/10 on IMDb from about 1,100 votes¹

Spoilers

Story

Homi Mistry (Ashok Kumar) is a Parsi widower nearing retirement who shares a small home with his four sons, Fali, Peelu, Russie, and Jaal, while holding a factory job. Nargis Sethna (Pearl Padamsee) is a widowed housewife with two sons and a daughter and a large house. Their common friend Soli (David Abraham Cheulkar) suggests the two marry so that the children will have both a mother and a father, and the family a larger home. They marry, and the film follows the pandemonium and gradual adjustment as the two households learn to accommodate each other.²^•⁶

A second romance runs through the film between members of the next generation: Firoze Sethna (Rakesh Roshan) and Zarine (Bindiya Goswami).⁷ A 2016 Parsi Times film column describes the structure as bringing two Parsi families together through two marriages, one between the older couple and one between two members of the younger generation.⁸

Place in Hindi cinema

A Parsi social film. Mainstream Hindi cinema of the period rarely portrayed minority communities as ordinary middle-class families, and Parsi characters in particular were usually comic caricatures. The Hindustan Times has called Khatta Meetha India's first mainstream film about a middle-class Parsee family, made by a director of Basu Chatterjee's standing.⁹ The film opens with a tribute to the Parsi community, and the makers added a dedication to the community before the film begins.¹⁰ Swaraalap's survey of Chatterjee's career calls it a super hit and an unusual film about a Parsi family, noting that non-Hindi-speaking communities had typically served as figures of fun in mainstream Hindi cinema.³

Remarriage and the blended family. The film appeared in 1978, when remarriage in middle age was still widely taboo. A 2025 retrospective in ThePrint describes it as Bollywood's first blended-family film and notes that Chatterjee did not present the remarriage as something frowned upon or in need of justification; the marriage is one of convenience and companionship rather than grand romance.¹¹ A 2012 Times of India piece reported that the film inspired the later Second Marriage Dot Com, which similarly concerns children trying to end their parents' loneliness through a new marriage.¹²

Comedy in the 1970s. A Directorate of Film Festivals catalog essay on Hindi cinema of the period observed that comedy was the single most underdeveloped genre, usually confined to slapstick interludes, and that film-makers had lately attempted full-length comedies, with the strain showing in Pati Patni Aur Woh, Damaad, Khatta Meetha, and Dillagi.¹³ A later Hindustan Times piece on women in Hindi film comedy named Pearl Padamsee's performance in Khatta Meetha among the finest comic turns by a supporting actress.¹⁴

Music

Rajesh Roshan composed the score, with lyrics by Gulzar; it was among Roshan's early film soundtracks.¹ The songs include "Thoda Hai Thode Ki Jaroorat Hai" (Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar), "Roll Goll" (Kishore Kumar and Amit Kumar), "Mummy O' Mummy" (Kishore Kumar), "Khatta Meetha" (Kishore Kumar and Usha Mangeshkar), and "Frenny O' Frenny" (Amit Kumar and Shailendra Singh).⁴ A retrospective Letterboxd review describes the songs as functioning as philosophical interludes rather than decorative distractions, with "Thoda Hai, Thode Ki Zaroorat Hai" articulating the film's ethos that fulfillment lies in gratitude rather than abundance.¹⁵

Reception and later assessment

IMDb records an audience rating of 7.5/10 from about 1,100 votes.¹ Rotten Tomatoes lists no professional critic reviews for the film.¹⁶ IMDb trivia notes that it is the only film in which Rakesh Roshan appears without a wig, and lists it as a remake of Our Family (1975).¹

Later commentary has been mixed in emphasis. The Indian Express's 2023 retrospective compared the film's premise to the television series Modern Family, an unconventional household held together by love, but argued that the film's gender roles have not aged well: Nargis is told to marry so a man can handle the "man jobs," Homi so a woman can manage the household, and the daughter's unmarried status is tied to body-image issues played for plot.¹⁷ The film remains available on Indian streaming services, including SonyLiv.⁴

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026