chaar bhee to the

Film : Chachi 420

Year of release : 1997

Spoken by : Judge (Unknown)

Spoken to : Jai (Kamal Hassan)

Dialogue writer : Gulzar

This was one of the best films of 1990s. It contains the best drag act in the history of Hindi cinema. And so many from Shammi Kapoor to Biswajeet to Amitabh Bachchan to Aamir Khan have done it. 

This line is from the opening court scene where the divorce proceedings (Jai and Janki (Tabu)'s) are on. Janki alleges that Jai had slapped her in full public view. 

The judge tries to verify this information. He asks Jai

"tumne.n chaar aadmiyo.n ke saamne thappaD maaraa apnee patnee ko?"

Jai is quite exasperated with the things Janki is alleging. In exasperation, he blurts out,

"chaar nahee.n your honour, chaalees log the.."

What he means to say, is that in the wider context, this is besides the point. And the real story lies elsewhere. In the backstory. So the court should not look merely at the symptoms. That is what he is implying. However the judge, who seems to be a pedant, gives him an impish indulgent smile, and says,

"chaar bhee to the"

"चार भी तो थे"

The entire hall burst out laughing at this point. Sometimes, a very serious dramatic scene is totally lightened by a small statement. This surely ranks among them. 

If you ever want to teach someone the concept of sets and subsets, this would be a good example :)