The Burning Train
Director: Ravi Chopra
Music: RD Burman; Lyrics: Sahir
Year: 1980
Running Time: 143 minutes
Much to everyone’s surprise this big budget
film with its gigantic cast crashed and burned when it was released back
in 1980. It certainly had all the ingredients that go into a hit - it was
produced by B.R. Chopra (brother of Yash), it had some of the biggest stars
of the day, the songs were from RD Burman and it had a unique for Bollywood
disaster scenario that is actually quite tense and at times moving. Over
the years its reputation has grown, but mysteriously at the time no one
wanted to see it. In many ways it not coincidentally resembles the spate
of disaster flicks that had filled screens in the US in the 1970's with
fare like Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure – a group of strangers
all with their own little dramas occurring face imminent death and have
to struggle for survival – but no one was singing and dancing in Airport
were they! But the main difference here is a lengthy back story of two
friends and the loves of their lives that give the film an intimacy that
the Hollywood films were missing. Of course, the special effects were not
quite up to Hollywood’s standards, but other than a patently obvious toy
train model being used in a few scenes the usage of fire on a speeding
train is quite well done and you can only hope that the bodies writhing
in flames were paid more than minimum wage.
Two boyhood friends both have their dreams
– Vinod (Vinod Khanna) wants to design train engines and Ashok (Dharmendra)
wants to do the same for automobiles. Their friendship also comes in handy
when they go courting – using the well worn but often successful ploy of
saving a damsel in distress - Ashok and Vinod play good guy/bad guy to
win the respective hearts of Seema (Hema Malini) and Sheetal (Parveen Babi).
Unfortunately, the girls turn out to be friends and wonder at the amazing
coincidence of this and soon discover the farce – but in true Bollywood
fashion find this trickery charming and quickly fall in love while double
dating on bicycles and boats. Vinod and Sheetal soon exchange wedding vows
but the romance of the other pair goes asunder when Ashok’s father goes
bankrupt and kills himself leaving his son a pauper. He soon receives a
Dear Ashok letter breaking off the relationship due to his financial status.
This leaves Ashok not only a poor man but a broken hearted and embittered
one as well.
Seven years later Ashok has disappeared but Vinod
has succeeded in his dream – designing a Super Express train that he proclaims
equals the Japanese bullet trains. This is a good thing as shown in the
film Bombay 405 Miles of the same year when Vinod Khanna’s character at
one point jumps from the moving train to get a girl a glass of water and
runs a 100 yards to and from a hut and is still able to easily catch the
train. What this Vinod doesn’t know is that he has created a crazed enemy
– Ranbir (Danny Denzongpa) who lost both his love and his train design
to Vinod and who has a little revenge in mind. Finally, the day of the
train’s maiden journey has arrived and on board are loads of people with
their own little stories playing out - a pair of jewel smugglers, an undercover
cop, a newly married couple on their honeymoon, a pregnant woman (any bets
on when she goes into labor?) and many others of all religious persuasions
– which comes in handy when they later do a lot of praying. Of note in
this crowd are also a light fingered thief (Jeetendra) and his target (Neetu
Singh), Vinod’s son who is being sent to Bombay to get away from the bickering
parents. Not surprisingly Ashok reappears to take the train only to quickly
realize that Seema too is on the train! Many of the train passengers are
played by familiar faced character actors from Bollywood with a special
bent towards those who appear for comic relief. When a bomb goes off cutting
the breaks and a fire breaks out with a speeding train out of control it
is time for the big boys – Dharmendra, Vinod and Jeetendra - to do their
heroics and try to save the day and win back their loved ones. It is good
stuff.
Looking back at the cast today it is interesting
to note how many of them were part of acting families to come. Dharmendra
was to have two sons with his first wife – Sunny and Bobby Deol – and Esha
Deol with his second wife. His second wife (and concurrent with his first
one) was of course Hema Malini. Also, in the family business was Vinod
Khanna who had a son named Akshaye, one of today’s bigger Bollywood stars.
Jeetendra’s real name is Ravi Kapoor and though he is not related to the
legendary Kapoor family his son is Tusshar, another major actor in Bollywood
and his daughter is Ekta a well-known TV producer. It doesn’t quite stop
there – Neetu went on to marry Rishi Kapoor and their son Ranbir is just
beginning his career in acting (and of course her nieces are Kareena and
Karishma). The marriage between Dharmendra and Hema was a major scandal
at the time but it amazingly didn’t drag down the career of either as both
were so popular. Hema had initially tried to break into the Tamil film
industry in 1964 but was told by a director that she had no star appeal
and should try something else. Instead, she went to Bombay and by the early
1970’s was a huge star and nicknamed The Dream Girl. Almost always playing
the traditional good girl, her saucer sized eyes spoke volumes of vulnerability
and heartfelt love. Much of this apparently translated off the screen as
well as she was a much sought after lover. Two other actors Sanjeev Kumar
and none other than Jeetendra both asked her to marry them – in fact Jeetendra
was suppose to go to her to speak for his friend Sanjeev but fell in love
himself. But she ended up going after Dharmendra instead and they are still
married today – as he is to his first wife.
The music from R.D. Burman didn’t strike me as
nearly his strongest – perhaps a factor in the box office numbers – by
1980 many of his classic tunes were in the past. Other than the wailing
“Burning train” refrain there isn’t much of this that stayed with me though
there is also a fun energetic song performed on the train in which many
of the passengers participate and almost makes you want to travel that
way in India. Almost.
My rating for this film: 7.5
Note the poster in the background:
