The Train
Director: Ravikant Nagaich
Music: RD Burman; Lyrics: Anand Bakshi
Year: 1970
Running Time: 139 minutes
This film occurred near the beginning of
Rajesh Khanna’s reign as a gigantic superstar before he flamed out after
a few brief years at the top. Here he is C.I.D. Inspector Shyam but for some
reason doesn’t tell his girlfriend Neeta this small fact about his life as
they meet daily in an out of the way spot where they can dance badly without
anyone seeing them. Neeta is played by Nanda who looks much too unattractive
and matronly here to be a good counterpoint to Khanna’s sleekness. Their
lack of chemistry is painful to witness and only a faithful script keeps
them together. Shyam gets assigned to track down jewel thieves who have the
habit of stealing them on the Delhi to Calcutta train and leaving the previous
owners quite dead. The gang is led by a mysterious man who keeps to the shadows
but his subordinates played by Madan Puri and Helen as the femme fatale Lily
keep the loot coming in. When not robbing jewels, the two of them also work
at the Hilltop Hotel – Madan as the manager and Lily as the entertainment.
Somehow Shyam realizes that the hotel is the hub of crooked activity and
upon entering sees Lily performing O Meri Jaan Ko Main ne Kaha in which she
sings “I am so fabulous” (the playback singers are Burman and Asha). In an
unlikely twist, Lily turns out to be an old college chum of Shyam who had
vanished without explanation and has been learning about the hard knocks
of life ever since. Madan assigns her to keep an eye on her old crush which
she is happy to do because she has never gotten over him. The romance between
Shyam and Neeta hits a dead end when he learns that her father is a convicted
killer and after looking into it tells her that her father is clearly guilty
because he was discovered with the knife in his hand over the dead body.
Obviously, he hasn’t seen many Perry Mason tv shows. When Neeta tells him
her father discovered the body and pulled out the knife Shyam goes “oh, that
sheds a whole new light on the case”! Not the cleverest boy our Shyam. Later
after another train theft he forces a witness to track down a woman who was
likely involved. Enter the supposed comic relief in the form of Rajendranath.
What Shyam doesn’t realize is that the woman looks exactly like his Neeta
dressed up like a hooker at a bachelor party.
This 1970 film can be summarized fairly quickly – bad movie, great music.
Bollywood was to begin undergoing large changes in the 1970’s with films
moving towards a much rougher hard nosed attitude leaving the lush romanticism
of the previous decade behind. But this film still has its feet firmly placed
in the 1960’s style – in some good but primarily some bad ways. The good
is easy to spot – a large role for Helen with two terrific songs for her
and another song for Aruna Irani. These two actresses were two of the premier
vamps in the 60’s as well as two of Bollywood’s best dancers and Burman often
seemed inspired to write some of his best music for their numbers. That is
certainly the case here as these three songs are fabulous. Much of the rest
of the film though is an awful mash of rotating close-ups, stiff acting,
clumsy narrative and dimwitted logic with some laughably dreadful choreography
in the songs that Rajesh Khanna is in.
My rating for this film: 4.0
