Caravan Film Review

Caravan

Director: Nasir Hussain
Year: 1971
Music: R.D. Burman
Duration: 161 minutes
Rating: 7.5

The film opens with a speeding car racing down a winding mountain road, nearly out of control as it swerves from one side to the other, and the music of RD Burman races right along with it - guitars twanging, drums at a feverish beat, horns coming in and a female voice just singing hey hey. The camera pans into the car and we see Asha Parekh at the wheel trying desperately to rein in the car but the breaks are not working and it continues to speed up till it finally crashes over a cliff. Next we hear the voice of Asha as she looks over the crowd gathering below looking for her dead body. Like Joe in Sunset Boulevard it seems, as if she is talking from death as she notes that the only person who is crying is her husband that she married the day before. I then check the length of the film - two hours and 45 minutes - and settle back for what I know will be total plush entertainment of drama, comedy and song. If I were a cat, I would be purring. The length of Indian films can often be to their detriment but in the hands of a master like Nasir Hussain it is just a blank canvass in which he tells his story that needs room to breathe, to evolve.

Hussain has directed or scripted some of my favorite Bollywood films - Tumsa Nahin Deka, Dil Dekhe Dekho, Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon and perhaps my all time favorite Bollywood film Teesri Manzil (the scriptwriter). His films have pizzazz filled with great musical numbers, intrigue, romance, enough coincidences to spin your head and a modernity (for its time) that includes independent women who spark in the night. His settings are usually among the upper class and set in luxurious homes, high class hotels and shiny nightclubs. They are great fun as the man is usually chasing a woman he has seen and immediately been smitten with and the misunderstandings, misidentifications and a villain intrude on their love. Asha Parekh was his often chosen female actress beginning with Dil Dekhe Dekho in 1959 and he made her a star. They set up a production company together and this film is their first huge hit. Give kudos to the star-producer here - she gives plenty of room to her female co-stars to have some spectacular moments.

The film then rewinds - the car is hurtling down the mountain road again but just as it is about to go over Sunita (Asha) dives out of the car. But she has a problem as we see in a flashback. Her husband Rajan (Kishan Mehta) killed her wealthy father, talked her into marrying him and cut the breaks in order to inherit everything. In cahoots with his real lover, a cabaret performer Monica (the always fabulous Helen). As they could not find the body Rajan has his men looking for her with orders to quietly kill her. So she goes on the run - disguises herself as a village belle and takes the name Sonie.

She comes across a parked truck adorned with placards of sexy busty bad girls. They are on their way to meet up with a caravan of banjaras (gypsies) who perform in local fairs. The two men are Mohan (Jeetendra - a decent hero but no Shammi or Dev who starred with Asha in previous Hussain films) and his always imbibing friend Johnny (Ravindra Kapoor - uncle to Raj, Shammi and Shashi). She hides in the truck but eventually becomes part of the trio that adds Mohan's young brother as well. They hook up with the caravan which gives the film opportunities for great color, drama, music and Nisha played by Aruna Irani. Aruna was one of the great vamps of Bollywood and often showed up for an item dance number. She nearly takes over this film with three dance numbers and a fiery personality. She loves Mohan and has daggers literally and metaphorically for Sonie. The bad guys are looking for her everywhere and much drama is ahead.

But what really puts this film over the bar is its music. Every song from Burman and the lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri have become classics as sung by Rafi, Lata, Asha Bhosle and Kishore Kumar - four of the most famous singers in films. Many of them stand out as picturized - the two from Aruna in the campgrounds but perhaps the most famous is Piya Tu or as I have always called it "Monica, oh My Darling" with Helen doing a fabulous cabaret number as she dances about the stage sexily moaning for her man who isn't there. Check it on Youtube. Cabaret songs in Bollywood are in their own little world. Never sung by the heroine but by a vamp - an immoral woman - who often comes to a bad end or it is a specialty number by a guest actress. Helen has performed some classic ones over the years. Partly because of her mixed heritage - British-Burmese - she could get away with being so sexually upfront.

Good fun as Hussain takes us out of the lives of the upper class and sets it in a caravan of gypsies. It also has none of his trademark coincidences - just a straight ahead adventure. It seems to have revived both him and RD Burman to do some of their best work. In the end, now Sunita again and ensconced in her palatial home she has to decide whether to live her life of wealth or go on the road again with the people she has come to love.