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
