Kya baat hai!! :)
This review is dedicated to all the movie-cynics around who feel 'aise filmon ko kya dekhna yar? kya bundal hai...aisa kabhi ho saktha hai kya? Bollywood sometimes is unbelievable'
While I've decided to switch to writing on Indian cinema, Here's an ode to the Chopras' magnum opus fantastic blockbuster of the 80s with a dream starcast - The Burning Train.
This 3Hr+ masala movie is one I can watch any number of times, without thinking too pragmatically everytime.(Edited version - 142mins) The plot's simple, but novel for that time period (in Bollywood).
Two engineer friends have flagged off their dream train 'Super express' which will run from Delhi to Bombay in a record time of 14 hours and which they took 6 years to design and build. However, a third disgruntled engineer from the same team, who has turned enemy because he was not given the charge of the project, is hell bent to destroy the train. He succeeds too, in sabotaging the brakes. He also blows the drivers out with an explosion - swell! The rest of the movie is how the heroes save the day, and the train.
(Waise, as I write I'm reminded of this funny dialog from Andaz Apna Apna by Raabert - 'sir time bomb me time bahut kam hai!')
Do you think there is any other movie in Bollywood, a screenplay so 'filmy' but that is planned and executed so well and with so many sub-plots? Remember it's not easy to make this long a movie so damn interesting that you feel like watching it everytime it's on Sony or Zee.
The Vinods - Khanna and Mehra - are fighting to save their train while the deliciously evil Danny Dengzongpa is sure he will have the last laugh.
Dharmendra feels he lost his love, but wants to save the train now and is hence trying to get ahead of the train (and then on it!). This is not only because it's his friend's train which he had promised he would flag off, but also because he realises his love is travelling on it.
She (Hema malini) needs to make him realise she is not the 'bewafa' he thinks she is.
Neetu Singh is a dulhan on the run to Delhi, while Jeetendar, a thief chasing the jewels in her suitcase, has decided to jump into the train-saving-act. Toh aisa hona hi chahiye na, ke in donon ka chakkar chal jaaye? ;-)
Vinod Mehra has to save the train because his wife is travelling on the train, while Vinod Khanna has to save the train to save his child and his breaking marriage with Parveen Baabi.
Thrown into all this are a dozen other characters and plots - Simi Garewal and her school kids on a trip, the comedy brigand to get the usual three stooges kind of nonsense comedy act going ('o-ho!' Rajinder nath, paintal, the ever loud Asraani, drunkard keshto et al), inspector Sujit kumar in a priest's dress chasing jewel-thief on the run Ranjith and his girlfriend, a pregnant woman in labour, a newly-wed couple on their honeymoon who have to become the sad burning bali-ka-bakras, oh the FIRE..........I am sure there are more such.
While the director is juggling with all this, how can there be not a setting for some good ol' gaana bajaana on the train? saaz, awaaz, mehfil and all the other accompanying melodrama - kyo ke pal do pal ka hai saath unka, aur pal do pal ke yaarane!!
Hat's off to Panchamji, for the songs and also for the brilliant theme music. (He does his inimitable 'The Burning trainnnn' in his rough voice, too.)
The highlight of the movie is the hour long and more scene with the train burning and how all these elements come together to save it. Kind of nail-biting.
I've told you the ending, but it's the movie which is munch-popcorn entertainment.
Alright, alright - it's a 100% masala movie....but from a team who is hell-bent on making the movie - a paisa vasool! (Even at the risk of suggesting an incredulous solution to stop the train. Hell they carry it off)
This is the kind of movie where you might hear yourself saying 'oh well, let me watch it till the end.......'
Just - don't 'Analyse this' !!!!
