Teesri Manzil

Teesri Manzil
Directed by Vijay Anand
Produced by Nasir Hussain
Written by Nasir Hussain
Starring Shammi Kapoor
Asha Parekh
Music by R. D. Burman
Cinematography N Srinivas
Edited by Vijay Anand
Release dates
 1966
Country India
Language Hindi

Teesri Manzil (English: "Third Floor") is a 1966 Bollywood musical thriller directed by Vijay Anand and produced by Nasir Hussain. It starred his regular actors Shammi Kapoor, Asha Parekh, along with Laxmi Chhaya, Premnath, Prem Chopra, Iftekhar, Helen, K. N. Singh and Salim Khan. The film became a bumper hit at the box office.[1]

Indiatimes Movies ranks the movie among-st the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.[2]

The film's DVD & VCD versions run for 145 minutes, while the theatre version ran for 175 minutes. Between Ruby's jealous sniping at minute 76 and the song "Dekhiye Sahiban Woh Koi Aur Thi", approximately 30 minutes of footage is missing. The last time a full version of this film released was on VHS.

Plot

Sunita (Asha Parekh) lives along with her widowed father in rich neighborhood of Delhi. She deeply mourns the suicide of her older sister in Dehradun a year before and wants to take revenge for that. All she knows was Roopa committed suicide because she was cheated by her boyfriend Rocky. On the way to Dehradun she meets a charming but mischievous young man Anil (Shammi Kapoor) on train. Anil gets attracted by Sunita's beauty and spirit and decides to pursue her.

Later he overhears Sunita saying that she would definitely take revenge on 'Rocky' who was the cause of her sister's suicide. Anil himself was Rocky, he uses that as his stage name. He tells his version to his friend that he was never interested in Roopa and she was the one who always pursued him. She tells him that she would be coming to his floor and if he wouldn't open his door, she will jump from there and die. He thinks that she was just bluffing but when he hesitates to open the door, he hears her shriek. When he comes out to see, Roopa was already dead.

He tries to explain everything to Sunita but always postpones it. He takes the help of a rich patron of their hotel, Mr. Kunwer to pose as a rich heir in front of Sunita's father. But after some time it is revealed that he was no one but Rocky. He tries to explain to Sunita but she wouldn't listen. Police arrest Anil and later release him. To his surprise, they reveal that Roopa didn't commit suicide but someone killed her. They keep it secret to catch the actual culprit. They also warn him that killer might want to kill him too as he was very closely linked to case.

He suspects Ruby (Helen), his co-dancer and his admirer to be killer but someone shoots her before his eyes. Then he suspects Ramesh (Prem Chopra), Roopa's fiance but finds no clue. Later police tells him that murderer wanted to kill Anil but Ruby came in between. A young woman asks him to go to a certain place in her car to know the truth and he does so. But car's breaks fail and everybody thinks that he was dead. But he survives and investigates further and at last finds the actual killer who turns out to be none other than kunvar sahab.

Roopa witnesses a murder while coming to hotel on the night of her death. Murderer follows her and kills her too to hide the truth. At the end Sunita and Anil reconcile.

Cast

Behind the Scenes

Nasir Hussain produced and wrote the film under his home banner. He approached Vijay Anand to direct and his older brother Dev Anand to star in it. Dev was unavailable, but Vijay came on board to direct and edit the film. Hussain then cast Shammi Kapoor who had earlier starred in Hussain's two big hits, Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957) and Dil Deke Dekho, which introduced Asha Parekh. Asha had starred in two more hits for Hussain Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai (1961) and Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (1963). Thus, the newcomer for this film would be music composer R.D. Burman (son of music composer S.D. Burman), and he would create phenomenal music for this film. He would compose for all of Hussain's films until Zabardast(1985). Shammi Kapoor, Hussain, and Vijay individually took credit for discovering the supremely talented R.D. Burman. But R.D. Burman gave credit to lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri for recommending him to Hussain, and both of them would create unforgettable songs for Teesri Manzil.[3] The song picturisations were outstanding, with Helen dancing to "Oh Haseena zulfonwaali". Songs like "Aaja aaja" had a rock n' roll base and were extremely popular.

Soundtrack

Audio cover

All the songs[4] were composed by Rahul Dev Burman and lyrics were penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri. Choreography was by Herman Benjamin.[5]

# Title Singer(s) Duration
1 "Tumne Mujhe Dekha Ho Kar" Mohammad Rafi 04:44
2 "O Mere Sona Re Sona Re" Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle 05:02
3 "O Haseena Zulfonwali Jaane Jahan" Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle 06:56
4 "Aaja Aaja Mein Hoon Pyar Tera" Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle 06:41
5 "Dekhiye Sahiban Woh Koi Aur Thi" Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle 05:28
6 "Deewana Mujhsa Nahin Iss Ambar" Mohammad Rafi 03:26

Reception

The film became a hit and remains popular to this day. Although it is a murder mystery, it continues to draw repeat audiences even though the identity of the murderer is no longer a secret. Teesri Manzil was the last time Shammi starred in a Nasir Hussain film. Asha would go on to do four more, three of which she starred in.

Teesri Manzil was also the last Hussain film in which Mohammed Rafi sang all the songs. By Yaadon Ki Baraat, Kishore Kumar had temporarily become the dominant singer in Hussain's movies, but Rafi always had a special place in Hussain's films and would later win major awards for the song "Kya hua tera wada" in Hussain's Hum Kisise Kum Naheen (1977).

Hussain and Vijay never worked together after Teesri Manzil. Hussain would return to directing all his films again and would only relinquish the director's chair to his son after three of his films flopped in the 1980s. Salim Khan played a small role as Shammi Kapoor's musician friend who pretends to be Rocky in the musical number "Oh Haseena zulfonwaali". In real life, Helen would later become his second wife. Shammi's wife Geeta Bali died during the filming, and Vijay helped Shammi get over the grief.[6]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.boxofficeindia.co.in/worth-their-weight-in-gold/
  2. ↑ India Times Top 25 Must-See Bollywood Films on Lists of Bests), retrieved 30 July 2012
  3. ↑ R D Burman - My God, That's My Tune
  4. ↑ http://www.hindigeetmala.net/movie/teesri_manzil.htm
  5. ↑ "Herman Benjamin". IMDb. Retrieved 21 June 2012.
  6. ↑ Screen The Business Of Entertainment-Films-Nostalgia

External links

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