| The Chug That Tugs By Rajnish Sharma
Romance of the Indian trains.
A
Pakistani defence research study points outs two main
characteristics of its archrival India — extreme patience
and a tendency to intellectualize or philosophize everything.
For once, the Pakistanis are not off the mark. Nowhere
is this tendency to philosophize more apparent than
in portrayal of the railways in Indian films. Over the
decades the railways have continued to spark the imagination
of our film-makers who have generously used trains,
platforms, waiting rooms, engines, level crossings,
station master’s lanterns and other such props in their
movies.
Come to think of it, railways as a mode of mass transport
system are unique by virtue of the sheer poetry, music
and drama that a train journey encapsulates. Whether
standing still on a platform or in motion, the rail
remains a microcosm of this 5000-year-old civilization.
As the Indian Railways completes its 150-year-long journey
this year, it would be interesting to track down the
steamy romance of the rail on celluloid over the years.
In other words, let’s see how the world’s second largest
railway network complements the world’s biggest film
industry.
Be it Rajesh Khanna serenading his dimpled sapnon ki
rani, Sharmila Tagore travelling by the snail-paced
Darjeeling toy train in Aradhana, or Nutan bidding a
heart-wrenching farewell to Ashok Kumar in Bandini,
Mala Sinha shying into the naqab on her rukh in Mere
Huzoor or Dev Anand coaxing Jiya o jiya o jiya kuch
bol do in Jab Pyaar Kise Se Hota Hai, the picture gallery
of Indian cinema is redolent with silhouettes of the
locomotive experience. Wasn’t it in a train that Raj
Kumar fell for the beautiful feet of Meena Kumari in
Pakeeza and left after tucking a compliment in her toes.
And then there is the train as memory personified in
the song Chalte Chalte. Music, dance and visuals come
together in beautiful harmony in this memorable song.
In popular songs of the bygone era like
Kanan Devi’s Ye Duniya Toofan Mail the rail has been
used as a metaphor. The rhythm of this ditty follows
the movement of a train punctuated with the train’s
whistle. The lyrics liken life to a train journey with
passengers getting in and getting down at different
destinations — all meeting to part. So deeply embedded
is the similarity between life and a train journey in
the Indian psyche that when thespian Ashok Kumar (who
had sung the song Railgaadi chuk chuk early in his career)
died recently a newspaper headline screamed: “Railgaadi
reaches its final destination.” Other evergreen songs
that express similar sentiments are Gaadi bula rahi
hai from Dost and Zindagi ke safar mein guzar jaate
hain jo makaam from Aap ki Kasam. Both were sung by
Kishore Kumar.
BR Chopra’s The Burning Train was inspired by the Towering
Inferno, but essayed substantially what makes the network
click. The burning train acts as a social equalizer
uniting diverse characters, from different backgrounds
and age groups. The song Pal do pal ka saath hamara
performed by Asha Sachdev, who plays a sex worker, sums
up the metaphor of the train as life, various people
encountered and the transient bonds formed as it happens
in real life.
While running trains have been sites of love-making,
proposals, advances, fights, accidents, songs and murders,
the railway platform has been used as a metaphor for
arrivals, departures, separations, quiet loneliness,
expectations and romance. Take for example, the heartrending
climax scene in Sadma which left everyone sobbing: Kamal
Haasan’s desperate antics to help rekindle Sridevi’s
memory as he runs down the platform, even as she, cured
of her amnesia, happily ignores him, with the train
taking her away from Kamaal’s life forever. It was also
on a desolate dimly-lit railway platform of Halflong
station in North-East India that love struck Shahrukh
Khan on a stormy winter night when the wind blows the
shawl off Manisha Koirala’s mesmeric face in Dil Se.
The waiting room serves as the fulcrum to Gulzar’s Ijazaat.
Once again, like Dil Se, the weather accentuates the
dramatic element as Naseeruddin and Rekha lapse into
frequent flashbacks and re-live their memories layer
by layer while they are confined to the waiting room.
The setting is somewhat reminiscent of Kora Kagaz where
the estranged couple Jaya Bhaduri and Vijay Anand reunite
in a waiting room.
Asha Parekh gets to swap lives with a friend in Kati
Patang, but thanks to a train accident. Salman Khan
is separated from his kid Judwaa in a train. Dilwale
are able to take away the Dulhania but only after a
bloody duel on the railway platform. Faceless lovers
of Sirf Tum, Priya Gill and Sanjay Kapoor unite on a
railway platform!
Chhuk, Chhuk Chhak Chhak Bombay se Baroda tak from Rafuchakkar,
Ae doston alwida from Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman, and Hum
dono do premi from Ajnabi are just a handful of musical
tributes from Hindi cinema to Indian Railways. Rishi
Kapoor and Padmini Kolhapure take a ride on a train
top in Zamaane Ko Dikhana Hai with Hoga Tumse Pyaara
Kaun, hey Kanchan, the music set by RD Burman to the
gentle rocking of the train. The great music director
RD Burman too had lent his voice to the pining of a
rail engine driver for his beloved in Gulzar’s Kitaab:
Dhanno ki aakhon mein chand ka surma.
Add to the list the breathtaking encounter on a train
with dacoits on horseback in Sholay reminiscent of similar
scene in the Western Stagecoach, the deadly duel between
Pakistani forces and Sunny Deol in Gadar, the macabre
picture of a trainload of mutilated bodies in 1947:
Earth and a host of other fight sequences in moving
trains in the movies.
The local train played a significant role in Man Pasand
where Dev Anand spots the talented daatun-peddling Tina
Munim. His advice, set to the gentle movement of the
train, serves as the rustic heroine’s initiation into
an urbane world of class and dignity. The crowded Mumbai
locals also provided the perfect middle class backdrop
to Amol Palekar and Tina Munim’s budding romance in
Baaton Baaton Mein.
Generally in Hindi films whenever the hero is depicted
as a country bumpkin from a rural area entering a metropolis,
the asssociated scene shows him at the railway station
or outside one where he is shown dazzled by the city’s
blinding lights. This city-village link forms an important
part of our celluloid fixation though only few deserve
a special mention like life time Oscar winner Satyajit
Ray’s Apu trilogy with the train whistling along Apu’s
journey through life. More importantly, the train suggests
the changing moments of life and death in the Apu triology.
Trains also gave a certain sense of pace to Ray’s otherwise
slow paced movies.
In Bimal Roy’s Devdas, the train fades-in towards the
end. The one-reel sequence of Devdas’ aimless, fateful
journeys remains one of the three greatest montage sequences
in the history of Indian cinema that rival the best
in their genre. Kamaal Amrohi’s Daaera (1953) and Mehboob’s
Amar (1954) are the other two. Roy uses the train journeys
to create the film’s climax. He uses the start of the
journey to mark the start of Devdas’ recall of his life
torn between his widowed mother, childhood love Parbati
and the selfless Chandramukhi.
Train-related themes have consistently engaged the attention
of filmmakers. Toofan Mail (1934) set the trend of stunt
movies. A favorite stunt of India’s stunt queen ‘Fearless
Nadia’ in 1930s-40s was running on the roofs of speeding
trains in hot pursuit of the villain. It proved so popular
with the audience that the feat was repeated in a number
of train movies. In Miss Frontier Mail she ran the whole
length of roofs of over half-a-dozen compartments carrying
an actor, Sadashiv, on her shoulders!
Recently Aamir Khan nearly lost his life while performing
his own stunt as he ran in the direction of a speeding
train for a scene in Ghulam. Not many know but many
years ago, Kamini Kaushal, the heroine of yesteryears,
had attempted a similar scene for the shooting of Devendra
Goel’s film Aas. She had to stand close to the railway-tracks
as a train passed her at full speed. She was scared,
but did the scene anyway. She has been quoted as saying:
“I was so close to the train that I thought I would
go under it any moment!”
Coming back to train-related themes, besides Burning
Train, Coolie (starring Amitabh Bachchan) and Coolie
No.1 (starring Govinda) were also a hit with the masses
who could identify with the hero. Going further back
in time one can mention only a handul that deal with
the lives of railway workmen — Achhut Kanya (1936),
27 Down (1973), Julie (1975) and Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan
Shome. In a way the railways have in their own humble
way served as the unofficial chronicler of Indian history
be it partition riots, freedom struggle or the cause
of origin of the Anglo-Indian community. Even Sir Richard
Attenborough acknowledged the unique appeal of the Indian
Railways in his Oscar winning movie, Gandhi.
However, the railway romance that began with Kanan Devi’s
Toofan Mail touched its pinnacle in Dil Se’s Chhaiya
Chhaiyan which captures Malaika Arora’s sensuality,
Shah Rukh’s energy, dancers high on the moment’s madness,
rapturous rhythm of AR Rahman and groovy picturisation
by Mani Ratnam. The synergy is to be seen to be believed
as the song virtually explodes on the big screen. And
making all this possible is the backdrop of a steam
engine-driven hill train that passes through innumerable
tunnels before it chugs its way into our hearts.
This is movie, masti, magic at its best.
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