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] with the music and songs setting records, this movie is considered among the best offerings of R.D.Burman's career.

Indiatimes Movies ranks the movie among-st the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.^[2] notably for its extremely foot tapping music and songs.

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 a rich neighborhood of Delhi. deeply disturbed by the suicide of her elder sister Roopa in Dehradun a year ago. All she knows was that Roopa committed suicide due to her involvement with a hotel live band drummer "Rocky". (a role played by Shammi Kapoor who was repeating the drummers role from his 1959 block buster "Dil Deke Dekho" with the same co-star and director)

On the way to Dehradun, Sunita meets a charming but mischievous young man Anil (Shammi Kapoor) on the 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's stage name being "Rocky".

Narrating his version of what happened to his friend he reveals that he was never interested in Roopa and she was the one who always pursued him. one evening telling him that she would be coming to his room in the hotel and if he did not open his door, she will jump and commit suicide. later that evening when she starts banging on his door, he does not open the door, and then he hears a shriek and a thud. When he rushes out and looks down from the 3rd floor lobby balcony (TEESRI MANZIL) he sees Roopa's body on the Compound below, apparently she having jumped as she had threatened.

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. his pursuit of Sunita's attention and affection along with the hotel club backdrop giving many a chance to break out in song and dance, this movie is a watershed musical well worth watching.

Police arrest Anil and later release him. To his surprise, they reveal that Roopa didn't commit suicide was murdered. A fact the police kept silent to catch the actual murderer. They also warn Anil that the killer might target him as he was closely linked to the case.

Anil suspects Ruby (Helen), his co-dancer and his admirer but she is murdered before his eyes and although he chases the killer Anil is unable to catch him. 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 mysterious young woman calls him one night and asks him to go to a certain place in her car to know the truth about Roopa. But the car's has been tampered with and goes of a cliff and with no body found everybody thinks that Anil is dead. But he survives and investigates further and at last finds the actual killer and the motive behind Roopa's murder.

Cast

• Shammi Kapoor as Anil Kumar "Sona"/Rocky
• Asha Parekh as Sunita
• Prem Chopra as Ramesh
• Helen as Ruby
• Premnath as Kunvar Saab
• Ram Avtar as train passenger
• Iftekhar as Police Inspector
• Raj Mehra as Sunita's Dad
• Laxmi Chhaya as Bela
• Salim Khan as Rocky's Friend

Behind the Scenes

Nasir Hussain produced and wrote the film under his home banner. He approached Dev Anand to star in Teesri Manzil and he immediately agreed. However, at the same time, another of Nasir Hussain's production Baharon Ke Sapne was to be directed by Vijay Anand. However, on occasion of Sadhana's engagement party, a misunderstanding erupted between Devanand and Nasir Hussain, when apparently, Nasir overheard Dev Anand saying "The film which Nasir is making with me is coloured and he has given Goldie some black-and-white film to make. Goldie is making the movie with some new boy, Rajesh Khanna". It was then next day that Nasir requested Vijay Anand to direct "Teezri Manzil" and offered to helm "Baharon Ke Sapne" but specified that Teesri Manzil would not have Devanand in it. It was only then that Shammi Kapoor was approached.^[3] 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.^[4] The song picturization were outstanding, with Helen dancing to "Oh Haseena zulfon waali". Songs like "Aaja aaja" had a rock n' roll base and were extremely popular.

Soundtrack

Audio cover

All the songs^[5] were composed by Rahul Dev Burman and lyrics were penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri. Choreography was by Herman Benjamin.^[6]

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 zulfon waali". 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.^[7]

References

External links

• Teesri Manzil at the Internet Movie Database