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 thriller directed by Vijay Anand and produced by Nasir Hussain. It starred his regular actors Shammi Kapoor and 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 amongst 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

Anil Kumar "Sona" (Shammi Kapoor) finds a young woman named Roopa who fell from the third storey of the hotel at night where he regularly performs as a musician under the stage name "Rocky." Roopa's younger sister, Sunita (Asha Parekh), believes that her sister committed suicide because of a ruined affair with Rocky, and she comes to seek vengeance. She and Anil fall in love, but he doesn't know how to tell her that he and Rocky are the same person.

Anil takes the help of a rich older man who pretends to be Anil's uncle to help Anil impress Sunita and her father. A police detective reveals that Roopa didn't commit suicide but was actually pushed from the third floor. An expensive shirt button was found clenched in her hand. Is the killer Roopa's jealous fiancee Ramesh, who now has plans for Sunita? Or is it the dancer Ruby who is pining for Rocky? The climax reveals the identity of the murderer.

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

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

Music composed by R.D. Burman, lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri. Choreography was by Herman Benjamin.^[4]

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.^[5]

References

External links

• Teesri Manzil at the Internet Movie Database