The Great Indian Reel Journey

ONE OF MY FAVOURITE journeys is from the airport to the Gateway of India, which is how I begin every visit to Mumbai. Last week, the drive was a completely new experience and a much shorter one because of the extension of the Sea Link to Marine Drive. The road is spectacular in itself with its bridges and vast curving slip roads, but it also allows a new view of the city and its landmarks such as the Mahalakshmi Temple and Breach Candy. For the first time, those of us who haven’t sailed along the coast, see the city from the sea. The tunnel under Malabar Hill creates a dramatic exit onto Marine Drive where one meets the Princess Street flyover that was once a symbol of modern Bombay’s new relationship with the car. It now seems a small work of civil engineering in comparison with this massive and complex new triumph of urban connectivity.

The car has wrought so much damage on the city that it seems wrong in many ways to celebrate its latest conquest, which now includes the sea as well as the land. I, like many others, loathe traffic and its consequences but I am a car user who enjoys the benefits of the mobility it offers in opening up Mumbai.

Although the car now seems to dominate the peninsular city, there are many alternative ways of moving around it, many of which have long been celebrated in Hindi film songs. Among the many, these are some of my favourites that showcase Bombay/Mumbai cinematically.

Walking is the best way to see a city but the weight of traffic, dug up roads and the heat make it difficult for those who have other options. Famous walks around Mumbai include Dev Anand in ‘Leke pehla pehla pyaar’ (CID, dir Raj Khosla, 1956). Dev Anand asked Raj Khosla what he had to do for the song and the reply was just to walk while Sheila Vaz lip-synchs and dances around him. Rajesh Khanna walks along the beach, singing about life’s paradoxes, releasing balloons, watching fishermen and paddling in ‘Zindagi kaisi hai paheli’ (Anand, dir Hrishikesh Mukherjee, 1971).

Animal-drawn carts and carriages have now disappeared from the city but the Victoria (horse and carriage) has been celebrated in film, such as the eponymous Victoria No. 203 (dir Brij Sadanah, 1972). However, the most famous song is ‘Yeh hai Bombay meri jaan’ (CID, dir Raj Khosla, 1956) where Johnny Walker sits in a horse-drawn cart, deploring the modernity of the beautiful city we seen behind him and how hard it is to live there before his girlfriend (Kum Kum) tells him to snap out of it and that Bombay is an easy place to live.

The camel and horse feature in fun rides along the beach in ‘Koi ladki mujhko kal raat’ as Sanjeev Kumar and Hema Malini romance in Seeta Aur Geeta, dir Ramesh Sippy, 1972.

The bus is a public means of transport but in ‘Aaj dil par hua aisa jaadu’ (Mr & Mrs 55, dir Guru Dutt, 1955), the poor cartoonist, singing to his friend about falling in love, has been ejected from a café, then thrown off the double-decker bus onto the pavement as they can’t afford a ticket. The song ends with them walking along the seafront with its Art Deco buildings.

In a popular song from Shaan (dir Ramesh Sippy, 1980), ‘Jaanu meri jaan’, the heroines run away from the heroes on a double-decker bus, but the heroes chase them, running alongside the bus, then pursuing them on a tandem, finally dressing up as the driver and conductor to drive the bus out into the countryside.

In several films, the hero sings as he rides a motorbike, flaunting his mobility across the city. Amitabh Bachchan sings the title song in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (dir Prakash Mehra, 1978), while Shah Rukh Khan sings ‘Koi na koi chahiye’ (Deewana, dir Raj Kanwar, 1992) and later ‘Hum dum suniyo re’ in Saathiya (dir Shaad Ali, 2002). Perhaps Dhoom (dir Sanjay Gadhvi, 2004) gave the motorbike a massive boost in popularity as a vehicle for urban fun and thrills.

I failed to find a good bicycle song, as most of these are shot outside the city, although I mentioned the tandem above. Also, I don’t recall a song in an autorickshaw. Even though Naseeruddin Shah plays the eponymous hero in Hero Hiralal (dir Ketan Mehta, 1988), the title song is filmed in Hyderabad rather than in Mumbai, where he shifts during the film. Songs in trucks (such as ‘So gaya yeh jahaan’ in Tezaab, dir N Chandra, 1988, are filmed outside Bombay and I would love to see a song filmed on a BMC bin lorry (although I wouldn’t choose it as a mode of transport).

Taxis feature in many films, some of which are even named after them, from Taxi Driver (dir Chetan Anand, 1954, which features a 1947 Chevrolet Fleetmaster) to Taxi No 9211 (dir Milan Luthria, 2006) but my two favourite taxi songs have the hero driving an iconic Premier Padmini kaali-peeli. The lovely ‘Seene mein jalan’ (Gaman, dir Muzaffar Ali, 1978) shows a migrant from UP to Mumbai wondering what he is doing in the city. The shots alternate between his view of the city and us looking at him. In Hanste Zakhm (dir Chetan Anand, 1973), Somesh (Navin Nischol) and his client Chanda (Priya Rajvansh) fall in love, their romance shown in one of the great rain songs set in Bombay, ‘Tum jo mil gaye’.

In the quintessential Bombay film, Amar Akbar Anthony (dir Manmohan Desai, 1977), in the song ‘Humko tumse ho gaya hai pyaar’, the three heroes and heroines may be defined by the way they behave in the city. The Christian couple, Anthony and Jenny (Amitabh and Parveen Babi) up the glamour in a speedboat, then they run around a harbour ferry. The Muslim couple, Akbar and Salma (Rishi and Neetu) ride the Vanrani toy train in what was then Borivali Park (now the Sanjay Gandhi National Park). (As usual, Salma’s father, Tayyab Ali, tries to prevent the romance but Akbar manages to uncouple his carriage.) The Hindu couple, Amar, the police officer, and Lakshmi (Vinod Khanna and Shabana Azmi) stay at home, her doing household chores.

Private cars, which used to belong only to the seriously wealthy, often appear as symbols of often ill-gotten riches in older films, and a window rolling down reveals a gangster in Deewaar (dir Yash Chopra, 1975) or Parinda (dir Vidhu Vinod Chopra, 1989).

The Ford Model A car of the garage-owning brothers in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, (dir Satyen Bose, 1958) is the fourth star alongside the three Ganguly brothers in the song ‘Babu samjho ishare’. It even drives itself in circles as the men sing and drive around South Bombay.

In Gangubai Kathiawadi (dir Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2022), Gangu shows her elevated status in her spotless white clothes and big black 1956 Dodge Coronet. The car’s interior affords her some privacy which she uses to seduce her tailor in ‘Meri jaan’.

The local train has been one of the most important ways of moving around Mumbai. It is seen in many films, notably in The Lunchbox (dir Ritesh Batra, 2013) and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (dir Ayan Mukerji, 2013) but perhaps the most famous song is ‘The train song’, which plays at the end of Gully Boy (dir Zoya Akhtar, 2019). We see the couple embarking on their careers but they have brief encounters on railway platforms in this final message of happiness.

This week, alas, it’s time for me to make the sad journey in the other direction, towards the airport. Although I’m hopeful that it will soon be time to return, next time there may be further changes such as a new airport road and perhaps a fully working Metro that may offer filmmakers a new Bombay location for shooting songs.

Amitabh BachchanBollywoodcinemahighwaysHindi filmsMuqaddar Ka Sikandarroads