Howrah Bridge (1957) :
Brief Review -
Gone are those days when thrillers used to be so wholesome and commercially appealing. In today's time, thrillers are known as niche films and lack appeal among the masses. Back in the 1950s, Bollywood was ruling box office with thrillers, sub-genred by crime, romance, and sometimes mystery. Shakti Samantha's Howrah Bridge is one of the finest examples of it. There is a crime story, there is romance, there is a little bit of comedy, there is drama, two evergreen songs, there are twists and chase sequences-I wonder why Bollywood is failing to do so today when we have so much inspirational material from the old days. The film tells the story of Prem Kumar, who visits Kolkata to find his brother and a family heirloom. His brother was killed by a gang, and he wants to find out about the killer and the heirloom. He changes his name from Prem to Rakesh and meets a Catholic bar dancer, Edna, and they fall in love. Rakesh's motive was to find the killer through Edna, as she is a part of the same hotel group and knows them, but as he sees her goodwill, he finds himself truly in love with her. Now Edna must help him get the killer because things are turned against him. How they do it forms the climax, and it's a well-written, thrilling portion, followed by a chase sequence on the iconic Howrah Bridge. I couldn't really imagine Ashok Kumar and Madhubala as a couple since both worked in Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, released in the same year, in which Ashok Kumar played an elder brother and Madhubala played the very young character of his sister-in-law. The chemistry wasn't that romantic, but it was sensible. It had all those lovable clinches, with Madhubala looking breathtaking in some scenes and winning you with that manly accent. Thriller + commercial potboiler = Shakti Samanta. That's the sentence. That's the equation. Watch Howrah Bridge to understand it.
RATING - 7/10*
By - #samthebestest.
