Howrah Bridge

About the film

Howrah Bridge is a 1958 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film directed by Shakti Samanta. The music for the film was composed by O. P. Nayyar. The plot focuses on Prem Kumar (played by Ashok Kumar), a businessman from Rangoon, who travels to Calcutta to try to track down his brother's murderers. Madhubala stars as Edna, a cabaret dancer, in one of her most popular roles.

Howrah Bridge was a major critical and commercial success upon its release and has become a cult film over years. It has been specially noted for its soundtrack, which consists the chartbusters "Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu" and "Aaiye Meherbaan". The former was re-used in the 1988 film Salaam Bombay!.

Plot

Prem Kumar (Ashok Kumar) and his elder brother Madan (Chaman Puri) are looking after a successful business of their father in Rangoon. But Madan suddenly disappears with the family heirloom, a dragon embedded with precious stones and reaches Calcutta to sell it off. He falls prey to the designs of a few smugglers and pays with his life. Prem's father urges him to get back the heirloom and Prem in disguise of Rakesh comes to Calcutta from Rangoon. There he meets his father's trusted tangewala Shyamu (Om Prakash) who takes him to a hotel run by John Chang (Madan Puri) but then he is swiftly taken over by the seductress Edna (Madhubala) to her uncle Joe's (Dhumal) hotel, where he is looked after by her. Edna falls for him and reveals that her uncle, John Chang and their friend Pyarelal (K. N. Singh) are into illegal business. Having got a clue from Edna, Prem chases the culprits until finally he is framed by Pyarelal in the murder of John Chang.

Ultimately Prem gets his heirloom and his love and now wife Edna.

Production

In 1957, Samanta had a car accident in which he was severely injured. He spent many days in the hospital, and eventually developed the story of Howrah Bridge lying on the hospital bed. Soon after being discharged, Samanta contacted his friend and actor Ashok Kumar and narrated the story to him; Kumar liked it and agreed to the film.

A problem came up when Samanta told Kumar that he wants to cast a "top-notch" actress in the role of Edna. He had previously considered Nargis and Nimmi, but found them unfit for the character. He also had Madhubala's name in his mind, but her price was too high for the financially unstable Samanta. It was then when Kumar came in to help him. Kumar, who had previously worked with Madhubala in Mahal (1949) and Ek Saal (1957), went to her house and told her the film's story. Madhubala took an immediate liking to the character of a cabaret dancer, something which she had not done before. Upon learning that Samanta is reluctant to cast her due to her fees, she reduced it from ₹2,00,000 to just ₹1.25.

Except the climax, all other scenes of the film in which Howrah Bridge is shown were actually shot somewhere else, according to Madhubala's biographer Mohan Deep.

Soundtrack

The music was composed by O. P. Nayyar and lyrics were written by Qamar Jalalabadi and Hasrat Jaipuri. Upon the film's release, the soundtrack became very popular and was one of the biggest reasons of the film's success. The iconic number "Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu", sung by Geeta Dutt, brought fame to Helen, who was only 19 at the time. Another evergreen song of the album was "Aaiye Meharban", sung by Asha Bhosle, picturised on Madhubala.

The following songs are in Howrah Bridge:

Release

The reviews of Howrah Bridge were predominantly positive, with Samanta's direction, Madhubala's performance and Nayyar's music being particularly praised. Uma Vasudeva of Thought found the film to be "western" due to its music and sets and Madhubala "beautiful most of the times". The Print took notice of the soundtrack and called "Aaiye Meherbaan" a showstopper. It concluded, "O. P. Nayyar's music turned Howrah Bridge from a movie to a whole mood." Shoma A. Chatterjee lauded Samanta's direction and called Howrah Bridge "one of the best crime thrillers on the Hindi screen".

The movie gained controversy for featuring siblings Mehmood and Minoo Mumtaz (children of actor Mumtaz Ali) dancing romantically.

According to trade analyst V. P. Sathe, writing for Swarajya, the film did "record collections" in Calcutta territory (now Kolkata) and grossed over ₹2.4 lakh within a week.

Trivia

One can see the name B.I.S.N Co. on the ship in which Ashok Kumar arrives in Calcutta. This was British India Steam Navigation company that operates cargo and passenger ships. The company shut down in 70's.

Key details