Howrah Bridge (1958 film)

Howrah Bridge is a 1958 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film directed by Shakti Samanta. It starred Ashok Kumar, Madhubala and K. N. Singh in pivotal roles. The music for the film was composed by O. P. Nayyar.

Howrah Bridge
Theatrical release poster
Directed byShakti Samanta
Written byRanjan Bose
StarringAshok Kumar
Madhubala
K. N. Singh
Music byO. P. Nayyar
Distributed byShakti Films
Release date
15 June 1958
Running time
153 minutes
CountryIndia
LanguageHindi
Box officeest. ₹11 million

The plot focuses on Prem Kumar, a businessman from Rangoon, who travels to Calcutta to try and track down his brother's murderers.

Howrah Bridge was a major critical and commercial success upon its release, and has became a cult film over years. It has been specially noted for its soundtrack, consisting of the chartbusters "Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu" and "Aaiye Meherbaan". The former was re-used in the 1988 film Salaam Bombay!.[1]

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.

Cast

Soundtrack

The music was composed by O. P. Nayyar and lyrics were written by Qamar Jalalabadi. Except three songs, all songs of the film were sung by Asha Bhosle, with Mohammed Rafi singing for the male characters. Shamshad Begum had sung the dance number "Main Jaan Gayi Tujhe Saiyaan" with Mohammed Rafi. Upon the film's release, the soundtrack became very popular and was one of the biggest reasons of the film's success. "Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu", sung by Geeta Dutt, brought fame to Helen, who was only 19 at the time. The most popular song of the album was "Aaiye Meherbaan", which was picturised on Madhubala. The song is constantly referred to as "evergreen" and "one of the best" songs of Asha Bhosle and Madhubala collaboration.

Here is the list of all songs which appeared in Howrah Bridge:

# Song Singer
1 "Aaiye Meharbaan" Asha Bhosle
2 "Yeh Kya Kar Daala Tune" Asha Bhosle
3 "Dekhke Teri Nazar Bekaraar Ho Gaye" Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi
4 "Gora Rang, Chunariya Kaali" Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi
5 "Mohabbat Ka Haath, Jawaani Ka Palla" Asha Bhosle, Mohammed Rafi
6 "Main Jaan Gayi Tujhe Saiyaan" Shamshad Begum, Mohammed Rafi
7 "Eent Ki Dukki, Paan Ka Ekka" Mohammed Rafi
8 "Mera Naam Chin Chin Chu" Geeta Dutt

Release

Critical reception

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".[2] The Print took notice of the soundtrack and called "Aaiye Meherbaan" a showstopper.[3] It concluded, "O. P. Nayyar's music turned Howrah Bridge from a movie to a whole mood."[3] Shoma A. Chatterjee lauded Samanta's direction and called Howrah Bridge "one of the best crime thrillers on the Hindi screen".[4]

Box office

Howrah Bridge grossed ₹1.1 crore, with a nett of ₹0.55 crore to emerge as the ninth highest-grossing Indian film of 1958. According to Box Office India, the film was a major commercial success.[5]

Samanta established himself as a leading director with the humongous success of Howrah Bridge. He had later said in an interview: "[The film] made a lot of money from re-print of the records and ... did really well, I came to be recognized as a hit film maker from Howrah Bridge onwards."[6]

References
  1. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 15 February 2009. Retrieved 9 December 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. Thought. Siddhartha Publications. 1958.
  3. Pothukuchi, Madhavi (2 February 2020). "OP Nayyar's music turned Howrah Bridge from a movie to a whole mood". ThePrint. Retrieved 29 August 2020.
  4. Chatterji, Shoma A. (9 April 2016). "Shakti Samanta". Upperstall.com. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
  5. "Top earners of 1958". web.archive.org. 22 September 2012. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
  6. "'In Aradhana, Sachin Karta Gave Me My Life's Biggest Hit': In Conversation with Shakti Samanta". Silhouette Magazine. 8 April 2016. Retrieved 8 December 2020.
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