Howrah Bridge

<p>Prem Kumar ( ) and his elder brother Madan ( ) 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 ( ) who takes him to a hotel run by John Chang ( ) but then he is swiftly taken over by the seductress Edna ( ) to her uncle Joe’s ( ) hotel, where he is looked after by her. Edna falls for him and reveals that her uncle, John Chang and their friend Pyarelal ( ) 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. In 1957, had a car accident in which he was severely injured. He spent many days in the hospital, and eventually developed the story of lying on the hospital bed. Soon after being discharged, Samanta contacted his friend and actor 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 ” ” actress in the role of Edna. He had previously considered and , but found them unfit for the character. He also had ‘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 (1949) and (1957), went to her house and told her the film’s story. Madhubala took an immediate liking to the character of a , 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 is shown were actually shot somewhere else, according to Madhubala’s biographer . was Samanta’s first release under his banner Shakti Films, which he had set up in 1957. The music was composed by and lyrics were written by and . 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 ” “, sung by , brought fame to , who was only 19 at the time. Another evergreen song of the album was “Aaiye Meharban”, sung by , picturised on . The following songs are in : The reviews of were predominantly positive, with Samanta’s direction, Madhubala’s performance and Nayyar’s music being particularly praised. of found the film to be “western” due to its music and sets and Madhubala “beautiful most of the times”. took notice of the soundtrack and called “Aaiye Meherbaan” a showstopper. It concluded, “O. P. Nayyar’s music turned from a movie to a whole mood.” lauded Samanta’s direction and called “one of the best crime thrillers on the screen”. The movie gained controversy for featuring siblings and (children of actor ) dancing romantically. grossed 1.1 crore, with a net of 0.55 crore to become the ninth highest-grossing Bollywood film of 1958. According to , the film was one of the biggest hits of the year. Its success established Shakti Samanta as a leading director; he later recalled: “We made a lot of money from re-print of the records and … [the film] did really well, I came to be recognized as a hit film maker from onwards.” 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.</p>