Synopsis
The whole country is rocked by a series
of daring jewellery heists leaving the cops
at their wits' end. The Police Commissioner
of Bombay (Nasir Hussain) swears that he
would solve the case by 26th January. Meanwhile,
his son Vinay (Dev Anand) gains employment
with well-known city jeweller Seth Bishwambar
Das (Sapru) as an efficient 'johari' after
gaining his trust. He also wins the heart
of his daughter Anjali (Tanuja). But soon,
he is mistaken as a certain Amar by a host
of unknown people, including Shalini (Vyjayantimala)
who has come down to Bombay from Gangtok
with her brother (Ashok Kumar). She claims
that Vinay is actually Amar, her fiancé.
It appears that there is actually somebody
called Amar resembling Vinay who could be
the real jewel thief. Vinay gets involved
in the plot to unearth the mystery. He assumes
the identity of Amar and in the course of
his investigation meets Amar’s companions.
They are all under the impression that he
is Amar, aka Prince. The hunt takes him
to Sikkim where Amar / Prince has his hideout.
Meanwhile, Shalini has fallen for Vinay
despite knowing that he is not Amar. Just
at the point when Vinay thinks that he has
caught up with the real Amar / Prince, he
is knocked senseless and it is revealed
that it is Shalini’s 'brother' who
is the real Prince and the jewel thief.
What’s more, he isn’t Shalini’s
brother either. He had staged this entire
drama so that the entire Indian police force
believe that the fictitious character he
has created, Amar, is the actual jewel thief.
His team of doctors subject Vinay to shock
treatments in order to brain wash him into
actually believing he is Amar but Vinay
overhears his plans and acts as if he has
really turned into Amar. He plays along
with the gang members and gains entry into
the Chogyal’s son’s coronation
ceremony with Shalini and other gang members
disguised as dancers to steal the crown.
It is already 26th January. The elaborately
laid out plan appears to succeed: 'Amar'
is killed by the police commissioner, his
father, but just when Prince is about to
collect his booty and escape from his den,
he is accosted by Vinay who has not died
after all. A chase ensues through the landscape
of Sikkim and the final climax results inside
Prince’s private aeroplane where the
cops have already parked themselves after
arresting all the gang members. Shalini
is reunited with Vinay. It transpires she
had been blackmailed into playing her role
after Prince had kidnapped her little brother
(Master Sachin) but in the process had really
fallen in love with Vinay. Everything ends
happily as the plane takes off and flies
into the sky…
The film
Convoluted and illogical as the synopsis
might read, Jewel Thief, in fact,
unfolds like a Hitchcockian thriller through
an absolutely brilliant screenplay by Vijay
'Goldie' Anand that keeps the audience
on tenterhooks throughout. After establishing
the series of heists through a montage at
the very beginning of the film, the director
introduces the character of Vinay in a manner
so as to raise the doubts in the minds of
the audience that he could be the man behind
all the robberies. Why does he come to Seth
Bishwambar to sell a precious stone and
hides behind a pillar when he sees a cop
(who is later revealed to be his father)?
The audience’s doubts are further
underlined when sundry characters point
out that he is Amar, which he vehemently
denies. When Shalini lands up in Bombay
and claims at a party that he is her fiancé
and shows the ring that he had gifted her,
we are sure Vinay has something up his sleeve.
Things head to a climax in the scene when
Shalini’s brother challenges him to
take off his shoes and reveal his fingers
because Amar had six fingers on his right
foot. The suspense builds up. Under pressure,
Vinay slowly takes off his shoe, peels down
his sock and reveals his right foot: it
has five fingers!
 Jewel
Thief is like a jigsaw puzzle and falls
into the tradition of films like The
Sixth Sense (1999) that has to be viewed
for the second time to realize the novelty
in which the screenplay has been weaved.
Who could guess in Jewel Thief
all the characters barring the Bombay Police
Commissioner, Vinay and Anjali, are all
'actors' in a well wrought out play schemed
by Ashok
Kumar to hoodwink the Indian police
force? It needs a second viewing to appreciate
the intricacies of the film’splotting.
It is not only the character of Vinay who
is taken for a ride but the audience too!
True, on second viewing the viewer does
have an advantage over the protagonist now
that it knows the route, but the greatness
of the script lies in its ability to still
hold the audience in its tight grip.
Jewel Thief employs all those
devices that have come to be associated
with mainstream/ commercial Hindi cinema
and have been misused or overused over the
years through their repetition, sometime
bordering on the ridiculous. But here, they
appear to be so natural because they are
so tightly woven into the plot. It has secret
chambers where the press of a switch opens
a series of cupboards hoarding jewelry as
if in Alladin’s cave; it has revolving
doors and fake walls that slide open to
reveal a well stocked bar; it has dungeons
where important characters are held captive
and dark tunnels that lead to openings in
cliffs through which the same characters
can escape; the villain has access to concealed
switches that can be pressed to emit smoke
which makes the protagonist unconscious;
it employs electric shocks to brainwash
its protagonist into believing that he is
somebody else; it uses the ring as a device
of recognition, a purely classical element;
and it resorts to the age-old technique
of gaining entry into some high profile
strictly-by-invitation kind of a congregation
by disguising as dancers and singers, a
device that can be traced to the gigantic
wooden horse in the Greek mythology Iliad
where soldiers hide inside its stomach to
gain entry inside a fort to rescue the legendary
Helen of Troy. The film unabashedly makes
use of the above devices and even after
40 years since the film was made we don’t
bat an eyelid, but remain glued to the mystery
as it unfolds in a series of clever plot
twists and reversals of fortune till its
reaches its climax inside the villain’s
private aircraft. Vijay Anand is an acknowledged
and revered craftsman in the annals of Hindi
cinema and his hold over story telling had
never been in doubt. In Jewel Thief,
his craftsmanship comes out in full steam,
not only in the screenplay but also the
way he has shot his scenes and of course,
his incredible song picturisations.
There are 7 songs in the film and each
of them forms an integral link in the main
plot. Through Yeh Dil Na Hota Bechara,
Dev Anand
not only sows the seed of love in Tanuja
but also uses her earrings to gain entry
into her father’s employment. (This
song, originally composed for Baharein
Phir Bhi Aayengi when SD
Burman was its original music director,
was rejected by Guru
Dutt, but became a superhit through
this film.) Rula Ke Gaya Sapna Mera
picturised on Vyjayantimala
as she rows a boat in the middle of the
night succeeds in planting in Vinay’s
minds that there indeed is a character called
Amar with whom she was in love; he falls
into the trap and it serves as the beginning
of their fake romance that becomes serious
as the film progresses. Tanuja’s seduction
of Vinay through Raat Akeli Hai
is another highlight of the film. The build
up to the song as Dev Anand waits alone
in the huge drawing room for her to appear
reveals the director’s mastery over
building up moods that act as precursor
to something delightful. Lights are switched
off at one corner of the room and are switched
on at another part; huge curtains are suddenly
lighted up in parts and pulled away slowly
till a svelte Tanuja in a sexy sleeveless
gown whirls into the room with arms akimbo
and breaks out into the mesmerizing song.
The end of the song acts as the first major
turning point of the film when Tanuja’s
father enters the room and expresses surprise
in seeing Vinay; if Vinay has been here
with his daughter then who was the man he
was working with for the last two hours
inside his jewelry shop and who claimed
to be Vinay? My god! All of them rush to
the shop and discover that it has been looted!
The existence of 'Amar' is confirmed. The
brilliantly choreographed and picturised
Hothon Mein Aisi Baat is used as
a crucial plot device to gain entry into
the coronation ceremony where the final
heist is supposed to happen and 'Amar' killed.
The grandeur of the setting and the extensive
use of circular tracks as the camera follows
Vyjayantimala as she dances away anxiously
but in full bloom, interspersed with dynamic
angles and cuts that gradually become shorter
and shorter and reach a crescendo towards
the end prepare us for the showdown that
could spell disaster to the characters that
we root for. The tension is palpable: What
is going to happen immediately after the
song ends?
Music director SD Burman is in his element
as usual and the effect of RD
Burman who was an assistant to his father
at this time is felt in the arrangement
of all the songs. One song in particular,
the pacy Baithe Hai Kya Uskey Paas,
which introduces Helen,
has the distinct RD touch in the way the
two female voices harmonize, yodel and change
scales. This song is another brilliant example
of Vijay Anand’s mastery over song
picturisations in the way he cuts between
the two female characters by holding one
on the foreground and the other in the background
as the camera follows them in a circular
track; then it immediately switches to reverse
angle and maintains the same circular motion.
Jewel Thief is a successful amalgamation
of talents that complement each other with
Vijay Anand ably holding the spurs. The
casting of Ashok Kumar as the villain of
the piece is a brilliant piece of directorial
stroke. Nobody was prepared for such a role
by an actor who always came across as somebody
who was responsible and dependable in most
of the films that he acted in. Tanuja’s
supple figure and perky character is contrasted
well with the voluptuous figure and anguished
character of Vyjayantimala. The two female
leads are well balanced out against each
other while the roles played by Helen, Faryal
and Anju Mahendra not only serve as necessary
eye candies but contribute towards the plot.
But of course it is the quintessential Dev
Anand with his quintessential mannerisms
and dress codes that carry the film on his
bent shoulders as he romances the two heroines,
flirts with the secondary female characters
and fights the bad guys with his awkward
punches.
Hats off to the Anand brothers, Dev and
Goldie for giving us such an unadulterated
and enjoyable ride!
Ranjan Das is an alumnus of the
Film and Television Institute of India (FTII),
Pune with specialization in Film Editing
1992. Having edited various documentaries
and directed different programmes for Bengali
Television, he has also written for the
popular TV serials Sidhhant, Crime
Patrol and Rihayee.
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