Guns, Dolls and Molls

The golden-hearted hero forced to crime probably due to a sick, coughing mother or sister, the goody-two shoes, virginal heroine waiting patiently for her man to come back to her, the femme fatale or the club dancer, who falls for the hero and takes a bullet meant for him, the club owner or the villainous boss – there’s nothing quite as enjoyable as the Hindi urban crime thrillers of the 1950s and early 1960s for me.

Post Indian Independence, there was much migration from the villages to cities as the city became associated with employment, money and the good life. But this was just one side of city life. At the other end of the spectrum was exploitation, poverty, crime, sleaze and slums and this was the setting of many a film as our filmmakers cleverly mixed romance, crime and comedy thus ‘Indianising’ film noir and making sure it was nowhere as dark and pessimistic as the real thing.

Though Hindi cinema had dabbled with the odd crime drama earlier, the crime thrillers of the 1950s and 60s owe their origins to two trendsetting films – Gyan Mukherjee’s Sangram (1950) and Guru Dutt’s Baazi (1951). The former saw an early anti-hero in Ashok Kumar who pays for his crimes by being shot by the cops in the end, while the latter pretty much put the various elements of this genre in place as we know it today. Incidentally, Guru Dutt was an assistant (un-credited) to Gyan Mukherjee on Sangram.

Quite a few of my favourite filmmakers like Guru Dutt, Shakti Samanta, Raj Khosla and Vijay Anand built the foundation of their extremely successful careers on these black and white suspense films, which also gave them more than enough scope to show off their film craft. Films like Aar Paar (1954), CID (1956), Nau Do Gyarah (1957), Howrah Bridge (1958), Teesri Manzil (1966) and Jewel Thief (1967) are amongst the best and most accomplished films in this genre and can be watched by me any number of times even today.

Actors like Ashok Kumar (with his cigarette forever dangling between his fingers) and Dev Anand made the ideal shaded heroes while Nadira, Shashikala, Nishi and Helen played the pouting molls to perfection and no one could quite play the debonair villain with as much panache as KN Singh.  And it’s not just the actors or filmmakers; singers like Geeta Dutt saw their career take an entirely new direction as music directors went Western and Jazzy with a vengeance. Till Baazi and before she crooned its all time seductive hit Tadbeer se Bigdi Hui Taqdeer, a ghazal set to a western beat by SD Burman, she was known mainly for her weepy, sad songs like Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya or bhajans like Mat Ja Jogi Paon Padoon Main Tore.  But after Baazi if it was a club dance you had, the first choice to sing it had to be Geeta Dutt! And then of course, there’s the one and only Asha Bhosle! Even cinematographers like V Ratra and VK Murthy had a field day playing with light and shadows to create the noir effect.

By far, the most interesting character the Indian crime film created for me was the vamp. She was the evil, corrupting Western influence that seduced the good and innocent hero. She was always dressed in western attire, smoked and drank and realized she has an ace up her sleeve – her body. More importantly, as an outsider she could provide truthful insights into society that neither the hero nor the heroine were allowed to. Her redemption lay in falling in love with the hero and taking her own life or the bullet meant for him or giving up her ‘shameful profession.’ It was her song that was often the biggest highlight of the film. Who can forget Shakila swinging to Babuji Dheere Chalna and how many vamps discovered their sexuality thanks to Asha Bhosle’s amazing vocals!

What I wouldn’t give for a gorgeous Helen gasping in my arms and imploring me “Keh Do Ek Baar, Main Itni Buri Nahin Hoon…” Sigghhh...