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Rhea Thomas
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« on: July 13, 2009, 05:02:28 AM »


The land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that away for the shows of the rest of the world combined.'

These lines penned by American author Mark Twain best describe the beautiful town of Darjeeling that not only happens to be a holiday hotspot but is also a filmmaker's favourite destination.

The Himalayan backdrop, tea gardens, British-style public schools and the steam engines are just some of the many attributes that lure Bollywood to this cool hill station tucked away in north Bengal.

As a result, we have a number of films with Darjeeling as the backdrop. The latest to join the bandwagon is Arindam Nandy's thriller, Via Darjeeling, starring Kay Kay Menon and Sonali Kulkarni as newlyweds on their honeymoon to the hill station.

While we wait for Via Darjeeling, which releases this week, rediff.com takes a trip down memory lane where the hills were alive with the sounds of Bollywood.
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Rhea Thomas
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« Reply #1 on: July 13, 2009, 05:03:39 AM »


Aradhana [1969]

Mere Sapnon Ki Rani Kab Aayegi Tu, sang Rajesh Khanna to Sharmila Tagore, even as his friend, Sujit Kumar, doubled up as a driver and a mouth organ player -- keeping pace with the toy train, on one hand while adding music to Khanna's love song on the other.

Thus began Aradhana, director Shakti Samanta's take of the Oscar-winning classic To Each His Own [1946].

The idyllic hilly terrain of Darjeeling provided a perfect beginning for this story of love, passion and penance.

The train had been used earlier in Nasir Hussain's Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai (1961).

Aradhana shot Khanna to super stardom and also began his successful onscreen pairing with Tagore -- the duo went on to star in films like Safar, Amar Prem and Daag.

D Tour: The film won Sharmila Tagore her first and only Filmfare Best Actress Award. In 1947, Olivia de Havilland had won her first Academy Award for Best Actress for playing the same role in To Each His Own. However, unlike Tagore, Havilland won another Best Actress Oscar (The Heiress in 1950).

Kishore Kumar won his first Filmfare Best Male Playback Singer Award for the sensuous ditty Roop Tera Mastana.
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« Reply #2 on: July 13, 2009, 05:04:23 AM »


Do Anjaane [1976]

From nearby Bagdogra Airport to the Manjitaar Bridge to the Oberoi Mount Everest Hotel, Dulal Guha's film arguably is the most detailed description of Darjeeling on celluloid.

Do Anjaane, based on Dr Nihar Ranjan Gupta's story (published in a Bengali magazine and the screenplay of Nabendu Ghosh), is an account of a middle class couple from Kolkata, and the tumultuous chain of events in their lives.

It was Amitabh Bachchan's first film with Rekha, and focused on the intricacies of the husband-wife relationship and the underlying melancholy.

The couple's son, who serves as a catalyst in the eventual reunion, is a student in a boarding school in Darjeeling, and the place is therefore, used as a metaphor for hope in the film.

D Tour: Prem Chopra won the Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award for this film.

The film starred Mithun Chakraborty in a fleeting appearance. Mithun, who used to stay as a paying guest in Dulal Guha's house, bagged this minuscule role after a lot of effort and was given a Mumbai-Calcutta air ticket as remuneration.
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« Reply #3 on: July 13, 2009, 05:05:21 AM »


Barsaat Ki Ek Raat [1981]

Shakti Samanta's film uses Darjeeling as a backdrop to juxtapose initial romantic interludes with subsequent dark undertones.

The film revolves around the lives of four main characters, a police officer (Amitabh Bachchan), his blind wife (Rakhee), a psychopathic predator (Amjad Khan) and the latter's father (Utpal Dutt) and is at best a vendetta flick camouflaged as a thriller.

However, it is RD Burman's soothing music, coupled with the beautiful picturisation of the songs, that prevented the movie from being outright banal. And to say that the tea gardens have been captured wonderfully by the camera would be an understatement.

D Tour: This was Amitabh Bachchan's second film with Shakti Samanta, after The Great Gambler.

The film was released simultaneously in Bengali and was titled Anusandhan.
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« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2009, 05:05:55 AM »


Main Hoon Naa [2004]

Okay, you know about this one, so we won't delve into the storyline or when Darjeeling comes into the picture.

Instead, let's get into some intricacies, like the fact that it was shot on location (St Paul's School) in just three weeks. The film was shot over the winter vacations, thus the restriction on time.

The school alumni weren't particularly pleased with the cinematic liberties that director Farah Khan took in depicting their school. Most of the complaints were regarding the director's inability to remain authentic as far as depiction of the school was concerned as well as regarding the fashion quotient of the actors involved.

A special set of Cafe Coffee Day was constructed in Darjeeling and the cast and crew were even served coffee from it.

D Tour: The role of Lucky went from Hrithik Roshan to Sohail Khan to Farhan Akhtar and finally to Zayed Khan.

Boman Irani, who plays the school principal in the film, is seen reading JK Rowling's Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix, on two
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« Reply #5 on: July 13, 2009, 05:06:31 AM »


Parineeta [2005]

To get to the end, we have to go back to the beginning, with Aradhana.

The train that Saif Ali Khan rides during the folk song Kesto Mazza Hai Railaima is the same one his mother, Sharmila Tagore, rode in Aradhana.

As Saif remembered the woman of his dreams and the train meandered across the hills, cinematographer Natarajan Subramaniam's camera provided some vintage shots of Darjeeling.

And that won half the battle for Pradeep Sarkar's cinematic adaptation of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's 1914 novel. Performances by the lead actors, Saif, debutante Vidya Balan and Sanjay Dutt, won the other half of the battle.

D Tour: The film was chosen among 15 debut works for the 2006 Berlin Film Festival.

It also won many awards, including the National Award (Best First film) and three Filmfare awards.
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