Bollywood Appreciation Class: Lesson 2 — Teesri Manzil
Aaaaand we’re back! We’re back with another movie review in the name of Bollywood appreciation, although I don’t have much to appreciate. Apologize again.
You’re probably thinking, Agastya, how are you here again? You’ve published four articles in five days already! Is this the year you turn around and actually start writing regularly?
Hehe boi (disappears for four months)
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. But right now I’m on winter vacation, and school begins soon. So I’m writing as much as I can so that I have enough to post for a while. See you guys.
Today we talk about Teesri Manzil, which is a movie that wants to make you jump off the teesri manzil (third floor, for my foreign friends).
Which, coincidentally, is also the plot of the movie! We see a girl fall off the third floor of a hotel in Dehradun. We later see a letter she wrote to her sister, Sunita, detailing how she committed suicide because of her relationship with Rocky, the drummer of the band that performs at the hotel. Rocky is played by Shammi Kapoor, and Sunita is Asha Parekh’s role. Rocky and Sunita also meet on the train to Dehradun, but at this time, neither knows who the other is.
After many twists and turns (again), with Rocky trying to not be Rocky (as Sunita got a hockey team to try and beat him up), and many more subplots that distract you from the main point, and even more characters that each have a separate plot point to their name, we see another happy ending, with Anil (Rocky’s real name) and Sunita falling in love, etc., etc., typical filmi Bollywood ending, tra la la. Yay!
No yay. I am mad. And perhaps dead inside.
This movie was a little short of three hours long, and the first two hours were simply Rocky trying to court Sunita, getting beat up, getting caught in lies, and singing a whole bunch of songs. Way too many songs. The first half of the movie and most part of the second half were just too slow for me, especially since my dearest mother had caught me onto the sweet scent of suspense by telling me that there were murders galore in the movie. Let me tell you, there were none. Until the last forty minutes. THE LAST FORTY. The entire movie’s plot could have unfolded without the first two hours, saving us a lot of time and heartburn. Also, the villain was introduced halfway through the movie, throwing viewers way off the track.
There were some redeeming factors to the movie though. Shammi Kapoor’s brilliant acting was definitely one of them, as were the songs, which my parents have played for me so many times I can recite them better than the chemistry facts I’m supposed to know.
All in all, the movie was slow (if I didn’t mention that before), but was decently made, and had quite a good suspense angle as well.
So, that’s it for today! Thank you for reading! I have more movies lined up to review, and I hope you like them!
