The Burning Train

"The Burning Train" is a very nicely put together, entertaining action thriller. The film is a tribute to India's railways, and to sacrifice and heroism. The sacrifice made by the heroes of the film in trying to save the 'burning train' is nicely mirrored by the sacrifices they make in their personal lives, often with less than happy results.

The movie is also a very satisfying story about relationships (particularly the friendship between Vinod (played by Vinod Khanna) and Ashok (played by Dharmendra), envy, betrayal, redemption - and love.

Dharmendra(whom I love love love - that was 3 loves) and Vinod Khanna (whom I love love - that was 2 loves) are excellent in this movie (as always),putting in brilliant performances. They are very effective and complimentary leads, and they're also quite funny (the scenes where they try to snag their girlfriends by tricking them are great).

Hema Malini is excellent as well (I always love the energy between her and Dharmendra - see the classic 'Sholay', although Malini's character in this movie is very different from Sholay's 'Basanti'). Parveen Babi (in a smaller but very effective role) is good too. There are parallels between their roles and relationship in this movie, and the roles they played in 'Do Aur Do Paanch'. That's not a criticism, though - if it ain't broke, why fix it? I think they make a great pair.

Danny, who plays the villain ('Ranvir') does quite a good villainous face, I must say! With his pitiful 'wannabe great but know I ain't' demeanour (supplemented by even more pitiful hair), you can't help but feel sorry for the guy. Nice portrayal of how a villain can still manage to be really pathetic.

All the other performances (Jeetendra, Neetu Singh and the others - the scene when they all sing on the train is another highlight of the film) are fantastic as well.

The film is really well scripted...it never drags on and maintains a nice brisk pace. It's kept to a nice length as well. I also love the opening scene, which introduces the main characters perfectly. I had to go back and watch it after the movie was over.

The big-budget (for that time) special effects in this movie also deserve a mention. Despite a couple of forgivable poor shots of a model train, the 'burning train' of the movie's title is very realistically portrayed. You almost feel as though you're on the train tracks. Very nice work.

I also have to mention the lovely song sung by Vinod Khanna, Dharmendra, Hema Malini and Parveen Babi near the beginning of the movie (ok, I know it wasn't sung by the actors but by Asha Bhonsle, Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar etc, but you know what I mean). Captures the mood perfectly - the bliss of love and friendship (sorry if that's not actually what the song was about - I don't understand Hindi and the song wasn't subtitled - so just guessing here)... just before life (as it usually does) jumps up and bites you in the behind. I love the song and the choreography.

By the way, if you don't like a healthy dose of sentimentality (in which case you probably don't like Bollywood movies in the first place), then this movie is not for you.

Anyhow, I think I've said enough...all that's left to say is this is a great, entertaining movie for the family. It has action, thrills, romance, comedy, everything. I wish there were more like this.

Review By Kamal K

A significant portion of this Bollywood disaster movie is given to song and melodrama as a multitude of characters and attitudes on love and relationships are established. And I found much of that amusing and enjoyable Some of the action and stunts here are really well staged and even when there are moments when clearly miniature models were used.

Every emotion is being touched while narrating a well scripted story. With powerhouse performances from Vinod khanna, Vinod Mehra, Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Danny, Hema Malini, Parveenbabi, Neetu Singh...and even people with small but effective roles shined like Asha Sachdev, Simi grewal, Asrani, Dinesh Thakur.

One of the classics, this movie remains much ahead of it's times by it's visualization and special effects. A multi-starrer in which the central theme in neither love-story nor revenge story but rather about a burning train. A very well done disaster movie.

Ashok(Dharmendra) and Vinod(Vinod Khanna) are two friends. Ashok is engaged with Seema(Hema Malini) and Vinod is married with Sheetal(Parveen Bobby).

Vinod has dreams of building a a super fast train which will cover the distance between Delhi and Bombay(Mumbai) withing 12 hours(That too in 1980).Rajdhani currently takes 16.5 hours at best. And he wins the tender from Indian Railways to build the fastest train. He asks the two tender losers Ranjeet(Danny) and Rakesh(Vinod Mehra) to help him. But Ranjeet has some sinister plans in mind.

Meanwhile Ashok's life is in a mess. His father failed in business and committed suicide. His fiancée Seema has broke the engagement.

Six years passed by. The train is built. Vinod's marriage with Sheetal is almost falling apart because of Vinod's full devotion to the train.

The maiden journey of the train starts at Delhi. Enter a vast range of characters as passengars, a smuggler, a priest, a mullah, a cbi officer, a dancer etc. The 3rd hero, a small time crook Ravi(Jitendra) meets his love Neetu Singh on the train.

Ashok is also on the train . But he sees Seema in the train, gets so disturbed that he gets down at Agra. Meanwhile Ranjeet has removed the brakes and placed bombs in the train and has got down in Agra.

Ashok and Ranjeet meet in a bar in Agra and Ashok learns about the bomb. He rushes back to the train to save it. The train's brake has failed and only desperate measures can now save it.

Ashok learns now that Seema's leg is amputated and that's why she broke the engagement. Meanwhile in the chaos, fire spreads, the train burns and hence the name "The Burning train".

The rest of the movie is a struggle by everyone, particularly by Ashok, Vinod and Ravi to prevent the disaster from happening.

See the movie..it's worth a watch.

The Burning Train is an action thriller disaster film directed by Late Ravi Chopra. The film stars an ensemble cast of Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Late Vinod Khanna, Late Parveen Babi, Jeetendra, Neetu Kapoor, Late Vinod Mehra, Late Navin Nischol and Danny Denzogpa.

Indian fastest passenger train met with a tragedy in its maiden voyage due to sabotage.

The film was an average grosser upon it's release but is now considered as classic and is one of it's kind film ever produced in the history of Indian cinema. The film is not only entertaining but can also be called as an high octane film which will keep you engaged with the fast paced screenplay primarily in second half of the film.

The plot of the film is unique and execution is good, the first half of the film makes the foundation of the film and second half delivers. The only drawback which I felt and wasn't required was too many subplots which I didn't wished to share to avoid spoilers, these subplots might irritate viewers and also breaks the rhythm of the film.

Acting in the film was mind blowing and all the characters were perfect but a very special mention for Danny as he was yet again terrific in his negative role. The acting was so perfect that even the smaller roles of Asha Sachdev, Late Rajendra nath, Late Yunus Parvez, Asrani and Late Dinesh Thakur left an impression.

The music of the film was mind blowing and all credit to the legendry Late R. D. Burman for such a marvelous music. Climax of the film was perfect and gives a great closure to the film. A must watch film.

Okay this is the kind of film you need to approach with an open mind and be much less critical about - this is mindless entertainment. If you spend your time looking for flaws while watching it, you will indeed find a few and and there's no way you're going to enjoy it. There isn't much logic in The Burning Train, it is an action potboiler, but I mean it in a good way because for once some effort was made to try something different and innovative. Among the shortcomings, the film takes quite some time before it starts picking up. I think it would have been better had it started with the train ride and shown the silly romantic cliches in flashbacks instead of giving such a lengthy prologue to the actual fun that everyone is set up for.

And once the train takes off, there's a long way to go - the premise set by the title materialises just shortly before the film ends. Does it mean the wait is not worth it? I'm not sure, the film is quite enjoyable and at least there's something to wait for given the title. The four actors are all quite good, and the contrasting archetypes played by the two leading lady are particularly interesting - one is a modern, new-age woman, the other is a traditional, conservative sort of self-righteous heroine. This distinction is brilliantly captured in the film's first song - "Meri Nazar Hai Tujh Pe" - sung by the sensational Asha Bhosle. Sadly the film doesn't give you much to marvel at, but it is quite enjoyable, and its final sequences are pretty fun.