The Burning Train

I have attempting to get hold of this film for a very long time and when i finally got it wow. However several bits did not make sense. The previous reviews says it is 142 minutes long, and i know for a fact that at least one of the five songs was missing - 'Teri hai zameen, tera aasman'. Having done a further search, the film is actually 185 minutes long. Although the film was great, the reason it did not make sense was because i'd seen the edited version, where they had taken out all the important bits.

The songs are absolutely great, the relationship between Vinod Khanna and Praveen Babi, and Dhamendra with Hema Malini was great, especially where they got together.

Still attempting to get hold of a proper copy so if anyone knows where then please let me know.

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.

I think this movie was ahead of its time, and would be a great film to remake with current technology and sensibility. It is a flawed film, and many of these flaws are due to its 80 Bollywood tropes, but it has a lot of plus points which are still impressive in 2016. I will mention them first before I discuss the flaws:

Great character drama. The train is full of all sorts of different kinds of characters, funny, quirky, sexy, angry, criminal, religious, young, old, family, couples, single, and the interactions between them make for very entertaining drama. Think of a road trip movie, except on a train with a myriad of characters.

Great screenplay. Except for the speedbreakers at the start, once the journey on the train begins the screenplay packs a lot of interesting situations and turns of events that keep the journey interesting; the initial character introductions and banter, the realization the breaks have failed, the train catching fire, the attempts by the passengers to save themselves, the frantic efforts by the railway officials to come up with ideas to save the train racing against time. There is never really a dull moment.

Great action. I would not have thought an 80's Bollywood movie would have had such technical finesse. The fast moving burning train actually looks real, the interiors look real, you actually feel like it was shot in an actual train(I am sure some portions were) The parts where some of the characters climb out of the moving train and then try to get to the next cabin by going across the windows or running on the top of the train looks like they really did it. The pyrotechnics are on par with 80's Hollywood. It is evident that this was a big budget movie for its time and it is executed with the same professionalism as similar disaster movies like Towering Inferno.

Great acting. Aside from the 80's acting style, another layer of realism is added by the reactions of the passengers to the impending doom, the desperation to survive and amidst all the mayhem to maintain their humanity. Vinod Khanna as the train's engineer particularly is notable and very handsome, you do wonder why the gene was not passed on to Akshay Khanna.

Now I will begin with the cons:

Takes time to start. The initial half hour is about introducing the leads and their love interests, and there are a couple of unnecessary songs. In fact the only song that really works in the movie is the lone song on the train between all the characters to entertain themselves on the journey. This actually can happen on Indian trains.

Female characters are weak. This is 80's patriarchal Bollywood when feminism had not really taken off yet, and it is evident here as the female characters have little personality and just react to their male counterparts.

At times OTT. Another 80's Bollywood staple is the "Disshom" fighting scenes which are cheesy and you have the OTT comic characters, the Johnny livers of their time, like Asrani with their slapstick routines. The villainous characters are one dimensionally bad.

If it was remade today for a contemporary audiences many of these 80's staples should and would be done away, leaving a great disaster movie. There are not many notable Bollywood disaster movies, so this would provide great material for a contemporary one.

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.

This 1980 star-studded box office disaster is a real old favorite of mine. A very slick, very action-oriented movie with a non-standard theme that promised to change Bollywood movie-making standards of the early 80s (Ramesh Sippy's "Shaan" was another one in the same genre). Never mind why people spurned this movie when it was released - it was probably released in the wrong decade! In many ways, this was a landmark movie. It was one of the few movies made on the Railways. Quite surprising that Bollywood took so long to pay a fitting tribute to the Railways because (at least during those days) a humongous percentage of working Indian populace were directly or indirectly dependent on the railways for their livelihood. Why, the Indian Railways were one of the largest employers in those days! And the best part is the tribute doesn't go over the board. The Railways depiction is more or less realistic (note to critics: the song-and-dance parts before the Super Express is launched is just plain old Bollywood masala – nothing to do with the Railways).

The train has been the ubiquitous, yet highly sidelined prop in dozens of Bollywood movies. Who can forget the passenger train that brings the jailer to Ramgarh in "Sholay" or the endless shots of Victoria Terminus in any movie based in Bombay. Even now, trains have been very much around in the Bollywood landscape. "Bunty aur Babli" recently effectively used Indian Railways throughout the movie to enhance the small-town feel. The economy of many Indian towns (especially those in UP, where the Railways network is densest) is highly dependent on the Railways. The trains in India have been much more than just a mode of transport – they are a part of our very fabric.

Anyway, back to the movie – it about the launch of a new super fast express train that runs between Delhi and Bombay in a record time of 14 hours (clearly a tribute to the swanky Rajdhani Express trains that was the hottest thing on the tracks those days). The movie starts in Varanasi rail factory (Diesel Locomotive Works), where a group of capable engineers (Khanna, Dharam "paaji", Mehra, etc) toil away to design the new engine. After years of effort, their efforts finally pay off and the new express (er, aptly named "Super Express") is launched. However, engineers are humans too. During all this, the lead characters go through heartbreaks (Dharam-Hema), family crisis (Khanna-Babi) and professional showdowns (Danny-Khanna). Just when Khanna and co. are rejoicing over the success of the project, things go wrong.

The smitten Danny makes sure that he does what he can to ruin what would have been his pet project. To avenge his humiliation, he plants a bomb in the engine and renders the brakes useless. Meanwhile the train is full of standard stock characters – a kind-hearted petty thief (Jeetendra), a runaway bride (Singh), a school teacher (Simi Gerewal) with an army of school kids, a diamond smuggler (Ranjeet) who has an undercover cop (Sujit Kumar) chasing him, the heartbroken hero (Dharmendra) and his ex-flame (Hema) with her new doctor beau (Nischol) a pompous army man, the Hindu pandit sitting next to the staunch Muslim, the paan-chewing seductress in red sari (Asha Sachdev), the Sardarji, the Parsi, the Marwari – you name it! So the brakes have failed, the engine drivers are dead and the runaway train is speeding away on the tracks while the unsuspecting passengers have a ball singing qawwalis in the train. There is no way to contact them (remember – this was early 80s – no mobile phones – ah! Blissful days) Luckily, we have Dharamendra who jumps back into the train to save lives. Things go from bad to worse as the pantry catches fire and the fire spreads rapidly. Our heroes on the train take the onus to do something to save their own lives while the heroes outside are trying their best to get things out of the train's way! Trust me: stagecoach-sagas cannot get better than this.

As I mentioned, it was one of the slickest action movies of its time – use of miniatures, complex action sequences, chase scenes, explosions, aerial shots – it has a bit of everything. Excellent cinematography and a plausible screenplay add to the effect. The all-star cast is excellent, especially Khanna who delivers a powerful performance as the engineer trying to set things right. It is probably "inspired" by some Hollywood flick, but the thing is it has been very well done. The songs by R.D. Burman are excellent. I especially love the qawwali "Pal do pal ka saath hamara". "Vaada" and "Meri Nazar" are also quite good. This was a very, very good effort by Ravi Chopra (who later moved on to make movies like "Baghban" and now "Babul") and, once the express leaves Delhi station, is a non-stop action thriller. Pure Bollywood vintage action flick, very slickly made and served with loads of quintessential Bollywood masala.