The Burning Train (1980)

Director:

Ravi Chopra

Writers:

Ravi Chopra (story)
Kamleshwar (dialogue)
(more)

Release Date:

20 March 1980 (India)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Plot:

A dedicated railway employee's plan to introduce an express train result in sabotage.

Plot Keywords:

Forced Perspective | Burning Train | End Of Friendship | Friendship | Breaking Up

Cast

Dharmendra	...	Ashok
Vinod Khanna	...	Vinod Verma
Jeetendra	...	Thief
Vinod Mehra	...	Rakesh
Hema Malini	...	Seema
Parveen Babi	...	Mrs. Sheetal Vinod Verma
Simi Garewal	...	School-teacher
Navin Nischol	...	Doctor
Danny Denzongpa	...	Randhir
Neetu Singh	...	Madhu
Sujit Kumar	...	Catholic Priest / Police Inspector Ranbir
Ranjeet	...	Chander
Iftekhar	...	Railway Board Chair Jagmohan
Nasir Hussain	...	Mr. Verma (Vinod's dad)
Satyendra Kapoor	...	Madhu's dad
Padma Khanna
Rajendra Nath	...	Pandit Shambhunath
Mukri	...	Kanhaiya
Paintal	...	Passenger in toilet
Gufi Paintal	...	Indian Railways' employee
Nana Palsikar	...	Seema's Mamaji
Madan Puri	...	Ashok's dad
Jagdish Raj	...	Tango
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Asrani	...	Col. P.K. Bhandari
Urmila Bhatt	...	Mrs. Jagmohan (Randhir's mom)
Chandrashekhar	...	Railway Board Member
T.P. Jain	...	Passenger
Jankidas	...	Passenger
Padmini Kapila	...	Ritu
Ravindra Kapoor
Manmauji	...	Passenger
Mac Mohan	...	Mac (Laborer)
Indrani Mukherjee	...	Padmini (Rajaram's wife)
Keshto Mukherjee	...	Passenger in toilet
Yunus Parvez	...	Maulana Abdul Rahim
Payal	...	Rakesh
Shammi	...	Passenger
Anil Sharma
Ramesh Sharma
Romesh Sharma	...	Udesh
Om Shivpuri	...	Rajaram
Dinesh Thakur	...	Usman Ali
Komilla Wirk	...	Razia (as Komila Virk)

Directed by
Ravi Chopra

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ravi Chopra		story
Kamleshwar		dialogue
Kamleshwar		screenplay

Produced by
B.R. Chopra	....	producer
Madan Chopra	....	assistant producer
D.H. Vengurlekar	....	production executive

Original Music by
Rahul Dev Burman		(music) (as R.D. Burman)

Cinematography by
Dharam Chopra		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
R.P. Bapat
S.B. Mane
Pran Mehra		(as Late Pran Mehra)

Art Direction by
Shanti Dass		(as Shantidas)

Costume Design by
Bhanu Athaiya

Makeup Department
Henry Martis	....	assistant makeup artist (as Henri Martis)
Shashi Mhatre	....	makeup artist
Sandeep	....	assistant makeup artist (as Sandip)
Ulhas	....	assistant makeup artist

Production Management
Kishore Malhotra	....	production in charge
Gajendra Singh	....	production in charge

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Omi Bedi	....	second unit in-charge
Romi Behl	....	assistant director
Surendra Gupta	....	assistant director (as Surrinder Gupta)
Pradeep Mehra	....	assistant director (as Pradip Mehra)
Arun Patil	....	assistant director
Anil Sharma	....	assistant director
R.K. Sibal	....	chief assistant director
Ujjain Singh	....	assistant director

Art Department
Y.L. Bagchi	....	assistant art director
Manas Biswas	....	assistant art director (as Manasig Biswas)
Sachin Roy	....	assistant art director
Dabbu Singh	....	assistant art director (as Dabbu)
Dilip Singh	....	assistant art director

Sound Department
Abdul Aziz	....	assistant audiographer
G.S. Bhatia	....	dubbing
Deepan Chatterjee	....	sound editor (as Deepan Chatterji)
B.K. Chaturvedi	....	audiographer
Gerry Humphreys	....	sound re-recording mixer
T.R. Malhotra	....	assistant audiographer
M.A. Shaikh	....	dubbing

Special Effects by
Gerald Endler	....	special effects
Prafull Gade	....	titles writer (as Praful)
Suresh Naik	....	optical effects
Arun Patil	....	special effects assistant
Paul Wurtzel	....	special effects

Stunts
A. Mansoor	....	action coordinator (as Mansoor)

Camera and Electrical Department
Daniel D'Souza	....	assistant camera (as Denial D'Souza)
Narayan Rao Das	....	camera operator: first unit (as Narayan Rao)
Anil Dhanda	....	camera operator: second unit
Vasant Kalgutkar	....	assistant camera
Amit Kapoor	....	assistant camera (as Amit Kapur)
Abdul Karim	....	chief electrician (as A. Karim)
Pujari	....	assistant electrician
Ashok Rao	....	assistant camera
Shankar	....	assistant electrician

Animation Department
Kabi Dasgupta	....	background painter (as Kabidas Gupta)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Harish	....	wardrobe
Jagannath Pawar	....	wardrobe (as Jagannath)

Editorial Department
Shashi Mane	....	assistant editor
Pradeep Mehra	....	assistant editor (as Pradip Mehra)
P.G. Mulay	....	color consultant

Music Department
Asha Bhosle	....	playback singer (as Asha Bhonsle)
Basu Deo Chakravarty	....	music assistant (as Basu)
R. Kaushik	....	background music recordist (as Kaushik)
R. Kaushik	....	song recordist (as Kaushik)
Padmini Kolhapure	....	playback singer
Kishore Kumar	....	playback singer
Sahir Ludhianvi	....	lyricist
Usha Mangeshkar	....	playback singer
Annette Pinto	....	playback singer
Mohammad Rafi	....	playback singer (as Mohd. Rafi)
Maruti Rao	....	music assistant (as Maruti)
Sushma Shreshta	....	playback singer (as Sushma Shresta)
Manohari Singh	....	music assistant (as Manohari)

Other crew
Aruna Bashir	....	assistant choreographer (as Aruna)
Suresh Bhatt	....	choreographer
Raj Chopra	....	outdoor unit incharge
Robin Gupta	....	public relations officer
Manoel Naronha	....	production assistant
Ramesh Palekar	....	production assistant
Avinash Parab	....	production assistant (as Avinash)
Bunny Reuben	....	director of publicity
C.V.K. Sastry	....	production controller (as C.V.K. Shastry)
Suryakant	....	production assistant
Laxmi Narayan Yadav	....	production assistant (as L.N. Yadav)

Production Companies

• B.R. Films (presents)
• United Producers

Distributors

• Shemaroo Video Pvt. Ltd. (2003) (India) (DVD)
• Yash Raj Films USA Inc. (2001) (USA) (DVD)

Special Effects

• Ram Mohan Biographics (main titles)

Other Companies

• B.R. Sound N Music  dubbing
• B.R. Sound N Music  sound effects
• Bombay Publicity Service  advertising (as Bombay Publicity Service P. Ltd.)
• DeLuxe Laboratories  70 mm prints: Los Angeles, California
• H.M.V.  soundtrack
• Image  still photography
• Indian Railway  grateful acknowledgement (as The Indian Railways)
• Kachins  men's costumes
• Kinema Centre  color photography (as Kinemacentre)
• Nensey Blocks & Printers  publicity printers (as Nensey Printers)
• New Stylo  men's costumes
• S.P. Enterprises  world rights controller: Bombay
• Studio Diwakar  publicity design
• Super Tailors  men's costumes
• Thakur & Co.  junior artists supplier
• Twickenham Studios  4 track stereophonic sound (as Twickenham Film Studios)

Runtime:

USA:142 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:15 (DVD rating) (2000) | UK:PG (video rating) (1988) | India:U

Filming Locations:

Film City, Goregaon, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Company:

B.R. Films

Soundtrack:

Pal Do Pal Ka Saath Hamara

I love...love...love this movie (and the lead actors too)!!

"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.