''27 Down'' is a 1974

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

directed by Awtar Krishna Kaul, starring

Raakhee Raakhee Gulzar (born Rakhee Majumdar on 15 August 1947 and known as Raakhee) is an Indian actress who has appeared in many Hindi films and Bengali films as well. In four decades of acting, she has won three Filmfare Awards and one National Fil ...

and M.K. Raina. The film is based on the

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

novel ''Athara Sooraj Ke Paudhe'', by Ramesh Bakshi, about a railways employee who meets a girl on the train. The film's music was performed by classical musicians

Hariprasad Chaurasia Hariprasad Chaurasia (born 1 July 1938) is an Indian music director and classical flautist, who plays the bansuri, in the Hindustani classical tradition. Early life Chaurasia was born in Allahabad (1938) (officially called Prayagraj) in the I ...

and Bhubaneswar Mishra, while the production design was by Bansi Chandragupta. At the 21st National Film Awards, the film won the Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi as well as Best Cinematography, for Apurba Kishore Bir. The film's director Avatar Kaul died in an accident the same week the awards were announced. It was his only film.

Plot

The film is set on 27 Down, the Bombay-Varanasi Express, Sanjay (M.K. Raina) is on a pilgrimage journey to

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

(Banaras), and remembers his life in flashbacks. Sanjay gives up his dreams to become an artist, in order to support his family he takes up his father's profession of railways employee. He spends his days as a railways ticket checker, till he meets a Life Insurance Corporation employee, Shalini (Raakhee), on the suburban train. After a few more meetings, they fall in love, and Sanjay starts seeing life differently, but when his father finds about their relationship, he fixes his marriage with some other girl.

Cast

as Shalini * M.K. Raina as Sanjay *Rekha Sabnis as Sanjay's Wife *

Om Shivpuri Om Shivpuri (14 July 1938 – 15 October 1990) was an Indian theatre actor-director and character actor in Hindi films. A National School of Drama, New Delhi alumnus, Shivpuri became the first chief of the National School of Drama Repertory Co ...

as Anna (Sanjay's father) * Madhavi Manjula as Aka (Sanjay's mother) * Sadhu Meher *

Sudhir Dalvi Sudhir Dalvi is an Indian actor. He first came to prominence for portraying Guru Vashishta in Ramanand Sagar's TV series ''Ramayan'' and is well known for his role as Sai Baba. He also acted as Sai Baba in Manoj Kumar's feature film '' Shirdi ...

as Sanjay's friend * Nilesh Vellani as young Sanjay

Music

#"Chuk Chuk Chuk" - Ravi Kichlu

Special Mention

27 Down is featured in Avijit Ghosh's book, 40 Retakes: Bollywood Classics You May have Missed. He wrote the film explores urban alienation just like French writer Albert Camus did in his novels; something no Hindi film had done before. Cinematographer AK Bir's camera travels inside the mind of the protagonist, he also said.

Production

The film was shot on location on Mumbai trains, platforms, and at Mumbai's

Victoria Terminus Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (officially Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Bombay station code: CSMT ( mainline)/ST (suburban)), is a historic railway terminus and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The terminus was d ...

station, the cinematographer of the film, Apurba Kishore Bir was 22 years old when he got the project, he shot 70 percent of the film using a

hand-held camera Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a filmmaking and video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a tripod or other base. Hand-held cameras are used because they are conve ...

, inspired by ''

The Battle of Algiers ar, Maʿrakat al-Jazāʾir , director = Gillo Pontecorvo , producer = Antonio MusuSaadi Yacef , writer = Franco Solinas , story = Franco SolinasGillo Pontecorvo , starring = Jean MartinSaadi YacefBrahim H ...

'', a 1966 war film with an aim to put the camera right in the conflict, he shot with wide lenses rather than zooms. Bir chose to shoot the film in black and white, as he wanted stark contrasts. As it was difficult to control across crowd, most of the film's platform scenes were shot in the night, or at side platforms, and extras made it look like a busy time.

References

27 Down : Map of the Human Heart

External links

* * {{National Film Award Best Feature Film Hindi 1974 films 1970s psychological drama films Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography National Film Award Films set in Mumbai Rail transport films Indian psychological drama films Films shot in Mumbai Films based on Indian novels Indian black-and-white films 1970s Hindi-language films Best Hindi Feature Film National Film Award winners 1974 directorial debut films 1974 drama films Hindi-language drama films