Bollywood Movies

Teesri Manzil (“Third Floor”) is a 1966 Bollywood film by Nasir Hussain films. It starred his regular stars Shammi Kapoor and Asha Parekh. Nazima, Premnath, Prem Chopra, Iftekhar , Helen, K. N. Singh and Salim were part of the supporting cast. The film became a hit at the box office.

Indiatimes Movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.

Plot

Anil Kumar “Sona” (Shammi Kapoor) finds a young woman named Roopa jumping from the third floor of the hotel at night where he regularly performs as a musician named “Rocky.” Roopa’s younger sister (Asha Parekh) believes that her sister committed suicide because of a supposedly ruined affair with Rocky, so she comes to seek vengeance. She and Anil fall in love, but he doesn’t know how to tell her that he and Rocky are the same person.

Sunil takes the help of a rich older man (Premnath) who pretends to be Anil’s uncle to help Anil impress Sunita and her father. A police detective reveals that Roopa didn’t commit suicide but was actually pushed from the third floor with an expensive shirt button in her clenched hand. Is the killer Roopa’s jealous fiancee Ramesh (Prem Chopra), who now has designs on Sunita? Or is it the dancer Ruby (Helen) who is pining for Rocky? Or was it because she witnessed a murder?

Behind the Scenes

Nasir Hussain produced and wrote the film under his home banner. He opted not to direct this film, and instead approached Vijay Anand to direct and his older brother Dev Anand to star in it. Dev was unavailable, but Vijay came on board to direct and edit the film. Hussain then cast his regular actors, Shammi Kapoor who had earlier starred in Hussain’s two big hits, Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957) and Dil Deke Dekho, which introduced heroine Asha Parekh. Asha had starred in two more hits for Hussain Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai (1961) and Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon (1963). Thus, the newcomer for this film would be music composer R.D. Burman(son of legendary music composer S.D. Burman), and he would create phenomenal music for this film. He would compose for all of Hussain’s films until Zabardast(1985). Shammi Kapoor, Nasir Hussain, and Vijay Anand individually took credit for discovering the supremely talented R.D. Burman. But R.D. Burman gave credit to lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri for recommending him to Hussain, and both of them would create unforgettable songs for Teesri Manzil. The song picturisations were outstanding, with Helen dancing to “Oh Haseena zulfonwaali”. Songs like “Aaja aaja” had a rock and roll base and were extremely popular.

The film became a hit and remains popular to this day. What is so unusual is that although it is a murder mystery, it continues to draw repeat audiences even though the identity of the murderer is no longer a secret. “Teesri Manzil” was the last time Shammi starred in a Nasir Hussain film. Asha would go on to do four more, three of which she starred in.

“Teesri Manzil” was also the last Nasir Hussain film in which Mohammed Rafi sang all the songs. By Yaadon Ki Baraat, Kishore Kumar had temporarily become the dominant singer in Nasir Hussain’s movies, but Rafi always had a special place in Hussain’s films and would later win major awards for the song “kya huva tera wada” in Hussain’s Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin (1977).

Nasir Hussain and Vijay Anand never worked together again after Teesri Manzil. Hussain would return to directing all his films again and would only relinquish the director’s chair to his son after three of his films flopped in the 1980s. Salim Khan played a small role as Shammi Kapoor’s musician friend who pretends to be Rocky in the musical number “Oh Haseena zulfonwaali,” picturized on Helen’s dancing. In real life, Helen would later become his second wife. Shammi Kapoor’s wife, actress Geeta Bali died during the filming, and director Vijay Anand helped Shammi get over the grief.