चलती का नाम गाड़ी

The recent directive of Supreme Court about the automobiles with a

  specific emission standard being banned was, somehow, shadowed by

more eyeball-worthy stories in the news.The step towards cleaner

environment is welcome.At the same time, it is so enthralling to see

vintage cars plying on the road.Most such viewings have been only on

the silver screen.

Hindi films always had a niche for cars,both modern and vintage.Films

of 50s showed cars of old styles,

while from 60s onwards the films

showed more cars of modern makes and brands.

There were many films made in which the cars played a major role,sometimes it was having footage even more than the character actors. 

The car -turned -taxi was an early formula with Dev Anand in and as the Taxi Driver (1954). Being a taxi driver, the car was bound to be an integral part of the film.  Stylish Dev , throughout his career, drove many on-screen cars, but the taxi used in Taxi Driver may have been the early one. Backed by superb music  of Sachin Dev Burman, even the funny song involving the car was a great piece of poetry, to the delight of car mechanics ! 

                                                         धत तेरे की 

                                                    हवा निकल गयी 
                                                       जैक लगाओ 
                                                            चक्का 
                                                            पहिया 
                                                            पम्पिंग

                                                                  

Talking of car mechanics, there was the Ganguly brothers' comedy "Chalti Ka naam Gaadi",

 which had a car at the centre of the story, almost.

Kishore Kumar, Ashok Kumar and Anoop Kumar , along with their car named " Champion" , a 1928 Ford model ‘A’ roadster.

The car careens all across Bombay, and we get

not just a glimpse of the city, but also a good idea of the minds of

these three  characters. 
So,  with a 30 year old model, the whole film was a roller-coaster ride.

 As many as three songs featured cars. Apart from the song presented here, there was the  song Hum the wo thi, aur samaa rangeen, samajh gaye na ( which had the funny one-liner "tera hua , ab mera kya hoga, Mannu") and the song, ek ladki bheegi bhagi si was in a garage, where Madhubala comes for getting her car repaired by mechanic Kishore, after which he goes after her asking for his "panch rupaiyya barah aana".

 An incomparable comedy.

The 60s did not have many films with Car/taxi as a backdrop. Probably because the population of vehicles were not so much ( save the taxi population in Bombay). One such film which prominently  featured the taxi was Sadhu aur Shaitaan ( 1968).

 This was a story of Mehmood  who drives a काली-पीलीTaxi, named  Laila ( लैला भी थी काली, ये किस्सा मशहूर है  ). In a rather lengthy scene , a dead body ends up in a taxi and  number of passengers  discover this to their horror, creating comedy.

So, let's take a ride in Laila , the taxi which has horror and comedy all rolled in one.

                                       

Hindi films did showcase a lot of vintage vehicles in songs in a number of films, but having a "road" film was still not happening. Kishore Kumar  and Mehmood again joined hands to give us Bombay to  Goa , which was about a road trip of passengers in a bus connecting the two places. Amitabh Bachchan, paired with Aruna Irani,  got a foothold in the film industry with this film. Actually, Mehmood had offered the role first to Rajiv Gandhi, who had politely declined !

Released at the peak of popularity of Rajesh Khanna, the driver and cleaner in the film were named Rajesh and Khanna, respectively. The role played by Kishore Kumar is himself. He is going to shoot for  a film and his car breaks down, so he takes a lift in the bus. And obviously, regales the passengers with a song, the title song. 

Incidentally, do you know about the film for which he was going to shoot? It was Love in Bombay which was released in  2013, delayed by 30 years !

   

While there may not have been many films whose storylines involved cars, old or new, we have seen many beauties  on the road in many films in songs and scenes. It will not be out of the way to mention some of the most such   cars/jeeps.
 

Waqt ( 1965) had a whole lot of cars : Convertibles, open-topped Standard and a rather long Buick   

.

Chevrolet had a very early presence in India and its cars were used in many Bollywood movies. The Impala for instance was a favorite among baddies. In the 1967 film, Jewel Thief, starring Dev Anand and Tanuja, the song “Ye dil na hota bechara” shows another classic Chevrolet, the 1955 Bel Air convertible model. The car was powered by a 4.3-litre, 8-cylinder (V8) engine that put out 162 bhp of power – a really powerful car for the time.

 Kashmir Ki Kali had Shammi Kapoor drive a white 1948 Studebaker Commander, which  was a five-seater, two-door convertible with a rag top, and powered by a 3700 cc, six-cylinder in-line petrol engine that put out 94 bhp of power !

The car appears in all its glory as Shammi dislodges the pebble with his foot in this song !!

The iconic song, “Mere sapnon ki rani”, featured Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore in the movie Aradhana. The machine used was Willys “Jeep” CJ3B , a left-hand drive variant, featuring a three-speed gearbox and four-wheel drive with high and low ratios. It was powered by a 2.2 litre, four-cylinder “Hurricane” petrol engine that put out 75 bhp of power. It was also made in India by Mahindra.

The song “chal chal mere haathi” from Hathi Mere Sathi  shows, Rajesh Khanna, using his tame elephants to give Tanuja a helping hand when her 1958 Chevrolet Impala convertible breaks down. The Chevrolet Impala was powered by 3.9 litre, six-cylinder engine with a three-speed manual transmission.

 Impala’s were a hot favorite among imported cars in India (कारों में इक कार सुनी है , कार सुनी इम्पाला  )  and continued to be imported well into the 1970’s (remember the rocket-fin shaped rear?)

 

Feroz Khan introduced the racing cars to Hindi films in Apradh 1972. However, an interesting thing happened while shooting the film in Germany. He realized that the $ 50,000 in his pocket was insufficient for filming. Then, divine intervention came in the form of his friend and racing car-driver Prince Leopold of Bavaria. Just before a race he was participating in was flagged off, he hopped out of his car and Feroz stepped in. As soon as the shot was canned, Leopold hopped back into the driver's seat and the race started.

 

Coming back to films, in the 70s, there a less-known film Taxi Taxie ( 1977). The story was about a good hearted taxi-driver ( Amol Palekar) who goes out of the way to help his customers and when times turn bad for him and he has no one to turn to, his former customers rally around to help him. The film did not do well, but this song composed by was a regular on Vividh Bharti those days.

Shaan ( 1980) boasted of a scene involving a Porsche , being compared with a girl by Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi kapoor, unwittingly !

                                   

   In Feroz Khan's Qurbani ( 1980) , he damaged Amrish Puri's Mercedez , to drive home a point, pun intended !
                         

Cars  continued to be used in films but as showpieces, not a major ingredient in the 80s. With the liberalisation, one could see a whole lot of new makes on the streets and films chose to display the newer versions rather than vintage ones.

In the last two decades , a lot of films have been made with cars as a central theme. To name a few: Tara rum Pum, Mere Dad Ki Maruti, Ferrari Ki sawari, Taxi 9211 and Do Dooni Chaar

This film deserves a special mention because of the brilliant storyline and acting by all the actors. Borrowing a car which gets damaged accidentally, provokes a teacher Rishi Kapoor to get a car of his own.

So, whether the vehicle is owned or borrowed, as long as it runs well, it's OK because ....chalti ka naam gaadi !