Teesri Manzil (1966)

R.D. Burman had barely broken out of his father S.D. Burman's shadow when he was introduced to the legendary Nasir Hussain for the musical composition of his latest movie, 'Teesri Manzil'. Star Shammi Kapoor was not too happy about the decision as he wanted to go with more established composers but once he heard some advance tunes that Burman had sent he changed his mind. R.D. Burman had the luck of entering the world of Indian cinema just as rock & roll was hitting the shores of the West and he combined those new beats with old school Indian styles to make something truly different. It was distinctive enough to not just be spectacularly popular back then - but has come full circle in a way and was recently featured in the Hollywood movie 'Ghost World' (the must see trailer below).



For a full review of the movie see Carla's post at Filmigeek. 'Teesri Manzil' is a murder mystery that has been called "the romantic-comedy-whodunit to beat in Hindi Cinema" (the victim - Rupa - shares the same name as my mom!) and is actually quite fun to watch given it's great stars, excellent direction, awesome outfits and of course the groovy tunes. The first song is the incredibly catchy Oh Mere Sona sung by Mohd Rafi & Asha Bhonsle - who was Burman's favorite female singer of the time as she knew how to mix Eastern & Western melodies just perfectly. The second number is a duet originally sung by Mohd Rafi & Asha Bhonsle called O Haseena Zulfon Wali. I decided to something different and put a version sung by two contemporary singers, Abhijeet & Sunidi Chauhan, to contrast the different styles of the singers and also to show that, even today, the songs hold the same spell over Bollywood they did back then.