Teesri Manzil

Teesri Manzil (translation: Third Floor) is a 1966 Indian musical thriller film directed by Vijay Anand and produced by Nasir Hussain. Released in India on 21 October 1966, the film stars Shammi Kapoor and Asha Parekh in titular roles along with Laxmi Chhaya, Premnath, Prem Chopra, Iftekhar, Helen and Raj Mehra. The film became a hit at the box office. With the music and songs setting records, this movie is considered among the best offerings and one of the first breakthroughs of R. D. Burman's career.

Teesri Manzil
Directed by	Vijay Anand
Produced by	Nasir Hussain
Written by	Nasir Hussain
Starring	Shammi Kapoor Asha Parekh Laxmi Chhaya Premnath Prem Chopra Iftekhar Helen Raj Mehra
Music by	R. D. Burman
Cinematography	N. Srinivas
Edited by	Vijay Anand
Distributed by	Nasir Hussain Films
Release date	21 October 1966 (1966-10-21)
Country	India
Language	Hindi

Indiatimes Movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films. notably for its extremely foot tapping music and songs, which remain very popular till date. The film is also noted for its memorable lead pair, superb mystery, tight script and above all, brilliant performance by Shammi Kapoor.

The film's DVD and VCD versions run for 145 minutes, while the theatre version ran for 175 minutes. Between Helen's jealous sniping at minute 76 and the song "Dekhiye Sahiban Woh Koi Aur Thi", sung by Mohammed Rafi, approximately 30 minutes of footage is missing. The last time a full version of this film released was on VHS. Many people in China and Hawaii reviewed it five stars.Now uncut full movie is available on YouTube and if its OTT presentation is concerned, it is available in ZEE5 since early 2020.

Plot

The film begins with a young girl, Rupa (Sabina), driving her car madly around the hills of Mussoorie in the midnight and stopping at The Park Hotel, before she rushes inside and mysteriously falls to her death from the third floor, clutching something in her hand. Her death is assumed to be suicide by everyone among the crowd onlookers, including Rocky (Shammi Kapoor), a drummer, and Ruby (Helen), a dancer at The Park Hotel.

One year later, Ramesh (Prem Chopra), Rupa's ex-fiancée, is shown to be trying to fix his marriage with Sunita (Asha Parekh), who is not as enamoured with the proposal even though he tries to intrigrate himself against her. She reveals to her friend, Meena (Laxmi Chhaya), and Rupa had written a letter to her on the night before her death, confessing that she was in love with Rocky, the drummer at The Park Hotel, and implying they had sexual relations, and that she desperately needs to marry him, and would kill herself on his refusal. Sunita believes that Rocky seduced, and then abandoned her sister, which led her to commit suicide, and intends to travel to Dehradun and Mussoorie and track down Rocky to avenge her sister's death.

On her way to Dehradun, Sunita happens to meet Anil Kumar - a charming but mischievous young man - who continuously flirts with her throughout the journey. As she checks into The Park Hotel with Meena, Sunita is surprised to find Anil there too, and he continues to woo her, much to her irritation. Unbeknownst to Sunita, Anil himself is Rocky (his screen name) and this secret is only known to Ruby, who is in love with Anil and often tries to seduce him. Anil eavesdrops on Sunita and Meena's conversations in the corridors of The Park Hotel, and manages to find out that Sunita is Rupa's revenge-seeking sister. He misleads her by making another co-worker (Salim Khan) at the hotel impersonate Rocky, while he continues to pursue Sunita as Anil. He even lies about his occupation that he is the nephew and heir of a wealthy landlord residing in a local mansion in Dehradun. While initially Sunita rebukes and rebuffs his advances, she eventually falls in love with Anil after realising his clean and gentle nature during an unexpected overnight trip, even confiding in him about her sister's tragic death and her hatred for Rocky. Anil reluctantly keeps up the charade and ends up having to entertain Sunita and her friends at the mansion of his "uncle", when his deceit is almost exposed by the sudden arrival of Kunwarsahab Mahendra Singh (Premnath), the real owner of the mansion, but he too surprisingly plays along and covers for Anil, and the two soon become good friends.

However, things take a turn when Sunita invites Anil and his "uncle" to meet with her father (Raj Mehra) to discuss about their marriage. At this point, Anil requests Kunwarsahab to reveal the truth to Sunita and her father, explaining that Rupa fell in love with him last year, during her vacations at The Park Hotel in Mussoorie and aggressively pursued him, despite his disinterest and her engagement with Ramesh. This development made Ramesh furious and he threatened to kill Rupa in front of Anil on the night before her fall. Later that night, Rupa had telephoned Anil, telling him that she has called off her engagement with Ramesh, and now desperately wants to meet him, and that she would kill herself on his refusal. However, Anil had refused and did not open the door of his room when Rupa banged on it at, pleading him to let her in, before he was shocked to hear her deadly fall from the third floor of the hotel. As Kunwarsahab keeps up the pretense instead and agrees on the alliance, Anil, with no other option, writes a letter to Sunita, explaining that he is none other than her enemy, Rocky, but that he never seduced her sister, and had no idea that she would kill herself over him. Sunita is aghast when she reads the letter at a singing show of Anil at The Park Hotel and breaks up with him.

As he unsuccessfully tries to pursue and convince Sunita, Anil is interrogated by Inspector Das (Iftekhar), detective investigating the death of Rupa. Anil tells Inspector Das the story of him and Rupa and tries to explain his position, but Inspector Das, although believing his innocence, shockingly reveals that the cause of Rupa's death was not suicide, but murder, as she was cold-bloodedly thrown off the third floor of The Park Hotel to her death. Shocked at learning this, Anil suspects Ruby to be Rupa's murderer, as she had intercepted the telephone call of him and Rupa, and was always jealous of any other woman coming close to Anil. However, during a confrontation, Ruby is mysteriously shot fatally by an unknown assailant climbing up to the third floor of The Park Hotel through the window, and breathes her last gracefully with the dying declaration that her only crime was to love Anil. Thus, Inspector Das takes Anil into police custody, and warns him that the shooter was aiming for him, not Ruby, as he believes that Anil is getting close to discovering the real killer. Inspector Das also shows Anil an expensive button discovered in Rupa's hand as evidence, which he believes she tore off the killer's overcoat during the time of her murder. Anil then suspects Ramesh to be Rupa's murderer as he had threatened to kill her in front of him on the night of her fall. However, Ramesh denies the accusation, although he was present at the hotel on the night Rupa died, and is also seen secretly bribing someone dressed as Ruby's killer with a bottle of whisky, but is let off by Inspector Das without any evidence.

Meanwhile, as Anil returns to his hotel room, a mysterious woman (Neeta) visits him and instructs him to take her car to a restaurant downhill, where he will find the conspirators. Anil does so, but is surprised to find while driving that the car has been sabotaged, and manages to jump out of it as the car plummets down a cliff. Presumed dead by everyone, he secretly visits Sunita, convinced that Ramesh has killed both Rupa and Ruby, and is now trying to kill him. Anil enlists the help of Sunita, who now believes his innocence and takes him to meet Ramesh at The Park Hotel, where Anil spots the same mysterious woman having set him up with the sabotaged car. He pursues her and is surprised to see her drive into Kunwarsahab's mansion. Shocked at seeing him there, Kunwarsahab insists that Anil is not safe anywhere and must stay with him in the night. He takes Anil to an old room in his mansion and instructs him to stay there till morning. After Kunwarsahab's departure, as Anil begrudgingly goes through a closet in the room, looking for clothes to change into, he is shocked to come across an overcoat of Kunwarsahab with the exact same buttons that Inspector Das had shown him, and the overcoat is also missing a button.

Realising that the killer of both Rupa and Ruby is none other than Kunwarsahab, Anil feigns an escape through the window, just as Kunwarsahab and the mysterious woman, Sabina, who is his mistress and a widow with two children, enter the room to stab Anil fatally in his sleep. While Kunwarsahab leaves to search for him, Anil gets hold of Sabina and forces her to confess the truth about Rupa and Ruby's murder. He telephones Inspector Das at the police station and Sabina confesses to him that Kunwarsahab had an extramarital affair with her, which his wife discovered and attempted to shoot Sabina, but Kunwarsahab tackled his wife, shooting her dead in the struggle. While Kunwarsahab and Sabina were burying Kunwarsahab's wife's dead body in the jungle, Rupa happened to witness them as she was on her way to meet Anil, and gave herself away and escaped to The Park Hotel with Kunwarsahab and Sabina in pursuit. She banged on the door of Anil's room, pleading him to let her in, but he did not open it for her, unaware of her predicament, causing Kunwarsahab to pick Rupa up and throw her off the third floor of the hotel to her death.

At that very moment, Kunwarsahab returns to his mansion and instantly shoots Sabina, killing her. He then attempts to kill Anil as well and chases him up to the roof of his mansion, but ends up going over the ledge in the ensuing combat. Anil holds onto Kunwarsahab, asking him to surrender himself to the police, who have just arrived at the scene along with Sunita, her father, Meena and Inspector Das. Kunwarsahab, however, chooses to die, and lets go of Anil's hand, falling to his death from the third floor of his mansion. The film ends with Anil and Sunita returning to Delhi from the same train where they met the first time.

Cast

• Shammi Kapoor as Anil Kumar / Rocky
• Asha Parekh as Sunita
• Laxmi Chhaya as Meena (Sunita's friend)
• Premnath as Kunwarsahab Mahendar Singh
• Prem Chopra as Ramesh (Rupa, and later, Sunita's fianceé)
• Iftekhar as Inspector Das (detective investigating Rupa's murder)
• Helen as Ruby
• Raj Mehra as Sunita and Rupa's father
• Sabina as Rupa
• Neeta as Sabina (Kunwarsahab's mistress and accomplice)
• Ram Avtar as Laughing passenger in train (Cameo Appearance)
• K. N. Singh as Manohar (Kunwarsahab's estate manager)

Background

Nasir Hussain produced and wrote Teesri Manzil under his home banner. He approached Dev Anand to star in the film and he immediately agreed. However, at the same time, another of Nasir Hussain's productions, Baharon Ke Sapne, was to be directed by Vijay Anand. Then, on occasion of Sadhana's engagement party, a misunderstanding erupted between Dev Anand and Nasir Hussain, when Hussain allegedly overheard Dev Anand saying. "The film which Nasir is making with me is coloured and he has given Goldie some black-and-white film to make. Goldie is making the movie with some new boy, Rajesh Khanna". It was the next day that Hussain requested Vijay Anand to direct Teezri Manzil and offered to helm Baharon Ke Sapne, but specified that Teesri Manzil would not have Dev Anand in it. It was only then that Shammi Kapoor was approached.

Vijay Anand came on board to direct and edit the film. Hussain then cast Shammi Kapoor, who had earlier starred in Hussain's two big hits Tumsa Nahin Dekha (1957) and Dil Deke Dekho (1959), the latter of which introduced 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 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, Hussain and Vijay 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. All the hit songs featured Mohammed Rafi The song picturizations were outstanding, with Helen dancing to "Oh Haseena Zulfon Waali". Songs such as "Aaja aaja" had a rock n' roll base and were extremely popular.

Soundtrack

All the songs were composed by Rahul Dev Burman and lyrics were penned by Majrooh Sultanpuri. Mohammed Rafi featured in all the songs and Asha Bhosle sang all the female parts. Choreography was by Herman Benjamin.

#	Song	Singer
1	"Tumne Mujhe Dekha Hokar Meharbaan"	Mohammed Rafi
2	"Deewana Mujhsa Nahin Is Ambar Ke Neeche"	Mohammed Rafi
3	"O Haseena Zulfonwali Jaan-E-Jahan"	Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle
4	"O Mere Sona Re, Sona Re, Sona Re"	Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle
5	"Aaja Aaja, Main Hoon Pyar Tera"	Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle
6	"Dekhiye Sahibon, Woh Koi Aur Thi"	Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle

Reception

The film became a hit and remains popular to this day. 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 Hussain film in which Mohammed Rafi sang all the songs. By Yaadon Ki Baraat, Kishore Kumar had temporarily become the dominant singer in Hussain's movies, but Rafi always had a special place in Hussain's films and would later win major awards for the song "Kya Hua Tera Wada" in Hussain's Hum Kisise Kum Naheen (1977).

Hussain and Vijay never worked together 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 Zulfon Waali". In real life, Helen would later become his second wife. Shammi's wife Geeta Bali died during the filming, and Vijay helped Shammi get over the grief.

Dvd /VCD missing 21 minutes

The Dvd and Vcd versions of the film are missing 21 minutes of the film . The 1987 VCR release has the complete movie. The missing portion can be seen on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgntrX8Z_9A&ab_channel=AtulShah

External links

• Teesri Manzil on IMDb