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 lead roles along with Laxmi Chhaya, Iftekhar, Premnath, Helen, Prem Chopra and Raj Mehra in supporting roles. 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.

Indiatimes Movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.  The film is noted for its memorable lead pair, superb mystery, tight script and performance by Shammi Kapoor.

The film's DVD & VCD versions run for 145 minutes, while the theatre version ran for 175 minutes. Between Ruby'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 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 at the hotel, including Rocky (Shammi Kapoor), a drummer, and Ruby (Helen), a dancer at The Park Hotel. One year later, Rupa's ex-fianceé, Ramesh (Prem Chopra), is shown to be trying to arrange his marriage with Rupa's grieving younger sister, Sunita (Asha Parekh), who is not as enamoured with the proposal and reveals to her friend, Meena (Laxmi Chhaya), that on the night before her fall, Rupa had written her last letter to her, confessing that she was in love with Rocky - the drummer at The Park Hotel - and implying that they had sexual relations and that she desperately needs to marry him. Sunita believes that Rocky had seduced and then jilted 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 from the train station to the end of the journey of the train. As Sunita checks into The Park Hotel in Mussoorie along with Meena, she is surprised to find Anil there too, and he continues to woo her. Unbeknownst to Sunita, Anil himself is Rocky (his stage name) and this truth is only known to Ruby, who has feelings for Anil. Anil eavesdrops on Sunita and Meena's conversations in the corridoors of The Park Hotel and manages to find out that Sunita is the revenge-seeking sister of Rupa. Therefore, he misleads her by making another co-worker (Salim Khan) at The Park Hotel impersonate Rocky, while he continues to pursue Sunita as Anil and even lies about his family background, that he is the nephew and heir of a wealthy landlord residing in a local mansion in Dehradun. While initially Sunita rebukes him and rebuffs his advances, she eventually falls in love with Anil after realising his clean and gentle nature during an unexpected overnight trip, and even confides in him about her sister's tragic death and her hatred for Rocky. 

Anil reluctantly keeps up his charade and ends up having to be forced to entertain Sunita and her friends at the mansion of his "uncle". His lie is almost exposed by the arrival of Kunwarsahab Mahendar Singh (Premnath) - the real owner of the mansion - but he also surprisingly plays along and covers for Anil and the two soon become good friends. Sunita invites Anil and his "uncle" to meet with her father (Raj Mehra) and discuss about their marriage when Anil requests Kunwarsahab to explain his truth to Sunita and her father, revealing that Rupa fell madly in love with him during her vacations in Mussoorie at The Park Hotel and relentlessly pursued him, despite his disinterest and her engagement with Ramesh. This made Ramesh furious and he threatened to kill Rupa in front of Anil. On the night before her fall, Rupa had telephoned Anil, telling him that she has called off her engagement with Ramesh and now desperately wants to meet him, but Anil had refused to open the door of his room when Rupa banged on it in the middle of the night, pleading him to let her in. A few moments later, Anil was devastated to hear Rupa's deadly fall from the third floor of The Park Hotel.

As Kunwarsahab instead keeps up the pretence 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 give up her life over him. Sunita is aghast when she reads the letter and breaks up with Anil. As he unsuccessfully tries to pursue and convince Sunita, Anil is approached by Inspector Das (Iftekhar) - a detective investigating Rupa's death - who shockingly reveals to Anil that the cause of Rupa's death was not suicide, but murder, as she was deliberately thrown off the third floor of The Park Hotel. Upon learning this, Anil suspects Ruby to be Rupa's murderer as she had intercepted their telephone call, and was always jealous of any other woman coming close to Anil. However, during confrontation, Ruby gets hit by a fatal gunshot inflicted by an unknown assailant climbing up to the third floor of The Park Hotel, and breathes her last gracefully with the 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. He shows Anil an expensive button discovered in Rupa's hand as evidence, which he believes she tore off the killer's overcoat. Anil then suspects Ramesh to be Rupa's murderer as he had threatened to kill her in front of him on the night before her fall. Ramesh, however, denies the accusation on interrogation by Inspector Das, although he was present at The Park Hotel on the night Rupa died, and is also seen secretly bribing someone dressed as Ruby's killer with a bottle of whiskey, 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 happens to find out while driving that the car has been sabotaged, and jumps out as the car plummets down a cliff. 

Presumed dead by everyone, Anil secretly visits Sunita, convinced that Ramesh killed both Rupa and Ruby and is now trying to kill him. He 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, and chases her. He is surprised to see her drive into the mansion of Kunwarsahab, who is shocked at seeing Anil there and insists that he 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 also the overcoat is missing a button. Realising that the killer of both Rupa and Ruby is none other than Kunwarsahab, Anil forges an escape through the window, just as Kunwarsahab and the mysterious woman named Sabina, who is a widow with two children and his mistress, enter the room to kill Anil in his sleep. While Kunwarsahab leaves to search for him, Anil gets hold of Sabina and forces her to confess the truth before he telephones Inspector Das at the police station. 

Finally, Sabina reveals to Inspector Das that Kunwarsahab had an extramarital affair with her that his wife discovered and attempted to kill her. However, Kunwarsahab tackled his wife and accidentally fired a bullet at her in the tussle, resulting in her death. 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. She 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 Anil did not open the door for her, unaware of her predicament, causing Kunwarsahab to pick Rupa up and ruthlessly throw her off the third floor of The Park Hotel to her death. At that very moment, Kunwarsahab returns to his mansion and overhears Sabina's telephonic conversation with Inspector Das. He shoots Sabina dead and then attempts to kill Anil and chases him up to the roof of his mansion. In combat, Anil overpowers Kunwarsahab and throws him over the ledge of his mansion, holding onto him and asking him to surrender himself to the police, who have just arrived at the scene. Kunwarsahab, however, prefers 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)
 Iftekhar as Inspector Das (detective investigating Rupa's murder)
 Premnath as Kunwarsahab Mahendar Singh
 Helen as Ruby
 Prem Chopra as Ramesh (Rupa, and later, Sunita's fianceé)
 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 in colour 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 Teesri 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.

The song 'Tumne mujhe dekha hokar meherbaan', has particular significance to Shammi Kapoor. It is said that some (indeterminate) time before the song was about to be shot, he received news that his wife at the time, Geeta Bali, had just died. Consummate professional that he was, he said he wanted to continue the filming due to the costs to the producer. And so the song was shot while he was in mourning. His tearing up and acting in the song is very real due to this background. There is a particular sequence in the song, where a three pronged candle stand on Asha Parekh's table falls over and the candles are blown off. Shammi Kapoor walks over to the table, picks a lit candle from the neighbouring table, and appears to light all three candles. But when he straightens the candle holder, and the camera turns from a side-on view, to a front-on view, you can see that the middle candle has been left unlit. It seems Shammi Kapoor told the director to leave the shot as-is, and that was his way of showing that the light in his life, his wife, had been taken away.

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.

Reception
The film became a hit. 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.

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 .

References

External links
 

1966 films
1960s Hindi-language films
Films scored by R. D. Burman
Films directed by Vijay Anand