Teesri Manzil (Third Floor) is a  Indian musical thriller  film directed by Vijay Anand, the maestro, and written and produced by Nasir Hussain. Hussain and Vijay never worked together after Teesri Manzil. Film is remembered by people of Mussoorie and Doon as it gave special importance to these towns. A woman blames a nightclub drummer for the suspicious death of her sister, and seeks revenge. However, the pair work together to solve the mystery and become romantically involved, after he introduces himself under another name.

Shammi Kapoor’s most applauded roles, pairing him with Asha Parekh and giving him plenty of opportunity to display his trademark manic-obsessive lover character. He is Anil Kumar, “Rocky,” a drumming and singing sensation who, together with his jazzy band and a lavish revue featuring dancer Ruby in nightly at the posh Park Hotel. A girl named Rupa, falls to her death from the hotel’s third floor, an apparent suicide.

One year later, her younger sister Sunita (Asha Parekh), goes to Mussoorie with her college hockey team. Her real intentions are to find the truth about and avenge the death of her sister, Rupa, who had apparently jumped off the hotel’s third floor after being rejected by drummer Rocky (Shammi Kapoor) whose band performs at the hotel. Sunita holds Rocky responsible for Rupa’s death. Rocky meets her and realizing what she’s up to, hides his identity and passes off a colleague as Rocky. Using his real name Anil, he woos Sunita and the two fall in love. At this point it is found that Rupa did not commit suicide but was murdered with Anil, a chief suspect. Anil comes clean to Sunita explaining that though Rupa chased him, he had nothing to do with her and is not responsible for Rupa’s death but Sunita refuses to believe him. She breaks it off with him accusing of him being her sister’s murderer. Anil joins hands with the Police Inspector to prove his innocence and uncover the real killer.

Teesri Manzil remains the romantic-comdey-whodunit to beat in Hindi Cinema. An effective plot, energetic performances, a hep and happening musical score and above all brilliant song picturizations make the film. The heroine searching for the killer of her sister and falling in love with the hero who is a suspect.

On the surface the film has all the elements one finds in a Nasir Hussain film – lively romance, witty dialogue and repartee and of course fabulous music. Teesri Manzil rise above all Nasir Hussain films, popular though they were, is the sure directorial hand of Vijay Anand at the helm of the film. Vijay Anand was without doubt one of the greatest directors that Hindi cinema has seen. Films shone with their technical virtuosity and marvelous sense of storytelling, his incredible talent as a filmmaker comes through even more forcefully in his picturization of songs.  Anand deftly combines the various elements of romance, comedy and mystery into a cohesive unit. The mystery part is particularly well handled keeping the audiences on their toes. The red herrings like Helen, Prem Chopra and Rashid Khan are intelligently used as one tries to guess the identity of the true killer.

The film also scores highly in the Music Department. The ‘new sound’ music of Teesri Manzil was hummed across the nation. Vijay Anand’s incredible song picturization lifting the film several notches particularly in one costume bit during the first song, Woh hasina (“That beauty,” sung for Shammi by Mohammad Rafi), Helen appears, dressed as a pink Flamenco diva, in the pupil of an enormous eye, framed by lashes that are shaped into cruel-looking steel fangs, while Shammi in a silver tux blows soulfully on a tenor sax.  Another standout number is Aaja aaja (“Come to me, come to me”), performed in an equally pastichey “rock ‘n roll club” and featuring Shammi’s orgasmic twitching during the beckoning refrain, “aa-aa-aa-aaja, aa-aa-aa-aaja”—which is evidently contagious, since everyone begins to do it. Other catchy tunes, performed in more standard mountain landscapes, are Deewana mujh sa nahin (“There’s no mad lover like me…”), and O mere sonare (“Oh my darling Sona,”).

The Himalayan hill station of Mussoorie, where the action ostensibly transpires, certainly exists, it does not now nor did it ever contain hotels with Las Vegas style revues, soulful and pampered young drummers with Teddy Boy wardrobes, and high-heeled vamps in fur and silver lamé, nor was it ever located, as this film’s resort town patently is, somewhere in the Deccan.

Story that moved at lightning pace, several red herrings, solid clues, excellent casting, superb cinematography of NV Srinivas, Vijay Anand for his editing and direction, music, spectacular sets and scenery, lots of trivia, and suspense which they managed to keep going until the end.

The film is noted for its memorable lead pair, superb mystery, tight script and performance by Shammi Kapoor.

Photos courtesy Google. Excerpts taken from Google.