Bollywood Car-n-van 
By Gaurav Malani, August 3, 2004 - 06:07 IST
The coming Friday sees the release of Taarzan – The Wonder Car where the car in a way plays the main lead of the film. Designed by Dilip Chhabria, the 2-crore flashy purple gizmo car has special powers and can do everything from fighting the baddies to flying to thinking. Though Hollywood has had its share of road-rockers from ‘Night Riders' and ‘Street Hawks', Bollywood didn't have a very good record of making or showcasing films around automobiles. But still if one goes down the memory lane, a handful of Hindi films did demonstrate some unusual vehicles.
One of the earliest vehicles that caught the viewers' notice goes back to the 1958 flick Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi starring the three real life brothers Ashok-Anoop-Kishore Kumar. With a gaadi (car) in the title itself, the movie had a 1928 Chevrolet as an integral inanimate member of its cast, which the three brothers (who own a garage) possess. The film also had a very interesting one-of-its-kind car race, never before (or even after) attempted on the Indian screen. The Chevrolet was the last car to start in the race as it needed some strong back-bashing from the brothers but despite all odds emerges as the winner in the race.
Ramesh Sippy's Sholay in a rural setup had no motor driven vehicles on scene and Basanti's horse-cart – the dhanno tanga was the only mode of transport in the Rampur village. The climax also had the villains chasing Basanti aboard her tanga to Gabbar's den. Mehmood played a Hyderabadi in his home production Kunwara Baap where he owned Hyderabad's trademark transport vehicle the cycle-rickshaw. The movie also had Mehmood crooning to the song “ Main hoon ghoda yeh hai gaadi ” relating himself with his cycle-rickshaw.
Ravi Chopra's The Burning Train had a major half of the film running on the train while Bombay to Goa was largely set inside the tourist bus of M.P.Travels. In Satte Pe Satta, the conventional jeep was modified with additions to accommodate the entire family of 7 brothers. Open roof Empalas and elongated Plymouths dominated major movies from late 60's to late 70's.
Amitabh Bachchan played a taxi driver in Khuddar where he had an emotional relationship with his vehicle and had named his cab as Basanti . Basanti had special powers to detect good and bad passengers aboard it and warned its master with a beep and a red light blinker on its dashboard for the bad guy. Bachchan also has a fancy song sequence in the film where he flies over the city in his taxi.
Naseeruddin Shah played an auto-rickshaw driver in Hero Hiralal while Om Puri struggled throughout to own a taxi in Dharavi. In Akela , Amitabh played a cop who possessed a yellow Beetle car , which he named as Ram Peeyari . Again this car expressed happy-sad emotions with its headlights and the film even had a song with on the petite car “ Chal chal re chal meri ram peyaari ”.
Shatranj attempted as a remake of Chalti Ka Na Gaadi in 1993 again had a car with special powers as it recorded the murder of its master that worked as evidence in the climax. The major point where these Indian cars faltered as compared to its Hollywood counterparts is that while the foreign cars did have special powers they possessed just artificial intelligence. The desi versions had much more that A.I. They possessed Artificial Emotions. In an attempt to cash on the sentiments of the viewers, Bollywood filmmakers ended up making corny cars.
The Raj Kumar – Nana Patekar starrer Tirangaa had a special bomb detector in Raj Kumar’s Ambassador, which could sense any explosives attached to the vehicle. And while usual convertible cars opened up their roofs, Raj Kumar’s convertible ambassador opened from the bottom through which the actor calmly escaped by parking the car over a street manhole.
With more and more films being shot in foreign locations, cars in movies too went from the local Fiats and Ambassadors to the sleek Porsches to Mercs. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge showcased the two-seater white Lamborghini with upward ejecting doors in Shahrukh's intro sequence where he rushes to his convocation function. He subsequently switches to the slick convertible Mercedes Benz on his tour with Kajol. In Dil To Pagal Hai SRK owned a compact two-seater with stretched out axles. Salman possessed flashy spray painted cars in Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hai Kaun. Chevrolet was brought back to life in 1942 – A Love Story.
In recent times, Ram Gopal Varma's Road was a movie entirely shot on road with a Tata Safari cruising through rugged terrains. Firoz Nadiadwala showed a strong fetish for trendy cars in both his films Hera Pheri and the recent Aan . However he didn't use the swanky automobiles to its best, by restricting their appearance just till the songs of the film.
Of the upcoming films, Sanjay Gadhavi's Dhoom promises of sufficient engine vroom with the entire film set on the backdrop of raging bikes . John Abraham plays a biker who dons his helmet by the night and commits audacious robberies in blissful anonymity and escapes like the wind.
And apart from Taarzan , ace car designer Dilip Chhabria has also designed a special automobile for Shashi Ranjan's Dobara . For the film, DC has converted a Tata Safari to give it a roofless jeep look. The director claims that the vehicle is an integral character of his film and the entire flashback story of the film is unveiled in this vehicle during Jackie and Raveena's journey from Goa to Mumbai.
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