Movie – Victoria No. 203 (1972)
Tu na mili toh hum was featured in Dynamo International’s action flick Victoria No. 203 (1972). Roughly translated, Victoria means a horse carriage. Produced and directed by Brij, the movie starred Navin Nischol, Saira Banu, Ranjeet, Anwar Hussain, Ashok Kumar, Helen, Pran, etc.
Raja (Ashok Kumar) and Rana (Pran) are released from jail and immediately stumble upon the news that some really expensive diamonds had been stolen from a highly secure museum. They decide to execute another such robbery to end their requirement for money and get settled in life. They find a dead body and a mysterious key inside the dead body’s wig, which the killer had (shockingly) missed. Thus, begins their journey to locate the lock to which the key belongs.
Several co-incidences later, they locate a hospital ward boy (Mohan Choti), who had bagged a diamond ring in exchange for a favor he did to a man, before his death. Raja and Rana assume that it was this key that the ward boy had placed at a designated place under the instructions of the dead man. When caught the ward boy reveals that the key belongs to a locker at the VT station (Victoria Terminus Railway Station – CST or Chatrapat Shivaji Terminus now).
Following the clues, they reach the locker and find a paper saying that the diamonds are inside a horse carriage number 203. The elderly pair finds the cart and realizes that the driver is a girl Rekha (Saira Banu), who lives alone with her younger sister (Baby Gayatri). While having food, the girls discuss their father. Rekha tells the younger girl that they have 2 uncles and these uncles went to Africa and never returned. Raja and Rana tell the girls that they are their lost uncles. Rana declines food and pulls his friend out near the Victoria for the night.
When the girls have gone to sleep, the elderly pair tries to find the diamonds by dismantling the entire horse carriage. They do not find anything. Soon, they see Rekha going out in the rain and they follow her. Rekha reaches the home of a man (Ranjit) and acts as if she is being chased by 2 rapists. The man allows her in and almost falls for her pretense, but is saved by a female colleague, who calls him at the nick of time. Rekha is in the washroom to change into something dry.
Rekha tries to seduce him and almost gets raped and killed by the man. But, Raja and Rana come to her rescue and the man gets killed by an invisible shooter before the questioning begins. The elderly pair reprimands her for the way she had approached her problem after she tells them that her father had been jailed, for a murder he did not commit. Raja and Rana promise her that they would help her to get her father released.
Rekha regularly drives the Victoria for Kumar (Navin Nischol), who is a playboy. When questioned; he says that he is on the lookout for the girl, who will fall for him and not his money. Rekha decks up as a princess and makes an appearance at the club where Kumar spends his evenings, in an expensive car. She tries to spur his jealousy by not dancing with him.
Ok. Anybody can hire a car and jewelry. But, what I don’t understand is how can a poor girl learn flawless ball-room dance and the sophisticated behavior of the rich? She leaves in the same car and he follows her. When he stops her, Rekha does not reply truthfully to his questions and gives him the slip. Disguised again as the Victoria driver, she finds him and he tells her that he has fallen in love with the girl he had just met.
Back home, as the elderly pair asks her about the car and the jewelry, Rekha tells them why she had hired them. In the next few days, Rekha, disguised as the Victoria driver, does not see Kumar. When a police constable friend (Anoop Kumar) asks her, she tells him that she had begun to miss Kumar and adds that nothing could take his place in the world for her. Kumar happens to be ruminating nearby on a garden seat and overhears everything.
The next day, an ascetic appears in front of Rekha’s home and insists that she marry him. She is adamant that she couldn’t since she was in love with someone else. We know that he is Navin Nischol.
Song – Tu na mili toh hum
Indeevar penned Tu na mili toh hum and Kalyanji-Anandji set the music for it.
The man sings that he would give up the material world and live a life of ascetics if the girl does not marry him.
Video – Tu na mili toh hum
The cinematography is by Anwar Siraj. Dance choreography is by Surya Kumar.
The video opens with a visibly hassled Saira Banu walking into her home trying to complete her daily chores. Navin Nischol jumps out of hiding in front of her and begins to sing this song. She tricks him to go out and closes all the doors. But, he peeps in from the ventilator, near the roof! He jumps into the house and continues singing and dancing.
Navin Nischol only ends up irritating Saira Banu more. She finds a sickle to threaten him. But, he sits on top of the Victoria and removes his disguise and sings a part of the previous song Dekha maine dekha… Saira Banu blushes and covers her face. He lifts her vertically and takes her to the Victoria to place her inside it. The song and the video end there.
Artists
Kishore Kumar had sung for Navin Nischol. Saira Banu looks on.
Cultural Influence
There is not much cultural influence on this filmi song. Here the hero stubbornly wants the heroine to marry him. The song and the artists are good. The video is watchable for the same.
. The song has been analyzed on the basis of context and picturization.){kind=link}