Director: Awtar Krishna Kaul; Writer: Avtar Krishna Kaul, Ramesh Bakshi; Producer: Avtar Krishna Kaul; Cinematographer: Apurba Kishore Bir; Editor: Ravi Shankar Patnaik; Cast: Sudhir Dalvi, Rakhee Gulzar, Sadhu Meher, M.K. Raina, Rekha Sabnis, Om Shivpuri, Nilesh Vellani, Madhavi Manjula, Chaman Puri, Kanta Shiveshwarkar, Sunder Purohit, Jayant Patel, Ravi Berry, Vivek Ghkgate, Nagar, Shrikant Malushte, Banarasi Das, Ganpatrao Chonkar, Mangesh Wagle, Rochak Pandit
Duration: 01:53:36; Aspect Ratio: 1.393:1; Hue: 60.000; Saturation: 0.000; Lightness: 0.217; Volume: 0.139; Cuts per Minute: 12.155; Words per Minute: 38.445
Summary: The promising young Kaul’s only feature, financed by the NFDC and finished shortly before he died trying to save someone from drowning. An engine driver (Shivpuri), incapacitated after an accident, forces his son Sanjay (Raina) to join the railways and to stifle his artistic ambitions beneath a conductor’s uniform. Sanjay befriends the commuting typist Shalini (Raakhee) but his father pressures Sanjay to marry a village belle (Sabnis) who resembles the buffaloes she brings as her dowry. Sanjay escapes in yet another train journey (the Bombay-Benares train that provides the film’s title as well as the framing scene for the flashback narrative). When Sanjay meets Shalini again, he finds they have nothing in common any more. The train motif dominates the film’s highly contrasted imagery and generated one classic high-angle shot of an empty platform filled within seconds by thousands of commuting travellers.
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