Rail Gaadi

There are a variety of songs that feature the train in Hindi films. The big disaster of a film featuring a train was 'The Burning Train', fashioned after the 70s Hollywood disaster films like The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure etc..

'Rail gaadi', sung by Ashok Kumar the actor, was a unique song, almost a precursor of the rap songs of recent times. 'Gaadi bula rahi hai', sung by Kishore Kumar and filmed on Dharmendra, was a nice anthem song in the movie Dost. 'Chalna hi zindagi hai, chalti hi jaa rahi hai' was the main line in it.

Romancing the train, I mean the heroine on the train, we had two classics that I can remember. One was Dev Anand singing 'Hai Apna Dil to Awara, Na Jaane Kis Pe Aayega' in Solva Saal, and Rajesh Khanna singing 'Mere Sapnon Ki Raani kab Aayegi tu', in Aradhana, to a coy Sharmila Tagore traveling in a train. Both songs featured a mouth organ/harmonica, if I am not mistaken. Parineeta also had a train song, whose words I forget.

Why this lapse into remembering train songs? The railway budget triggered the memories. Like many other things, India can do a lot more than it has with its railway trains, which have an enviable reach, and for the common man, it is a comfortable way to travel even today.