BULLET motorcyles in the history of Hindi Cinema
While the heart of the whole nation beats in a unified “Dhak-Dhak” when Hritik Roshan straddles across our living rooms riding the Hero Honda, the original machine that epitomized “Dhak-Dhak” aka the Bullet motorcycle has not found much favor with our film fraternity as far as its portrayal in the world of Hindi cinema is concerned.
Now with Harley Davidson deciding to test waters in India with its boutique motorbikes, Bullet motorcycle is sure to move further into obscurity as far as its representation on the world of cinema, more so in the Hindi films is concerned.
The irony is indeed acute as in the Indian milieu Bullet is one motorbike that has still got so much social halo woven around it. As a matter of fact it is one of the biggest parameters that define the social mobility in the Indian society, but its representation in the same manner is rather woeful in the world of Hindi cinema.
Still, when Harley Davidson is entering into India, its representation in the world of Hindi cinema would become a routine, and it serves as a fine occasion to trace the contours of association of Bullet as an integral of Indian cinema. But before tracing the association let us stop and ponder for a while! Could it be the fact that as Bullet generally comes in black color and it still is inauspicious in the world of Hindi cinema, so there was a dread of its association with the world of Hindi cinema? Henry Ford would have rather been hurt where it to be so, as for him, Black was the color if option about color as a choice was to be exercised, rest all was just passé.
The color indeed has a context as the jazz and flamboyance in the Indian perception is not conveyed in the same expressive manner as the fancy colorful imported bikes conveyed when compared with the Bullet. No wonder, seldom one would find debut of a male star on a Bullet.
The first notable occasion where Bullet made its presence felt in a big way and fluttered hearts all across the country was when Rajesh Khanna rode on it and straight into the hearts of his fans in ANDAAZ, singing “Zindagi Ek Safar hai Suhana”. It indeed epitomized the spirit of gay abandon and conveyed the philosophy of living in the present without worrying about past or the future in a big way, Bullet serving as the icon about the journey called life. Its choice as the vehicle of the song could be owing to the fact that the internal mechanics of Bullet is opposed to the normal bikes, so it is eponymous with the spirit to sail against the wind, symptomatic from the song.
Rather sadly, the spirit could not continue as Rajesh Khanna died after singing this song on the screen, and may be therefore the stigma of inauspiciousness could have stuck with poor Bullet and therefore it again went out of lexicon of film making as far as its representation through the panoramic view of the camera was concerned.
After quite a long time, Bullet again burst on to the screen, when Shashi Kapoor sang “Ek Raasta Hai Zindagi” in KALA PATHAR again a song that was symptomatic about the spirit called life which ordained that the life is meant to travel and enjoy it and not to stop and fret about whatever has happened or whatever might happen. But KAALA PATHAR again was not a hit and probably Shashi Kapoor was given a Bullet to ride as he was a person of authority who was coming to the coal mines situated in rural areas, where Bullet is a vehicle of authority and veneration so he rode a Bullet probably for the first and last time in his life on the silver screen. As a matter of fact in subsequent films whenever Bullet has made its appearance the context has been rural and it is used to signify a position of authority, or wherever Police authorities have been shown Bullet has been a ubiquitous addendum.
Amitabh Bachchan used it in a big way in all the roles of Police that he enacted, though it was not there in such a visible manner in his first hit film ZANJEER but in subsequent films it was there conveying the sign of authority that he displayed through the roles he enacted. The best manifestation of it was found in ANDHA KANOON where in the role of a forest officer against the backdrop of forests he made an impressive presence. Interestingly in the same film where Rajnikanth made his debut, he rode Bullet with panache without having any doubt whatsoever about riding it. He broke the convention, of Hindi films, and it could be owing to the fact that in films made in South India Bullet had and still has an iconic status.
Another significant association of Bullet with the Hindi cinema was in SHOLAY where Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra singing “Yeh Dosti Hum nahin todenge”. Again the choice of Bullet may have been guided by the context. The context was that the duo was going to the rural area where they had to use the authority and wield power to vanquish the villain whose tyranny was difficult for the rural people to sustain. Therefore the debut of the duo on Bullet was a signifier that the bad days are going to become a thing of the past. As a matter of fact when Abhishek Bachchan and Bobby Deol tried to do an encore of the same in JHOOM BARABAR JHOOM they could not create the same magic though they were riding a modern version of Bullet in London as the context probably was not conveying a position of authority.
But heartily enough in the yet to be released film of UTV, Aage Se Right, Bullet is shown in the promos. Could this be the film where Bullet finally redeems itself before Harley Davidson takes over, or could it be Dev Benegal’s Road Movie? Motorcycles of the likes of Bullet have an iconic status and Hollywood has made an iconic film by using motorcycle “Motorcycle Diaries- Journey of Che Guvera” and it indeed is demand of the time that some thing of this kind also is made in the world of Hindi cinema. In the life style television channels motorcycle journeys are making big waves. It is time the same experience finds expression on the giant screen as well. The fan following is immense to lap it up.
Tags: Amitabh Bachchan, Andaaz, Andha Kanoon, Bullet, Harley Davidson, Kala Paththar, Motorcycles, Rajesh Khanna, Rajnikant
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Wow, now this is something! Will have to watch all songs etc you mentioned to make sure if it was Bullet (Enfield) or Yezdi or something else in them..
reminds me.. There is this Jackie Shroff flick, where his parents are bumped off by the goons, and his Bullet is the only witness to the murder… so everytime the villian passes by the headlights start flickering, the handle starts moving left right left… until Jackir Shroff deducts – “yeh mujh se kuch kehna chahti hai” .. the bike does not rest till it finds the killers… never seen a better promotion of Bike before … :D:D:D
what is this movie BTW?
Refreshing post!! Like, how you mix humor and love for Bullet in this article.
wasnt Bullet used in Lage Raho Munnabhai? Also, i guess in the movie Shaan.
A lot of instances that you have mentioned (esp of the 70s), it was the Yezdi. Bullet became a significant part of the Indian road folklore much later…more towards late 80s. Till then, it was either Yezdi or Rajdoot all the way.
Look out for a film called Semshook which I am currently scoring. In fact I heard about the film on this site. It is a wonderful road movie with a rather nice red Bullet as the star attraction!
Cheers
Andrew
Andrew – love your song Rare Earth, if you are the same guys. ;) More on Semshook?
Thanks Tejas for the kind words!! Same guys. Semshook is a different kind of score. Very western Classical with a twist!!
Peace
Well I guess Enfield Bullet and other heavier bikes like Yezdi and Rajdoot were used mainly in the 70’s and 80’s for couple of reasons- it was macho and especially suited the specific requirement of the movie and also the 100-150 c.c category bikes ( Hero Honda,Bajaj,TVS etc ) hadnt yet made their entry.So now I think that Bullet being a cult brand will still get to be used in cases where the brand and the movie or the scenario blend in.So a road movie like the one Andrew has mentioned makes it a perfect case for having it.
And what about Gulaal? Ransa’s bike was a bullet.
A friend of mine was so impressed by the sound of bullet in gulal, that he got his larger exhaust pipe replaced by a smaller one, so that he can have the same sound effect on his thunderbird
@PS – do you remember the name of that Jackie Shroff film??
One reason why we hardly find our heroes on Bullet is because they are all chocolaty or fast, so their choice gets limited to either cars or sports bikes.
What was Sanjay Dutt driving in Musafir when he Bike nikalo’ed and Jacket pehno’ed?
That was Harley Davidson Fatboy, which he himself owns.
Nice compilation of songs featuring Bullet.
Like others have said Yezdi was more Iconic in Hindi films promoted hugely by Feroz Khan and Mithunda.
Hey you forgot that title song sequence of Big B in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, that one was pretty memorable for me (Though I am not sure whether it was a bullet or not)
sholay – BSA 350 sidecar model not bullet
kamal hasan in every movie rides Bullet ( he considers it to be lucky ) its a fact u can check any movie of his bullet will be there. Chachi 420 scene was hilarious lol
I remember Amitabh riding bullet in Aakhri Raasta just before Gori Ka Sajan song. In Raja Babu too Govinda used red deluxe model lol
then in Mrityudata , Ayub Khan used one , etc