Bollywood's Railway Reunions

Trains don't just transport from one place to another. Sometimes they can be a setting for a happily-ever-after.
It sure happens a lot in the movies.

We looked at many memorable moments on trains.

Now, Sukanya Verma brings you instances of dramatic railway reunions.

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

They meet on the train. They reunite on the train. Raj and Simran's rail romance is part of pop culture history that has inspired numerous clones but nothing to beat the original's imagery.

 

Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan

Ayushmann Khurrana and Jitendra Kumar get points for lending it a significantly queer touch in Hitesh Kewalya's gay love story.

 

Raat Akeli Hai

Repeating a setting where the leads first met in the final scene is a favourite trope of film-makers. It's inside a railway compartment Nawazuddin Siddiqui's cop first lays eyes on Radhika Apte and stops her from committing suicide. At the end of the mystery, they're on a train again in hope of happy days and happier destinations.

 

Bodyguard

In this action-packed mobile phone romance build around the confusion of voices and betraying messengers, Salman Khan and Kareena Kapoor aren't reunited till the very end. It eventually happens though, dangerously close to an open train door, in true blue Bollywood style.

 

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna

In Karan Johar's take on NRI-based extra-marital affairs, the cheating parties are awarded with a rare happy ending.

As soon as Rani Mukerji learns Shah Rukh Khan is about to get on a train and leave New York for good, she rushes to tell him she's single without guilt. For a moment, it seems she's late, but he gets off and the lovebirds are back in business.

 

Bhopal Express

Set around 1984's Bhopal gas tragedy, Mahesh Mathai's poignant drama provides some relief for its key protagonist when he discovers his wife alive and breathing alongside an orphaned infant amidst a mass of corpses -- victims of the toxic chemical leak -- lying on the railway station.

 

Saveray Wali Gadi

Though the scene bears uncanny resemblance to DDLJ, the circumstances could not be wilder.

Starring Sunny Deol and Poonam Dhillon, this remake of Tamil drama Kizhakke Pogum Rail shows the characters fleeing from a mob of angry villagers, following the disruption of a regressive ritual, in a desperate attempt to board the titular train and get far, far away.

 

Masoom

The sheer joy and relief Naseeruddin Shah feels on discovering his entire family at the railway station car parking and wife Shabana Azmi's acceptance of his illegitimate child more than makes up for the tearful goodbye between the father-son minutes before.

 

Bazaar

It takes a whole lot of havoc and heartbreak before Smita Patil realises her mistake and contribution in a young woman's exploitation and pleads to join her long-time admirer Naseeruddin Shah on a train to Mumbai.

 

Ghar

Decades before Rachel Green declared 'I got off the plane' and made Ross the happiest guy alive, Rekha did the same in Ghar. Vinod Mehra comes rushing to stop his wife from leaving. but the train's already departed.

Disappointment turns into delight within seconds when he turns around and find her sitting on a bench. She got off the train. Hugs and happily ever after ensue.

 

Kora Kagaz

Estranged husband and wife Vijay Anand and Jaya Bachchan's waiting room reunion is where they clear years and years of misunderstandings and realise all this time they suffered and sighed over nothing in the weepy climax of Kora Kagaz.

 

Parichay

For a simple, sweet family entertainer, Parichay has a rather daring climax.

Jaya Bachchan runs to catch tutor and beau Jeetendra before his train takes off. Expectedly, she's delayed.

Just as its leaving the platform, our hero catches a glimpse of the desolate heroine and he leaps off without a thought or care. How's that for Jumping Jack?

 

Sholay

Sholay's first and final scene star the train. But with Jai rudely bumped off, watching Veeru, sans his best buddy, heading back home only to find Basanti waiting for him inside the compartment is the least bit of consolation Sholay can offer.

 

Jab Jab Phool Khile

Shashi Kapoor makes Nanda go through a whole lot of pleading and running along a moving train before he finally forgives and lets her get on board in this rich girl falls for poor boy blockbuster of the 1960s.

 

Anupama

Hrishikesh Mukerji's gentle Anupama is about a distant father and disheartened daughter. It's also about the man she loves and he disapproves of.

But at the railway station, they all reconcile in open and inconspicuous ways when Sharmila Tagore arrives just in time to join a pleased Dharmendra while her father looks on from a respectable distance.

 

Madhumati

Relief is what Dilip Kumar feels on seeing his wife Vyjayanthimala and baby unharmed by a train accident, especially after experiencing everlasting revenge and reincarnation.