Vijay Anand's Jewel Thief is one of my all-time favorite movies. It's packed with mod style and magnificent songs. It puts some real cleverness into play in building a mystery that is genuinely intriguing. And underneath its slick, jaunty tone there is some richness of theme, too. The film exemplifies an Indian strain of fetishisation of the West, a contemporaneous and mirror-image view of Hollywood's fascination with elements from the "exotic" East. These ideas find expression in the super-modern style of the characters and the interiors, the James Bond-esque aspects of the jewel thief's life and lair, and the sexual emancipation of many of the film's female characters.
But frequently, when I mention my love for Jewel Thief, Teesri Manzil is somewhere in the reply. And Teesri Manzil, too, is a great film – all the 60s style, a full helping of Helen, a rocking soundtrack, and a terrific noir vibe. Its characters inhabit a nighttime fantasy world of smoky nightclubs and cabarets with outrageously trippy sets, a perfect mise-en-scene for shady dealings, dark jealousies, and, ultimately, murder.
Indeed, Teesri Manzil and Jewel Thief match up so well, many find it hard to pick a favorite between them. A couple of years ago, I conducted an informal straw poll on Twitter, asking, which of these oft-compared contemporaneous Vijay Anand classics do you prefer? My query received a range of responses. Many noted what a close decision it was; some did not want to make any decision at all. And yet, some folks voted with the enthusiasm of strong opinions, like the one responder who squealed "Teeesreeee manzillllllllll!" and another who prefered "Jewel Thief, by a good mile." And the result? A precise, vote-for-vote tie.
Since the anniversary of Vijay Anand's death (23 February, 2004) was just a couple of days back, I put these two beloved movies in opposite corners of the ring again. Here is a look at how they stack up.
Opening sequence. Both films have terrific openings, buoyed by driving funky melodies. In Teesri Manzil, title cards are interleaved with quick scenes of the night of Roopa's deadly plummet from the titular third floor, lending a distinctly noir feel that sets the tone for a moody thriller. But Jewel Thief's title sequence is even better. It opens with a beautifully stylised presentation of the jewel thief himself, a pair of white-gloved hands roving across starkly lit displays, grabbing choice pieces out of their cases and plucking them off mannequins. Then an increasingly dramatic selection of headlines flashes across the screen – Biggest Jewel Theft in 20 Years! Police Baffled - Who is the Jewel Thief? Peheredar sote hain to Jewel Thief jaagta hai! These titles hint at the grand scale of the thief's operations and set the stage for the thrills to come.