China Town (1962) Review: An Influential crime drama that laid the foundation for the likes of Don, Aflatoon, and Duplicate

RATING - ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ✨ 3.5/5*

China Town Review Movie Talkies:

Indian cinema saw the best use of the double-role formula in 1961 with Hum Dono, starring Dev Anand. A year later, Shakti Samanta came up with this idea. China Town set a template that was followed by many for years. Amitabh Bachchan’s iconic gangster flick Don got its basic idea from here, and we all know how many films followed a similar theme in the future.

China Town Story:

China Town tells the story of a club performer who is hired by a police officer to replace a deadly criminal because they look like carbon copies of each other. The twist here is that they are actually twins. The typical Bollywood-style “lost and found” brother-mother formula makes it a very Indianised drama.

The two swap places as per their benefit, but it creates a lot of problems for the hero, his family, and the cop. There is romance, there is comedy, and then there is drama. These three elements rarely come together in a crime genre film, giving China Town a unique mix of its own.

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China Town Cast:

Shammi Kapoor gets a very special role here and does full justice to it. His Shekhar is fine, but Shankar was kickass. Madan Puri’s accent is notable, Shakila is fine, and Helen can be seen in a proper supporting role here.

Baar Baar Dekho is an evergreen number, as you know. Mohammed Rafi and Shammi Kapoor’s combo has made it a memorable song, both audibly and visually. The script writing feels very original for the genre. You can argue that the core idea is adapted from Hum Dono, but here it was a planned device, unlike the army and death angle in the Dev Anand starrer.

China Town Movie Review:

For me, this has to be Shakti Samanta’s best film of the 60s decade. Yes, it’s better than Kashmir Ki Kali, An Evening in Paris, and Aradhana for sure. He made even better films in the next decade, though. As a whole, China Town is a classic story for the ages, and you can easily find its footprint in films made over the years. Indeed, a solid piece of cinema.

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