Half Ticket (1962 film) explained

Half Ticket
Director:Kalidas
Producer:Bombay Talkies
Starring:Madhubala
Kishore Kumar
Pran
Music:Salil Chowdhury
Editing:Raj Talwar
Released:[1]
Runtime:168 min.
Country:India
Language:Hindi
Gross: 1 crore (119 crore as of 2011)[2]

Half Ticket is a 1962 Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by Kalidas and produced by Bombay Talkies. Starring Madhubala, Kishore Kumar and Pran, the film revolves around Vijay, a good-for-nothing young man who decides to leave his house when his father forces him to get married.

Half Ticket is one of the last films to star Madhubala, as well as her final collaboration with her husband Kishore Kumar. It was a critical and commercial success and has become a cult film since its release. In 2020, The Indian Express listed the film in its "10 Bollywood comedies to watch in your lifetime".[3]

Plot

Vijay (Kishore Kumar) is the good-for-nothing son of a rich industrialist, who becomes bored of his father's constant railing and the efforts to marry him off, with the intention of getting him "settled" in life. So Vijay walks out of his home and decides to leave for Bombay and start life afresh there. However he does not have enough money for a train ticket.

Vijay gets a burst of inspiration from a plump child called Munna, who is waiting in line with his mother (Tun Tun), and decides to pass himself off as a child in order to get the eponymous half-ticket.

Now disguised as Munna, Vijay is used as a mule for a diamond smuggler (Pran) without his knowledge. On the train, Vijay also meets Rajnidevi (Madhubala) and falls in love with her.

The rest of the film follows Vijay's exploits as he avoids capture by the diamond smuggler and his girlfriend (Shammi), romances Rajnidevi while avoiding her auntie-ji (Manorama), and reunites with his father.

Cast

Soundtrack

Half Ticket
Type:Soundtrack
Artist:Salil Chowdhury
Released:[4]
Genre:Feature film soundtrack
Language:Hindi
Label:Saregama
Producer:Salil Chowdhury
Prev Title:Sapne Suhane
Prev Year:1961
Next Title:Sunbai
Next Year:1962
Chronology:Salil Chowdhury

Release

Half Ticket was released on October 19, 1962.[5]

Critical reception

Critic reviews were generally positive. Sukanya Verma wrote, "Fabulous soundtrack, frolicking premise and frothy dialogues led by the King of Comedy (Kumar) and Queen of vivacity (Madhubala), there is nothing half-hearted about this [film]."[6]

Film Geek stated: "The movie makes a little more sense than that—only a little—but it matters not at all, as Kishore Kumar's limitless zany energy, Madhubala's irresistible charm, and several absolutely superb songs combine to make Half Ticket a delightful and hysterical ride."[7]

Box office

In India, the film had a box-office gross of 1 crore, with a nett of ₹0.5 crore, becoming the twelfth highest-grossing film of 1962.[8] The Best of the Year gave its inflation-adjusted nett as ₹251 crore.[9] Box Office magazine calculated its inflation-adjusted gross by comparing the collection with the price of gold in 1962, which gave it an adjusted gross of ₹119 crore in 2011.[10]

Legacy

Half Ticket is considered an important comedy film made in 1960s Bollywood.[11]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Half Ticket - Lifetime Box Office Collection, Budget, Reviews, Cast, etc. 2020-12-21. BOTY. 31 January 2018 . en-US.
  2. Web site: 2011-11-03. Worth Their Weight In Gold! Box Office India : India's premier film trade magazine Bollywood news, reviews, interviews, box office collection. 2020-12-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20111103185138/http://www.boxofficeindia.co.in/worth-their-weight-in-gold/ . 3 November 2011 .
  3. Web site: 2020-06-15. Seriously Funny: 10 Bollywood comedies to watch in your lifetime. 2020-12-05. The Indian Express. en.
  4. Web site: 1962 . Half Ticket . Apple Music. 12 January 2024.
  5. Web site: Half Ticket - Lifetime Box Office Collection, Budget, Reviews, Cast, etc. 2020-12-21. BOTY. 31 January 2018 . en-US.
  6. Web site: Sukanya. Half Ticket: Kishore Kumar's return ticket to childhood!. 2020-12-21. Sukanya Verma. en-US.
  7. Web site: Half Ticket (1962). 2020-12-21. Filmi Geek.
  8. Book: India, Box Office. Top Earners 1962. boxofficeindia.com. 15 August 2020. 14 October 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20131014080632/http://www.boxofficeindia.com/showProd.php?itemCat=168&catName=MTk2Mg. dead.
  9. Web site: Half Ticket - Lifetime Box Office Collection, Budget, Reviews, Cast, etc. 2020-12-05. BOTY. 31 January 2018 . en-US.
  10. Web site: 2011-11-03. Worth Their Weight In Gold! Box Office India : India's premier film trade magazine Bollywood news, reviews, interviews, box office collection. 2020-12-05. https://web.archive.org/web/20111103185138/http://www.boxofficeindia.co.in/worth-their-weight-in-gold/ . 3 November 2011 .
  11. Web site: Best Clean Comedy Films in Hindi in 100 years from 1913-2013. 2020-12-05. IMDb. en.