Directed by Awtar Krishna Kaul, starring Raakhee and M K Raina is based on a Hindi novel Athara Sooraj Ke Paudhe by Ramesh Bakshi about a railways employee who meets a girl on the train. The music of this film was composed by Hariprasad Chaurasia and Bhubaneshwar Mishra and production design by Bansi Chandragupta. 27 Down won National Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi as well as Best Cinematography for Apurba Kishore Bir.
Shot on real location on Mumbai trains, platforms, and at Mumbai’s Victoria Terminus station, the film was mostly shot at night to avoid crowds and the cinematographer of the film, Apurba Kishore Bir was just 22 years old and shot almost 70 percent of the film using a hand-held camera using a widelenses rather than the zooms which was the practice that time. Another interesting facet was Bir chose to shoot the film in black and white with stark contrasts rather than color.
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