As Apoorva Lakhia''s cop thriller Shootout At Lokhandwala gets ready for release this week, we flashback half a century back to CID, one of Hindi cinema''s most loved crime thriller, with a cop as a hero.

Raj Khosla''s film combined the ''noir'' style of Hollywood thrillers with pure Bollywood romance and masala. The film, like a lot of crime films of the time, had a dancing vamp, a precursor of today''s item girl, and in this film, making her Hindi cinema debut as bad girl was Waheeda Rehman.

Dev Anand played CID Inspector Shekhar who is assigned the investigation of the murder of a crusading newspaper editor, who was about to expose the nefarious links of an influential person. The suspect arrested is Master (Johnny Walker), a petty thief, but the killer is Sher Singh (Mehmood), who was seen at the scene of the crime by Shekhar. But the cop knows that Sher Singh was acting on orders by someone big and important and continues probing. He is warned off the case by a mysterious woman Kamini (Waheeda Rehman), and later when Sher Singh is killed in jail, Shekhar is framed.

He is found guilty and convicted, but he escapes to get to the real killer, and reaches him with the unexpected help of Kamini, who has fallen in love with him, though he is in love with his superior''s (K.N. Singh) daughter Rekha (Shakila).

Director Khosla was an assistant to Guru Dutt, who then produced this film for him under his banner. A huge hit in its time, the film in style and technique is remarkably modern and realistic. It also had a fantastic crew including V.K Murthy as the cinematographer, whose sensuous black and white camerawork captured the light and shadows of Mumbai with impeccable artistry. In spite of its dark tone and somber content, CID was a highly entertaining film-and today''s filmmakers with their gun-toting encounter cops and evil gangsters, can''t match the magic of this classic crime caper.

OP Nayyar''s music had the unforgettable gem, the ode to Mumbai-Aye dil hai mushkil jeena yahan, zara hatke, zara bachke, yeh hai Bombay meri jaan. Plus other evergreen hits like Kahin pe nigahen kahin pe nishana, Ankhon hi aankon mein ishara ho gaya, Leke pehla pehla pyaar and Jaata kahan hai deewane.

Interesting Trivia:

Guru Dutt had reportedly gifted Raj Khosla a swanky foreign car after the success of CID.

The choreography of this film was done by Zohra Sehgal-now famous for her ''granny'' roles.

The costumes were credited to a Bhanumati, who is better known as Bhanu Athaiya.

Assisting Raj Khosla on CID were Pramod Charavorty and Bhappi Sonie who went on to become successful directors in their own right.

One of the lyricists was Jan Nissar Akhtar, father of Javed Akhtar.

The scriptwriter was Inder Raj Anand, father of actor-filmmaker Tinnu Anand.

Credits
Director: Raj Khosla
Producer: Guru Dutt
Screenplay, Dialogues: Inder Raj Anand
Cast: Dev Anand, Waheeda Rehman, Shakila, Mehmood, Tun Tun, Johny Walker, K.N.Singh
Music: O.P.Nayyar
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri and Jaan Nissar Akhtar
Cinematography: V K Murthy
Editing: Y G Chawhan
Costumes: Bhanu Ahtaiya
Choreographer: Zohra Sehgal