The Essential Guide To Bollywood - Subhash K Jha

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Subhash K. Jha
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Digitized by the Internet Archive
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„„ ESSENTIAL
GUIDE TO
HOLLYWOOD
All rights reserved. No part of this publication
may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by

any means without prior permission from the publisher.
ISBN: 7436-378-5
© Roli & Janssen BV 2005

Second impression 2006
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Photo Credits: National Film Archives Pune,
Private Collections, Roli Collection, Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Printed and bound in Singapore

the ESSENTIAL GUIDE to
BOLLYWOOD
Subhash K. Jha
Foreword by Amitabh Bachchan
lustre Press
Roli Books
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Lata Mangeshkar Simi Garewal
Amitabh Bachchan Jagdish Chandra Jha
Jaya Bachchan Prabhavati Jha
Kamal Haasan Abhas Jha
Sanjay Leela Bhansali Saroj Jha
Sanjeev Kohli Lata Jha

i ii i! ni hi: ii
Piostenty interests me. And the endeavours to record

for posterity interests me even more
As a nation we have often tended to ignore a desire
for systematic record keeping of the past. Historians
have documented events and happenings of a nation that

have been primarily related to its political bearings. But very
little, or perhaps not enough, is officially known
Films and entertainment is one such area

•hrough the years since its
birth, been an entity rudely discarded in the
l m of this nation Documenting

therefore, either been
totally ignored or unthinkable.
With the passage of time and the way
illdozed its way into the
average citizen, it has
become extremely important that we

n record aspects of this 'parallel
culture', thai boasts of being the largest
film industry in the world and is projected
by merited economists, as being one of the
three top industries by the year 2020.

I am overjoyed therefore, to see the manuscript of this
book The Essential Guide to Bollywood ... the word

'Bollywood' notwithstanding, before me and a request by my
dear friend Subhash K. Jha, its author, to write its Foreword.
Subhash is a journalist. A unique journalist. He writes
critiques, columns, interviews, and on happenings and events
connected to the film industry in Mumbai, from Patna in
Bihar! His ability to stay informed and connected, almost by

the hour, from such distance, is an admirable quality. And his
writings appear everywhere: the national press, the locals, the
colloquial, in magazines, on the net ... everywhere.
For someone with such a prolific presence in the
entertainment media, it is welcoming to have him put
together an exhaustive account of all that matters in the
cinema industry of India.
By choosing to lead the reader through film titles, genre-
wise is interesting. But following it up with a description of
the film, its cast, its maker; and then doing a brief critique
supported by valuable anecdotes, is brilliant. He has captured

the entire relevant history of films and everything connected
to it 'under one roof.
Instead of rummaging through millions of newspapers

and magazines through the years, if at all that is possible, get
all you want in ... The Essential Guide to Bollywood by

Subhash K. Jha. Well done, Subhash! My congratulations!
Posterity is valuable. Thank you for making me a part of it
as well.
Amitabh Bachchan
»
m
Do Bigha Zameen 1953 Boot Polish 1954
Cast Balraj Sahni. Nirupa Roy, Rattan Kumar Cast Baby Naaz, Rattan Kumar; David
Director Bimal Roy Director Prakash Arora
Music Salil Chowdhury Music Shankar Jaikishan
Lyrics Shailendra Lyrics Shailendra
most ahead
rguably the
A'^potent
drama ever conceived
social A year of Satyajit
masterpiece Father Panchali, producer Raj

Kapoor brought the neo-realism of
Ray's Bengali
Vittorio de
in this country, Do Sica into mainstream Hindi cinema with Boot
Bigha Zameen follows Polish. Two young actors (Baby Naaz and
the heartrending plight Rattan Kumar) play orphans left to beg on the
of a peasant from streets by their aunt. The film's credibility
his village. Burdened emanates from the utterly natural
by feudal financial performances by the two little actors. The fine
obligations, Shambhu (Balraj Sahni) migrates to and now forgotten

Kolkata with his son (Rattan Kumar). As the actor David as Uncle
two strangers in a cold heartless city try to find John, the do-gooder
their bearings, director Bimal Roy searches out with a heart of gold,
a core of humanity in the wretched conditions helps the two
of the grassroot people of this land. The children find their
reverberation of Roy's treatise on socialism was bearings and learn
far-flung and profound. Four years later, to live with dignity.

Mehboob Khan made Mother India, a Raj Kapoor's cameo
monumental ode to peasantry. Balraj Sahni's appearance on a
naturalistic performance went a long way in train, where the two

giving the narrative a shaded and layered kids look at the blue-eyed passenger and
structure. Salil Chowdhury's arresting music wonder if he is the Raj Kapoor, reconfirmed the
borrows elements from Russian patriotic tunes film's neo-realistic credentials and also evinced
and North Indian folk music. a smiling curiosity out of the audience.
TIMELINE: FILMS AND LANDMARK EVENTS

1937 1939 1939
Duniya Na Mane Admi Pukar
1914
Dadasaheb Phalke shows his first three features, Raja Harishchandra, Mohini Bhasmasur and
Satyavan Savitri in London.
Shri 420 1955 in: nn
Cast xr. Nargts. Nadira
Director Raj Kapoor
Music Shanfcar. jaikrthan
Lyrics Shailendra. Havat jaipun
parable on the goodness of the heart as opposed to the
A
evil
Boot Polish (] 954)
designs of the city folk. Shri 420 features Raj Kapoor as the
is remarkable for
village bumpkin who finds out about the ways of the big bad city
being the
through his association with various characters, mainly the two
precursor to
women Vidya (Nargis) and Maya (Nadira) representing the pure' and
cinema about
'corrupt' aspects of femininity In hindsight,
street children like
much of the narrative energy in this film
Mira Nair's Salaam
depends on Raj Kapoor s image as the
Bombay ( 1998).
Charlie Chaplmesque hero making his
and also for the
way through a world of slushy
cult of ghost-
machinations The contrasts between good
direction that
id bad are painstakingly recreated in
many illustrious
tudio sets The over-elaborate climax
filmmakers in
.
a comic outburst The songs and
Bollywood devised
number. Mera joota hai
as a means of
Mukesh to accompany Raju's tramp-
spreading their
md the night-club number Mud-
creative wings. Raj
l dekh where the wanton Maya tries to suck
Kapoor credited
Raju into a life of crime and debauchery The romantic
the direction of
V hua offers a glimpse of Raj
this film to his
Kapo. This film served as the
assistant, Prakash
•tion for n Rims including Aziz Mirza's
Arora.
•ig Shah Rukh Khan as
icter
1942 1942 1942

1941 1941
•
Milap Khandaan
•
1918
..d.ngfor d licensing of cinemas.
Devdas 956 Jagte Raho 1956
Cast Dilip Kumar Suchitra Sen.Vyjanthimala, Motilal Cast Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Motilal
Director Bimal Roy Director Sombhu Mitra/Amit Moitra
Music S.D. Burman Music Salil Chowdhury

Lyrics Sahir Ludhianvi Lyrics Shailendra, Prem Dhawan
Bimal
adaptation
classic
Roy's faithful
of
and
Saratchandra
tragedy about a self-absorbed hero
fiercely intimate
Chatterjee's
who
M
opulence of
oving away from
his style
destroys his own happiness in pursuit of love, is Raj Kapoor hired two
leagues removed from RC. Barua's minimalist avant-garde Bengali
version in 1935 and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's filmmakers to direct a
flamboyant epic in 2002. Roy's deep-focussed story about one thirsty
character study looks at Devdas Chatterjee man's experiences in
(Dilip Kumar) as a narcissist whose self- Kolkata during the

absorbed romanticism destroys those very course of one night.
things that it loves, including himself. Kamal Jagte Raho is largely arresting for the utterly
Bose's exquisite black-and-white photography innovative theme and tone of narration. Raj
captures the essence of the theme. The sordid Kapoor's encounters with various quirky,
backlanes and gullies of Kolkata are capricious and cruel characters add up to
recreated with the same mellow a comic and often-dark moral fable. Shot in
meticulousness as the unspoilt exquisitely expressive black-and-white, the
village where Devdas and m climaxes with the celebrated sequence

Paro grow into love. where Nargis, singing Jago mohan pyare in
More naturalistic than Lata Mangeshkar's divine voice, finally
stylized, Bimal Roy's gives the tortured thirsty man his drink
Devdas conveys aA of water. The symbolical sequence

quaint majest? stands out in the melee of jostling,
in its epic bustling scenes that occupy the plot.
thrust.

1942 1943 1946 1946 1946
Muqabla Kismet Anmol Ghadi Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Neecha Nagar
Kahani (See p. 110)
1918
Dadasaheb Phalke's Hindustan Cinema Films Co. is founded.

Do Aankhen Barah Haath 1957 III! Hit
Cast - Shantaram. Sandhya
Director - Shantaram
Music . • Desai
Lyrics
filmmaker's other humane drama Dr Kotnis Ki Amar

Like the prolific While Bimal Roy's
Kaham made 1 5 years earlier with Shantaram and his real-life wife
Devdas (1956) was
Jayshree in the lead, Do Aankhen is the quasi-biographical story of
extensively shot
a jailor (Shantaram) and his efforts to humanize six criminals As was
outdoors, every
his wont, Shantaram shot this rugged masculine homage to
single shot in Sanjay
humanism in the outdoors, thereby moving away from the studio-
Leela Bhansali's
made dramas that are still the norm m mainstream Hindi cinema The
version of the film
locales add considerably to the authentic mood of moral
was shot on sets.
rehabilitation The actors, especially Sandhya
Dilip Kumar played
(the director's second wife) who is the only
the first of the many
female presence m the plot (besides one of
Shakespearean
the prisoner's old blind mother who n
tragic heroes of
a fleeting appearance) are stylized
Hindi cinema. As a
parabolic Playing a toy seller wh
precursor to the
saunters into the jailor's rehabilitation
'neurotic suitor'
plans, Sandhya^s wild gesticulat (
Dilip Kumar's
the fun-song Chuk dhum chuk dhw
understated
are a jolting homage to the style of
synthesis of muted
/athi theatre | •
machismo and
'amous director stepping
finely-tuned tragedy
into tl 'nore
remains a case-
uned in expressing the
study of
ih of an id«
melodramatic
restraint.
1949 1949 1949

Chakon
Andaz
Ira .,nd Rangoon

Mother India 1957 Pyaasa 1957
Cast Nargis, Sunil Dutt, Raj Kumar, Cast Guru Dutt, Mala Sinha.Waheeda Rehman,
Rajendra Kumar, Kanhaiyalal Johnny Walker Rehman
Director Mehboob Khan Director Guru Dutt
Music Naushad Music S.D. Burrman
Lyrics Shakeel Badayuni Lyrics Sahir Ludhianvi
far one of the most influential works

Byof literary cinema in post-Independence
India, Pyaasa portrays the restless poet-
protagonist Vijay (Guru Dutt) as an insatiable
traveller longing to find a place where his
sensitivity won't be belittled. Spurned by

his family, rejected by his girlfriend (Mala Sinha)
who chooses to marry 'Money' (a publisher
played by Rehman) Vijay finds comfort in the
arms of the prostitute, Gulabo (Waheeda
Khan's melodrama tells the rural saga of Rehman). Pyaasa represents the crest of a
Radha (Nargis), a woman born to suffer, socially relevant cinema with enough angst to
who rises from the ashes of ruination with a seem fiercely contemporary even now.
dignity and grace that exemplifies Indian
womanhood. The epic begins with the old and

frail Radha reliving her turbulent past with her
two sons (Sunil Dutt and Rajendra Kumar) and

their combined fight against feudal oppression,
represented by the evil moneylender

(Kanhaiyalal). Every moment is gloriously
gripping, dipping in and out of the protagonist's

traumatic life, first as an abandoned wife left to
fend for herself and her children, then as a

mother standing up for the right values.

1 949 1 949 1949 1950 1950
Chandni Raat Lahore Mahal Anmol Ratan Chhoti Bhab
(See p. 120)
922
Entertainment tax is included in Bengal and Bombay.

Madhumati 1958 ii nun
'*ala. Pran. johnny Walker

Director || Roy
Music r>owdhury
Lyrics Shailendra
Bimal Roy's most

_ successful film could
be deemed the mother

of 'born-again' cinema
with reincarnation as
the mam theme The

Mehboob Khan's
consciously kitschy tale
landmark film
of a beautiful village
Mother India (1957)
woman (Vyjanthimala)
was the Indian
« I who jumps to her death
film to
first
be
m //(/ ^B ^R?»l to escape rape and gets
nominated for an
k| . 1
^^t ^^B justice in the next life,
t 1 ^K . written by Be-
Oscar in
foreign film
the best
I V ^^^^ ^^li ,rde n,mmaker

V
:
™ lAk ^w^ Ny
^^ I
Rilw,k Ghatak Bimal
category
Mehboob's
missed the
in 1958.
film
•loving film replete with

distinction by a
-n The film go* unly
solitary vote at the
nusic score
third poll.
wen' >und
>f all
1952
Aan
1925
a German company.
Light* I limanshu Rai is the fii I I
Dhool Ka Phool 959 Kaagaz Ke Phool 1959
Cast Ashok Kumar Rajendra Kumar, Mala Smha, Cast Guru DuttWaheeda Rehman.Veena, Baby
Manmohan Krishna Naaz, Johnny Walker
Director Yash Chopra Director Guru Dutt
Music N. Dutta Music S.D. Burman
Lyrics Sahir Ludhianvi Lyrics Kaifi Azmi
r
Bollywood's most consistently successful aagaz Ke Phool is a mirror image of the
director Yash Chopra's debut was a k:sham and shallowness of showbiz, as seen
reformist drama pleading for the legitimacy of through the eyes of the constantly anguished
children born out of wedlock. Mala Sinha director Suresh Sinha (Guru Dutt) who one
starred as a pregnant woman who is jilted by rainy night 'discovers' a new actress (Waheeda
her weak lover (Rajendra Kumar). The Rehman) and finally loses her and his happiness
melodrama is memorable for its high-octave, to the artificial glitter of the film world. V.K.
emotionally charged performance by Mala Murthy's black-and-white cinematography
Sinha. The triangular conflict among the furnishes Dutt's melancholic treatise on life and
unwed mother, her child's father and his wife its illusions with a sepulchral sublimity, best
(Nanda) was interestingly formulated. celebrated in the immortal song Waqt ne kiya
(sung by the director's wife Geeta Dutt).

1952 1952 1952 1953 1953
Aar Paar Anhonee Jaal Anarkali Baiju Bawra
The world's first 'talkie' The Jazz Singer premieres in New York.
Sujata 1959 DRUM
Cast '
. itan. Sunil Dutt Shashikala
Director
Music E >rman
Lyrics Majroon Suttanpun
Nutan and Bimal Roy gave cinema their first stunner in Sujata. The
humanist drama about a hanjan (untouchable) girl's fight for
identity was replete with subtle sensitive touches that defied the
mood of cinema in those melodramatic times The muted stabs at

social reformation were further mellowed down by Nutan's incredibly
Kaagaz Ke Phool
articulate performance that is now rightly regarded as a classic of
(1959) was distinctly
shaded sentimentality The other performances are also adequately
based on Guru
underplayed It is a relief beyond what mainstream cinema generally
Dutt's own
affords audience to see the protagonist's stepsister (Shashikala)
experiences with
portrayed as anything but a shrew Sunil Dutt in a gallantly supportive
the actress,
role to the leading lady plays the man who rescues Sujata from her
Waheeda Rehman
socially debased destiny The film's classic numbers were sung by Lata
whom he launched
•
and reportedly
became emotionally
involved with. This
was the first Hindi
film to be shot in
cinemascope. 1959
was the year of
flower power. Dhool
Ka Phool competed
for the awards with
Guru Dutt's Kaagaz
Ke Phool.
1953 1953 1953 1953 1953

Daera Dhuan Do Bigha Zameen Footpath
12)
1931
I ilm Company releases Ind iength talkie, Alam Ara.

Anuradha i960 Bambai Ka Babu 1960
Cast Balraj Sahni, Leela Naidu, Abhi Bhattacharya Cast Dev Anand, Suchitra Sen
Director Hrishikesh Mukherjee Director Raj Khosla
Music Pandit Ravi Shankar Music S.D. Burman
Lyrics Shailendra Lyrics Majrooh Sultanpun
eambai Ka Babu tells the dark and forbidden

story of a criminal (Dev Anand) who seeks
shelter in the home of a man he murders and

falls in love with the murdered man's sister.
Though mawkish in parts, Bambai Ka Babu is
redeemed by the strength of the narration and

the moody black-and-white cinematography
by Jal Mistry. The film brings the rakish charms
of Dev Anand in direct range of chemistry with
Bengal's prized beauty Suchitra Sen (in one of
her rare forays into Hindi cinema). Their
unfulfilled love creates stirring motions of

progressive drama, Anuradha, has stood harmony within the theme and
A the test of time with remarkable ease. The
core of the theme —what Mallika Sherawat in

guilt.
of betrayal
Murder 44 years later described as the abject

loneliness of a married woman — is splendidly
intact. Leela Naidu plays a promising singer

who gives up her art to be by her village-doctor
husband, Balraj Sahni's side. Soon a looming

disenchantment sets in as the doctor devotes
all his time caring for the sick and ill, unheedful
of his own wife's wounded heart and self-
worth.
1953 1953 1954 1954 1954

Jhansi Ki Rani Ladki Amar Boot Polish Mirza Ghalib
(Seep. 12)
1 932
The Motion Picture Society of India is formed in Bombay.

Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai 1960 in; on
Cast • .oor. Padmir
Director
Music .han
Lyrics ' '

j-iipun
Officially directed
by Raj Kapoor's
regular cameraman
Radhu Karmak,!
film bears the
showman Raj Kapoor's
imprint in every frame 1960 was the year

The shots of the when Hindi cinema
endless stretches of was in an
the ravines experimental mood.
awesome in their differentiation between nature and human beings Hnshikesh
The finale of the dacoits surrendering their arms filmed to the Mukherjee's
inspiring notes of S\ '

an's song As ab laut chalen have, to Anuradha (1960)
My. the power to move us to tears The theme of bandits under rubbed shoulders
morn persed with a distinctly erotic romance with K Asif's
between tl st hero and the voluptuous bandit Mughal-e-Azam for
mm audiences' attention.
Dev Anand featured

in 2 releases
including his brother
Vijay Anand's Kala

Bazaar.
1954 1955 1955 1955 1956

Shree 420 Chori Chon
r>.
14)
1933
,-.ssionate kissing
ig Devika Ram ,
Mughal-e-Azam 1960
Cast Pnthiviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar Madhubala,

Durga Khote.Ajit
Director K.Asif
Music Naushad
Lyrics Shakeel Badayuni
Flawless, seamless and timeless, Mughal-e- characters, their splendid yet subdued
Azam immortalized each one of its cast expressions and articulations refuse to become
members and technicians. Its imposing a kaneez (slave) to passing fads, fancies and
grandeur, breathtaking beauty and, most trends. From the first frame to the last, the
importantly, its emotional energy within its intensity of the lovers' passion infects the
imposing visuals, remain undimmed by the audience like no other romantic epic. Dilip
tides of time as an imperishable classic with a Kumar's understated expressions of romantic

contemporary narrative. Each frame ^
passion are, to this day, exemplary. R.D.
exudes the aroma of priceless £«£ Mathur's cinematography was far ahead of
nostalgia. With every generation the its time, panning the lovers' faces and the
verbal sparring between Emperor breathtaking landscape with equal grace.
Akbar (Prithviraj Kapoor) and The symmetry of time and space
his adamant son Salim (Dilip achieved within the restrictions imposed
Kumar) acquires renewed poetic by the period genre that demands a
intensity, thanks in no sma strictly melodramatic mode of
measure to the dialogues execution, are a marvel of disciplined

which fall in a tumult of creativity. As Madhubala sings,
pride, honour and self dances, suffers and perishes for love,
identity into Asif's epic we wonder if there can ever
design. The opulence of be another epitome of beauty quite
the sets, the regal ike her, or if another film can do
'
bearing of the *• justice to someone as beautiful as
Madhubala!

1956 1956 1957 1957 1957
CID Jaqte Raho
Jagte Bhabhi Do Aankhen Barah Mother India
(Seep. 14) Haath(Seep. 15) (Seep. 16)
1935
P.C. Barua's Devdas starring K.L. Saigal and Jamuna is a huge success and becomes a reference
point in Hindi cinema.
A
Ganga Jumna 1961 BRA II
Cast mala, Nasir Khan
Director Nfti Bose
Music '
. . nad
Lyrics iked Badayuni
The conflict
between two
brothers became a
favourite part of
Hindi cinema's
formulaic lexicon.
But none was as
splashy and
dramatic as Gunga
Jumna 096]).
Dilip Kumar, who
holds up the film's
flamboyant frames
with his winsome
and crowd-
pleasing Awadhi
Dii who mo.

pulled out all the stops to play the outlawed
.illage into the jungles after

Ganga
being
language and
rustic
is
mannerisms,
said to have
To create an ironic
ghost-directed this
brother Jumna (Dilip Kumar's real-
'
here was sibling rivalry
film works both as a romance and

>od
1957 1957 1957 1958

1957
Py.i.is.i isa Nahin Dekha ChaltiKa Naam
Gaadi Seep. 98)
1935
•tsup Bombay Talkies.
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam 1962 Bandini 963
Cast Meena Kumari, Guru Dutt.Waheeda Rehman Cast Ashok Kumar; Nutan, Dharmendra
Director Abrar Alvi Director Bimal Roy
Music Hemant Mukherjee Music S.D. Burman

Lyrics Shakeel Badayuni Lyrics Shailendra, Gulzar
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, adapted from Bimal Chronicling the passionate story of the
Mitra's Bengali novel tells the story of the imprisoned Kalyani through Kamal Bose's
haunted and desperately lonely daughter-in- expressive black-and-white photography, Roy
law of a feudal family in the 19 th century who takes us into a formidable flashback filled with
refuses to become an adornment in the the sound and fury of the Indian Freedom
ancestral mansion. Choti Bahu (played by Movement in the 1930s. Amidst the turmoil of
Meena Kumari) leaves an everlasting rebellion Kalyani (Nutan) falls in love with the
impression of tragic grace. Rebellious, revolutionary Bikas (Ashok Kumar). Many years
hysterical, passionate and doomed, this is the later Kalyani runs into her lover, now married to
actress's most celebrated performance along a shrew. The film's supremely celebrated climax
with Pakeezah. As a captivating counterpoint has Kalyani making the toughest decision of
to Meena Kumari's doomed glory, there any woman's life. Bandini is one of the most
is Waheeda Rehman as the impish Zabaa, poignant tales of love during stressful times
singing coltishly in Asha Bhosle's voice. Caught ever told in Hindi cinema. Bimal Roy's
between the two essential faces of femininity is revolutionary vision lanced across the frames
Bhootnath (Guru Dutt) whose reverent giving the narrative a poetic vision.
adoration of his maalkin (employer) and

indulgent fondness for the girl
next door provide the plot
with an exceptional
resonance.

1958 1958 1959 1959 1959
Kala Pani Madhumati Anari Ardhangini Dhool Ka Phool
(Seep. 17) (See p. 18)
1935
The first All India Motion Picture Convention is held in Bombay.

Mere Mehboob 1963 Minn
i idhana. Rajendra Kumar. Nimmi

Director
Music Mat ,'iad
Lyrics
M
set within a
a
1
love
Mehboob
triangle
decadent
is
Interestingly
Kuman was
Meena
the first
aristocratic Muslim and only choice

for the role of Choti
ambience, and is the
best known example Bahu in Sahib Bibi
of the archak genre Aur Ghulam (1962).
For the male

known as the 'f.'
protagonist's part
Guru Dutt wanted
ritual of coun
Dilip Kumar. When
he failed to turn up
filled witl
the director took on
>gues
the character.
Because of the
renewed
director's personal
proximity to the
Guri. -ilar Muslim love triangle Chaudhvin
actress, singer
I with con iccess of Mere
Geeta Dutt refused
Mn/)/)oo/
to sing for
hit i
'
and
Waheeda Rehman.
unique to the genre. The
film elevating her to the
1959 1959 1959 1959 1960

Kagaz Ke Phool Sujata Anuradha
(See p. 20)
1935
rhe I
Mujhe Jeene Do
Cast Sunil DuttWaheeda Rehman
Director Moni Bhattacharya
Music Jaidev
Lyrics Sahir Ludhianvi
Sunil Dutt produced and played
the lead in this pioneering dacoit
drama. Like Nitin Bose's Ganga

Jumna and Raj Kapoor's Jis Desh
Mein Ganga Behti Hai —the two
other famous dacoit dramas of the
1 960s— Mujhe Jeene Do pitches its
passionate plea at a socially
conscious level. The central plot
about the seismic romance

between the dacoit Sunil Dutt
and the prostitute played by
Waheeda Rehman is played out at
an intensely lyrical pitch. The
two social outcastes' efforts to set
up a home and ensure a safe future

for their child makes for a poignant
drama, heightened by Sahir's
poetry and Jaidev's music. Lata
Mangeshkar singing Tere bachpan

ko jawani ki dua deti hoon is
particularly expressive of the film's
plea to let every individual live with

dignity.
/IELINE: FILMS AND LANDMARK EVENTS

1960 1960 1960 960
Bambai Ka Babu Chaudhvin Ka Jis Desh Mein Ganga Kala Bazaar
(See p. 20) Chand Behti Hai (See p. 21
1936
Ardeshir Irani of the Imperial Film Company sets up a cinecolour processing laboratory.
Dosti 1964 II lit 111
Cast , jdhir Kumar

Director r/en Bose
Music
Lyrics 'lajrooh Sukanpun
ris mega money-spinner for the Rajshn banner featured

ompletely untried faces, not just in the lead but also at the
periphery where Sanjay Khan appeared in a romantic sub-plot But
the mam plot featured two unknown actors Sushil Kumar and Sudhir
Kumar as physically challenged friends struggling to survive with
Sunil Dutt's
dignity in the concrete jungle There was only one star in this roaring breakthrough
hit And that was laxmikant-Pyarelals music Though designed as a came with
commercial drama, Dosti broke several rules of mainstream cinema, Mehboob Khan's
-atyen Bose's other films (Chain Ka Naam Gadi, Jeevan Mntyu. magnum opus,
Bandish, Aasra and Mere Bhaiya) bonds that take individuals beyond Mother India
family ties were very important to Dosti The film celebrated the (1957).
theme of friendship in a language that remains relevant and desirable Dutt turned
to this day producer in the
1960s with a series
of off-beat films
(Mujhe Jeene
Do, 1 963 Yeh Raste
HaiPyarKe, 1963A
which only added
to his reputation
and commercial
standing.
1961 1962
GlHQl Jumn.i Hum Dono Ash Naqli
1937
Ihe Indian ' '
I in Bombay.
Sangam 1964 Aakhri Khat 966
Cast Raj Kapoor.Vyjanthimala, Rajendra Kumar Cast Master Bunty, Rajesh Khanna, Indrani Mukherjee
Director Raj Kapoor Director Chetan Anand
Music Shankar, Jaikishan Music Khayyam
Lyrics Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri Lyrics Kaifi Azmi
minor masterpiece from Rajesh Khanna's

A pre-superstardom phase, Aakhri Khat stars
an infant Master Bunty who is left on the streets
to fend for himself after his mother (Indrani
Mukherjee) dies, leaving the little boy to his own

devices. Jal Mistry's skillful camera careens
through the little boy's scary adventures in the
concrete jungle as he moves from place to place

in search of comfort and grace. This is an
his first colour film, Raj Kapoor went kitschy unbelievably natural performance by the little
In
with a captivating vengeance to tell the story boy, buoyed by a haunting music score by
of three childhood friends Gopal (Kumar), Khayyam. Two melodies Baharon mera jeevan
Sundar (Kapoor) and Radha (Vyjanthimala). bhi sawaron and Mere chanda (the latter
Radha loves Gopal but Sundar, pushy and naive poignantly expressing the helplessness of the
as only Raj Kapoor can be, refuses to see the dead mother to comfort her wandering child) by
writing on the wall. The lavishly mounted film Lata Mangeshkar have stood the test of time. So
takes the trio through a tumultuous round-the- has this unusual film from a versatile director.
world trip until the triangle is finally resolved
with Gopal's suicide. The film's arresting song

sequences shot in over-saturated colours
suggests a festive flamboyant flair for
melodrama and escapism. Raj Kapoor had

originally called the film Gharonda and wished
to cast Dilip Kumar in the role of Gopal.

1962 1962 1962 1962 1962
Baat Ek Raat Ki Bees Saal Baad China Town Ek Musafir Ek Hasina Hariyali Aur Raasta
1937
Ardeshir Irani of the Imperial Film Company releases the first colour film, Kisan Kanya.
Anupama 1966 iiimn
Cast I Jharmendra, Sharmila Tagore.Tarun Bose. Shashikala. Deven Varma
Director Mukhenee
Music
Lyrics I
mute and minimalist drama ahead of times. Anupama

A the story of
brilliant
Uma
far
(Sharmila Tagore) whose

its tells
father (played with
authority by Tarun Bose) detests his daughter ever since his
beloved wife died during childbirth The transference of his grief
•he daughter's guilt is majestically achieved through the subtle Sharmila Tagore
screenplay and and Tarun Bose
sparse dialogues were subconscious
Dharni* precursors to
author who brings Aishwarya Rai and
the rei
Amitabh Bachchan
•
in Aditya Chopra's
unfor .
Mohabbatein
on the (2000).
f»ss
spoken wrr
d Shashikala What gave

Arm; rength was the troubled father-
1962 1962 1963 1963

1962
S.ilnb Bibi Aur Bandini
(See p. 24)
Ghul.im
1938
Th<> Indian film ii

Devar 1966 Guide 966
Cast Dharmendra, SharmilaTagore, Deven Varma, Cast Dev Anand, Waheeda Rehman, Leela Chitnis,
Shashikala Anwar Husain, Kishore Sahu
Director Mohan Segal Director Vijay Anand
Music Roshan Music S.D. Burman

Lyrics Anand Bakshi Lyrics Shailendra
Njay Anand smoothly recreates R.K.
V;Narayan's complex and layered novel, and

mixes existentialism with the song-and-dance
formula. Waheeda Rehman comes to life as the
capricious, defiant and enchanting Rosy, and

Dev Anand is every bit Raju Guide who goes
from guiding tourists in Rajasthan to guiding the
much-married Rosy out of a suffocating
marriage into a super-career as a dancer. In the
last lap of this fascinating and beguiling drama

compelling quadrangular melodrama of love, deception and redemption, Dev Anand
The
about a mismatched couple contained deep is transformed into a saint, the saviour of a
elements of Bengali literature. Stress within the drought-stricken village. Rehman, in her best
domestic ambience was created when the role had Lata Mangeshkar's voice making Rosy a
noble Dharmendra ends up marrying the ravishing mirror of enigma and emancipation.
shrewish Shashikala while his brother contrives
to marry the virtuous and beautiful Sharmila
Tagore. The film is remarkable for projecting the
ironic twists of fate in an unconventional format
with the lead pair bound to the 'wrong' spouses
till the very end. When the truth is revealed
(Dharmendra and Sharmila were childhood

sweethearts) it's too late to turn back.

1963 1963 1963 1963 1963
Gumraah Mere Mehboob Mujhe Jeene Do Sanjh Aur Savera Tere Ghar Ke Samne
(Seep. 114) (See p. 25) (See p. 26)
1940
The Film Advisory Board is set up in Bombay.

Mamta 1966 in; wi \
-mar. Suchrtra Sen. Dharmendra

Director | Sen
Music oshan
r
Lyncs i Suftanpun
Remaking his own 1963 Bengali hit Uttar Phalgum, Asit Sen does
a searing sentimental pilgrimage into the anatomy of
motherhood with the mythic Suchitra

Sen cast as both mother and daughter
In true Mother India tradition, the
mother sacrifices all happiness and

comfort to see her daughter grow up
with dignity The flickering images
Far ahead of its
of the martyr's slow fade-out is
times, and as
manifested in Sen's over-done
timeless in its
melodramatic performance controlled
emotional and
and set to a compelling pitch by Lata
dramatic
Mangeshkar s songs fl
resonances as the
jinke dil n
voice of Lata
•
im shows ' 1^^ Mangeshkar
which guides Rosy
between
to glory, Guide
the mol ^n who would \ (1966) is a
have beef "om the
'
multifaceted work
>tional power
of popular art with
a music score by
S.D. Burman that
ranks as one of the
10 all-time bests.
1964 1964 1964

1964 1964
Haqeeqat Kashmir Ki Kali
111)
1940
•
of Bombay Tai>
Phool Aur Patthar 1966 Teesri Kasam 1966
Cast Meena Kumari, Dharmendra, Shashikala, Cast Raj Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman
O.R Ralhan Director Basu Bhattacharya
Director: O.P Ralhan Music Shankar, Jaikishan
Music Ravi Lyrics Shakeel Badayur Lyrics Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri
Bhattacharya's directorial debut, Teesri

Basu
Kasam adapts litterateur Phanishwarnath
Renu's novel about the bond that grows
between a simple-hearted bullock-cart driver
(Raj Kapoor) and the professional dancer
(Waheeda Rehman) who visits his village.
Bhattacharya focussed on the feelings
underlining the two characters' relationship
rather than the star-value afforded by the cast.
noteworthy potboiler depicting a forbidden black-and-white

A
and
liaison
a petty
between
criminal
a widow (Meena
(Dharmendra).
Kumari)
The
Brilliantly
Nabendu Ghosh,
number
shot in
Teesri
of memorabilia sung by
Kasam features
Mukesh.
by
a
Teesri
sequence in which Dharmendra crept up to the Kasam is today regarded as Kapoor's most
supine heroine in a shirtless, drunken stupor credible rendering of his simpleton's image that
had audiences whistling in delight. The became caricatural in the 1970s with films like
screenplay blended the elements of a typical Diwana and Sapnon Ka Saudagar.

entertainer with a strong social comment on
widow remarriage. The assertive vamp
(Shashikala) provided a persuasive counterpoint
to the chaste and inviolable widow. It was by far
the most fruitful collaborative effort of
Dharmendra and Meena Kumari during their
much talked-about friendship in the 1960s.

1964 1964 1964 1965 1965
Kohraa Sangam Suhagan Bahu Beti Bedaag
(See p. 120) (See p. 28)
1942
Shortage in raw film and equipment restricts the length of film to conserve stock for war
propaganda films.
Teesri Manzil 1966 drum
Twni Kapoor. Asha Parekh. Premnath. Helen
Director
Music R D. Burman
Lyrics M h Suttanpun
Blending producer Nasir
Husam's trademark formula

of frolic and romance
with director Vijay Anand's
penchant for using song, dance
and drama as extensions of the Shammi Kapoor's
characters' inner world. Teesn rebellious 'yahoo'
Manzil created a storm at in Junglee (1961)

the box office The plot is a exemplified the
murder mystery about a girl swinging sixties.
befriending a musician at a hill His acting, dancing

station to find out the identity and dress style, (a
of her sister's killer Much of the mix of James Dean

plot seems an excuse for and Elvis Presley)
Burman's rousing songs made him a cult
rendered with glorious gusto figure amongst the

by M I major tryst with the youth.
hit parade, Burman created smash-hit tracks like mere sona re,
hasc> nn hoon pyar tera and the

unci illy sober Rati solo Tumne mujhe dekha which was
filmed immedi :
|
man's wife Geeta Bali passed
away One of biggest hits. Kapoor and Parekh

somehov. jects like Jawan
Mohabb<it and Pagla Kah
1965 1965
Chupa Rustom Janam Janam Ke
Saathi
1942
Mukherjee, Gyan Mukherjee,
l
rival to Bombay Tall •
P by Shashadhar
Rai Bahadur ( nun
Milan 1967 Raat Aur Din 1967
Cast Nutan, Sunil Dutt, Jamuna, Deven Varma Cast Nargis, Pradeep Kumar Feroz Khan
Director A. Subba Rao Director Satyen Bose
Music Laxmikant, Pyarelal Music Laxmikant, Pyarelal
Lyrics Anand Bakshi Lyrics Shankar, Jaikishan
on
A"\tkthe
rare
reincarnation,
success
theme of
Milan
A
Nargis
rare attempt to delve into a psychologically
complex theme, Raat Aur Din featured
in her last performing role, as a
was very different from schizophrenic representing the two aspects of
the other success in darkness (raat) and light {din). There was
the genre, Madhumati. certain sensitivity in the narration that director
Telling the tale Bose achieved through Nargis' extremely

of forbidden love credible performance. She got terrific support
between a simple boatman (Dutt) and a classy from singer Lata Mangeshkar whose numbers
woman from an aristocratic family (Nutan) Awaara ae mere dil and A/a chedo kal ke
the Telugu director (making his debut in Hindi) afsane, Dil ki girah khol do went
took us on location to a fisher village to shoot a long way in creating an aura
the stirring love tale. The film opens with the of enigma and apprehension
newly married couple discovering their around the central character.
togetherness in several previous lives through Nargis had married and
the hit song Hum turn yug-yug se yeh retired from cinema by
geet milan ke. Laxmikant-Pyarelal's songs the time this film was
contributed immensely to the film's popularity. released. She received the
The lead pair was brilliantly underplayed, National Award for her
especially in the scenes depicting the heroine's performance that recalled
widowhood and the boatman's efforts to her earlier day-and-night
console her. The South Indian actress Jamuna star-turn in K.A. Abbas'
made a rare appearance in a Hindi film as the 1952 psycho-drama
over-possessive third angle in the love triangle. Anhonee.

1965 1965 1966 1966 1966
Janwar Waqt Aakhri Khat Anupama Devar
(See p. 28) (See p. 29) (See p. 30)
1942
Directors V. Shantaram, Mehboob Khan and A.R. Kardar set up their independent film
production units.
Anokhi Raat 1968 DRAMA
Cast i mjeev Kumar. Zaheeda. Pankshat Sahni. Aruna Irani
Director '
| Sen
Music
Lyrics ' oshan
modernistic chamber piece about who

A together under unlikely though not impossible circumstances
during one story night Sanjeev
a group of people huddle
Kumar plays an outlaw who believes

the woman in the present is his dead wife from the past. Legendary
;s Nargis' niece Zaheeda made her debut in the challenging
double role Director Asit Sen (not to be confused with the comic
Through the 1960s
actor of the same name) captured the desperately driven people
and 70s, Nutan
trapped under one
picked up awards
roof with an intensity
for multifarious
ned the
roles in films like
moment as well as the
Milan 0967),
feelings and emotions
Saraswatichandra
which underscored
(1969) and Main
their inter
Tulsi Tere Aangan
Anokhi Raat Sen's
Ki (1978). Till the
experimental b€
1980s she
extracted exquisitely I I^HL ^BH maintained her
neo-reri >m the entire cast who had to be both
preeminence,
d authentic to fulfill the director's double vision of an
acting for the first
ordinary world driven by extraordinary circumstances Composer
time opposite Dilip
•
im's best-known song. Mehlon ka
Kumar in Karma
raja mils, sum) \n\" qeshkarwas
(1986).
record.
1966
Oil Diy.i Guide Mamta Phool Aur Patthar
(See p. 32)
1943
Government imposes control on supply I

Ashirwad 1968 Sangharsh 1968
Cast Ashok Kumar, Sanjeev Kumar; Cast Dilip Kumar, Vyjanthimala, Balraj Sahni,
Sumita Sanyal.Veena Jayant, Sanjeev Kumar

Director Hnshikesh Mukherjee Director H.S. Rawail
Music Vasant Desai Music Naushad
Lyrics Gulzar Lyrics Shakeel Badayuni
an author-backed central role of a poet Ablood-and-thunder tale about a cult of

In
married to a female zamindar (Veena stern — outlaws, Sangharsh was raised to an
and stoic), Ashok Kumar (in a National Award extraordinary cinematic experience by the
winning performance) created a character that stunning ensemble cast of formidable actors.
was at once soft, sensitive and stubborn. The Dilip Kumar of course rose to dramatic heights
epic screenplay was a spiral of calamitous in both his dramatic and lighter moments in
circumstances strung together by the hands of the narrative. Others including Jayant playing
a master storyteller. Reversing the matriarchal Kumar's bloodthirsty grandfather and Balraj
rules of cinematic melodrama, Mukherjee Sahni were exceptionally attuned to the violent
created one of Hindi cinema's most powerful mood of Bengali litterateur Mahashweta Devi's
treatise on the special father-daughter original novel. Though she was unhappy with
relationship. Ashirwad is Mukherjee's most the screen adaptation, Rawail brought a
elegiac film ever. Standing tall at the centre of ravishing resonance to the drama.
this remarkably rich emotional tale is Ashok

Kumar whose incredibly prolonged career as a
leading man climaxed with this film. The actor

made us forget the external aberrations to take
us on an unforgettable emotional journey. His
self-rendered Rail gadi rail gadi sung in a park

full of frolicking children displayed Ashok
Kumar's proclivity to be the consummate mass
entertainer.

1966 1966 1967 1967 1967
Teesri Kasam Teesri Manzil An Evening In Paris Jewel Thief Milan
(See p. 32) (See p. 33) (Seep. 121) (See p. 34)
1943
India's first certified blockbuster Kismet opens and runs for four uninterrupted years in a theatre
in Calcutta.
Saraswatichandra 1968 drama
Cast . Ramesh Deo

Director Govind S ai
Music I
Lyrics
and creatively correct adaptation of a literary
A
in
rare thematically
work, Saraswatichandra
the 19 th
century We
is an elaborate critique of social
see the two protagonists Saraswatichandra

norms
(Manish) and Kumud

(Nutan) caught between
tradition and reform as
Ashok Kumar's
their life is tossed from
lucky break came
one level of torment to
in 1935 when
another Unable to unite,
Nazmul Hussein,
two protagonists
the hero of
are caught in various
Himanshu
iHHfek. J^
Rai's
A' states of estrangement
Jeevan Naiyya
Kumud who is in many
(1936) disappeared
vital ways the n 1 falls into a marital
four days before
.vhood she renounces the chance to finally
shooting. Ashok,
marry f
•
vocals (by Lata Mangeshkar
then serving as
and Mukesh) Irft tl -idiosity One
Rai's lab assistant,
of Boll, ; musical further
replaced Nazmul.
•
'
The film was a hit
Sanjay ,lva s literary
and Ashok was
n many
immensely
appreciated. He
never looked back.
1967 1967 1968 1968 1968

Ashirwad Anokhi Raat
R.J. it Aur Dim R.imi Aur Shy. tiTi
p 35)
>ed India's first film, Raja

Phalke, the father ol the li
Harishi handra 1 191 :

Aradhana 1969
Cast Ashok Kumar, SharmilaTagore, Rajesh Khanna,
Farida Jalal, Madan Pun, Anita Guha, Manmohan,

Pahadi Sanyal
Director Shakti Samanta
Music S.D. Burman

Lyrics Anand Bakshi
consummate masala-melodrama
The
launched Rajesh Khanna as Bollywood's first
superstar, and also established Kishore Kumar

as India's no.1 male playback singer. The ghost-
voice played an unquestionable role in rolling in
the Khanna mania. The minute Kishore sang
Mere sapnon ki rani for Khanna the nation

went into a collective swoon. Ironically
Aradhana wasn't Khanna's author-backed film!
WP- * jA Although he played both father and son, was

I^H V 1
Sharmila Tagore as the unwed
it
mother
struggling to bring up her illegitimate offspring
in a brutally cold, harsh and uncaring world

fc^T M who held the show together with her
performance. S.D. Burman's musical score
vastly and vigorously supported the remarkable

melodrama. The seduction song Roop tera
K mastana where the coy unmarried girl is
.^jfc^J
^~^0P
.
impregnated was done in one take. Khanna
. ^^* with his unbuttoned shirt
flaming-red blanket set the screen on

and Tagore
fire.
in a
>**JfM?-JSUk m&HJ.
1968 1968 1968
Brahmachari Dil Aur Mohabbat Do Kaliyan
1945
Control on the distribution of raw film stock is removed

Do Raaste 1969 DRAMA
Cast âjesh Khanna. Mumtaz. BaJraj Sahni. Prem Chopra. B<ndu.
hal.jayant
Director <hosla
Music •
ant PyarelaJ
Sharmila Tagore
J "Though more
I for his classic
recognized
performance
wasn't producer-
director Shakti
in Do Big ha Zameen and
Samanta's first
Garam Hawa, Balraj Sahni
choice for
was equally credible and
Aradhana 0969).
compelling in this film as the
After Aparna Sen
noble and suffering patriarch
chickened out at
of a joint family who
the prospect of
dedicates his life to looking
playing mom to
after his two stepbrothers (Prem Chopra and Rajesh Khanna). only to
the hero in her
have one of them turn against him when Chopra marries a shrew
(and his) prime,
The popular vamp of the 1970s Bmdu made a piercing impact as the
Tagore bravely
conniving daughter-in-law who weans her husband away from his
applied chalk to
family Based on a well-known Gujarati novel, Do Raaste boasted of
her lustrous
powerful >ne of the composing duo
tresses, abandoned
LaxmikHnt-Py f K- .sful music scores ever Chart-busting
the trademark
son(j qaye saare nazaare. Yeh reshmi zulfem, Mere naseeb
bouffant and
mem ae dost and B •
kegi (one of the biggest hits of the
sequined saris for
deed ,
plot a chance to develop the Khanna-
the widow's weeds
in the second-half,
and gave an
award-winning
performance.
1968 1968 1968 1968 1968

Sangharsh Sapnon Ka Saudagar
Padotwi
(See p 36)
1946
.
M the Cannes Film Festival
Khamoshi 1969 Satyakam 969
Cast Waheeda Rehman, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Cast Dharmendra, SharmilaTagore, Sanjeev Kumar
DevenVarma, Lalita Pawar Director Hnshikesh Mukherjee
Director Asit Sen Music Laxmikant, Pyarelal
Music Hemant Mukherjee Lyrics Gulzar Lyrics Kaifi Azmi
This immensely satisfying film remains an

abiding favourite. An absolutely natural
performance by Dharmendra portrays the life
of Satyapriya, an idealistic engineer whose

dreams of a free, morally liberated India turn
sour. He redeems his conscience by marrying a

'fallen woman' Ranjana (Tagore) and adopting
her illegitimate child. Decades after it was
made, Satyakam remains a pertinent
nt and
acutely conscientious mirror of
Independent India's soured

yearnings. Rajinder Singh Bedi's
scathing dialogues and the director's

a: .psychological desires with the timeless ability to create drama without
Waheeda Rehman cast as a nurse in a mental going overboard gives the narrative a
hospital whose emotions are used to cure cutting edge.
traumatized patients; first Dharmendra then

Rajesh Khanna. The pressure of serving as a
guinea pig finally takes its toll on the healer

who ends up as a patient in her own
psychiatric ward. Khamoshi plays a peculiarly
poignant game of light-and-shade with the
female protagonist's character.

/
1968 1969 1969 1969 1969
Saraswatichandra Aradhana Do Raaste Ittefaq Khamoshi
(See p. 37) (See p. 38) (See p. 39) (Seep. 122) (See p. 40)
1947
A landmark in Indian history. On 15th August, India wins Independence from the British.
Dastak 1970 ii nun
Cast Rehana Sultan. Sanjeev Kumar

Director : nder Smgh Beck
Music '^dan Mohan

Lyrics Majrooh Sultanpun
Urdu-Hindi litterateur Rajmder Singh Bedi turned director with this
skilled and layered look at the housing problem in Mumbai and

a crumbling marriage between a Muslim couple, salvaged and finally
sublimated by the music in their souls Dasfa* is the first Hindi film to
look at Muslims as mainstream people Sanjeev Kumar plays the
> guy Hamid while Salma is his new burqa-less

In Khamoshi
move where a once (1969)

, into a house of disrepute prostitute
sna Sultan portrays the

Dharmendra is
only captured in
transformation of the timid
silhouettes— his
l housewife into a
face is not visible
>*d woman
• to the camera.
Director Asit Sen,

•w home Sultan
.vith subt
who went on to
make several
prestigious
psychologically
*>ad of
dense mainstream
its time in tl
films, got great

»ma
the tn,.
in
V J
help for this
particular film
from Hemant
Mukherjee's music
compositions.
1969 1969 1970 1970 1970

S.ity.ik.im Mera Naam P'atang
1947
d the film industry. Boi

i.onal films
Khilona 1970 Purab Aur Paschim 1970
Cast Sanjeev Kumar, Mumtaz, Jeetendra, Cast Manoj Kumar, Saira Banu, Bharathi, Kamini
Shatrughan Sinha Kaushal, Madan Pun, Shammi, Prem Chopra

Director ChandarVohra Director Manoj Kumar
Music Laxmikant, Pyarelal Music Kalyanji, Anandji
Lyrics Anand Bakshi Lyrics Indivar, Santosh Anand, Prem Dhawan
The illustrious producer L.V. Prasad Writer-director Manoj Kumar's back-to-the-

specialized in potboilers with a heart of roots saga featured him as the archetypal
gold. In this interesting adaptation of pulp patriot Bharat who faces the 'polluting' aspects
novelist Gulshan Nanda's bestseller, of western culture in England, when the

Prasad played puppeteer to director Chandar bleached-blonde Indian (Saira Banu) enters his
Vohra to tell a melodramatic story of a holier-than-thou life. Famous mainly for Banu's
prostitute (Mumtaz) and a clinically insane man scandalous short-skirted cigarette-smoking

(Sanjeev Kumar). The prostitute is brought to persona, Purab Aur Paschim threw forward an
the 'respectable' household to heal the hero. interesting debate on the downside of western
Once cured, he forgets all the sweet memories culture and the devaluation of Indianess for
of his therapeutic liaison with the fallen a dream-chasing materialism. The message of
woman. nationalism ends with Banu and her parents
returning to their roots.

1970 1970
Mera Gaon Mera Purab Aur Safar
Desh Paschim (See p. 42) (See p. 43)
1947
Indian cinema's most influential icon Lata Mangeshkar, sings her first Hindi song Pa lagoon kar
jori in the film Aap Ki Sewa Mein.
Safar 1970 IIRUIA
Cast hok Kumar. Rajesh Khanna. Sharrnila Tagore. Feroz Khan

Director | Sen
Music '
i u iji, Anandji
Lyrics Mdrvar
One of the string of films that Rajesh Khanna did playing on his
image of the tragic dying hero In Safar he's cast as an artist who
sacrifices his love when he gets to know he is terminally ill. Feroz
Khan as the suspicious and possessive husband got a rare chance to
make an impact in a romantic film Both Khanna and Tagore built on
Khilona (1970)
their images from their earlier hits Aradhana and Amar Prem as
was Shatrughan
eternal romanticists Though this film was far less successful than the
Sinha's first major
other two it is noteworthy for its mature view of the man-woman
foray into bad-
relationship There are no safe options in the plot The tangled love
man's territory.
;le is resolved with the heroine bereft of the companionship of
Sinha got the role
both men Kha jk persona was heightened by Kishore
on Mumtaz's
Kumar's pensive songs Jeevan se than ten aankhen and Zmdagi
recommendation.
In a role turned
down by Sharmila
Tagore, Mumtaz
brought both
sauciness and
sublimity. Producer
Prasad's lucky
mascot Jeetendra
put in a 'friendly'
appearance as the
good-hearted
lover-boy.
i
1
(
)/1 1971 19/1 1971 1971
Amar Prem Anand
(See p. 44) (See p. 44)
1947
Barua's Devdas (1935) passes away.

Anand 1971 Amar Prem 1971
Cast Rajesh Khanna, Sumita Sanyal, Ramesh Deo, Cast Rajesh Khanna, SharmilaTagore, Master Bobby
Seema Deo, Johnny Walker; Amitabh Bachchan Vmod Mehra, Bindu, Sujit Kumar
Director Hnshikesh Mukherjee Director Shakti Samanta
Music Salil Chowdhury Music R.D. Burman
Lyrics Gulzar Lyrics Anand Bakshi
Aradhana, Shakti
Two years after his historic
Samanta assembled the same team for an
artistic encore. Amar Prem is the unique story of
a bonding beyond blood that grows among 3

social outcasts: a lonely neglected husband
(Rajesh Khanna), a golden-hearted prostitute
(Sharmila Tagore) and a sensitive little boy
(Master Bobby) ill-treated by his stepmother
(Bindu). Strong in her frailties, Sharmila Tagore's
Pushpa is redolent of the image of the Indian
This ravishing reiteration of Rajesh Khanna's woman as the Mother Godess: nurturing and
indomitable superstardom also laid down all-giving in her selflessness. Unarguably one of
the foundation stone of the Bachchan empire. R.D. Burman's most flawless scores to
If Khanna played the fading light of sunshine, complement a film that has no blind spots, only
Bachchan played the brooding and intense the luminous light of a life well lived.
cloud. If one was the ever-grinning heart

stealer the other was the ever-grim cynic,
horrified by the malpractices in his medical

profession, determined to save his dying friend
from the clutches of cancer. Essentially a
melodramatic tear-jerker, director Hnshikesh

Mukherjee turned the drama of mortality into
an immortal affirmation of life.

1971 1971 1971 1971 1971
Andaz Anubhav Balidaan Budda Mil Gaya Caravan
(See p. 45) (See p. 46)
1947
Vijay Bhatt's Ram Rajya, A.R. Kardar's Shah Jahan and V. Shantaram's Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani
are shown at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto.
Andaz 1971 in: mi
nrvn. Kapoor Hema Malmi. Sim. Garewal. Rajesr
Director
Mlsic
Lyncs
Ramesh
debut,
">esh Sippy
•
,4»pun
Sippy's
this
nan
directorial
handsomely
m
Rajesh Khanna's
mounted romantic drama
part in Anand
to bring together a
(1971) was first
ma Malim) and a
offered by director
ver (Shammi Kapoor)
Hnshikesh
^tionship is shown to
Mukherjee to
grow through their respective
Kishore Kumar,
children The plot makes Shashi Kapoor and
room for two lengthy
even Raj Kapoor! In
fact the film was

with their respective spouses
inspired by the
Shammi Kapoor's p<* I
director's close
friendship with Raj

Garewal) is overshddowed Kapoor and the
by H. jusing fear of losing a
•
precious friend.
Khar
Rajesh Khanna
the •
iagi ek safer hai

i
walked away with
sunanaonly to )t, became the benchmark for all star the Filmfare's best-
guev Besides the film's understated formulism and actor award for his
Khar e the film is memorable for delicate delineation
•me of widow n of a dying man's
life-enforcing
ebullience.
1971 1971 1971

Duniya Kya Jane Ek Adhuri Kahani
ith Ziddi, and remains at the top for more than

thirty ,.
Anubhav 971 Guddi 1971
Cast Sanjeev Kumar Tanuja, Dinesh Thakur, A.K. Hangal Cast Dharmendra, Jaya Bhaduri, Samit Bhanja,
Director Basu Bhattacharya AX. Hangal, Utpal Dutt
Music Kanu Roy Director Hnshikesh Mukherjee
Lyrics Gulzar Music Vasant Desai Lyrics Gulzar
n an era when Eastmancolour had invaded n what is arguably the most appealing debut
Hindi cinema to a monopolistic extent, the performance ever, Jaya Bhaduri stole millions
enterprising Basu Bhattacharya dared to venture of hearts as the chirpy schoolgirl who has a
major crush on film star Dharmendra. The

quirky comic drama delineates Guddi's
growth from a star-stuck fan to a responsible
and sensible woman who knows the difference
between the illusion of celluloid and the reality
outside. While interpreting celluloid dreams

for the audience, director Hrishikesh
Mukherjee invited a gallery of stars to make

guest appearances. There are many
illuminating illustrations of the star-fan
into the black-and-white world to bonding, like Guddi enraptured in the

portray the barren marriage of Meeta darkness of a theatre watching her idol
(Tanuja) to Amar (Sanjeev Kumar). On Dharmendra in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's
the brink of disintegration, their Anupama, or Guddi fantasizing
bleak togetherness gets a further about Dharmendra singing

jolt when Amar's colleague and Mujhe jeevan ki dor se bandh liya
Meeta's ex-boyfriend (Dinesh hai (the song that Dev Anand and
Thakur) barges into their lives. The Sadhana lip-synced in Hrishikesh
friction caused by a third person in Mukherjee's Asli Naqli).
the marriage is delineated with

brush-strokes of quiet intensity.

1971 1971 1971 1971 971
Ek Paheli Elaan Gambler Guddi Haathi Mere Saathi
(See p. 46)
1948
S.S. Vasan's lavish costume drama Chandralekha becomes the first Madras-produced success in
Hindi cinema.
Mera Naam Joker 1971 DRAMA
Cast Raj Kapoor. Manoj Kumar. Dharmendra. Rajendra Kumar. Dara Singh.
jarewal. Ksiena Rabankjna. Padmmi. Rjshi Kapoor

Director
Music ihankai • .nan
Lyrics Shailendra. Havat jaipun. Neeraj. Prem Dhawan
•prawling 4-hour
A rtells the biographical
epic
story of a circus clown Raju

(Raj Kapoor) who faces
heartbreak three times over
In the first and by far the
Though without a
most relaxed chapter
background in
adolescent Raju (played by Raj
Bollywood, Jaya
Kapoors son Rishi Kapoor)
Bhaduri carved a
attains sexual awakening
niche for herself
through his teacher (Simi
there within no
Garewal) who is engaged to
time. Little did she
marry Manoj Kumar In the
know that her
endearing debut in
a clown in the circus He
Guddi'(1971)
iaison with a stunning trapeze artiste (Ksiena Rabiankma)
would herald an
n the third most voluptuous chapter inspired by
era of stardom for
Charlie Chaplin's Lin •
ipoor is mentor to an ambitious
her and catapult
wannabe mi) who quickly latches on to a superstar
her to the status of
(Rajendra Kumar) and deserts poor Raju The heartbreaks culminate
being the 'First
in the marvellous on-staqe display of showmanship Kapoor's
Lady of Bollywood'
reputation as the consummate show • justified by the use
—Mrs Bachchan!
Jrama and rom.!
1971 1971 1971 1971 1971

Mera Naam Joker Mere Apne Naya Zamana Pakeezah
48) (See p. 48)
(See; p
1948
Prolifk filn K Studios.
'
Mere Apne 1971 Pakeezah 1971
Cast Meena Kumari, Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Cast Meena Kumari, Ashok Kumar, Raj Kumar Veena,
Sinha, Danny Denzongpa, Paintal Nadira
Director Gulzar Director Kamal Amrohi
Music Salil Chowdhury Music Ghulam Mohamed Naushad

Lyrics Gulzar Lyrics Kaifi Azmi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kaif Bhopali
Released days before the untimely death of

its leading lady, Pakeezah rode to
immortality on the wings of Meena Kumari's
image of tragic grandeur. She was cast by her

estranged husband as the archetypal tawaif,
the courtesan who remains pure and virtuous
through a series of highly
romantic adventures that
his directorial debut, Gulzar bring her closer to happiness.

For
adapted Tapan Sinha's Bengali hit Meena Kumari dazzled in
Apanjan. Chronicling the compelling reposeful resplendence as a
gang war between two student groups, prostitute, penning poems

Mere Apne pre-empted the youthful of pain and romance in an
violence and unrest of Ram Gopal environment of decadence.
Varma's directorial debut Shiva as well as Amrohi takes her on a
Mani Ratnam's Yuva. Shatrughan journey in search of love.
Sinha and Vinod Khanna seethe in a When a romantic

realistic rage as rival student leaders. Meena stranger (Raj Kumar) sees the courtesan's feet
Kumari in her last screen appearance holds the in a train compartment he falls in love with the
plot and characters together. Playing a village woman and makes the classic observation,
woman who brings the rivals together through 'Don't let your feet touch the ground. They'll
her gentle compassion Meena Kumari created a get soiled.' The film finally builds to a karmic
character that was soft and subtle. spiral around Meena Kumari's tragic persona.

1971 1971 1971 1972 1972
Parwana Piya Ka Ghar Reshma Aur Shera Apna Desh Bawarch
(See p. 49)
1949
The Films Division is set up in Bombay.

Reshma Aur Shera 1971 DRAMA
•t.Waheeda Rehman. Amitabh Bachchan. Raakhee Gulzar
Director Sunil Dutt
Music j t.dev
Lyrics igi. r Jeer a,
A legendary love tale

',
in the tradition of Heer-Ranjha and
the lovers of this violent tale are located
•nan The lush location provides director Dutt with ample scope
in
Romeo &
the deserts of
to shoot the violence of uncontrollable passions and familial feuds in

Although Meena
jlory The narrative takes Reshma (Waheeda Rehman) and Shera
Kumari was too ill
(Sunil Dutt) through a series of tumultuous encounters One of them

to perform all the
involves a lengthy narrative song Tu chanda mam chandm sung with
intricate mujra
the undulating lucidity of the sand dunes by Lata Mangeshkar, where
dances in Pakeezah
the lovers meet, spend time together and part in operatic motions
(1971) herself, this
Dutt uses -
i tic modes to express the grief, rage and passion

is Meena Kumari's
of an unreason, i :
Med climate Both the principal players are
most memorable
cred: their thunder is often stolen by bit-players Bachchan
role. The danseuse-
-
il
actress Padma
Khanna performed
the climactic song
posing as Meena
Kumari with a veil
hiding her face.
1972 1972 1972 1972 1972

•
Hare Rama Hare
Div\ Krishna (See p. 50)
1949
policy.
Hare Rama Hare Krishna 1972 Koshish 1972
Cast Dev Anand, Mumtaz, Zeenat Aman Cast Sanjeev Kumar, Jaya Bhadun, Om Shivpun, Asrani
Director Dev Anand Director Gulzar
Music R.D. Burrman Music Madan Mohan
Lyrics Anand Bakshi Lyrics Gulzar
Anand's most successful film as

Dev a
director, the novel location (Kathmandu)
and the hard-hitting theme (a maladjusted girl's
tryst with drug trafficking and other intriguing

tangles in the cloistered bylanes of Kathmandu)
ensured a sizeable audience interest —the

sensational depiction of the drugged hippy
cult, chart-busting songs like Dum maro dum
and / love you, and Zeenat Aman in her post-
debut appearance, striking the right

trendy and rebellious notes as the Gulzar's post-debut directorial creation was
hero's drugged derelict sister Janice a marvel of silent splendour. Boldly
thumbing her nose at convention. departing from convention, it depicts the
life and struggle of a deaf-and-mute couple

to live in an uncaring world with dignity and
joy. Both Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhaduri (the
latter replaced Moushumi Chatterjee at the
eleventh hour) turn in superlative-defining
performances. Though it was Kumar who

walked away with the National Award, most
admirers of the actress and this mutely moving
drama believe Bhaduri was every bit as
credible. Without a word exchanged, the lead
pair expresses a universe of emotions.

1972 1972 1972 1972 1972
Hawas Izzat Koshish Mere Jeevan Saathi Parichay
(Seep. 50) (Seep. 51)
1949
Lata Mangeshkar changes the face of playback singing with a multitude of chartbusters in the
films Bazar, Barsat, Badi Bahen, Andaz, Dulari, Lahore and Mahal.
Parichay 1972 until
Cast i Bhadun. Pran. Sanjeev Kumar
Director
3 Borman
Lyrics
Phay is based on a
Bengali short stor, |
'
>ry of the estranged
grandchildren of Rai Sahib
(Pran) who had once

disowned his singer-son
(Sanjeev Kumar) Now the
childr. • to create a
iered Besides launching

life of Zeenat Aman as a
with major star of the
mousl 1970s Hare Rama

in place, giving tl Hare Krishna (1972)
senou r
he subtle. also consolidated
R D Burman's
position as one of
••lied by the antics of the bratty the foremost music
* ore by Burman The composers of the

x>n yaaron (filmed as the pre-electronic era
down to his new students' destination) and the with a sound that
rendered hauntingly was fresh, bracing
^nd filmed on 'daughter' Jaya and young

•
.
1973 1973 1973

Shoe Abhim.i.in Ankur Avishkar
(See p. 114)
1QS1
: Noted filmmaker PC Barua, famous for his film

Abhimaan 1973 Daag 973
Cast Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Bindu, Asrani, Cast Rajesh Khanna, SharmilaTagore, Raakhee, Prem
Durga Khote Chopra

Director Hnshikesh Mukherjee Director Yash Chopra
Music 5.D. Burman Music Laxmikant, Pyarelal
Lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri Lyrics Sahir Ludhianvi
hat recurrent love-defining aag is a triangular
T moment featuring the D,melodrama based on the

hero's first glimpse of the pulp bestseller by the Hindi
heroine takes place in novelist Gulshan Nanda. It is
Abhimaan when Amitabh the dizzying story of a man

Bachchan, playing a popular (Rajesh Khanna) presumed to
singer, sees the rustic Jaya be dead by his pregnant wife

Bhaduri singing Nadiya kinare (Sharmila Tagore). Many years
at the riverbank. Love, later, he surfaces in another

belonging, marriage, envy town with another identity as
and atonement form the core the husband of the woman,

of Abhimaan — Mukherjee Raakhee, who has given
explored the male ego and shelter to the missing man's
how it smothers a wife's M wife and child. The second-
indomitable talent. From her introductory song half of the film is a beguiling and ambiguous
to Piya bina piya bina (where the wife sings on ode to bigamy with the man, now appointed
stage of her husband's growing intolerance) to mayor of the scenic town where the triangle
the climactic Tere mere milan ki yeh raina (the plays itself out, shuttles tantalizingly between
reunion of the repentant husband with his shell- the two women seeking to find a common
shocked wife) Lata Mangeshkar virtually ground between his past and present.
transported this film to a classic status. Jaya
closely studied Lata Mangeshkar's working in
the recording studio before tackling the role.

1973 1973 1973 1973 1973
Bobby Daag Dhund Garam Hawa Gehri Chaal
(Seep. 126) (See p. 52) (See p. 53)
1952
Aan and Jhansi ki Rani are made in colour.

Garam Hawa 1973 Hum
ij Sahru. Geeta SKkJharth. Shaukat Azmi. Farooc
r
Director M >athyu
Music
Lyrics •
poignant and authentic depiction of the trauma following the

A partition of India and Pakistan,
Indian Muslims that followed, as they careened

and the dispossession of the
between their old

Balraj Sahni's last
home and new land Garam Hawa chronicles the geo-political and
performance
moral conflict of Salim Mirza (Balraj Sahm) who loses family, property
Garam Hawa
and self-regard in the transition He chooses to stay back in India with
(1973) before his
his children, c crtam that India has a safe and productive future for the
death is considered
minority communities Sathyu's directorial debut was a strong
by many film buffs
political commentary as well as an utterly moving drama of
to be the single
displacement pla\
most authentic
portrayal of
upheaval and
redemption in
Indian cinema.
1973 1973 1973 1973 1973

ion Ki Baraat
Nam.it Ptiagun R.i|ni(j i
(Swi
Namak Haram 1973 Phagun 1973
Cast Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, Kekha, Cast Waheeda Rehman, Dharmendra, Jaya Bhadun,
Simi Garewal Vijay Arora
Director Hnshikesh Mukherjee Director Rajinder Singh Bedi
Music R.D. Burman Music 5.D. Burman

Lyrics Anand Bakshi Lyrics Majrooh Sultanpun
Arguably the most powerful drama in Rajinder Singh Bedi whose directorial debut
Mukherjee's commodious oeuvre, Namak Dastak signalled a psychologically dense
Haram looks at the question of class divide treatment of the man-woman relationship
within the purview of the troubled relationship went deeper into the theme in Phagun. In one
between the capitalist-industrialist Amitabh of her last films as a leading lady Waheeda
Bachchan and his proletariat friend Rajesh Rehman played the complex part of a
Khanna. Their stormy relationship gives the traumatized wife. Deserted by her husband
plot a narrative energy that builds up to a tragic (Dharmendra) she channels her affections into
climax. Memorable for its powerful theme, supervising the life of her daughter (Jaya
Namak Haram featured Bachchan at his Bhaduri) whose marriage further complicates
implosive best fuming against a class familial issues. The sequence where the mother
distinction that he didn't create. imagines herself with her head on her son-in-
law's shoulders raised many eyebrows. This was
one of the rare Indian films to focus on a
mother-daughter bonding. Rehman and

Bhaduri warmly played the two central parts.
The film systematically wiped out Rehman's
career as a romantic leading lady. Henceforth
she was only offered mothers' parts.

1973 1974 1974 1974 1974
Zanjeer Aap Ki Kasam Benaam Bidaai Haath Ki Safayi
(See p. 55)
1952
The Parliament passes the Cinematograph Act, replacing the Act of 1918.
Aap Ki Kasam 1974 Minn
esh Khanna. Mumtaz. Sanjeev Kumar

Director ;m Prafcash
Music u D. Borman
Lyrics '-nand Baksrw
~p ough the first-half of this marital
I drama is devoted entirely to

romantic preoccupations. Aap Ki
One of
Kasam builds up into a startling
Jaya Bhadun's
second-half where Mumtaz. in one personal favourites,
of her final roles as a leading lady,
she has expressed
the wife of a suspicious
the desire to
husband who decides to walk out on
remake Phagun
her home and husband The last lap
(1973) casting
of the slightly luminous projection of herself as the
a sp mp shows the mother and Kajol as
repentant hero trying to redeem his
the daughter.
troubled conscience The plot's
emotional content holds toq«
"S by
Khanna (in one of his last films
as a successful lending mam. Mumtaz and Sanjeev Kumar (playing
the couples innocuous neighbour who becomes a bone of

tirector i Om Prat ash who made other socially relevant
films like Asha Apnapan and Aadmi Khilona Hai, preferred
s R D Burman's music
(hbght of Aap > •
<>ngs like Jai jai shiv shan-
; chemistry between the
Rott Kapda Aur

ee p. 56)
151), director Guru

Dutt and playl
•
i Dutt's films despite a somewha' I
Kora Kaagaz 1974 Roti Kapda Aur Makan 1974
Cast Jaya Bhaduri.Vijay Anand, Achala Sachdev, Cast Manoj Kumar, Zeenat Aman, Amitabh Bachchan,
A.K. Hangal, Nazneen Shashi Kapoor, Moushumi Chatterjee, Premnath
Director Anil Ganguly Director Manoj Kumar
Music Kalyanji, Anandji Music Laxmikant, Pyarelal
Lyrics M.G. Hashmat Lyrics Santosh Anand.Verma Malik
huge star-cast and Manoj Kumar's

The
formidable reputation as the harbinger
of formulistic patriotism ensured a sizeable
audience for this rather-engrossing look at
economic recession joblessness and moral

decline in the India of the 1970s. Cast as
Bharat, Manoj Kumar takes potshots at the cult
of consumerism through his girlfriend Zeenat

Aman's ambiguous morality. She dumps
Kumar to marry the moneyed tycoon Shashi
Kapoor. A charismatic cast including Moushumi

remake of Ajoy 1963 successful
A Bengali marital
Bandha featured Jaya Bhaduri and

Kar's
drama 5aaf
Vijay
Paake
Anand
Chatterjee as a rape victim (her
controversial rape
was shot in
sequence
a flurry of
as a husband and wife torn apart by the flour mounds) and

arrogant interference of the wife's mother Amitabh Bachchan as
(Achala Sachdev). There are some extremely the cynical sibling
intense moments of friction between the to the hero, plus a
couple, for example the celebrated sequence . terrific music score

where in a fit of rage, the wife tears her added to the film's
husband's kurta. Kishore Kumar's Filmfare mass appeal.

Award-winning title song added a poignant
note to this minor but moving drama.
/ I
1975 1975 1975 1975 1975
Aandhi Chotisi Baat Chupke Chupke Deewaar Dharmatma
(See p. 57) (See p. 100) (See p. 101) (See p. 58)
1953
India's first technicolour film Jhansi Ki Rani by Sohrab Modi is released. He had technicians flown
in from Hollywood, and the production cost 9 million Indian rupees.
Aandh 1975 mi un
Cast » Sen. Sanjeev Kumar. Om Prakash. A. K. Hangal. Rehman

Director
Mu'ic R D. Burman
Lyrics
Starting with the

Gulzar's Aandhi
lady politician's
(1975) derives its
arrival in a dusty
main thematic
town for an election
thrust from the life
campaign, Aandhi
of the amazing
trails Arati Devi
-
Indira Gandhi. The
(SucJ into
basic plot about a
her past life where
woman (played by
•e her m<r
Suchitra Sen)
falling apart due to
whose political
-nan)
aspirations ruin her
political aspiral
personal life is
In the presei I
: her long-estranged
loosely based on
-anjeev Kumar) Besides the obvious political allusions, the
real-life incidents.
"lebnty. particularly a
Aandhi was
won •
<>nal leader, have the right to a private life.
released during
mow justified is
r
ymg into famous lives 7 These
Mrs Gandhi's
. the now-reunited couple
infamous state of
h melodies amidst symbolical
Emergency in the
: mto a very rare and final
country. There
protagonist's role with a
were instant
iedy
protests about the
real-life parallels.
1975
Khushboo Mill
(See p. 59)
1954
Festival.
Bini.ii Roy \Dq Sigh i Zame i
Deewaar 1975 Khushboo 1975
Cast Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Cast Jeetendra, Hema Malini, Farida Jalal, Durga
Parveen Babi, Nirupa Roy Khote, SharmilaTagore
Director Yash Chopra Director Gulzar
Music R.D. Burman Music R.D. Burman
Lyrics Sahir Ludhianvi Lyrics Gulzar
eewaar the patent themes of he poet-filmmaker Gulzar's

D
the supreme
reiterated
arbitrator and brothers at

T
fifth
ferreted out a novel by Bengali litterateur
Saratchandra Chatterjee dealing with the issue

feature film
loggerheads. Salim-Javed's script gave a of child marriage. Hema Malini and Jeetendra
startling twist to traditional formulas. Vijay played relatively deglamourized rustic
(Bachchan) and the law-abiding Mama's boy characters grappling with convention, through
Ravi (Kapoor). Deewaar is a story of human a series of strange circumstances. The

relationships with the mother figure (Nirupa performances, including Sharmila Tagore
Roy) standing tall over the moralistic playing a derelict woman whom Jeetendra
machinations of the two brothers. 'rescues' and marries, though 'filmy', are
unstrained. R.D. Burman's ethereal music score
makes Khushboo emanate the fragrance of
nostalgia and poetry.

1975 1976 1976 1976 1976
Sholay Hera Pheri Kabhi Kabhie Kalicharan Manthan
(See p. 60) (Seep. 127)
1954 <
The Indian Film Festival is held in the (former) Soviet Union.

Mili 1975 II HUH
Cast nok Kumar Amitabh Bachchan. Jaya Bhadun. Usha Kiron
Director />.k«h Mukhenee

Music /rnan
Lyncs
[tending the
E director's pet
theme of the do-
gooder's cruel end
through death in
Deewaar( 1975)
Anand, Hnshikesh
was the first
Mukherjee turned
mainstream film to
Rajesh Khanna's
legitimize the
character from the
underworld. The
earlier film into the
film also features
giggly and lovable
Amitabh Bachchan
Mill (Jaya Bhadun)
in his only bare-
.eryone's *
ds her bonhomie to
chested bed
the brooding dlcobok Bachchan Their togetherness seems short-
sequence ever!
: .vhen Mill is diaqnosed with cancer Unlike Anand, this films ends
Nirupa Roy
on a note of hope with Ba< ting on marrying the
features in an
ill gr id for treatment Mih is memorable for the
award-winning
lead pair's ntei • peri ^d for SD Burman's music,
role that was first
composed for the film while he was on his deathbed This was the
offered to
super-sue u>v,t, •
nal film before her marriage She made a
Vyjanthimala.
comeback 6 years later m Yash Chop r
1976 1977 1977 1977 1977

Amar Akbar Anurodh
Mausam Alaap
(Seep 60) Anthony •
••
p 61)
1956
Karlovy Var
I!
Sholay 1975 Mausam
Cast Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Cast SharmilaTagore, Sanjeev Kumar
Jaya Bhaduri, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan Director Gulzar
Director Ramesh Sippy Music Madan Mohan
Music R.D. Burman Lyrics Anand Bakshi Lyrics Gulzar
ndia's most popular action film, Sholay tells Derived directly |
the gripping epic story of two petty criminals from Hindi author
Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru Kamleshwar's Agami
(Dharmendra) and their efforts to seek revenge Ateet, Mausam is an
on behalf of a sullen landlord (Sanjeev elegiac tale of shadows
Kumar) from a boorish and vicious and whispers told
dacoit. The film's writers Salim in bright flashbacks.
and Javed must be credited for Sanjeev Kumar plays
giving Hindi cinema one of its most a man confronted by

abiding villains. As played by the his past when the
relatively untried actor Amjad Khan, daughter (Sharmila
Gabbar Singh and his casually Tagore) of the woman
hip lines acquired an instantly he had loved and left
legendary status among Hindi movie- comes unexpectedly

goers. Dharmendra and Bachchan into his life. The white-collar patriarch's rather
\ smoulder on screen as antithetical risque encounters with his prostitute-daughter
friends. The rest of the cast form the core of this unusual drama. Tagore
provide the constantly alert dropped her trademark mannerisms to play the
and accelerated narrative whore with passion. Madan Mohan's nostalgic
with just the right nuances music score includes the Bhupinder-rendered
, to make this the most ghazal Oil dhoondta hai and Asha Bhosle's
virile masala film from comic seduction song Mere ishq mein lakhon
Bollywood. latke, where the hooker unknowingly tries to
hook her own father!
1977 1977 1977 1977 1977

Bhumika Dharam Veer Dulhan Wohi Jo Piya Hum Kissise Kum Inkaar
(See p. 1 45) Man Bhaye (See p. 102) Nahin
1956
Indian Talkies celebrates its Silver Jubilee in Bombay. The first Indian talkie (film with sound),
Alam Ara, was released in 1931.
Amar Akbar Anthony 1977 ii nun
Cast ibri Bachchan.Vinod Khanna. R/shi Kapoor Parveen Bab«.
•'•etu Singh Hoy

Director Ma/ nohan Desaj
Music tnelal
^1
walloping, kitschy blues-chaser from Manmohan Amar /
A Akbar Anthony were played by Vinod Khanna,
Amitabh Bachchan The mind-boggling twists and turns take the
Rishi
Desai,
Kapoor and Sholay (1975)
declared a dud on its
estranged long-lost' brothers through a maelstrom of release, became one

romance, comedy and drama Desai who went on to of the greatest
become the most commercially successful filmmaker of the 1970s grossers of all times
didn't consider this to be his favourite film But the audiences after its third week.
•he film's message of religious secularism Danny Denzongpa
has seeped into the very essence of popular had declined the role
visual culture Many sequences such as the of Gabbar Singh.

one where the inebriated Anthony Portions of this
with his mirror lengthy film were
/e become a part of deleted initially and

novie folklore Though Rishi added later when
r as the happy-go- the film became a
: iwwah singer hit The Bachchan-
riuch of the Dharmendra

sunshine combination crackled
(and the hit Rafi with the chemistry
qawwali of male camaraderie.
•ichan Sholay is one of the
who carries the show most emulated of
.ckbuster status Hindi films.
1977 1977 1977

Laila Majnu Mandir Masjid
Sunil
Doosra Aadmi 1977 Kitaab 1977
Cast Raakhee, Rishi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Cast Master Rajoo (Raju Shrestha), Uttam Kumar
Shashi Kapoor Vidya Smha
Director Ramesh Talwar Director Gulzar
Music Rajesh Roshan Music R.D. Burman
Lyrics Majrooh Sultanpun Lyrics Gulzar
before it became fashionable for ISltaab is a sweet story about a little boy's
Long
Bollywood to depict a relationship between #\ adventures away from his home, and his
a young man and an older woman, Ramesh journey into a growing awareness of the world
Talwar directed this film about a high-strung around him. Cannily crafted as an onward
woman (perfectly played by Raakhee) who pilgrimage, Gulzar's film focussed on the young
falls for a much younger man (Rishi Kapoor). protagonist, to the extent that the grownup
Though the plot sought a deliberate escape actors (including Bengali matinee idol Uttam
route to ensure that moralists and Kumar and Vidya Sinha playing the child's
conservatives don't jump on the film (the parents) were relegated to the background.
woman sees a facial similarity between the What emerged with compelling clarity was
young man and her dead lover, played by Gulzar's ability to fathom the complex world of
Rishi's uncle Shashi Kapoor) it nonetheless the young.
dared to venture into a forbidden area during
a decade when the man-woman relationship
was crawling out of its infancy in Hindi
cinema. Talwar created an elegiac tone in the

doomed romance and saw the unlikely
romance to its logical, tragical, finale. Comic

actor Deven Varma played Neetu Singh's uncle
and even sang a folk song Ab na aayenge
sanwariya in his own voice, plus a technically
polished look gave Doosra Aadmi a feeling
of enchantment.

1977 1977 1977 1977 978
Parvaish Sharmilee Shatranj Ke Khiladi Yeh Hai Zindagi Don
1957 L
Mehboob Khan's landmark film Mother India (1957) is the first Indian film to be nominated for
an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film category.
Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki 1979 H ii un
Cast "
i Jtan. Asha Parekh.Vijay Anand. Vmod Khanna. Somu Mukheqee
Director R "hosla
Music ireUI
Made memorable
by the first 20
minutes of playing Just when it
.vhen the seemed that Asha

confrontation between Parekh was fated
the wife iNutd' to do only light-
the other worn a r hearted roles, she

upens. this made a histrionic
blockbuster from one impact Asha's
of Hindi cinema's talent came

through in 1966,
rapidly evolves into which saw her star
a good-, in four successful
potboiler witl films: fees/7
abunddHM' of • Manzil, Love in
The do mKHESm^^^B& Tokyo, Aaye Din

not take away from the beauty of the initial scenes where wife Nutan Bandar Ke and Do
fronts her husband's Badan In 1970
(Vij.t, i
wonderfully poised) and later she was awarded
ado;
•
"
'nate son (Vinod Khanna) the Best Actress
e song sung to Award for her role
osla's films often resorted as the widow with
to big I Moushumi Chatterjee m Daasi, a secret in Kati
Patang.
1978 1978 1978

1978 1978
Muqaddar Ka Nishant
Junoon M.un Tulsi Tere
Sikand .- (See p 146)
Aangan Ki
1958
Muqaddar Ka Sikandar 1978 Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon
Aata Hai 1980
Cast Amitabh Bachchan, Kaakhee, Rekha,
Vmod Khanna.Amjad Khan Cast Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil
Director Prakash Mehra Director Saeed Mirza
Music Kalyanji, Anandji Music Manas Mukherjee. Bhaskar Chandavarkar
Lyrics Anjaan Lyrics Madhosh Bilgrami, Hriday Lani
gravity-defying 5-angled romantic puzzle.
A By the time the quintet of characters clear

their confusions, the fast-paced plot has gone
through a series of partner-swapping rituals.
Bachchan's role is essentially a variation on the

Devdas prototype. The warm voluptuary of the
tawaif, played by Rekha, counterpoises his
doomed love for the unattainable Raakhee.

One of the most successful products of the
Mehra-Bachchan collaboration, Muqaddar Ka
Sikandar acquired an enduring status. A Ibert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai
/\ remains, to this day, director Saeed Mirza's

most fiercely indignant portrayal of the rages of
I Wl9 minontyism.
plague
unsentimental
the
In Albert Pinto.. Mirza went for a
compelling bird's-eye view of the problems that
Christian community.
approach to the theme of
Mirza's
segregation was punctuated by some detached

moments of poignancy. Smita Patil playing the
hero's physically challenged sister, gave a new

dimension to the dignity of the working
> lit woman. At

ask why
the film's end
Albert Pinto gets angry;

we no longer need to
we know.

1978 1978 1979 1979 1979
Pati Patni Aur Trishul Atmaram Bhayanak Ek Bar Phir
Woh (See p. 102) (Seep. 146)
1958
V. Shantaram's Do Aankhen Bara Haath wins the President's Gold Medal, a Silver Bear at Berlin
and the Samuel Goldwyn Award for Best Foreign Film
.
Karz 1980 HIM Ml
iXjor.Tma Murwn Srm Garewal. Raj Kran. Durga Kbote.
Premnath. Pran
Director ohash Ghai
Music • • int PyarHal
and Bakshi
Subhash Ghai's adaptation of The
Reincarnation Of Peter Proud was

a major success, heralding the
charismatic Rr,hi Kapoor as India's
The hit film
first rock star an image that was
Muqaddar Ka
further extended into Nasir Husam's
Sikandar(] 978)
musical films Hum AOss/se Kam Nahm
served to further
and Zamanein Ko Dikhana Hai
solidify Amitabh
Dancing on a strobelil *.tage to the
Bachchan's cult
of Laxmikant-Pyarelal's Om status His
vhich
electrifying
me the title of Pa/sa yen .
performance and
Kapoor created a major in
Rekha's
among young hm>.
sophisticated act,
the Kapoor look-alike
replicating the
je on the woman who killed him in his last
..ility of the
.M in one of her more memorable roles lent an icy
courtesan
-Id together as musical drama
Chandramukhi in
with ed with lightning feet by
Devdas(1935)
made Muqaddar. .
enduring
classic.
1979 1979 1979 1979 1979

Golm.i.tl Mao Meera
Bollywood's first film

Kalyug 1981 Umrao Jaan 1981
Cast Shashi Kapoon Rekha, Raj Babbar, Victor Cast Rekha, Farooq Shaikh, Naseeruddin Shah,
Bannerjee, Anant Nag Raj Babbar Shaukat Azmi
Director Shyam Benegal Director MuzaffarAli
Music Vanraj Bhatia Music Khayyam Lyrics Shahryar
Rekha's most well-known film features her as
the real-life tawaif (courtesan) Umrao Jaan

Adaa who undergoes a series of experiences
replicating the capricious sexual escapades of

Flaubert's Madame Bovary in a Mughal setting.
Exquisitely styled, Rekha's central performance

is immeasurably enhanced by Khayyam's songs
and Asha Bhosle's vocals, yielding songs
of love, life and other misadventures.
Muzaffar Ali's most accomplished
modern-day adaptation of the Hindu

film, Umrao Jaan is suffused in
LM
A epic
ambitious
the Mahabharat,
and scope.
Kalyug was
the culture of Lucknow. The
director brings alive the
in scale It extracted sights, sounds and scents
specific characters, and and
from the
situations incidents of a culture an
i
original epic and placed them within ethos long-gone
the cinematic format. The story holds together through exquisite
as an intense study of inter-personal tensions painting-like shots
as transposed into a business domain. The capturing Rekha in
performances were admirably 'epic'. As in regal splendour.

Benegal's Junoon Shashi Kapoor (playing a After Pakeezah, this
contemporary version of Kama from the is the best known ,<
Mahabharat) produced this film. tawaifs tale.

1979 1979 1979 1979
Mr Natwarlal Naalayak Noorie Qurbani
1960
Kishore Kumar, actor as well as playback singer, weds the beautiful actress Madhubala, who
immortalized the courtesan Anarkali in K. Asif's hit film, Mughal-e-Azam, released the same year.
Bemisaal 1982 II II HI \
f
*abh Bachchan. Raakhee.Vinod Mehra
Director • •
.hikesh Mukhenee
Music u D. Burman
one of
D chchan's best per-

i
formances to date The

clenched jaw connoting a
sense of bridled hopelessness

Beginning with
and those pained eyes
Anand in 1970,
expressing infinite sorrow
Amitabh Bachchan
have never been used to more
collaborated with
advantage Playing an orphan
one of his
who grows up to give up
favourite directors,
everything, including love, for
Hnshikesh
his benefactor's son (Vinod
Mukherjee in
Mehra). Bachchan shone like
Abhimaan (1973),
i brilliant treatise on loyalty, friendship
Namak Haram
and family ties 8 ..» also took time off to make comments on
(1973), Mih (1973)
•'dical profession (a theme that Mukherjee had
and Chupke 0975)
dwei' »hes of a believable
Chupke Bemisaal
bonding among Bachchan. Mehra and his screen-wife Raakhee
(1982) was their
>ng Yeh K ) mg by all three
last team effort.
•
ikhee-Vmod Mehra honeymoor
of intimate rapture m the way the three-way relationship
ms in the •
1979 1980 1980 1980 1980

P**o ko Gu%« Do Aui • fcraaiu
A.,k(,...h Albert
KymA.it.iiti .
1960
oration (NFDC) is
Namkeen 1982 Prem Rog 1982
Cast Sanjeev Kumar, Waheeda Rehman, Cast Padmini Kolhapure, Rishi Kapoor, Nanda,
SharmilaTagore, Shabana Azmi, Kiran Vairele Shammi Kapoor Tanuja, Sushma Seth
Director Gulzar Director Raj Kapoor Music Laxmikant, Pyarelal
Music R.D. Burman Lyrics Santosh Anand, Amir Qazalbash, Pandit
Lyrics Gulzar Narendra Sharma
poetic Gulzar's most nostalgic film, Kapoor's most socially

The aj
Namkeen is rendered R;relevant film goes into
unforgettable by its gallery the theme of widow remarriage.
of female performers. A pampered village girl
Waheeda Rehman plays (Kolhapure) goes from oblivious
the senile mother to three ecstasy to damning tragedy after
daughters, Tagore, Azmi her husband (Vijayendra Ghatge)
and Vairele. Abandoned by dies hours after their wedding.

the man of the house they In her most memorable screen
live in a state of suspended appearance Kolhapure brought
desolation in a hill station. poignancy to sequences such as
The arrival of a truck driver the ritualistic shearing of the
Sanjeev Kumar creates an widow's hair. Rishi Kapoor
unforeseen excitement and complications in is commendably muted as her silent lover. Raj
the women's lives. The actresses confer a Kapoor blends a social message with his
captivating light on this Ingmar Bergmanesque habitually voyeuristic approach to female

study of women and their substance. Shabana beauty. Laxmikant-Pyarelal's hit music score
as the mute Mithu roams the stunning includes Lata Mangeshkar's chartbuster Yeh
landscape to the sound of Asha Bhosle's galiyan yeh chaubara where Kolhapure sings
evocative Phir se aiyo badra bidesi. Such and dances in celebration of her own marriage.
magical moments occur repeatedly in this The film's high-voltage treatment of a sensitive
intimate study of human dereliction and issue sparked off a sizable curiosity among
redemption. audiences.

1980 1980 1980 1981 1981
Karz Khubsoorat Shaan Angoor Barsaat Ki Ek Raat
(See p. 65) (Seep. 104)
1960
The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) is set up in Pune.

—3
Saath Saath 1982 in; \ m \
x>q Shaikh. Dee;
Directo' .t*t
Music K jldeep S«ngh
Lyrics
film about the end of idealism, Saath Saath featured an

A ; orating new pair As the newfy married couple whose
ms of a perfect togetherness is stymied by the stench of
Padmmi Kolhapure
corruption, Shaikh and Naval turned in fresh, natural performances
had her
They went on to form a hit pair in several subsequent sub-standard
breakthrough in
films, thereby u tJ erne of the end of
Bollywood at the
idealism • an Kumar in his feature-film debut
tender age of 12
brought a bra mg innovatrveness to Hindi cinema Songs like Tumko
m Raj Kapoor's
dekha to yeh thayaal aaya sung by Jagjit Singh extended the mood
Satyam Shivam
of auther '
•
lm was I "esh faces, many of who
Sundaram (1979).
went on to do a lot of telev
Considering her
age. Padmmi was
a phenomenon
she won two
Filmfare awards for
Best Supporting
Actress in Insaaf ka
Taraazu ( 1 980) and

Best Actress for
Prem flog (1982)
when she was 1
and 1 5 years of
age respectively!
1981
( li.ikr.i ( h.ishmp Buddoor Ek Duu|. Khoon Ka Khoon
IQfifi
Shakti 1982 Sadma 983
Cast Dilip Kumar Raakhee, Amitabh Bachchan, Cast Kamal Haasan, Sridevi, Silk Smitha
Smita Patil Director Balu Mahendra
Director Ramesh Sippy Music llaiyaraja
Music R.D. Burman Lyrics Anand Bakshi Lyrics Gulzar
Super-successful scriptwriting duo Salim- Sadma tells the story of

n.c. sippy. hrishikesh mukher
Javed's finest effort
Sippy's most
ways superior
deftly
to
Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan

his
and director Ramesh
packaged drama
historic
is
Sholay.
as father
in many
Dilip
and
memory
a
regresses
and
girl
is
who
in an
to
rescued
loses
childhood,
her
accident,
and
^
son, aligning on opposite sides of a nebulous brought home by a young
line of morality, turned out extraordinarily fine- schoolteacher. The principal
tuned performances. Indignance appears to be actors marvellously portray
a perfect foil to the other performance. The the tender, funny, sweet
two leading ladies, though shadowy, have well- and bitter bond that grows
contoured roles to perform. between the two unlikely
companions. Sridevi as the
child-woman uses her

squeaky voice and
spectrum of expressions to
full advantage. Kamal
Haasan is astonishing as
man bat" mahen*

a saddled with the romu n. sippy raj n.sii
ilayaraaja i,.-cj <mio«>J
responsibility of a child in a
voluptuous woman's body. The film has

stunning camerawork by director Balu
Mahendra, and is rendered memorable by the

two principal performances.

1981 1981 1981 1981 1981
Khuda Kasam Krodhi Laawaris Love Story Naseeb
1961
J
Lata Mangeshkar's rendition of Ae mere watan ke logon makes an unparalleled impact as the
most patriotic Indian song of all time.
Khandar 1983 in; \ m \
•eruddm Shah. Shabana Azmi. Anu Kapoor Pankaj Kapur.
Geeta Sen
Director ' '
- il Sen
Music
National Award-
A winning performance
by Azmi as Jammi, a bereft
woman stranded in the
wilderness waiting with her
dying mother the director's
wife Geeta Sen) to be

'rescued The man who was
once supposed to marry her
has vanished But when
Both Ramesh
Subhash (Shah) strays into
the desolation with his Sippy-Amitabh

•
Bachchan
hope m the daugf ti

collaborations
•
on and oss written by Sno/ay (1975) and
eminent Bengali litterateur Premendra Mitra. Khandar was the 5na*r/(1982)
prol
•
Urinal Sen's first feature film m Hindi The proved to be
:y through Ja' "ered existence mega hits
ithy more by implication than visual props
igh Shah is flawless in his blending into the photographer's role,
ost Azm illy unforgettable for her
ns with us long
film is ovi ording to
•plishedp- ever
1981 1981 1981 1981 1981

Suh.ih Umrao Jaan Yaarana
1962
Best Actress
which she finally wins
Ghulami 1985 Ram Teri Ganga Maili 1985
Cast Dharmendra. Mithun Chakraborty, Naseeruddin Cast Rajeev Kapoor, Mandakini, Divya Rana, Saeed
Shah, Reena Roy, Smita Patil, Kulbhushan Jaffrey, Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Kharbanda Director Raj Kapoor
Director J.P Dutta Music Ravindra Jain
Music Laxmikant, Pyarelal Lyrics Gulzar Lyrics Ravindra Jain, Hasrat Jaipuri
he epic filmmaker J.RDutta's romance with Featuring the director's youngest son and the
T.cinema and the Rajasthani deserts started new discovery Mandakini, Ram Teri Ganga
with this forceful melodrama recreating a Maili chronicled the innocent and beautiful
farmer's fight against the brutal feudal Ganga's journey from the virgin hills to
oppression in rural Rajasthan. All three the debauchery and corruption of the kotha
protagonists played by Dharmendra, (brothel) culture in Varanasi. Impregnated by a
Chakraborty and Kharbanda young heir (Rajiv Kapoor) who doesn't have the
perform within a range that guts to stand up for his beloved, Ganga
goes effortlessly from subtle to (Mandakini) is tossed from one place
dramatic. It's interesting to see how to another until the lovers are finally united.
Dutta uses offbeat star Naseeruddin y&&; :

This picturesque epic was a big hit
Shah as an antagonist, and mainly for its powerful

Smita Patil as his wife who emotional story and
harbours an admiration for the the leading lady's
hero's cause. Dutta's narrative was generous display of

equalled by Ishwar Bidri's sweeping her breasts. The
cinematography. The locational kitschy mix of
lyricism is matched by Laxmikant- religio-political

Pyarelal's outstanding music allegory and romantic
score. In his very first film, Dutta melodrama took Raj
revealed himself to be an epic Kapoor's directorial swan

visionary. song to great heights of
success.

1982 1982 1982 1982 1982
Ashanti Bazaar Bemisaal Katha Khuddar
(Seep. 149) (See p. 67) (Seep. 105)
1962
The Second International Film Festival is held in India.

Ijaazat 1987 intuit
Cast r
Jaseeruddm Shah. Rekha. Anooradha Patel
Director Jzar
Music ''
D Burman
Lyrics
/jaazat is arguably the

. prolific and poetic
filmmaker's most mature
look at his favourite theme
the dynamics of the man-
woman relationship This is Apart from
a triangle with a difference Muzaffar All's
There is a husband L/mrao;aan(1981),

(Naseeruddm Shah), wife Ijaazat ( 1987) is
(Rekha) and there is the only movie of
the other woman But the 1970s and
to her name. Maya '80s where Asha

radha Pat< Bhosle did the
illusory presence in the •

'e music
She soundtrack, lending
and go» • vocative
feel s of poignancy to the
rhe film looks at the relationship of three
between the h .voman from the wife's point of ms of fate
:-)ical trapped in a
whii. •
role) is mystical triangle where
R D Burman's songs the angles
are ambrosially
awry.
1982 1982 19Hz 1982 1982

N.imki'.-n Saath Satte Pe Satta
963
Pestonjee 1987 QayamatSeQayamatTak 1988
Cast Naseeruddm Shah, Shabana Azmi, Anupam Kher Cast Aamir Khanjuhi Chawla
Director Vijaya Mehta Director Mansoor Khan
Music Vanraj Bhatia Music Anand, Milind
Lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri
very rare effort to look at the manner, fresh approach to the old theme of
A speech
community in
and peculiarities
Mumbai, Pestonjee
of the
is a
Parsi
love
a;forbidden
product.
love
Producer
and a fresh feel to the
Nasir Husain wrote the

end-
triangle about two friends and the girl whom screenplay while son Mansoor Khan treated
they both love. Shah and Azmi are dead-on the familiar theme with wonder and delicacy.
with their Parsi accents. The film is made The director's cousin Aamir Khan was
memorable mainly for their performances and launched with great fanfare as the
for the director's proclivity to prevent the Parsi consummate lover-boy who falls in love with
people from becoming Juhi Chawla across

caricatural. Another the enemy line. The
standout film on the film's hot-blooded
Parsi community was caste-ridden conflict,
Pervez Mehrwanji's reminiscent of William

Percy released two Shakespeare's Romeo &
years later. -^ Juliet gave a savage
touch to the tenderness
at the core. The plot
built up to a shockingly
tragic finale lending

credence to the belief
that a truly successful
love story requires the
lovers to come to a
tragic end.

1982 1983 1983 1983 1983
Shakti Andha Kanoon Arth Avtaar Betaab
(See p. 70) (See p. 150)
1964
The National Film Archives of India (NFAI) is set up in Pune.

Parinda 1989 in: \M \
Kapoor. Madhun Oxrt Jack* Shroff. Nana Patekar
Director Vidhu Vmod Chopra

Music R.D Burman
Lyrics Khurshtd Hallaun
Chopra's unique take on Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather has
Shroff and Kapoor as brothers morally divided over their loyalty
to the gangster Anna (Nana Patekar) Shot extensively in the film-noir
style by Bmod Pradhan, images from Mumbai's streets create an

Shroff and Kapoor
atmosphere of unpredictable foreboding Gunshots mingle with the
played brothers or
sounds of Burman's background score, as criminal elements
buddies in a series
overpower the finer aesthetics of city life The shoot-outs,
of films in the
including the shocking climax where Shroff sets Patekar on fire, are
1980s including
ri with a keen eye for details The violence has a choreographed
Karma (1986)
AndarBahar{ 1989)
RamLakhan (1989).
J.i. me Bhi Do Khandar

Yaaron • ; 106) (Seep 71)
1964BBHHBBS
masses
away
Ek Doctor Ki Maut 1990 Lamhe 1991
Cast Pankaj Kapur. Shabana Azmi, Irfan Khan Cast Sridevi.Anil Kapoor.Anupam Kher.Waheeda Rehman
Director lapan Smha Director Yash Chopra
Music Tapan Sinha Music Shiv, Han Lyrics Anand Bakshi
Yash Chopra's personal favourite is the
filmmaker's most audacious romantic

outing ever. The lyrical work, hypnotically
framed, packaged and filmed, tells the story of
the love-smitten Anil Kapoor who loses his love
(Sridevi) to another man and then to death,
only to recover lost opportunity through the
dead woman's daughter. The incestuous

undertones in the relationship between the
middle-aged man and his ex-flame's daughter

severely reduced this brilliant film's viewership.
But the narrative strength and the passionately
Based on a real-life scientist, Bengali director packaged romance appear contemporary even
Tapan Sinha's protagonist in this small today. The long medley of old evergreen songs
undiscovered gem of a film is a young, fiercely featuring Kapoor, Sridevi and Anupam Kher
dedicated doctor whose passion for his culminates in the greying Waheeda Rehman
profession finally destroys him. It is the story of dancing to her Guide song Aaj phir jeene ki
a scientist working on a cure for leprosy who is tamanna hai. Fun-filled and underlined by a
betrayed by those close to him and finally by great intensity of vision, Lamhe is Yash
his own passion for the unknown. Pankaj Chopra's most lyrical and eye-catching film to
Kapur is joined in his quest by Shabana Azmi, date.
his supportive wife who cannot really fathom

her husband's complex mind. The film is a
remarkable chronicle of the mind of a genius.

1983 1983 1983 1983 1983
Mandi Mangal Pandey Masoom Mazdoor Nastik
(Seep. 106) (Seep. 116)
1964
Actor/director Guru Dutt, who directed films like Pyaasa (1957) Kaagaz ke Phoo (1959), and
Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam (1962) , dies under tragic circumstances.
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar 1992 II HUM
Cast Ayesha Jhuka. Kulbhushan Khart>anda. Marmik, Deepak Tijon.
PoojaBedi
Director
Music
tjrooh Suttanpun
amir Khan and his cousin Mansoor Khan collaborated a second
A time for this sporty romantic musical about a brat's coming of

ssentially a showcase for Aamir Khan's prankish aptitudes, the
I
Pehla nasha in
film painted an idyllic landscape of the 'poor' wage-earning class
(Kulbhushan Kharbanda and his two sons played by Marmik and Jo Jeeta Wohi
Sikandar (1 992)
Aamir, and the sweet little girl next door Ayesha Jhulka who is blindly
marked Farah
devoted to Aan
Khan's first path-
the snooty
breaking foray into
ented
choreography.
ion, Pooja
More recenly,
Bedi, and
Farah has done the
r Manscx
choreography in
also brought in tl
•
the hit film 0/7

Aamir-
C/whra Ha/ (2001)
and even directed
n his
her own film. Main
reali
Na (2004).
to a
the film's
1983 1983 1984 1984 1984

S.idm.i Bhavna
|
1 50)
1965
ollywood's first mull

Maya Memsaab 1992 Rudaali 1992
Cast Deepa Sahi, Farooq Shaikh, Shah Rukh Khan, Raj Cast Dimple Kapadia, Raakhee Gulzar, Raj Babbar
Babbar, Paresh Rawal RaghuvirYadav
Director Ketan Mehta Director Kalpana Lajmi
Music Hridayanath Mangeshkar Music Bhupen Hazarika
Lyrics Gulzar Lyrics Gulzar
fascinating adaptation
A of Flaubert's
Bovary created
Madame
by Ketan
a:
n intricate study
of
and feminism
feudalism
set in
Mehta. Playing Maya, Sahi the deserts of
steps into an enigmatic Rajasthan, Rudaali

woman's journey into takes us into the life
self-fulfillment. Maya of a professional

Memsaab moves forward mourner, played to
with a gravity- defying memorable heights

grace. Khan, Shaikh, of sad and dry-eyed
Rawal and Babbar play the poignancy by Dimple
men in Maya's life with Kapadia, who is
keen sensitivity. But it is Gulzar's poetry, the Sanicheri, the mourner who can't weep for
underrated Hridayanath Mangeshkar's songs herself. The work fuses a lyrical tone with a
and Lata Mangeshkar's singing that lift the melodrama unique to Bengali literature (the
central character to a plane of exquisite original novel was written by eminent Bengali
enigma. Songs like dil banjare, Meresarhane litterateur Maheshweta Devi) when Sanicheri
jalao sapne and to dil mein bass kar dekho to runs into a feisty woman Bikhni (Raakhee). The
are among the most accomplished melodies sisterly bond between the two women gives a
of the 1990s. supple sensuous contour to the narrative.

1984 1984 1984 1984 1984
Dharam Aur Kanoon Ghar Ek Mandir Karishmaa Paroma Saaransh
(Seep. 151) (Seep. 152)
1965
Geeta Bali, actress from the golden age (1950s) of Bollywood passes away. Geeta became a
major star after Baazi (1951). She went on to marry actor Shammi Kapoor.
Damini 1993 mi un
Cast "•'•• ,'ieshadn. Rrthi Kapoor. Sunny DeoJ. Amnsh Pun
Director Raj Kumar Santoshi
Music Nadeem Shravan
Lyrics
thriller tucked away at the epicenter of

A this acutely sensitive
is
sociodrama about rape and societal responsibility Meenakshi

Sheshadn, in her career-defining role, plays a principled middle-class
married into a capitalistic family On Dimple Kapadia's

girl a riotous day of Holi festivity
Dammi remarkable debut
sees her brother-in-law and his friends rape the domestic
with Bobby (] 973)
help Thus begins an epic battle between the individual and the
established her as
conscience, as Dammi's m-laws including her conscientious but
major teen icon.
family-obligated husband (Rishi Kapoor) try their dirtiest tricks to
thwart Dammi's voice of social protest The same year.

Midway into the stunning
Dimple married
battle the fine craftsman Santoshi converts his social drama into a
superstar Rajesh
thriller The arrival on the charged scene of a burnt-out alcoholic
Khanna. and did
lawyer (Sunny Deol, in one of his career's better performances)
not act for twelve
signals êommMt^tmosôi oood over evil
years Her return,
Sagar (1985) recast
her opposite her
Bobby co-star,
Rishi Kapoor.
Subsequently,
Dimple went on to
do more
substantial roles,
like in Rudaali
(1992) which won

her critical acclaim.
1965
ous for his roleasChunmbabu in PC ^35), passes away

Drohkaal 1994 Roja 1994
Cast Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Amrish Puri Cast Arvind Swamy, Madhoo
Director Govmd Nihalani Director Mani Ratnam
Music Vanraj Bhatia Music A.R. Rahman
Lyrics Mehboob
n this harsh and chilling n what turned out to be the
study of the politics of first of his trilogy on political
terrorism Nihalani went into terrorism (followed by Dil Se

the bullet-ridden Kashmir and the Tamil Kannathil
valley to seek some uneasy Muttamittal) Mani Ratnam
answers to the region's broke into Hindi cinema with a
militancy. The gritty plot tries dubbed version of this Tamil
to get into the head of an film about a wife (Madhoo)

anti-terrorist officer (Om Pun) whose husband (Arvind
who takes on the might of a Swamy) is kidnapped by
militant (Ashish Vidyarthi). Kashmiri militants during their
Designed as a crackling thriller honeymoon. Most of the
N
with a heart, the clenched x tightly shot and edited
narrative explores \ narrative chronicles the wife's
the psychology of Bk^jjjl efforts to recover her

terrorism to show husband. Though a success in
how it affects the the dubbed Hindi version much of the impact of
psyche of a the original Tamil is lost in translation. In the
battered nation. original, the wife cannot get her point across to
the Hindi-speaking government officials in
Tamil. That anguished collapse of
communication is lost in the dubbed Hindi
version. Still much of the film's patriotic zeal and
political undercurrents are preserved. Roja was

A.R. Rahman's first film assignment.

1985 1985 1985 1985 1985
Arjun Ghulami Jaan Ki Baazi Mard Mirch Masala
(See p. 72) (See p. 154)
1966
Dilip Kumar (nicknamed 'tragedy king' for his string of tragi-heroic roles) weds screen siren Saira
Banu, who debuted in Junglee (1961).
Bombay 1995 in; \ m \
Cast •
tla. Arvmd Swamy
Director Mar* Ratnam
R. Rahman
Lyncs Mehboob
Mesmenzingfy mounted, Bombay dared to go into a forbidden

area of cinematic semantics A Hindu-Muslim love story has
rys been considered taboo in our cinema Braving the odds.
Ratnam s Brahmin hero (Arvmd Swamy) falls for the stunning Muslim
| beauty (Manisha Koirala m the village The couple elopes to Mumbai.

Following the
I
only to be thrown into thr ; cauldron of communal riots that
theme of political
erupted in I i core of compelling conviction in
thrillers. Ratnam
| the telling of the CO .;••*» journey made from innocently rebellious
made Bombay in
love to an av. the violence that cuts across their idyllic
1 995 and Dil Se in
ss Besides Mam Ratnam and Rajiv Menon's skills, the film
1998 Ratnam
'he powerful t» \
every inch
returned to Hindi
Muslim diva, she fills the screen with an ambrosial authenticity.
cinema six years
. while remaining special all the
later with Yuva
ubala many ye.i
(2004). for which a
Tamil version
Ayutha Ezhuthu
(2004). has already
been made with a

different
1985 1985 1985 1985 1986

l'.,.W R.im T.-ri Gang* \.i<).ir Saheb
(S»p M.nli
1966
Ritwi- • •
India
Rangeela 995 Fire 1996
Cast Aamir Khan, Urmila Matondkan Jackie Shroff Cast Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das, Kulbhushan
Director Ram GopalVarma Kharbanda, Javed Jaffri, Ranjit Chowdhary

Music A.R Rahman Director Deepa Mehta
Lyrics Mehboob Music A.R Rahman
ot many films about the film industry have eyond the storm
N B:and fury of
Gopal Varma cast the upcoming Urmila sensationalism

Matondkar as the wannabe star Mili and wove caused by the
a love triangle around her— a superstar (Jackie lesbian theme, Fire
Shroff) and a street-wise petty criminal (Aamir is a work that dares
Khan). Choreography by Saroj Khan was to reach towards a
performed to A.R. Rahman's pulsating music. higher level of
The blend brimmed over with ebullience. Varma expression than

wrote in several in-house jokes about generally afforded
Bollywood. The rags-to-rhythms to Hindi cinema.
plot was conceived and Made originally in
executed aesthetically. the English language and dubbed beautifully
Matondkar's highly into Hindi, Fire shocked the conservatives by its
revolutionary look depiction of a physical relationship between
(designed by Manish two desperately lonely daughters-in-law,

Malhotra), body played by Shabana Azmi and Nandita Das, who
language and dance belong to a business family of Delhi. Director
steps ushered in a new Mehta captures household and business details
phase for Hindi cinema's in a typical Punjabi family with a captivating

leading ladies. Aamir Khan clutter. The dark interiors of the apartment are
^ gave a gallery-pleasing lit to manifest the unspoken tragedy that the

performance as the house hides.
Mumbai tapori
(hoodlum).

1986 1986 1986 1987 1987
Ek Pal Karma Nagina Dacait Ijaazat
(Seep. 155) (Seep. 140) (See p. 73)
1966
Director Bimal Roy, famous for films like Do Bigha Zameen (1953) and Devdas (1956) passes
away.
Khamoshi: The Musical 1996 in; \ m \
Cast Nana Paid Manrsha Kotrala Salman Khan. Helen
Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Music
Lyrics 'lajrooh Sultanpun
the story of a
This is
physically challenged
couple, played by Nana
Patekar and Seema Biswas Many of Patekar's
and their physically un- raging articulations

challenged daughter m Khamoshi The
Manisha Koirala. whom Musical ( 1 996) are
they cling to with a expressions of
desperation that almost director Sanjay

'
destroys her hf*- Leela Bhansah's
a young. emotKM -i . own angst
caught between the Bhansali used
wor and vignettes from his
mus own memory to
:>h is bolstered by an heighten
emotionally sun I i
emotional
performance by N appeal—scenes
ir As Man. between Patekar's
and mut< if blows the screen children and their
Jen perfo- d we've ne\^r seen any male screen
holds together as an epic grandmother

Helen replicate
Bhansali and his
sister's with their
mother.
1987 1987 1987 1987 1988

Dayavan
Mr M| Pe%ton|«r
108)
1966
many of Raj Kapoor's films, passes away.
Maachis
Cast labu. Chandrachur Singh, Om Pun, Jimmy
Shergil, Suneel Sinha, Ravi Gossain
Director Gulzar
Music Vishal Bharadwaj
Lyrics Gulzar
Gulzar's most politically vibrant film takes us
straight into the rise of extremism in
Punjab anti-Sikh riots after the assassination of
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. The

director takes us into the life of one family
ripped apart by the brutal blows of terrorism.
Debutant Chandrachur Singh who plays
a victim of the cruel police excesses, through

the quasi-philosophical tutelage of the
extremist played by Om Puri,
turns to terrorism. A large
part of this haunting film saw Gulzar moving

delineates the protagonist determinedly away
hiding with his fugitive friends from his characteristic
(played by Shergil, Gossain lyrical style to explore
and Sinha) in picturesque a political crisis. An

Himachal Pradesh with his extraordinarily rich
devoted girlfriend (Tabu in music score by debutant

a National Award-winning Vishal Bharadwaj
performance). The film builds up to a (Lata Mangeshkar's Pani pani re shot on the
devastatingly tragic finale depicting the sheer outstandingly expressive Tabu remains one
futility of terrorism. One of Hindi cinema's of the singer's most lucidly articulated
most powerful political parables, Maachis songs) added to the powerful impact.
ii
1988 1988 1988 1988 1989

Khoon Bhari Maang Qayamat Se Raakh Yateem Batwara
Qayamat Tak (p. 74)
1967
The first 70 mm wide-screen film is shown in India.

Dil Se 1998 IlliUlt
Cast Khan, Manisha Korala. Pre*
Director im
Music /man
Lyrics
treatise on love during the time of terrorism, Shah Rukh and

A Manisha skillfully portray
conducted on borrowed time Shah Rukh Khan as a radio

the desperation of a love
journalist
affair
besotted beyond reason by an enchantmgly enigmatic woman, gives
one of his least stylized performances, filling those spaces in the
narrative's heart with feelings that is at once rich and riveting Dil Se
is crowded with a compendium of thoughtful performers who For Preity Zmta,
support the film Preity Zmta in her debut performance bubbles A R success came
Rahman's music and Farah Khan's choreography include the overnight Her
celebrated CM number on top of a moving train ; vrformance

Mani Ratnams first Hindi film <
ng study of a sudden and in 0/7 Se 0998;
juishable passion By far the drew vast critical
most restless Hindi film ever "i, winning

bit s& moves from one her the Filmfare
«* topography and feeling to another

in the
Award
Newcomer Soon
for Best
•
of the narrative the
many films
sheer contrast between a normal followed, including

Delhi household d
j
Vidhu
n of a
Vinod Chopra's
'ist who I
MANI RA Mission Kashmir

for a
™ B RAHMAN **
,
(2000).
(Ut/AB
1989 1989 1989 1989 1989

( h.ifwlni i i i , i i'
Maine Pyar Kiya
p 130)
1968
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai 998
Cast Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Rani Mukherjee,
Sana Saeed, Farida Jalal
Director Karan Johar
Music Jatin, Lalit
Lyrics Sameer
sensuous and ambrosial love

A simple
story
stylish,
about three college

uniquely colourful though tasteful styling by art
friends, the film's
director Sharmista Roy and costume designer

Manish Malhotra furnished Johar's ultra-chic
narrative with a feeling of ultimate cool with
Shah Rukh Khan as the campus dude in the
first half and the widower-dad in the second

half. Romancing the campus siren Tina (Rani narrative over to its second half where her
Mukherjee) or fathering the little prim-and- character blossomed into a sari-clad seductress
serious Sana Saeed, Khan's energy irrigated engaged to marry the prankish Salman Khan
the roots of Johar's extremely endearing (in a special guest appearance) though her
narrative. Kajol 's tomboyish act took the heart still beats for her college pal Shah Rukh
Khan. Karan Johar's super-smooth treatment

.-^ gives the narrative a constant flow and energy.
^v • 1 « 'I" Most of all, there's the unbeatable chemistry
-If*
A^v between Shah Rukh and Kajol. Rani Mukherjee
way
dressed in the micro-minis sauntered her
^ into stardom.
star
Hai marked the

The packaging and projection
charisma was unbeatable. Kuch Kuch Hota
arrival of a director whose
of
creative vision matched the size of his
audience.

1989 1989 1989 1990 1990
Parinda Pyar Ki Kahani Ram Lakhan Aashiqi Agneepath
(See p. 75)
1969
Rajesh Khanna becomes India's first superstar with a string of super-hit films like Aradhana and
Anand.
Satya 1998 in: nil
Cast Urnnila Matondkar. Chekravarthy. Manoj Bajpai. Shefali Chhaya.
ibhShukla
Director Ram GopaJVarma

Music .
Lyrics
One of India's most influential crime dramas, Satya took its astute
and original director Ram Gopal Varma into the bowels of
underworld crime in Mumbai Done m a relentless documentary style,
the stark visuals of violence and aggression on the swarming streets When hotshot
of Mumbai gave an all-new definition to the action genre in Indian producer
cinema All the violence was staged with the fluency and virility of Yash Johar's son
real life The chard Karan Johar made
especially the by-now legendary his directorial
Bhikhu Mhatre (played by Manoj debut no one

Bajpai who c, inputted to instant expected that the
stardom after the rugged and film would have
raw role), proiect a bewildering such a far-reaching
residue of realism while impact Kuch Kuch
remaining cinematic creatures Hota Hai (1998)
filled with dark, uncontrollable did a lot more
and indefinable passions At the than kuch kuch
centre of this lopsided crime (something) at the
thriller is the protagonist. box office It was a
! by Telugu actor smash hit.
-arthy whose initiation
n into the w< m and the

innocent middle-Class girl Vidya (Matondkar. remarkably
deglamoun/ed) down
1990 1990 1990 1990 1990

Anj.ih H.i.i r- Ek Doctor Ki Maut Ghayal
(Seei p 76) (Seep. 141)
1969
in finances Bhuvan V Roti (Mani Kaul),

both si
1947— Earth 1999 Godmother 1999
Cast Aamir Khan, Nandita Das, Rahul Khanna, Maia Cast Shabana Azmi, Milind Gunaji, Govind Namdeo,
Seth, Kitu Gidwani, Arif Zakaria Sharman Joshi, Raima Sen
Director Deepa Mehta Director Vinay Shukla
Music A.R. Rahman Music Vishal Bharadwaj
Lyrics Javed Akhtar Lyrics Javed Akhtar
Pakistani novelist Bapsi Sidhwa ased on a true-life story of
transported us to the traumatic B Ramibehn, a woman

times of India's partition in 1947 politician with more balls than
into two countries. Seen through her male counterparts,
the eyes of little Lenny (Maia Seth) Godmother is admirably
1947— Earth II I spans
jpui the savage era
I scripted by first-time director
while V
^| preserving
pre Vinay Shukla. Shabana Azmi
intimate towers over the tense plot, and
character the narration brings into play
study quality the politics of the Gujarati hinterland and
of Mehta 's one woman's progressive control over her
earlier work Fire. political destiny. Azmi's Ramibehn falls straight
The love triangle among into a moral cesspool to redeem herself finally
the maid Shanta by standing up against her own wayward and

(Nandita Das), her tyrannical son (Sharman Joshi). The taut
silent admirer the plot builds a luminous labyrinth in
masseur Hassan Ramibehn's life. The rugged Gujarati

(Rahul Khanna) and outdoor locations and Vishal Bharadwaj's
the aggressive folk-tinged music score topped by Lata
suitor Dilnawaz Mangeshkar's soul-piercing theme song
(Aamir Khan) is Maati re, enchance the basic sincerity of
played out at an this film about the rise and fall of an

operatic ^ ruthlessly ambitious woman politician.
octave.
ELINE: FILMS AND LANDMARK EVENTS

1990 1991 1991 1991 1991
Henna Ajooba Antarnad Dil Hai Ki Manta Insaaniyat
(Seep. 130) Nahin
1 969
The actress Madhubala, immortalized in K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam (1960) dies of heart failure at
the age of 36.
Fiza 2000 HIIWM
Cast jd/a Bachchan. Karivna Kapoor. Hnth* Roshan. Neha. Bikram Saluja. Isha
Koppiker Asha Sachdev
Director • •
ilid Mohamed
Music '•
K. Rahman
Lyrics
The Kapoor family

film's protagonists are a nuclear Muslim family Mother
The is truly the 'First
Jaya Bachchan, son Hnthik Roshan and daughter Kansma
Family' of
Kapoor and their respective love interests (Neha and Bikram Saluja)
Bollywood.
con'/ rux of Mohamed's hardhitting film The sister's
Beginning with
search for her missing brother was converted into an occasion to
Prithviraj Kapoor,
flaunt Hnthik Roshan s brawny stardom Kansma Kapoor pulled out
every generation
all stops to deliver her
since has produced
•iost pc
actors and
performance Th»« d
actresses— from
Raj. Randhir,
.achdev. is
Shammi and
remarkably vibrant As
Shashi Kapoor to
Rishi Kapoor— and

youth who
finally with the
new generation,
commune "ithik
>ma and
Kareena Kapoor.
emotions from n
,5ine
. Ram, the I
Kaho Na... Pyar Hai 2000
Cast Hnthik Roshan, Amisha Patel, Anupam Kher,
DalipTahil
Director Rakesh Roshan
Music Rajesh Roshan
Lyrics Ibrahim Ashq, Sawan Kumar Tak
Filmmaker Rakesh Roshan gave his son

Hrithik Roshan a double role in Kaho debutante Amisha Patel) in the stunningly
Na...Pyar Hai to showcase his acting debut. scenic locations in New Zealand and other
What made the two roles more interesting unexplored areas, young Roshan proved
than usual was the fact that the characters himself the complete star. Would this film have
weren't twins, long-lost (as they usually are in worked without him? Would Paris be the same
Hindi films) or otherwise. Hrithik played the without the Eiffel Tower? Rajesh Roshan's
two unrelated look-alikes with an aplomb and music score, though nothing out of the
poise that belied his meagre experience (Hrithik ordinary on tape, came alive on screen when
had done a few films as a child). Singing, Hrithik emoted to Kyun chalti hai pawan,
dancing, emoting and, yes, romancing Chand sitare and Ek pal ka jeena.
IELINE: FILMS AND LANDMARK EVENTS

1991 1992 1992 1992 992
Saudagar Bekhudi Chamatkar Deewana Hum
1971
The production of feature films increases to 432, making the Indian film industry the largest in
the world.
Pukar 2000 in: mi
Kapoor. Madhun Dixit. Namrata Snirodkar
Director \\ Kumar Santosru

Music
Surtanpun. javed Akhtar
M adhuri Dixit
performance
a fine
plays a girl who

will go to any
Farah Khan's one
lengths to possess
dance movement
the man she
where the
loves Set in a
debutant moved
hill resort, Pukar
his hands like two
pitched patriotism
fully-lit lamp
against the passions of the heart to create an arresting equipoise
shades, did the
among the emotions of love, duty, betrayal and revenge Santoshi's
Kaho Na...
\\ and the contemporary Pyar Hai (2000).
While Dixit's powerful anti-heroine's ; ves the screenplay a
Hnthik Roshan's
totally innovative dimension, Anil Kapoor's role of the dedicated supple agility and
soldier who, ironica .
•
d by the woman he loves, has c
elegance on the
elerr tordmarily
•
floor made
with Latci Mai >n screen personally to sing
him the craze of
Rahn before a »n of
i
the entire Indian

chikJr. \ikar
populace.
had several int< -/telling, n I v ally
Madhtj- 1 with ravishing relish
1992 1992 1992 1992

02
Jo Jeeta Wohi M.iy<i Memsaab Raju B.r
Slk.MHl.lf
cman
1971
Chandni Bar 2001 Dil Chahta Hai 2001
Cast labu, Atul Kulkami, Rajpal Yadav Cast Aamir Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Saif Ali Khan,
Director Madhur Bhandarkar Preity Zinta and Dimple Kapadia
Director Farhan Akhtar
Bhandarkar's sharply moving and Music Shankar, Ehsan, Loy Lyrics Javed Akhtar
extraordinarily wry film delineates the
journey through
of a small-town
Mumtaz who's brought
life's potholes
UP girl
to
a il Chahta Hai
story of three friends
who grow into

is
maturity
the
Mumbai by her uncle, and together, losing some

given employment as a beer- intrinsic values and vanity
bar dancer. In one of this on the way. If Dil Chahta

heart-rendingly earthy film's Hai can be enjoyed on
very real and traumatic one level as a perfect
episodes, the protagonist souffle entertainment

Mumtaz (an extraordinary with outstanding
brilliant Tabu) who has lost her performances, brilliant
husband and self-confidence choreography by Farah
sits with her only friend, a Khan, perky songs, on

pimp (Rajpal Yadav) looking another level the film's
up and calling old clients to sublinear contexts

make some fast money for her regarding the choices one
son's release from jail. makes in life are
Bhandarkar's looming narrative takes his weightlessly profound. Farhan Akhtar's

memorable protagonist from innocent abandon insightfully young screenplay details the pangs
to unexpected hope and faith and finally in the lives of three college friends, Siddharth
plunges her into tragic and irredeemable (Akshaye Khanna) Sameer (Saif Ali Khan) and
despair. Akash (Aamir Khan). Farhan Akhtar's film re-
defines, re-aligns and re-invents several rules of
popular entertainment.

1992 1992 1993 1993 1993
Rudaali Suraj Ka Saatvan Baazigar Damini Darr
(See p. 78) Ghoda (See p. 79) (Seep. 124)
1971 ^gg^lggggj^g jfl
Music composer Jaikishan of Shankar-Jaikishan fame dies.

Devdas 2002 II IS \ \1 \
Cast s n Rukh Khan. Madhon Dixit Arshwarya Rai. Jackie Shroff. Kiron Kher
Director * -jy LeeJa Bhansaii
Music
Lyrics N ral Badr
Leela Bhansah's adaptation of Saratchandra Chatterjee's

Sanjay
_ classic romantic tragedy leaves us with a feeling of deep elation
and satiation The film requires at least two viewmgs to understand
the visual and emotional layers that the narration secretes Whether
the whole elaborate ritual of bringing Devdas' two women Paro
and Chandramukhi together for a mesmerizing song and dance, or
the sozzled Devdas performing his own shraddha (last rites),
Bhansah's original ideas complement and beautify the film's grand
7 antecedents The film brings a commercial grandiosity to the The lavish Sanjay
tale with' onances The sheer Leela Bhansali
opulence of Bf /telling is unmatched by anything in any production Devdas
film including B .vn Hum Oil De Chuke Sanam (2002) is one of
the most expensive

films to be made
in Bollywood With
(i budget of close
to 60 crores,
hing from
the opulent sets to
the sumptuous
.mes were
made especially for
the film
•inn with
Koi... Mil Gaya 2003 Pinjar 2003
Cast Rekha. Hnthik Roshan, Preity Zmta Cast Urmila Matondkar, Manoj Bajpai, Priyanshu
Director Rakesh Roshan Chatterjee, Sanjay Suri, Sandali Sinha, Isha
Music Rajesh Roshan Koppiker, Seema Biswas
Lyrics Dev Kohli, Ibrahim Ashq, Director Dr Chandraprakash Diwedi
Sayeed Naseer Faraaz Music Uttam Singh Lyrics Gulzar
on
Inspired
Gaya
different
dared
by Steven
to
Spielberg's
demonstrate
approach of screen heroism. Playing
ET,
an
Koi...
entirely
Mil
A slice of historical fiction
other great
partition. In his
films
maiden feature film,

a par with the
about the Indo-Pak

Diwedi has
a mentally challenged child-man who befriends created a work timeless in its tensions and
an alien, Hrithik Roshan demonstrated fine universal in appeal. From Gulzar's opening
control over his character's emotional commentary to the stunning finale when the
landscape. Going from confused and torn and traumatized protagonist Puru (Urmila
vulnerable to a tentative strength, Roshan Matondkar) decides to stay back with her
flaunted a strange and stirring range of abductor Rashid (Manoj Bajpai) in Pakistan
expressions. The narrative was far quieter even when offered the option of returning
than generally seen in Rakesh Roshan's films. home to India, Pinjar is an enchanting tragedy
The mellow-drama moved that sweeps across an illimitable time and
a magical mode, the space to create a mesmeric movement of light
leading man's interaction and shade. Manoj Bajpai in the central male
with his young friends, role of the conscience-stricken, almost penitent
with the alien and with his abductor acts without seeming to. Every actor
romantic lead Preity Zinta breathes a fire of conviction into this
(in that order) lent lustre V passionately recounted tale. Pinjar is a film that
of lyricism to th
lip glows with an inner
Jg\ f conviction.
ELINE: FILMS
1993
Sir
AND LANDMARK EVENTS
1942:
1994
A Love
(Seep. 131)
Story
At 1994
Aatish
1994
Amanat
1994
Andaz Apna Apna
1972
Meena Kumari passes away a few days after the release of her best-known work, Pakeezah.
Yuva 2004 HliUM
Cast -jay Devgan. Abhishek Bachchan. Vrvek Obercx. Esha Deol. Rani
• henee. Kareena Kapoor. Om F
Director I mi Ratnam
Music A R. Rahman
Lyrics Mehboob
y i
iva aspires to be a
blend of social message and
riveting
entertainment Yuva is a restless
film about three young men

(Devgan. Bachchan and Oberoi)
who are on the look-out for a
purpose in life Among the

many absorbing facets of Mani
Ratnam's storytelling is the way Comparisons with
he uses time passages in the superstar father
lives of the various characters Amitabh Bachchan

and the delightfully inventive are inevitable, but
» of plotting whereby different perceptions are projected Abhishek proved
nto the various chai •
e of vision The 3-
his mettle as a fine
"S a sense of lyricism in the plot Every character fits
n his role as
in the Kolkatan milieu without stretching to cohere in the larger Lallan Singh in
e of the binding cosmic force that
Mam Ratnam's
md the world beyond his creation looms large
Yuva (2004), for
.imply impossible to forget the three
which he bagged
adventures The romantic side
the Filmfare Award
Irifter
for Best
-
ply in so i
itl , ou wonder if economy of
Supporting Actor.
1^1.; i
I \A 1994 1994 1994
landH
1972
•
l% of Hin :
Black 2005 ailing and dying teacher Debraj (Amitabh
Bachchan), Black clamps its emotional tentacles
Cast Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee.Ayesha around our hearts and refuses to release
Kapoor. Shernaz Patel, Dhritiman Chattenee, us until the end. The darkest and most
Nandana Sen inexpressible thoughts acquire shape
Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Bhansali's tortured and yet incredibly
Music Monty beautiful realm of self-expression. Credit for

giving shape to his vision goes in no small
From the extravagant grandeur and the measure to Bhansali's technicians who
opulent colour schemes of Devdas, Sanjay miraculously find just the right voice for
Leela Bhansali moved effortlessly to the the director's anguished feelings. It is
minimalist shades of black and white. Veering impossible to imagine any other actor other
passionately away from the norm and creating than Bachchan playing Debraj, the tutor of
an entirely new definition of entertainment, manic proportions raging into the darkness like
Sanjay Leela Bhansali created a work that a Shakespearean tragic-hero. There are
freezes all superlatives and permanently innumerable moments of the purest, most
relocates our perceptions of high classical cinema in Black; moments such as
quality, intellectually and the ones where Michelle expresses sexual
emotionally stimulating art. From yearning or when the old and dying Debraj
the opening scene, when the breaks into a jig with Michelle. Black isn't a
blind-and-deaf Michelle film that we can easily categorize. Sanjay

(Rani Mukherjee) Leela Bhansali has made
runs into her aged, history again.
!'
j| ^^B
1994 1994 1994 1994 1994
Dilwale Drohkaal Dulaara Hum Aapke Hain Hum Hai Bemisaal
(See p. 80) Koun(Seep. 117)
1972
Prithviraj Kapoor, founder of India's first film family, the Kapoors, and actor in India's first ever
talkie Alarm Ara (1931) passes away.
Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi 1958 Ram Aur Shyam 1967
Cast Ashok Kumar, Kishore Kumar Madhubala, Cast Dilip Kumar, Waheeda Rehman, Mumtaz, Pran,
Anoop Kumar Nirupa Roy
Director Satyen Bose Director Tapi Chanakya
Music S.D. Burman Music Naushad
Lyrics Majrooh Sultanpun Lyrics Shakeel Badayuni
This perennially favourite comedy is a satirical
souffle underpinned by dark, almost sinister
tones of misogyny. Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi is
zany and dangerously unpredictable in tone.
While the 3 brothers indulge in a series of
traffic-defying escapades on their jalopy, a
rather roomy romance unfolds between the

youngest sibling and a stranger who arrives on
a wet and windy night to the brothers' motor
garage. A lot of the romance stumbles forward
in defiance of the eldest brother Ashok Kumar's
strict embargo on feminine company. Apart
from the quirky mixture of comedy and
romance this chuckle-fest is also
One of the most emulated films of Indian
tJ
remarkable for a flushed cinema Ram Aur Shyam features the
* and feverish soundtrack inimitable Dilip Kumar in the double role of

,N\
that includes several kooky long-lost twins. The ensuing confusions are
Kishore Kumar made doubly appealing by Kumar's endearing

canticles. performance. The film served as a role model
for several double-role vehicles like Seeta Aur
Geeta, Chalbaaz and Kishen Kanhaiya. This
was one of Mumtaz's first big breaks as a
leading lady.
TIMELINE: FILMS AND LANDMARK EVENTS 1
1994 1994 1994 1994 1994

Krantiveer Laadia Mammo Milan Roja
(See p. 80)
1972
Playback singer Geeta Dutt, wife of actor-director Guru Dutt, dies.

Padosan 1968 mmedy
Cast i jnH Dutt. Saira Banu. Mehmood. Kishore Kumar. On Prakash

Director .oop
Music R D Borman
Lyncs rycn
Considered by many connossieurs of comedy to be the funniest

comic film in Hindi. Padosan is a courtship farce about a love-
• bumpkin's (Sunil Dutt) efforts to win the beauty next door
(Saira Banu by roping in his fnend Kishore Kumar's vocal assistance
apidly moving plot pitches the couple's adversaries Kishore
Kumar and Mehmood 'playing Banu's South Indian music teacher)

Interestingly, the
against each other and lets R D Burman's music do the rest
beauteous
Songs like Mere san >ern. Kehna hat and Ek chatur
Madhubala paired
naar ad vd weight to the wacky humour Shot mostly on a set
romantically with
depict' g two neighbouring rooms on adjacent plots the narrative's
both the brothers
•
less humour is sustained by Krshore Kumar and Mehmods
comic timing and Burman's outstanding songs The
— Ashok (in Shakti
film's perennial
Samanta's
popu '.
suspense thriller
Howrah Bridge,
and Kishore in
Chalti Ka Naam
Gaadi, during the
same year, 1958.

Her repertoire also
includes Mahal
(1949) and
Mughal-e-Azam
(I960).
1995 1995
,m Ake* Bombay Dilwale Dulhaniya
(Seep 81) LeJayenge
II 1973
.'nitabh B.< : 'odes on screen in Zanjeer

Piya Ka Ghar 1971 Chotisi Baat 1975
Cast Jaya Bhaduri, Anil Dhawan Cast Ashok Kumar; Amol Palekar; Vidya Sinha
Director Basu Chatterjee Director Basu Chatterjee
Music Laxmikant, Pyarelal Music Salil Chowdhury

Lyrics Anand Bakshi Lyrics Yogesh
Singh Bedi's Dastak a
A
Ka
fter Rajinder
year
Ghar again
earlier, Basu Chatterjee's Piya
plunged into the
housing problem in Mumbai. This was

the first mainstream Hindi film to
be situated in a chawl (tenement) of

Mumbai where families are packed like
sardines in a tin can. Chatterjee took a

quirky and quip-filled look at the
marriage between a couple, Bhaduri

and Dhawan, that gets seriously
jeopardized because of a lack of
privacy. The plot invents some seriously
funny situations showing the couple's desperate mol Palekar, in a role that he came to
attempts to be alone together. Kishore Kumar's A' specialize in, was cast as the working-class
Yeh jeevan hai (showing the couple's pensive nerd who doesn't know how to approach the
mood amidst the sleeping crowds in their wholesome girl next door (Vidya Sinha). The
cramped home) and Lata Mangeshkar's Piya ka ace up Palekar's sleeve is Ashok Kumar, the
ghar hai (where the wife finally prepares to 'love tutor' who gives the nerd lessons in
spend an evening alone with the husband) are how to get love-savvy in a dozen easy
remembered fondly to this day. So is Bhaduri's steps. Cinematographer K.K. Mahajan shoots
utterly vulnerable and endearing performance. sequences of Palekar trailing Sinha in buses
The film came at a time when she had just and on the roads of Mumbai with a refreshing
begun to reign in Bollywood. disregard for bystanders.

1995 1995 1995 1995 1995
Guddu Karan Arjun Oh Darling Yeh Hai Ram Jaane Rangeela
India! (See p. 82)
1973
Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bhaduri get married.

Chupke Chupke 1975 i inn in
Cast dharmendra. Sharmrfa Tagore. Amrtabh Bachchan. Jaya Bhadun. Om

FV.i- on
Director hik«h Mukherjec
Music /man
and Bakshi
many
One of Mukherjee's feel-good films in the 1970s, Chupke
Chupke is special for its impressive cast which includes the real-
life pair of Bachchan and Bhadun The former masquerades as a
botany teacher while the real botanist (Dharmendra) must
masquerade as a chauffeur in his beloved's (Sharmila Tagore) home
Sno/ay (1975) and
The comedy of mistaken identity is play th much gusto and
Chupke Chupke
omments on the dominance
(1975; revealed
of the Hindi language over all ot >ngues Both
another facet to
Dharmendra and Bachch i
Dharmendra's
togen 'lotoyand
his flair for
Ram H.iiram, ate in their comic
comedy 1
His comic
o too
timing in both
••njoyment
films was razor
•
rp He was
.ident throughout For a
srded the
Filmfdre Lifetime
:, the
*
Achievement
Award in 1996.
1995 1995 1995 1996 1996

Army
Dulhan Wohi Jo Piya Pati Patni
Man Bhaye 1977 Aur Woh 1978
Cast Rameshwari, Prem Kishen, Shyamlee, Cast Sanjeev Kumar, Vidya Sinha, Ranjeeta Kaur
Madan Puri, Iftekhar Director B.R Chopra
Director LekhTandon Music Ravindra Jain
Music Ravindra Jain Lyrics Ravindra Jain Lyrics Anand Bakshi
Known for their squeaky-clean values and

wholesome
banner came up with
family entertainers, the Rajshri
this whopper
featuring newcomers. Veteran character-actor
Premnath's son
playboy whom
Prem Kishen starred as the
grandfather Madan Puri
of a
urges
hit
ri^HM
to marry before dying. To bring the errant
grandson to
friend (Iftekhar).
Kishen, not to be
heel,
The
a
planned by the grandfather and

masquerade of death
plot thickens
outdone by his
his doctor-
when Prem
grandfather,
is
B» 18
WBmA Wr
comedy about man
hires a flower seller
wife while he
resident bitch (Shyamlee).
(Rameshwari) to play
continues to romance the
his
A
with
Kumar) with roving eyes
his secretary
a married
who has an
(Ranjeeta Kaur) and his wife's
(Sanjeev
affair
(Vidya Sinha) attempts to wean him back. The
comic mood is sustained right till the end
when the ostensibly errant husband flips his
libido's lid again when the gorgeous Parveen

Babi (making a fleeting guest appearance)
walks into his office. Very few Hindi comedies
before this had dared to be flippant about the
sanctity of marriage and domestic values.
TIMELINE: FILMS
1996
Chahat
AND LANDMARK EVENTS
1996
Dastak English
1996
Babu
Mem
Desi
1996
Fareb
1996
(See
Fire
p. 82)
n
Heart-throb Rajesh Khanna marries teen sensation Dimple Kapadia from Bobby who, at 16, is 15
years younger than Khanna.
Golmaal 1979 llfill
Cast Amo) Palekar. Bmckya Goswarm. Uipal Dutt Dna Pathak

Director .mk«h Mukherjee
Music •'
D Borman
Lyrics
quirky and crisp comedy and a

A prolific Mukherjee's ongoing
of errors,
tryst with
part of the amazingly
titters in the 1970s,

Golmaal is one of the most popular comedy films in the Hindi
lang rth lies in the lies that the protagonist Amol
Palekar tells in order to dodge his obdurate boss's (Utpal Dun) hawk-
eyed gd/f Palekar even invents his own doppelganger. thereby
creating the cutest chaos seen in Hindi cinema The pulsating Besides its blithe,
performances by Palekar and Dutt hold up this ebullient comedy and almost
9've rhythms that go a long way in creating Shakespearean
situational humour rhe far caching impact of Golmaal is felt in a comic slant, Dulhan
1990s' comedy like David Dhawans CocW/e No 1 where the director Wohi Jo Piya Man
blatantly borrowed from Mukhef|ee's mirth broth Bhaye (]977)\s
memorable for
amiable comic
performances by
the two veterans
Madan Pun and
Iftekhar and
Ravindra Jain's
effervescent music
score
1996 1996 1996 1996 1996

Kh.tmoshi Thr .XI Ka Koyla
êment m Bollywood
Khubsoorat 1980 Chashme Buddoor 1981
Cast Ashok Kumar, Rekha, Dina Pathak, Cast Farooq Shaikh, Ravi Baswani, Rakesh Bedi,
Rakesh Roshan Saeed Jaffrey
Director Hrishikesh Mukherjee Director Sai Paranjpye
Music R.D. Burmari Music Raj Kamal
Lyrics Gulzar Lyrics Indu Jain
W ith this hair-down-feet-up comedy

Paranjpye placed herself at the centre of
Bollywood's movement towards
Sai
realistic
comedy. Taking forward the working-class

satire of Basu Chatterjee, Paranjpye here
portrayed the comic camaraderie among three
roommates played by Farooq Shaikh, Rakesh

Bedi and Ravi Baswani. The skirt-chasing
activities of the Bedi-Baswani duo occupy a
major chunk of this funny and foamy film's
Among the feelgood films that the prolific austere footage. But it's the courtship and
Hrishikesh Mukherjee made on the theme romance between the diffident Shaikh and the
of an outsider bringing joy into a cloistered salesperson Deepti Naval (who sells detergent
sullen household Khubsoorat occupies a special from door-to-door) that gives the film its
place. Mukherjee cast Rekha as the 'hero' who delightful touch of amorous mischief. Chashme
drops into her sister's staid and repressed in- Buddoor worked well.
laws' residence run by the tyrannical matriarch,
played by Dina Pathak. By making both the
protagonist and the antagonist female figures
and by making their respective male partners

(Ashok Kumar and Rakesh Roshan,
respectively) timid subservient creatures, this
quaint comedy upholds the matriarchal order.

1996 1996 1996 1996 1996
Maachis Mr Bechara Prem Granth Raja Hindustani Rajkumar
(See p. 84)
1975
Ramesh Sippy's Sholay breaks al records at the box office and becomes the most important
Hindi commercial film.
Katha 1982 i inn in
Cast '
Jaseeruddm Shah. Deepti Naval. Farooq Sha*h
Director i Paranpye
Music * tmaJ
Lyrics
Based on the fable of the hare and the tortoise, Katha gets its
jumpstart quality from the exemplary trio of players playing out
their titillating and tittering triangle in a chawl of Mumbai Shah is
the slow and steady suitor, while Shaikh is the roguish roving-eyed Chashme Buddoor
fraud Both grve performances that cover the blind spots in the (1981 ) worked
narrative Deepti Naval as the confused babe-m-the-woods is well because of
effortless Katha is Paranjpyes serious attempt to study the comic the nearly untried
nature of life in tightly cluttered tenements, earlier depicted in Basu cast Bedi, Baswani
Chatterjee's comedy Piya Ka Ghar and Saeed Jaffrey
(playing a sassy
paan-seller. he
acquired instant
acceptance in
Hindi cinema)
were first-rate.
Shaikh and Naval

formed the
working-class
couple in quite a
few films of the
1980s including
Paranjpyes Katha
(1982).
1996 1996 1996 1996 1997

Border
lawn Bombay
p 112)
'
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron 1983 Mandi 1983
Cast Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Bhakti Barve, Cast Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Om
Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Shah Pun, Neena Gupta, Soni Razdan, Aneeta Kanwar
Director Kundan Shah Director Shyam Benegal Music Vanraj Bhatia
Music Vanraj Bhatia Lyrics Bahadur Shah Zafar and Others.
unstoppable situational comedy with

An sly touch of the slapstick. Taking into
a
account all the mala fide forces that had gone
into building that anarchic amalgamation

known as Modern India, the film builds a
burlesque revolving around the two

protagonists' (Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi
Baswani) tryst with corruption in 'high'
places — the crooked builder played by Pankaj

Kapur whom a scoop-hungry journalist Benegal added stature to his oeuvre while one
Shobha (played by the late Barve) wants to of his favourite actresses added girth to her
bring to heel. imposing personality, playing the madame of a
brothel who oversees her brood of giggling,
sobbing and flirtatious girls with a hawk-like
ferocity. In subverting the sexual tragedy of a
brothel's existence to a full-blown farce, Benegal
achieved a transitional miracle within a genre

that very few Hindi films have attempted.
Remarkable for the gallery of women actors, the
cast, particularly Naseeruddin Shah as the
brothel's man Friday are deeply diverting in their
drollery. The music represents the crumbling

dignity of the kotha culture and its dominance by
the more vulgar aspects of the flesh trade.

1997 1997 1997 1997 1997
Chachi 420 Deewana Mastana Dil To Pagal Hai Gupt Hazaar Chaurasi
(Seep. 108) Ki Maa(Seep. 156
1975
Music composer and director S.D. Burman passes away.

Mr India 1987 HMIIl)
Cast Sndevi. Ami Kapooc Amnsh Pun. Anu Kapoor. Satish Kaushk
Director Shekhar Kapur
Music dxrmkant PyareUI
Lyrics i/edAkhtar
full-blown comic-strip on Mr and theme of an
A 'invisible
Kumar comedy Mr X
man' are apparently
Bombay The
celluloid.
inspired
India
by the
its
1964 Kishore
In film is produced by the leading
man's brother and features him in the title role of a
commoner nurturing a brood of orphans who takes on the mighty
villain Mogambo (Amnsh Pun) Though the cancatural
conflicts between the two highlight director Shekhar Kapur's self-
assured sense of the outrageous, it is Sndevi as the journalist in love
with the invisible' hero who steals the show Performing a parody
• ergreen Laxmikant-Pyarelal songs, doing astupendous
take-off on Charlie Chaplin, dancing zaniry
The same team
to the comic song Hawa •
(minus director
sensuously to th<
Shekhar Kapur)
orgasmic rhythms of fi
tried to recreate
kat te Sndevi displa,
the Mr India
versatility One of
(1987) magic 5
Bollywood's oldest actors Ashok
years later in the
le one of his final
disastrous Roop Ki
•ntist who Rani Choron Ka
•>ero the potion to
Raja (1993) which
ty Kapoors little
has the dubious
distinction of
I
being the most

r Ahmed Khan expensive flop
ever
19 > 1997 1997

Mntyudand
1975
Pushpak 1987 Chachi 420 1997
Cast Kamal Haasan, Amala, Samir Kakkad, Cast Kamal Haasan, Tabu, Amrish Puri, Om Puri,
Tinu Anand Paresh Rawal, Ayesha Jhulka
Director Singeetham Srinivasa Rao Director Kamal Haasan
Music Vishal Bharadwaj Lyrics Gulzar
this film goes the unambiguous distinction

Toof being the only silent film in the era of n Chachi 420, Tamil Nadu's resident maverick
talkie pictures. The ever-innovative Kamal Kamal Haasan gets into a buxom
Haasan gave one of his most striking, rich Maharashtrian's garb to play nanny to his two
and accomplished performances as an kids after separating with his wife. Chachi 420
unemployed youth who kidnaps a rich man is a wittily written piece of comedy with
(Kakkad). The interaction between the intended humour that braces even as the narrative races
criminal and his victim involves plenty of towards a wackily worked-out finale. The film
gesticulation and miming, and absolutely no has a large supporting cast including Om Puri,
words. There's also a romance with Amala Amrish Puri and Paresh Rawal who are
where Kamal Haasan's ability to articulate completely convincing in their comic

thoughts without words are most at work. comportment. Veteran comedian Johnny
Walker made his last screen appearance as an
inebriated make-up person who facilitates the
protagonist's transition into femininity. Finally,
the film is a made-to-order vehicle for the

amazing Kamal Haasan. Playing a warm
matronly woman the actor gets into the skin of
the character for the most convincing drag
act since Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie. The

film was initially directed by admaker
Shantanu Sheorey before Kamal Haasan took
over the job.

1997 1997 1997 1997 1998
Mrityudaata Pardes Viraasat Yes Boss Achanak
Emergency results in strict censorship of films—Kissa Kursi Ka, a political satire directed by Amrit
Nahata, is destroyed.
Dr Kotnis Ki Hum Dono 961
Amar Kahani 1946

Cast Dev Anand, Sadhana, Nanda
Director Amarjeet
CastV. Shantaram, Jayshree DirectorV. Shantaram Music Jaidev
Music Vasant Desai Lyrics Dewan Sharar Lyrics Sahir Ludhianvi
film opens with Dr Kotnis (director Produced by Dev Anand's illustrious Navketan
The
Shantaram) returning to his native village to banner, this film about mistaken identity
convince his parents created a box office stir of sorts. Improbable,
that he is needed in yet engrossing, Hum Dono tells the story of

China, where Japan's two 'identical non-twins,' both in the army and
aggression has left battling a common enemy. When one of them
many wounded. Once is presumed dead at war the other one must
in China, the narrative return home to pose as the widow's (Nanda)
wastes no time in husband. The 'missing-in-action' formula

turning into an Indo- created a heady drama. The film was supported
china romance with by a superlative music score by Jaidev. Dev
Dr Kotnis spending more time courting and Anand in the two roles, with and without a
flirting with a Chinese girl (played by the moustache, is the consummate romantic
director's wife Jayashree) than curing the locals wishing away all his worries in a haze of
in China who speak Hindi, albeit with smoke.
a Chinese accent! Dr Kotnis... rises above the
quirky crassness of the kitschy
content on the strength of its ^J^

noble theme and intention and Al
Shantaram's remarkably
textured and emotionally
rich performance.

1998 1998 1998 1998 1998
Angaarey Aunty No. Bade Miyan Chote Baadshah Bandhan
Miyan
1976
Legendary playback singer Mukesh dies.

Haqeeqat 1964 Ml! IlliWh
Cast noVa. BaJraj Sahm. Pnya Rajvansh. Vijay Anarxl Jayant
Ian Anand
Mumc Mohan
•
Guru Dutt's
directorial debut,
951) starred
his good friend Dev

Anand When they
first met at Prabat

Hdqeeqat. recreating the torment of the Indo-O 1962.
Studios in
late one of BoOywocxft most authentic depictions of
1945.they promised
battle fatigue Shot on location m ladakh. the bleak non-
to work together if
. cental landscape is shot te black and white The

Dev was to turn
soldiers, played with understated machismo added lustre of
producer and Guru
credibility to an already-authentic narrative Chetan Anand wove a
Dutt was to turn
touchiruj ron mce into the w«r with debutant Pnya
director However, it
-ral belle who helps the Indian soldiers fight off the
was films like Hum
Chinese menace The film is suffused in patriotism and nostalgia,
Dono (1961) and
d Madan
Guide (1965) which
shot Dev Anand to
fame
1998 1998 1998 1998 1998

Devta Dhoondte Reh DilSe
Btrood
iaaoge (Seep 85)
whose gold* graced scores of Bollywood films, passes

Border 1997
technical finesse that made these the most
authentic war sequences ever filmed in Indian
Cast Sunny Deol. Jackie Shroff, Suniel Shetty Akshaye cinema. But it is the characters that grip you.
Khanna.Tabu, Pooja Bhatt, Raakhee Gulzar Each soldier, from the turbaned Sunny Deol to
Director J. R Dutta the callow Akshaye Khanna recalls more
Music Anu Malik peaceful and romantic times away from the
Lyrics Javed Akhtar boom of the canons. The soundtrack, a sturdy
mix of war sounds and Anu Malik's tonic music
.P. Dutta, whose brilliant craftsmanship was is a prescription for introspection. The brilliantly
J on display in his earlier works (Ghulami, devised film interweaves war and
Batwara, Hathyar), pulled out all stops to make romance into a passionate
Border a brilliant war epic. Set during the 1 971 pastiche. The performances are
Indo-Pak war, Border unfolds in episodic bouts all uniformly even-toned.
of battle-front flare-ups pitched at a level of Dutta's inner convictions
manifest in rugged sharp-
toned images and
dialogues that
take the war

genre in cinema
where it had
never gone
before.
JAVED AKHTAR Dialouge 0. P. DUTTA

Music ANU MALIK Lyrics :
:

1998 1998 1998 1998 1998
Do Numbri Doli Saja Ke Rakhna Dulhe Raja Duplicate Dushman
1980
Sahir Ludhianvi, lyricist for films like Pyaasa (1957) and Hum Dono (1961), passes away.
Gumrah 1963 Avishkar 1973
Cast Ashok Kumar Mala Smha, Sunil Dutt, Shashikala Cast Rajesh Khanna, SharmilaTagore
Director B.R. Chopra Director Basu Bhattacharya
Music Ravi Music Kanu Roy
Lyrics Sahir Ludhianvi Lyrics Kapil Kumar
n his marital trilogy—Anubhav, Avishkar and

Grihapravesh —the filmmaker explored the
anatomy, psychology and politics of marriage
with a splendid eye for physical and emotional
details. In Avishkar he got the two glamorous
stars, Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore to
play the archetypal couple Amar and Mansi,
squabbling bitterly after some years of
marriage, as disillusioned with marriage as they
are with the rites of remaining silent in an
When Sunil Dutt sang Sahir's sublime alliance that has gradually been stripped of all
words to Mala Sinha, time— and love- appeal and meaning.

stood still. In this provocative drama the
socially conscientious filmmaker B.R. Chopra
continued his exploration of social issues.
Gumrah was about marriage, fidelity and the

sanctity of domesticity. Chopra's leading
lady Mala Sinha was compelled to marry
her dead sister's husband Ashok Kumar.
Shockingly, she continued to meet her lover
Sunil Dutt. Undercurrents of defiant direction
drive the high-voltage drama. Shashikala who

plays the blackmailer walked away with the
Filmfare Award for her shrewish performance.

1998 1998 1998 1998 1998
Ghulam Gunda Hero Hindustani Hyderabad Blues Jab Pyar Kisise
Hota Hai
1980
Actress Hema Malini becomes Dharmendra's second wife. Hema Malini and Dharmendra are
remembered for their fabulous chemistry in Ramesh Sippy's hit film Sholay.
Bidaa 1974 i nun iikuii
Cast Jeetendra. Leena Chandavarkar. Durga Khote
Director i',ad
Musk : • rmkant PyardaJ
>markable
Rem for his prolific
outitput the Tamil-Telugu-Hindi

movie moghul IV Prasad made
this melodrama as a tribute to the
joint family Fragmentation due to

In the late 1960s
the migration that results from the
and early 70s,
post -Independence generation's
Sharmila Tagore
cravmq for a better life forms the core of the drama One by one,
and Rajesh Khanna
Durga Khote loses her entire family to the city until
sizzled on screen
•ral home to die alone In a providential twist of
with a string of
>n finds his way back to the village to redeem the hits. The films
grandmother , dying days Hallucinating at death's door the old lady served to propel
sees the grandson as lord Kr '>na who has come to salvage her soul
Rajesh Khanna into
>f mythology and cultural exposition underlined the film's superstardom.
maif also remarkable for casting the screen
matriarch >eprvotal role, and Leena Chandavan

iw who entices the old lady's favourite son
(Jeetendra) away from his m
1998 1998 1998

i
198 1998
Kuch Kuch Hota
p 86)
'
lies five
Masoom 1983 Anjali 1990
Cast Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Jugal Hansraj, Cast Raghuvaran, Revathi, Baby Shyamali
Urmila, Aradhana, Saeed JaffreyTanuja Director Mani Ratnam
Director Shekhar Kapur Music llaiyaraja
Music R.D. Burman Lyrics Gulzar
Tamil maverick Mani Ratnam's breakthrough

in the Hindi cinema was a dubbed version
of his lyrical and moving fable about a young

mentally challenged girl (Baby Shyamali) who is
brought home to her family for a normal life.
The ebullient girl's initiation into the family
includes a large number of smartly executed
dance numbers replicating the in-your-face
grace and frenzied pace of the music videos

from the West. This was the first Indian film to
actually go into Westernized choreography. It
did so without losing focus on the Indianness in
the texture of the emotions depicted. The cast
Shekhar Kapur's directorial debut was a of youngsters led by Baby Shyamali were
sensitive story about the troubles a happily delightfully natural. In its vitality of emotions
married couple face after the arrival of the Anjali was a complete path-breaker. A heart-
husband's illegitimate son from a past affair. wrenching portrayal of strength within fragility
Kapur converted the inherently sentimental Anjali was made into Tamil and dubbed into
tale into a gripping and gentle urban fable. Hindi. The quality and tone of the emotions,
Shabana plays the wife who gradually comes the artless wonderment of discovering life in all
to terms with her husband's slip-up. its glory, gave a universal resonance to
the narration.

1998 1998 1998 1998 1998
Maharaja Main Solah Baras Ki Major Saab Mehendi Mere Do Anmol
Ratan
1981
Sanjay Dutt, son of actress Nargis and actor Sunil Dutt, debuts in the highly anticipated Rocky. It
is a great commercial success.

Hum Aapke Hain Koun 1994 mnn until
wi Khan. Madhuri Dixrt Anupam Kher. RerxAa Shahane.

Mohnish Bchl. Recma Lagoo
Director Sooraj B.r
Music '.im Lawman
Lyrics . ncfcr Rawal
Rajshn Production house styled what is undoubtedly one of the 3

most successful Hindi films of all times Hum Aapke is a film
it 'family values' with nearly 3 5 hours of elaborate song and Urmila Matondkar
dance sequences and the situations that require them' These include and Aradhana as
a long wedding ceremony where the rituals spread themselves out Shabana and Shah's
two songs until the bride (Renuka Shahane) leaves for her daughters in
md's (Mohnish Behl) home The mam event in the commodious Masoom (1983)
plot concerns the romance that blossoms between Shahane's gave the most
tly younger sister Madhuri Dixit and the groom's obedient but natural
.alman Khan While the two frolic with arcadian performances seen
^s festive celebrations supported by Ramlaxman's by children in
1 songs and Jay Borade's ornate mainstream Hindi

choreography come and go in swaying cyclic cinema Jugal
motions of joint-family routine Tragedy Hansraj as the little
kes, albeit briefly :>ause •>aker who

in the film What sees the film through unknowingly
•
guile The Indian' values are disrupts a home
laced within a and marriage was
especially
endearing.
Hona
HiTha
1982
H cident on the sets of

about Hrithik's search for his brother (Shah
Kabhi Khushi
Rukh Khan) who was disowned by their father.
Kabhie Gham 2000 The conventional plot replete with every
conceivable formulaic bait from slick comedy in
Cast Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shah Rukh Delhi's Chandni Chowk area (courtesy Kajol) to
Khan, Kajol, Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Rani chic sensuality in London (courtesy Kareena
Mukherjee, Farida Jalal, Alok Nath, Johnny Lever Kapoor), is given an incredibly sumptuous eye-
Director Karan Johar catching spin by the second-time director.
Music Jatin, Lalit, Sandesh Shandilya Johar leaves no stone unturned to ensure a
Lyrics Sameer, Anil Pandey smooth sailing triumphant journey for K3G
across the global box office. Kajol and Shah
Karan Johar scaled the pinnacle of pop- Rukh Khan, specially the former, have the
entertainment in his debut film Kuch Kuch author-backed roles. They make the best of
Hota Hai. In Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham the plot's dramatic convergence on their
(K3G) he goes even further to extend the characters. Johar invests every scene with a
parameters of his creative vision while certain emotional high so that the film is
stretching the frontiers of feel-good mass- actually an amalgamation of a series of
oriented entertainment in Hindi cinema. K3G is implosive climaxes.

1998 1998 1998
Samar Satya Sher Khan
(See p. 87)
1982
Bhanu Athaiya is the first Indian to win an Oscar for her costumes in Richard Attenborough's
Gandhi, in which Ben Kingsley immortalized the role of M.K. Gandhi.

II
Mahal 1949 Kohraa 1964
Cast Ashok Kumar, Madhubala Cast BiswajeetWaheeda Rehman, Lalita Pawar
Director Kamal Amrohi Director Hiren Nag
Music Khemchand Prakash Music Hemant Mukherjee
Lyrics Nakshab Lyrics Kaifi Azmi
Lfohraa featured the ethereal Waheeda

f\ Rehman as the mysterious rake Biswajeet's
second wife who's haunted by his dead wife.
The chilling ambience was sublimated by the

producer Hemant Mukherjee's vintage music.
Songs like Lata Mangeshkar's Jhoom jhoom
dhalti raat and beqaraar dil heightened the
feeling of ominous dread in the plot. Montages
of the dead woman's spirit wandering the
night were exquisitely expressive. Waheeda
Rehman as the Indian version of Rebecca was
vulnerable, adamant and very beautiful. This is
A
Lata
turning point
'ghost'
Mangeshkar,
in the career of both the
Madhubala and her ghost-voice
Mahal has become
one of the superior supernatural thrillers of the
1960s where the actors respond to

plot rather than peripheral attractions such as
a particular
synonymous with the supremely sonorous songs and romance.

Aayega aanewala song that gave birth to the
cult of ethereal and melodious spirits haunting

heroes of our films. Mahal is a hugely tangled
supernatural thriller about a man, played by
Ashok Kumar and his obsession with an
apparition that drives his wife to suicide and
him to the brink of insanity.

1998 1998 1998 1998
Wajood Yamraj Zakhm Zakhmee Aurat
1982
The Asian Games held in New Delhi provide the occasion to start telecasting TV programmes in
colour.
Jewel Thief 1967 TIIKIII.HIS/mSTKIilKS
ok Kumar. Dev AnarKlV/}anth«maia.Tanuja

Director
Muiic ,D Borman
Lyncs Majrooh Suttanpun. Shailendra
film about
A mistaken
identity starring
the debonair Dev

Anand cast as look-
Although
This clever
Madhubala had
suspense film with
been a heroine for
a surfeit of skilful
a couple of years,
narrative devices all
Mahal 1949)(
climaxing m one of
finally made her a
the most heart-
star Madhubala
stopping song-and-
had been a child
dance sequences
star in one of
ever filmed (Hothon pe a/s/ beat) is still a whopper of an entertainer
Bombay Talkies'
A masaia mix. well-oiled though not over-spiced, pickled with the
way biggest hits.
pride of the formulaic menu S D Burman's music goes a long
heightening theme and mood Basant (19371 Five
mbellishmg and the
man with Asha years later, she was
Interestingly, the second lead Tanuja (seducing her
more comfortable playing the

Bhosle's seductive Raat
with the hero than the heroine Vyjanthimala The stiff mood exquisitely
between the lead pair goes well with the plot Jewel Thief is the kind beautiful heroine
of film where everything including the suspense, just falls into place opposite the
with a studio's top actor,
Ashok Kumar.
i r98 1999 1999 1999 1999

'Jo 1 Chehera
1947 Earth
(Seep 88)
•octor of films like f\,>

and sheesh Mahal (1950) '
iway
Ittefaq 1969
Cast Nanda, Rajesh Khanna -44

Director Yash Chopra
Lusic (background score) Salil Chowdhury
B.R.Chopra produced
The ever-experimental
this songless thriller, his second film after
the courtroom drama Kanoon. The raw and

riveting Rajesh Khanna played a man accused
of murdering his wife who takes asylum in a
single woman's (Nanda) home and finds
himself a part of a much bigger more damning

conspiracy than he could have ever imagined.
The taut whodunit moves at a frenetic
speed. Director Yash Chopra never

allows the narrative to stray.
Most of the stagey film is shot on

one set depicting Nanda's
home. The dramatic tension
is created mainly through uncontrollable rage. But the real
the editing pattern shocker is Nanda. Turning away

and the principal from her goody-goody image she
performances delivers a sledgehammer
Rajesh Khanna is performance as a scheming,
outstanding in screaming evil woman of devious
his outbursts devices. There is not a hint of
of defensive romance in the plot. Ittefaq is a
anger and genre-defining work.

1999 1999 1999 1999 1999
Dil Kya Kare Dillagi Godmother Hasina Maan Jayegi Hello Brother
(See p. 88)
1985
Shiva Ka Insaf, the first 3-D feature film in Hindi is released.

Lekin 1991 TIIKII.I.KKN/M1STKKIKS
last Vmod Khanna. Dimple Kapadia. Amjad Khan
>irector
1usic ilh Mangeshkar
yncs
Produced by 'Asia's Nightingale' Lata Mangeshkar, Lekm is a ghost
. story with a difference £e*/n transports us into the twilight now-

you-see-her-now-you-don't' zone Frozen between two lives the
female protagonist's character is guided by the hero Vmod
In the 1960s, BR.
a from one world to anol bolic journey represented
Chopra made two
by a splendid stretch of sand which cmematographer Manmohan
successful songless
Singh ( ,«ptures with undulating elasticity Gulzar's vision lends a lyrical
films Kanoon
(1960), starring
Mehmood and
/fferag(1969)
•ig Rajesh
Khanna and
Nanda
ade memorable by Dimple

•ndered immeasurably
hkar's
noser's
1999 1999 1999 1999 1999

Hum Oil De Chuke Hum Saath Saath
HO I
Sanam Ham
1 968), Khilona ( 1 970) and Koshish

Darr
Cast Sunny Deol.Juhi Chawla, Shah Rukh Khan
Director Yash Chopra
Music Shiv, Hari
Lyrics Anand Bakshi
M
of Daag,
aking a departure from
the ultra-romanticism
Kabhi Kabhie and
Chandni, Yash Chopra
swerved fluently into the
sinister with this film. As the
psychologically disturbed
lover-boy who can't take no
for an answer from Juhi
Chawla, Shah Rukh Khan

made a fashion statement
out of stammering manic
love-confessions. Though the
film was packaged as a
typical Yash Chopra romance

(with dulcet melodies composed by the classical turned into an attractive figure. Evil became
musicians Shiv Kumar Sharma and Hari Prasad attractive and danger was fun. Especially
Chaurasia and sung by Lata Mangeshkar remarkable are the film's editing patterns,
projected into an alfresco Alpine environment) which create suspense in unexpected

Darr was also a scare-fest, with Shah Rukh sequences. The long Holi sequence where Shah
jumping at Juhi from the most unlikely places. Rukh infiltrates the festivities at Deol-Chawla's
While the hero, Deol was impressive enough in home and the chase on the crowded roads
his macho manoeuvres, his adversary who thereafter, are deviously executed.
would be traditionally termed the villain, was

1999 1999 1999 1999 1999
Hum Turn Pe Jaanam Samjha Karo Janwar Kartoos Kaun
Marte Hain
1986
Actress Smita Patil, known for her contribution to parallel cinema and films such as Bhumika
(1977), Bazaar (1982) and Mandi (1983), dies at age 31.
Bobby 1973 Julie 1975
Cast Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia, Premnath, Pran, Cast Laxmi.Vikram, Om Prakash, Nadira,
Sonia Sahni, Durga Khote, Aruna Irani, Prem jalal Agha

Chopra, Farida jalal Director K.S. Sethumadhavan
Director Raj Kapoor Music Anand Bakshi, Harindranath Chattopadhyay
Music Laxmikant, Pyarelal Lyrics Anand Bakshi Lyrics Rajesh Roshan
With his second son Rishi and the 15-year 7'ulie was a trend-setting romance depicting a
-old sensation Dimple in the lead, Raj 'forbidden' and largely doomed relationship
Kapoor made a romantic saga based on between an Anglo-Indian girl (Laxmi) and a
Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Pran and Sonia Hindu boy (Vikram). Done with a daredevil
Sahni neglect their only son Raja (Rishi Kapoor). sensuality, then unknown to mainstream Hindi
Deeply attached to his nanny (Durga Khote) cinema, the romance was further garnished
Raja grows into his teens to promptly fall in with Rajesh Roshan's path-breaking ballads like
love with the nanny's granddaughter Bobby Julie I love you and Dil kya kare. The film was
(Dimple Kapadia). While her boorish dad shot close to the railway
(Premnath) and Raja's upper-class father fight a tracks giving the film a
pitched class battle, Raja romances Bobby. texture of authenticity
lacking in the main

romance, with its
o v e r- b I o w n
emotions. What
¥gave the female
protagonist's
routine romance
an extra edge was
the daring pre-
marital pregnancy.

1999 1999 1999 1999 1999
Kohram Kya Kehna Mann Mast Rockford
1987
Actor and playback singer, Kishore Kumar, passes away.

Kabhi Kabhie 1976 i: inn \n
Cast Amrtabh Bachchan. Raakhee. Shasrw Kapoor. Waheeda Rehman. Rishi
Kapoor. Neetu Singh. Smr* Garewal. Panskhat Sahni. Naseem

Director i h Chopra
Music • -itn
. *ahir Ludhianvi
Arguably the most

romantic The mother of all
intensely
the teen-romances
film by Yash Chopra.
that thereafter
Kabhi Kabhie was the
flooded filmdom,
•ton for Karan
Kabhi Khushi Bobby (1973)
Its
marked the return
of the showman
rt serves as
par excellence, Raj
a subtle game of
Kapoor, to
voluptuous form
es, the
after the failure of
poet Am if
Mera Naam Joker

Pooja
(1971) Dimple
mother woman (Waheeda Rehman) while
:
a activated
Poojt 1 to a we ] though provi 'ashi
his wife forget

a Bobby blizzard in
India— her
her t ,ed out atj
uninhibited display
a stui title song by Lata Mangesh>
of teen spirit and
•lo-holds-
barred dancing
made her the first
teen icon of
Bollywood.
1999 1999 1999

1999 1999
. I'
1
r .' Shod Soon/a.
1987
'
Laila Majnu 977 Ek Duuje Ke Liye 1981
Cast Rishi Kapoor, Ranjeeta Kaur, Danny Denzongpa Cast Kamal Haasan, Rati Agnihotri, Swapna
Director H.S. Rawail Director K. Balachander
Music Madan Mohan, Jaidev Music Laxmikant, Pyarelal
Lyrics Sahir Ludhianvi Lyrics Anand Bakshi
underbelly. At maverick Kamal Haasan's outstanding

A love legend with a
least
legendary romance between

lyrical
12-13 film versions chronicling the

Qais and Laila
Tamil
falls
Hindi debut starred him as a Tamilian
in love with his Punjabi neighbour,

who
have been attempted in Indian cinema. H.S. played with spirited passion by debutante
Rawail whose earlier success with love Rati Agnihotri. The romantic liaison was
stories within the costume-drama genre M| strewn with some
{Mere Mehboob, Sangharsh) | splendid linguistic
created a gripping case for Qais confusions and, of

and Laila's forbidden love course, parental
Rishi Kapoor re-living the I opposition,
life of the demented I including Shobha
lovelorn character I Khote as the
implanted an epic I girl's draconian
chip on this 4 mother bullying
film's broad the young couple

shoulders. With into a one-year
the deep-throated separation that
Mohammad Rafi ends in tragedy.
singing soul- Balchander's

F
piercing love Hindi debut was
ballads, Kapoor a hands-on full-blast melodrama replete with
made the ideal one of the best music scores ever composed
legendary for a Hindi film.
lover.

1999 1999 2000 2000 2000
Thakshak Vaastav Astitwa Baaghi Badal
(Seep. 157)
1988
India's greatest showman Raj Kapoor passes away one month after receiving the prestigious
Dadasaheb Phalke award.
Chandni 1989 RlltltUK
Cast .yoor.Wxxl Khanna.Waheeda Rehman
Director : h Chopra
Music
ailored to accommodate
T the considerable charisma
and star power of Sridevi.
i marked the return
he worked a mellifluent
magic with Sndev

the ultin
woman whom men fai Laila Majnu

about while their n (1977) was one of
see the the many films
in her The mixture of Rishi Kapoor did.
voluptuary and vulr • )tent Dimple Kapadia in
of a romance gone Bobby (1973)

; and redeemed in the nick of time by Kajal Kiran in Hum
a quirky r. •
e two men in Kum Nahin
t)y Rishi Kapo< (1977) and Jaya
iowy. Prada in
compN ime •
(1979) and
film rs timeless not so much foi tent Shoma Anand in
or tn it the din thetk sense matched Baroodi 1998)

by his k >ence were some
others who made
their debut with
this versatile actor.
2000 2000 2000 2000

2000
Champion
1989
Maine Pyar Kiya 1989 Henna 1990
Cast Salman Khan, Bhagyashree, Mohnish Behl, Cast Rishi Kapoor, Zeba Bakhtiar, Ashwini Bhave,
Alok Nath, Reema Lagoo, AjitVachchani Saeed Jaffrey, Farida Jalal
Director Sooraj Barjatya Director Raj Kapoor
Music Ram Laxman Music Ravindra Jam
Lyrics Asad Bhopali, Dev Kohli Lyrics Ravindra Jain
Launching the
director Sooraj Barjatya
super-successful
Salman Khan, Maine Pyar Kiya spawned

and his
career
leading
of
man
a
M
story
ovie
wanted
moghul
where the two

to
Raj Kapoor had
make
traditional
a
a
symbolic
enemies
dream. He
love
India
whole ethos of teenybopper romantic musicals and Pakistan came together in a romantic
in the 1990s. The rich Prem (Khan) wooed, clasp. He died before his dream could be
won, almost lost fulfilled. But his son
and won back the Randhir Kapoor

young, working- took over the
class girl Suman dream, and did a
(Bhagyashree). rather fine job of
Unconventionally, weaving a gossamer

the courtship takes romance between
place with bumper- an Indian boy (Rishi
sticker poetry and Kapoor) who strays
dime-store jingle into Pakistan after
songs within the losing his memory

boy's home where and falls in love with
the girl is a ^ a tribal Pakistani
house guest. Barjatya's joint-family romance girl, played by debutante Zeba Bakhtiar. Henna
broke innumerable records. worked as a comment on Indo-Pak amity long
before it became a fashionable political
statement. Randhir Kapoor shot the film in
verdant stretches of unspoilt landscapes.

2000 2000 2000 2000 2000
Deewane Dhadkan Dulhan Hum Le Fiza Gaja Gamini
Jayenge (See p. 89)
1989
The first Bombay International Festival of Short Films and Documentaries is held.
1942: A Love Story 1994 Rinnm:
Case A/* Kapoor. ManstaKorala. Jack* Shroff. Owx^.. Anupam Kher

|
Manohar Sn$v Sushma Seth

D.rectorVidhuVrxxJ Chopra
> Burman
/edAkhtar
Bhagyashree, the
A into
idyllic
Tovement before
satiny k>ve story set amidst the tumult of the Quit India
India's Partition.
an era of panic Chopra synthesizes

1942 is a mellow melodious
leading lady of
Maine Pyar Kiya

historical facts with his
romantic vision without compromising on the quality of credibility (1989) was an
the time the apolitical Anil Kapoor overnight sensation

sets his eyes on the
beauteous Mamsha Koirala the narrative chalks out a charming path but faded away
that's qualified by the politics of the times The songs and soon after, lending
are very special In R D Burman s credence to the

) last remarkable score
director Chopra coaxed him out of a black unsuccessful
belief that only one
period of semi-exile) Burman came up with a score with scintillating
of two debutantes
contours Songs like Kuch na kaho. Ek ladki ko dekha and Pyar hua
m a romantic film is
chupke se enhanced the innate romanticism of the successful—

tale Some song
.vere conceived and filmed by one Kansma Kapoor
,
•>
foremost filmmakers Sai
and Hareesh in
PremQaidii 1991).
Manisha Koirala
and Vivek Mushran
m Saudagar( 1991);
Madhoo and Ajay
Devgan m Phool
Aur Kante (1992)
and Kajol and
Kamal Sadanah in
Bekhudi (1992).
2000 2000 2000

M,»r [M I *",.)' Hey Ram 1
Ptii M .„
I 1990
dies
Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge 1995
Cast Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Amrish Puri, Farida Jalal, Anupam Kher
Director Aditya Chopra
Music Jatin, Lalit
Lyrics Anand Bakshi
One of Indian cinema's largest grossers, the globe. Immensely clever, the film resorted
Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge made to every formulaic convention to win the
cinema rich in many ways. Not only did it give audience and yet did so with such endearing
to the illustrious banner Yashraj Films a reason elan that audiences submitted to the sleek all-
to rejoice resourcefully, it also provided Indian is-well message without a murmur of cynical
cinema with a new genre of entertainment. protest. Jatin-Lalit's popular music score and
The Non-Resident Indian's experience came to Manmohan Singh's controlled but glamorous
the fore as Raj (Shah Rukh Khan) followed camera added their own allure to the NRI's
Simran (Kajol) from England to a village in search for a bride that takes him from Europe
Punjab to discover roots and romance. It was to Punjab. Love conquers all — but only after
a heady combination of traditional the audience has had its fill of
values and universal emotions courtship rituals and family

packaged in a cosmopolitan gloss protests.
that made the film a rage across

2000 2000 2000 2000 2000
Jungle Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Kahin Pyar Na Ho Kaho Na... Pyar Khauff
Gham(p118) Jaye Hai (See p. 90)
Choli ke peeche kya hai from Subhash Ghai's Saudagar becomes the most controversial film
song to date.
Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam 1999 p. mum:
! Cast Salman Khan. Aishwarya Rat. Ajay Devgan. V*ram Gokhale. Smrta jayekar.
Helen. Zohra Sehgal
Director 1/ Leela Bhansali
Mus.c rnad Durbar

Lyrics Mehboob
With Anil Mehta's cinematography

to support Sanjay Leela Bhansah's
resplendent vision and his sister Bela
Sehgal to cut the director's frames into

a pastiche of elegant chic, Hum Dil is
a visual feast Ismail Durbar's music Watch out for
score heightens the film's mood of directors Karan
mellow passion The first half of the Johar and Arjun
elegiac romance, set in a sprawling Sablok in Dilwale
)mance between the household's Dulhaniya Le
Aishwarya Rai) and the rakish music student Jayenge (1995),

playing Shah Rukh's
In the second half the hitherto chirpy
Joesn't love, moves into a sultry buddies during the
decisive European
iy Devgan) tour when the
rivers of romance
flow and irrigate
with I
the remotest
corners of Aditya
Chopra's plot.
mood patt ••
love
2000 7000 2000 2000 2000

Phir Bhi Dil Hai
1991
Na Turn Jano Na Hum 2002
Cast Hrithik Roshan, Esha Deol, Saif Ali Khan
Director Arjun Sablok
Music Rajesh Roshan
Lyrics Anand Bakshi
Every frame, gesture, nuance and twitch of echo the Amitabh Bachchan-Vinod Mehra
this film conveys a rich array of romantic friendship in Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Bemisaal.
emotions. Every shot has a reason and every Hrithik Roshan gives the most brilliantly
pause in the narrative takes us to a new plateau accomplished performance of his career,
of elation. This film looks and feels like a proving he has no equal among today's
dream. Arjun Sablok reveals a flair for fragile performing stars. His dancing, done sparingly
shot compositions. Vivid glimpses of rustling for a change, is like a waltz of life. It astonishes
silk and whispering affections align the film's how austerely Arjun Sablok uses Rajesh
narrative structure. At the centre of Sablok's Roshan's melodious music when he has so
uniquely tender universe is a rather much of it to give to us. It's like a man who
wispy triangle comprising two dreamers who saves up his riches for a rainy day.
belong to each other by the truest
classical definition of love, and a realist
who unknowingly comes between them. Esha

(Esha Deol) is the incurable romantic who
believes there's someone somewhere meant for
her. Rahul (Hrithik Roshan) is a reticent,

*r.
romantic photographer protective of and yet
amused by his rich and privileged best friend
Akshay's (Saif Ali Khan) philandering. The
relationship between the rich and pampered
Akshay and his family's 'adopted' son
Rahul and the heartbreaking sacrifices that the
quietly sensitive Rahul is expected to make,

2000 2000 2000 2000 2000
Pukar Raja Ko Rani Se Pyar Raju Chacha Refugee Shikari
(See p. 91 Ho Gaya
1991
Actress Nutan and director Raj Khosla pass away.

fSi > J
LAG
l
O n c c up
I
Junoon 1978 Hey Ram! 2000
Cast Shashi Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Nafisa Ali, Jennifer Cast Kamal Haasan, Rani Mukherjee.Vasundhara Das,
Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah Atul Kulkarni, Hema Malini, Naseeruddin Shah,
Director Shyam Benegal Shah Rukh Khan
Music Vanraj Bhatia Director Kamal Haasan
Music llaiyaraja Lyrics Sameer
enchanting mix of myth and Junoon

An brought to the screen a
fact,
heated forbidden
liaison between a mutinous Pathan (Shashi
Kapoor) and a beauteous Britisher (Nafisa Ali).
Director Shyam Benegal who had so far made

intimate portraits of the fissures at the
grassroots of Indian existence, swerved into the
epic mode with fairly stunning results. With

Govind Nihalani looking astutely through the
camera lens, Junoon is the consummate peaen
to periodicity with first-rate performances by all, Ram brings to the screen a panoramic
from Shashi Kapoor's father-in-law Geoffrey

Hey
sweep and epic view of Indian history
Kendall to Shabana Azmi as his sultry Begum seldom seen in Indian cinema, portraying the
who seethes as his journey of Saket Ram (Kamal Haasan) who

liaison with the British travels from Tamil Nadu to Bengal to Delhi in
woman progresses. search of a political and individual identity, only
Based on Ruskin to realize that the demon he seeks to vanquish

Bond's A Flight Of is within himself. In its Kafkaesque depiction of
Pigeons, the film is a the sheer largesse and ambiguity of India's
sanguine and highly socio-political ethos, and in its treatment

passionate feast of of fiction in a historical context, Hey Ram is an
Shashi Kapoor p^**
Ti V|îr^f"Y\] emotions and visuals experiment with tooth and nail. Every portion of
assembled with care. this tale is radiant with the poetry of politics.
UL^b^sfemBenegal

2000 2000 2000 2001 2001
Tera Jadoo Chal Yaadein Zubeidaa AJnabee Aks
Gaya
1992
The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards Satyajit Ray an Oscar for
lifetime achievement. He is also awarded the Bharat Ratna.
Asoka 2001 m i s mm: m \i.
th Rukh Khan. Karecna Kapoor Danny Denzongpa. Rahul Dev.

'
.ta Bhatt Subhav-
Director tosh S#van
Lagaan (2001)
Santosh Sivan who had earlier
ushered Bollywood
made small but stunning films like
into the international
the children's flick Halo and the
p on terronsrr eapt
cinema scene with a
velocity last felt
the league of the luminous with
a film that recreates the life, times when Satyajit Ray
and largely imaginary loves of the and Bimal Roy put
Mauryan king Asoka who renounced forward their famine
)rny confi. fables Father
for Buddhism In the do ,: Panchah (in Bengali)
of fi 1 cmematogr.t; and Do Bigha

m blended the poetry of Zameen (in Hindi).
Mpact The film Comcidentally,
it actually condemn bloodshed Gowanker's
big breakthrough hit

sees !so about a
md woman, as famine and its
.Vonderful
unexpected
, between aftermath
eos from
politician
2001 2001
( Kandni b.k Dil Chahta Hai
p 92)
oma, passes away.

Lagaan 2001 producer Aamir Khan, adds an effortless epic
lustre to the tale. The love triangle between
Cast Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh, Rachel Shelley, Paul Bhuvan, the wide-eyed village belle Gauri
Blackthorne (Gracy Singh) and the British Memsahib

Director Ashutosh Gowarikar Elizabeth (Rachel Shelley) worked with a
Music A.R. Rahman lubricated luminosity. Cinematographer Anil
Lyrics Javed Akhtar Mehta, art director Nitin Chandrakant Desai

and costume designer Bhanu Athaiya do a
bunch of Lagaan and

An inspirational fairytale
peasants taking on
about
their
a
colonial
creative
feels
menage-a-trois.
wonderfully alive and
looks
vibrant. The
oppressors during the British rule in India. A toasted-brown outdoors of the Bhuj district in
dhoti-clad and crew-cut Khan pulls off the Gujarat are teased into a tremulous
extraordinarily heroic character of Bhuvan who authenticity by A.R. Rahman's skilled music
leads his villagers to a sporty victory. Cleverly and songs which weave in and out of the
plotted, the long climactic sequence —almost striking pastiche of nostalgia, patriotism and
45 minutes— consists of a rabble-rousing the competitive spirit. This is one of the most
cricket match between the oppressed important and influential Hindi films of
colonists and the arrogant colonizers. It makes modern times. Deftly straddling both romance
the narrative crackle with a. contemporary and sports, Lagaan is a painting with the
energy generally absent in period films. Set in canvas sprayed in colours that are no slave
1893, the film's ensemble cast, helmed by to time.
6
2001 2001 2001 2001 2001
Ehsaas Ek Rishta Filhaal Gadar: Ek Prem Ishq Vishq Pyaar
Katha Vyaar
1992
Shah Rukh Khan erupts on screen in Raj Kanwar's Deewana.

Dacait 1987 Hathyar 989
Cast Raakhee, Sunny Deol, Meenakshi Sheshadn, Cast Dharmendra, Rishi Kapoor; Sanjay Dutt, Amrita
Paresh Rawal Singh, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Asha Parekh,
Director Rahul Rawail Sangeeta Bijalani, Paresh Rawal
Music R.D. Burman Director J.P Dutta
Lyrics Javed Akhtar Lyrics Hassan Kamal
Dacait takes us into the ravines of Chambal / lathyar did a remarkable job of portraying
Valley to show the class persecution of #7 the end of innocence and the beginning of
Deol's character and his family to the extent crime in the life of its protagonist Sanjay Dutt
that he becomes an outlaw. Rawail's treatment who moves to Mumbai with his innocent
of the dacoit drama is singularly striking. Never parents (Asha Parekh, in one of her last screen
before have the crust-brown deserts and the appearances; and J.P. Dutta's favourite actor,
parched-yellow ravines looked so threatening Kulbhushan Kharbanda). Once in the city Dutt
and symbolic of the persecutions of the gets sucked into a world of crime, represented
downtrodden. There are harrowing moments in the film by two kinds of outcasts, the benign
of violence, more damning for their emotional don played by Dharmendra and
than physical impact. The implosive impact of low-down gangster
Deol's performance was complemented by Paresh Rawal.
Paresh Rawal's portrayal of Sanjay Dutt, in his
the loutish law-defying cop career's best, goes
who is as unscrupulous as from vulnerability to
he is avaricious. Dacait violence sometimes bringing
painted a landscape of both qualities into the same

abject desolation and range of vision.
despair. M
TIMELINE: FILMS AND LANDMARK EVENTS Bl

2001 2001 2001 2001 2001
Lagaan Lajja Love Ke Liye Kuch Love You Hamesha Mujhe Kuch Kehna
Bhi Karega Hai
1992
Amjad Khan, the dreaded Gabbar Singh of Ramesh Sippy's Sholay (1975), passes away.
Ghayal
Cast [3eoJ. Meenaksh. Sheshadn. Raj Babbar. Moushum. Chatteqee.

1990 ICTIfN
J
Directoi •
>$hi
revenge saga with a difference

A
dev"
splattered debut
Ghayal
showed him to
Raj Kumar Santoshi's blood-
be a craftsman of unforeseen
|h is a routine revenge drama, the entire Apart from
framing of the narrative and the editing pattern are so unique as to focussing the
give the plot a look of innovative bravado Sunny Deol. controlled narrative's energy
evenge on his brother's killers is in almost entirely on
splendid shape The taut the action
plot trotted forward and sequences,
breakneck though Santoshi's film
even speed culminating in Ghayal 1990) also

(
an unexpected climax began the process

More than the narrative it
in mainstream
was the way Santoshi told Hindi cinema of
ige-old story which sidelining the
it many cuts above music to
was concentrate on the
designed by Sunny Deol's plot in the drama.
production house as a violence
•
i exploit his the
and n this gritty
tion film.
hit .1
2001 01 2001 2002

•
Bin 16 P-
1994
Company 2002
Cast Ajay Devgan, Manisha Koirala,
Antara Mali, Mohan Lai, Seema

Biswas, Vivek Oberoi
Director Ram GopalVarma

Music Sandeep Chowta
Lyrics N. Raikwat.T. Romani.J. Sahni
Never before has a Hindi film

on crime and punishment
achieved such an extraordinary
synthesis of violence and
poetry — an underworld film of
such exceptional resonances

that takes us deep into the
heart and mind of organized
crime. The film achieves a sense
of completeness of no other
film by Ram Gopal Varma. Malik
(Ajay Devgan) is the silently
seething gangster who

immediately takes on the
volatile street hoodlum Chandu
(Vivek Oberoi) under his wings. The sound all, debutant cinematographer Hemant
design, the lighting of faces and frame, the Chaturvedi's skills behind the camera come
exotic locations (which are used not as together to lend a luminous epic quality to the
tantalizing visuals but authentic characters), main text and subtle subtexts which run across
Sandeep Chowta's extraordinarily expressive this tactile tale of terrible tensions.
and assertive background music and above

2002 2002 2002 2002 2002
Aankhen Agni Varsha Awara Paagal Company Deewangee
Deewana (Seep. 142)
1994
Manmohan Desai, who directed many films, including Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), passes away.
-*
£XLTD.PR»ENTS
I
I
II
- L 1
(THE ROLE)
vjflSf
XMUBMfU" NASHtUOOM
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" V,' N
iAW «U»MWNA-»
Ankur 1973 Rajnigandha 1973
Cast Shabana Azmi. Anant Nag, Sadhu Meher Cast Amol Palekar.Vidya Sinha, Dinesh Thakur
Director (and Screenplay) Shyam Benegal Director Basu Chatterjee
Music Salil Chowdhury Music Salil Chowdhury

Lyrics Yogesh Lyrics Yogesh
Benegal, who came to this film after [Rajnigandha is considered a breakthrough

numerous ads to his credit, conceived /ifilm for the arthouse cinema. Released the
Ankur as an avant-garde neo-realistic film. It same year as Ankur, both films made profits at
ushered in a new wave of realism in Indian
cinema. Shabana Azmi, playing the adultress

wife of a physically challenged labourer
(Sadhu Meher) blows the screen apart in her
climactic tirade where she lashes out at her
landlord lover (Anant Nag) and by proxy, at
the whole system of caste oppression that

still governs many areas of our country.
Govind Nihalani's camera captured the
Hyderabadi ruralscape
as a mute spectator to the box office and are rightly lauded for
the stunning saga of changing the fate of small-budgeted

socio-sexual exploitation independent films free of formulistic motives.
that unfolded in the This is a working-class romance about a girl
foreground. Ankur revels (Vidya Sinha) with two men in her life. In his
in the resonances of first foray in films Palekar won a special status
tyranny. among Bollywood actors for representing the
face of the ordinary man. Chatterjee moves
through buses and local trains in the melee of
Mumbai creating a counterpoint to the studio-
made films that prevailed in Hindi cinema.

2002 2002 2002 2002 2002
Devdas Ek Chotisi Prem Na Turn Jano Na Khushi Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi
(See p. 93) Kahani Hum
1994
Music composer R.D. Burman, son of S.D. Burman, passes away. R.D. Burman was known for his
music in films like Caravan (1971), and Hare Rama, Hare Krishna (1972).
Bhumika 1977 niui.i.Ki.nu:in
Cast '-nol Patekar. Anant Nag, Amnsh Pun. Naseeruddm Shah

Director . tm Senegal
Music .
Lyrics s'man
Ankur( 1973)
Shyam Benegal's
revolutionary debut
as a feature
filmmaker is
wrongly considered
to be Shabana's
6-
maiden appearance.
In fact she did
another film,
K A Abbas's Faasla
(1974), before
of hypocrisy that the male wears
sauntering to
it comes to dealing with the other sex. ultimately i
Benegal's maiden
bellious a to a full and self defeating circle Smita
feature film The
known filn nased on Hansa
role of Laxmi was
of the 1940s ;
nalized, I
offered to many
ugh a maze of eccentric male
other actresses
• ocation of the
including Waheeda
peno<:
Rehman, the
Andhraite actress
Sharda, Aparna Sen
and even Anju

Mahendroo.
2002
Road
Nishant 1978 Ek Bar Phir 1979
Cast Girish Karnad, Shabana Azmi, Anant Nag, Cast Deepti Naval, Suresh Oberoi, PradeepVerma
Amrish Puri, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah Director Vinod Pande
Director Shyam Benegal Music Raghunath Seth
Music Vanraj Bhatia Lyrics Mohammed Qutb Shah
Vinod Pande's experiment with marital truth
was made on a shoestring budget with

three newcomers. Naval, demure and sensitive
was perfectly cast opposite the brash and

insensitive character played by Suresh Oberoi.
He was the perfect alibi for an impulsive fling
with a roadside painter Pradeep Verma (who

disappeared from cinema after his debut).
Unusually enough, the wife 'dared' to sleep
with her lover and also decided to leave her

husband at the end for a happier life. The bold
A lishant tells the story of a schoolteacher anti-conventional treatment caught the viewers'
/ v (Girish Karnad) whose wife (Shabana fancy and Ek Bar Phir was quite a cult success.
Azmi) is kidnapped and raped by a clan of
feudal landlords. The teacher's poignant fight
for justice forms the crux of this hard-hitting
drama, lifted to classical heights by the

performers. Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah
in their first major appearances blew the screen
apart with their smouldering intensity.
The savagely violent mood puts this work

outside the purview of the squeamish. Nishant
inspired a succession of films on oppression.

2002 2002 2002 2003 2003
Saathiya Samay The Legend of Baghban Bhoot
Bhagat Singh
1995
Dilip Kumar is awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his contribution to the Indian film
industry.
Aakrosh 1980 niiu.m.mnit
it Om Pi*i. Naseeruddm Shah. Snvta Patil. Annnsh Pun
ector , I Ni liant
SIC
the eerie preamble to the

From
stunning finale (a jolting end
eventually became a trad*
of Nihalams stark and dark

i us into a
ed world of brutal
Naseeruddin Shah's
oppression Om Pun as the love for acting
n of oppression
began in school.
.'d of murdering his own After studying at
Patil. m a
the National School
eo) is a force to of Drama in Delhi,
he was discovered
was by director Shyam
. ely unc- Benegal and cast in
)vided the
N/snanr< 1978) He
ombmation of
>on became
h is based on a
Benegal's favourite
to the trendy
d was given
i film about smothered screams and several more roles
in his films
2003 2003 2003

2003 2003
Janasheen
1996
Chakra 1981 Subah 1981 J
Cast Smita Patil. Naseeruddin Shah. Cast Smita Patil. Girish Kamad
Ranjrt Chowdhary Director Jabbar Patel
Director Rabmdra Dharmaraj Music Hndayanath Mangeshkar
Music Hndayanath Mangeshkar Lyrics Suresh BhattVasant Bapat
Asserting Smita Patil's powerful feminist
presence this Hindi-Marathi bi-lingual
(Umbartha in Marathi) delineates the real-life
story of Sulabha (Patil) a housewife who steps
out of her spousal cocoon to challenge corrupt

practices in an institute
for destitute women.

Once in the thick of
the corruption, Patil's
character undergoes
many life-changing
experiences that bring

her close to her own
The director, who died soon after makini search for an identity.
the film, extracted a National Award Subah is remarkable

winning performance from Smita Patil. Patil predominantly for
plays a migrant slum-dweller in Mumbai Patil's performance

eking out a livelihood with her son (Ranjit and the conclusion
Chowdhary) The story that follows is a dark where the husband refuses to take her back
tale of brutal poverty and deprivation. after she returns home from her mission.
Naseeruddin Shah puts in an interesting Director Jabbar Patel's strong roots in Marathi
supporting role as a pimp. An interesting music culture and folk theatre afforded him a view
score by the grossly underrated Hridayanath into the workings of Maharashtrian culture and
Mangeshkar adds to the films earthy lustre. politics.

2003 2003 2003 2003 2003
Jhankaar Beats Jism Joggers Park Kaante Kal Ho Na Ho
1996
Legendary actor Raj Kumar dies.

Bazaar 1982 ptiiummnu
Cast Smrta Patil. Naseeruddm Shah. Supnya Pathak. Farooq Shaikh
Director ir Sarhadi
im
:oonMohnxk*n
low-budget semi-
A expenmental
telling an
film
acutely Lata Mangeshkar

poignant tale of a regards Dikhayi
young Muslim girl's diye yun ke bekhud

brutally mismatched kiya in Bazaar
ifje to a Gulf (1982) as one of

her best songs ever.
Very few realistic
dramas have
merged the poetry
sheikh, Bazaar was a film with a and politics of an
gaping social conscience Smita issue-based drama

Patil agrees to find a nubile so brilliantly with
nadi bride for her lover's music Sagar
(Bharat Kapoor) rich friend Sarhadi never
because he has promised to marry released another

tt her m return A beautiful blend of film, though he did
Bazaar is buoyed by the brilliant direct one more,

>mponent in this drama of unreleased, film
>re Tere Shaher Mein

again with Smita
Patil in the lead and
Khayyam's music.
2003 2003 2003

2003 2003
Mil G.iy.i Main Madhun Dixit
. •
i. . . Koi
Banna Chahti Hoon
II 200
H ,n the Best Foreign Film category.
Arth 1983 Bhavna 1984
Cast Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Cast Shabana Azmi, Marc Zuber, Master Makharand,
Smita Patil, Rohini Hattangadi, Raj Kiran Saeed Jaffrey
Director Mahesh Bhatt Director Pravm Bhatt
Music Jagjit Singh Music Bappi Lahiri
Lyrics Kaifi Azmi Lyrics Kaifi Azmi
This marital drama about a deserted wife's ehavna is a tempestuous tale of an

quest for self assertion is to this day abandoned woman's struggle to bring up
regarded as a genre-defining, probing and her child with dignity and luxury. In the course
piercing tale of redemptive emotions that spill of this beautifully mounted drama Azmi goes
out with volcanic force. Azmi's performance in from a starry-eyed idealistic woman to a
Arth can be calibrated according to the conned and cornered wife and finally to a
moments that Bhatt's script afforded her hefty determined mother who turns to prostitution
histrionic sequences. Shabana Azmi provides us to fulfill her dreams of making her son a doctor.
with a deeply empathetic feminist statement. Cinematographer Pravm Bhatt's directorial
debut was a devastating portrait of a mother

and child done in the golden colours of
love and honour.
Arth remains a testimony to

the raw velocity that Bhatt
exercised over his footage.

2003 2003 2003 2003 2003
Makdee Maqbooi Mujhe Kuch Kehna Mumbai Matinee Munnabhai MBBS
Hai
2001
Ashok Kumar, legendary actor of films such as Acchut Kanya (1936) and Kismet (1 943) passes
away.
Paroma 1984 PtRtliKUMMt
Cast Rahul Sharma. Opanfcar De. Anil Chatterjee. Apama Sen

Director
Music H'.. rka

Lyrics
Raakhee in her most powerful

performance played a middle-
aged, bored Bengali housewife who
rts into a scandalous love affair
an Non-Resident Indian fashion

photographer (played by director
Sen's husband Rahul Sharma) The Morbid and
film's explicit view of sexual and mordant
emotional dereliction sparked off sequences
debates on middle-class morality between the errant
There d(e several audaciously husband (an

unconventional sequences such as underplayed
the one where Paroma lies inert under her husband humming a song Kharbanda in his
absent-mindedly during the sex act There's also the suggestion of a only starring role
kiss between the housewife and her lover that raised the hackles ever!) and his
of moralists But beyond all the shock value provided by the script neurotic mistress
there is a sensitive story of a woman's need to : . from the (Smita Patil) in
various socially sanctioned roles in life Raakhee was splendidly in Arth( 1983) were
character The directoi Apari Sen played a cameo as the leading allegedly taken
a
I Ashok Men] erawork rooted the lead character to from director
Bengal while making her a woman in search of answers to questions Mahesh Bhatt's
on her monotonous existence own stormy

relationship with
actress Parveen
Babi.
2003 2003 2003 2003 2003

Teen Deewarein Tere Naam
;
ormula (Seep 158)
2001
Nightingale' Lata Mangeshkar receives the Bharat Ratna

Saaransh 1984 Sparsh 1984
Cast Anupam Kher, Rohini Hattangadi, Soni Razdan, Cast Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Om Pun
Madan Jain, Nilu Phule Director Sai Paranjpye
Director Mahesh Bhatt Music Kanu Roy
Music AjitVarman Lyrics Vasant Dev Lyrics Indu Jain
his debut performance Anupam Kher played Aneo-realistic drama, justly lauded for its
In
a man twice his age grappling with the loss of authentic depiction of the life of the blind,
his only son in a freak accident. Bhatt's film Sparsh is the tale of a blind man (Naseeruddin
posed serious questions on the meaning of Shah) whose self-worth won't let him clutch at
death and the final futility of life. It did so while the loving hand of a widow (Shabana Azmi).
telling an inherently poignant story of a couple's Paranjpye shot the film on location in a blind
efforts to protect a single girl (Soni Razdan) school enhancing the authenticity of the film.
from the wrath of her boyfriend's politician- Though rather lengthy and polemical, the
father (Nilu Phule). Scenes such as the one relationship between the protagonists is given
where the old protagonist battles red tape at enough room to breathe and grow. Sparsh was
the airport to get the ashes of his dead son are
quoted as examples of the finest filmmaking in
the country. Many believe this to be the best
film Bhatt ever made, and there's little reason

to doubt that. Incidentally the film's producer
Rajshri wanted Sanjeev Kumar to play
the protagonist. Director Bhatt
fought to have only Kher play

one of the rare protagonists
who's above the age of 60 in the most credible portrayal of
Indian cinema. the physically handicapped
before Sanjay Leela
Bhansali's Khamoshi: The

Musical and Black.

2004 2004 2004 2004 2004
Ab Tak Chhapan Aitraaz Charas Dhoom Ek Hasina Thi
2001
Actor Dev Anand is awarded the Padma Bhushan for his contribution to Indian cinema.
Ankush
Cast . na Patekar. Madan Jain. Anun

1985
Chakraborty. Suhas
rut tun mot m
n gh
Director I j Chandra
Music -
n Ankush, Chandra
exuded the raw energy
of a truly individualistic
creator The savage street-
level drama unfolds the

story of four jobless men
(Patekar. Jain, Palsikar
and Chakraborty) whose After Ankush

friendship with the sweet (1985), Nana
1^ ^H and gentle
^ Kl girl-next-door
changes
Patekar went on to
become a major
their lives On the verge figure in
of starting a career Bollywood. He

the foursome suddenly collaborated with
swerve into crime when V ove is gang-raped The tragedy director N Chandra
onform into a social pattern and brands for two other
'S m Ankush, all new to films, the
•d edge to the entertainment-value of this successful
soci.) ,
nelped to imbue an j/waf(1987)
imminent mtu I
•he failure
Wa/ood (1998).
2004 2004 2004

2004 2004
Krishna Cottage
.'002
Mirch Masala 1985 Paar 1985
Cast Smita Patil. Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Deepti Cast Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi
Naval, Dina Pathak, Supriya Pathak, Raj Babbar Director Gautam Ghose
Director Ketan Mehta
photographed
Music Rajat Dholakia Lyrics Babubhai Ranpura
A parable
fetchingly
traverses
of
the
exploitation
by the
wretched
director himself,
lives of
Paar
two
peasants Naurangia (Naseeruddin Shah) and
his wife Rama (Shabana Azmi) who, in an effort
to purge their lives of dereliction and

homelessness, take a herd of pigs across a fast-
flowing river for a measly sum of money. The

film works as both a metaphor and an
adventure story. The actors, at great risk,
undertook the crucial crossing of the river. The

authenticity of the milieu and the principal
Ketan Mehta's most celebrated actors' conviction are projected into the plot
The versatile
film is a work of flamboyance and artistry. A imbuing it with a neo-realism echoing Satyajit
a parable on male oppression, Mirch Ray's Bengali masterpiece Father Panchali thirty
Masala features Smita Patil in one of her several years earlier.
strongly underscored feminist parts, as the

free-spirited and rebellious Sonbai. When
threatened with abduction by the village
subedar (Naseeruddin Shah) she seeks shelter

in a red chilli factory. Most of the film's
effulgent images centre on the shades of red
chilli as complemented by the clothes and

demeanour of the women in the factory.

20 04 2004 2004 2004 2004
Kyon... He ) Gaya Na Lakshya Main Hoon Na Masti Mujhse Shaadi
Karogi
2004
Actress Suraiya, an icon for her film roles during the 1940s- -Pya arKiJeet (1948) and Dillagi
(1949)— dies at the age of 75.
Ek Pal 1986 MIALUL riMI.
Cast Shabana Azmi. Naseeruddm Shah. Farooq Shaikh
Director •
i ;>ana Lajmi
Music •
jnka
Lyncs
her remarkable debut, Lajmi legitimized her antecedents as Guru

In
Dutt's niece This sentimental odyssey into the womb of a desolate
woman was buoyed by several extraneous attention-grabbers the
exoticgreen Assam locales, for instance Cmematographer K.K
Mahajan captured the great open spaces with lingering warmth that There are dishy
replicated the protagonist Pnyam's (Azmi) unquenchable thirst to go performances in
from here to maternity Pnyam finally marries the sober and staid Mirch Masala
Naseeruddm Shah who cannot give her what she wants the most (1985) including
a baby An adulterous liaison with her ex-flame gives Prryam what she two generations of
is looking for Bhup«- of Assamese
x the Pathak women,
>nd meiooo e a universal resonan mom Dina and
daughters
Ratna and Supnya.
But the real star of
the show, besides
Smita Patil, is
Jehangir
Chowdhury's
cinematography
that whips up
peppery poetry out
of a simple parable
of oppression and
protest.
.;
2004 2004 2004
•
e laloo Raincoat
>od, well ki films like D// Tera Deewana (1962) and

Bandit Queen 1994 Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa 1997
Cast Seema Biswas. Nirmal Pandey, Manoj Bajpai, Cast Jaya Bachchan, Anupam Khen Joy Sengupta,
Govind Namdeo Seema Biswas, Nandita Das
Director Shekhar Kapur Director Govind Nihalani
Music Nusrat Fateh All Khan Music Debajyoti Mishra
Lyrics Nusrat Fateh All Khan, M. Arshad
ased on the life of the dacoit Phoolan Devi, aya Bachchan's magnificent comeback after
B Bandit Queen is a harrowing exposition on J

the life of some women at the grassroot levels. Mahashweta Devi's heroine Sujata Chatterjee.
Kapur's journey into the heart of darkness Sujata's middle-class Kolkatan life is shattered
begins when, as a child, Phoolan is married off. one night by the shrill ringing of the phone
The portrait of savage brutality continues, informing her to come and inspect her son's
reaching a crescendo in Phoolan's gang-rape by corpse in the city morgue. Thus begins Sujata's
the Thakurs who troop in one by one for three journey into her own life as well as her son's,
days to ravage Phoolan. To no one's surprise, about a world she discovers only after her own
she takes to the gun. Her dacoity is filmed with is shattered. Bachchan's two lengthy sequences
a combination of cinematic splendour and with Seema Biswas (an impoverished woman
documentary authenticity. Its also grieving for her dead
vision of a stark landscape son) and Nandita Das (the
matches the total desolation of dead son's girlfriend) are
the characters. The brutal passionately executed.

language in the dialogues by Nihalani spares us none of
Ranjit Kapoor convey a steep the brutal violence that
amount of intimacy and marked the systematic

immediacy in the interaction annihilation of all young
between the protagonist and Naxalites shedding blood
her adversaries who begin to for a better social order
attack her from her childhood. in Bengal during the
1970s.

2004 2004 2004 2004 2004
Shabd Swades Tumsa Nahin Dekha stu Shastra Yuva
(See p. 95)
2005
Actress Nirupa Roy, screen mother to Amitabh Bachchan in a string of blockbusters during the
1970s and '80s, passes away.
Astitwa 2000 PAIALLEL f MUM
Cast , ichm Khadekar. Mohnish Behl. Namrata Sh.rodka
Director 'ihesh Mary-
Music Rahul Ranade. Sukhwmder Smgh
Lyrics Shnrang GcxJbolc
path-breaking
A formance by Tabu as a
repressed
per-
middle-class
Maharashtnan wife who's
given the boot by her
husband and son aft
Perhaps one of the
sexual transgression from
mes tumbling most versatile actors
in Bollywood is
out. gave a certainly
opulent odour Anupam Kher With
to this
more than 200 films
in his kitty. Kher

Like Shabana Azmi in
juggles his act
I
in
between
commercial films,
entire ethos of m
parallel cinema and
crossover films with
.'»ere
aplomb He has
.vay with
won the Filmfare
Award eight times

•xual
and was awarded
•>s of conflicting emotions
the Padma Shn by
from n
the Indian
Government in
2004.
2005
Kisna
2005
es away
Teen Deewarein 2003
Cast Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff, Juhi Chawla,
Nagesh Kukunoor; Gulshan Grover
Director Nagesh Kukunoor
Music Salim, Suleiman
cinema surprises
Once in a while Indian
you with its enterprising spirit. Nagesh

Kukunoor's much talked-about prison drama is
everything that you would expect — hard-

hitting, gritty, absorbing, real and raw— and
more. The finale is so imposingly conceived you
want to salute the director for simply taking the
initiative of stretching the outer limits of mass-

oriented entertainment. Kukunoor touches
upon the theme of capital punishment without
really making a central issue of the matter. His
three heroes Ishaan (Shah), Jaggu (Shroff) and
Nagya (Kukunoor) are on death row. More than

their impending end it's their life that interests
Kukunoor. Having got satirical laughter out of
himself, and us, in Hyderabad Blues and

Bollywood Calling, Kukunoor now spreads his
discernably strong vision of human caprice and

destiny's damning jokes, across a theme of great
power. As the Florence Nightingale who isn't as
frail and powerless as she seems initially, Juhi
Chawla makes you wonder where she's been

holding in that immense sensitivity and depth.

2005 2005 2005 2005 2005
Nama Paheli Socha Na Tha Veer Zaara Waqt
2005
Amrish Pun who immortalized the villain Mogambo in Shekhar Kapur's Mr India (1987) passes
away.
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1 Dilip Kumar
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3 Dev Anand
4 Pradeep Kumar
5 Bharat Bhushan
Heroines
1 Meena Kumari
2 Nargis
3 Madhubala
4 Geeta Bali
5 Vyjanthimaia
Top 10 Hits
Movie Director Cast
1 Babul S.U. Sunny Dilip Kumar, Nargis
2 Awara Raj Kapoor Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Prithiviraj Kapoor
3 Albela Bhagwan Bhagwan, Geeta Bali
4 Baiju Bawra Vijay Bhatt Bharat Bhushan, Meena Kumari

5 Anarkali Nandalal Jaswantlal Bina Rai, Pradeep Kumar
6 Nagin Nandalal Jaswantlal Pradeep Kumar, Vyjanthimaia
7 Shn 420 Raj Kapoor Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Nadira
8 Mother India Mehboob Khan Raj Kumar, Nargis, Sunil Dutt,
Rajendra Kumar
9 Naya Daur B.R. Chopra Dilip Kumar, Vyjanthimaia
10 Madhumati Bimal Roy Dilip Kumar, Vyjanthimaia

Top 10 Flops
Movie Director Cast
1 Jogan Kidar Sharma Nargis, Dilip Kumar

Aan Mehboob Khan Nimmi, Dilip Kumar, Nadira
3 Daera Kamal Amrohi Meena Kumar, Nasir Khan
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4 Footpath Zia Sarhadi Meena Kuman, Dilip Kumar
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8 Musafir Hnshikesh Mukherjee Suchitra Sen, Dilip Kumar, Kishore Kumar
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Top 10 Hits
Movie Director Cast
1 Ganga Ji jmna Nitin Bose Dilip Kumar, Vyjanthimala, Nasir Khan
2 Junglee Subodh Mukherjee Shammi Kapoor, Saira Banu
3 Mere Mehboob H.S . Rawail Ashok Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Sadhana

4 Padosan Jyoti Swarup Sunil Dutt , Saira Banu, Kishore Kumar,
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5 Dosti Satyen Bose Sudhir Kumar, Sushil Kumar
6 Sangam Raj Kapoor Raj Kapoor, Vyjanthimala,

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Heroes
1 Shammi Kapoor
2 Rajendra Kumar
3 Biswajeet
4 Joy Mukherjee
5 Manoj Kumar
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i Nutan
2 Asha Parekh
3 Waheeda Rehman
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Movie Director Cast
1 Shaher Aur Sapna K A A: Dihp Raj, Surekha
2 O Kidar Sharma Ashok Kumar, Meena Kumari

3 Door Gagan Ki Chaon Mem Kishore Kumar Kishore Kumar, Supriya Chowdhary
4 Yaadem Sunil Dutt Sunil Dutt, Nargis
5 Dil Diya Dard Liya A R Kardar Dihp Kumar, Waheeda Rehman

6 Teesn Kasam Basu Bhattacharya Raj Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman
mgharsh H S Rawail Dilip Kumar, Vyjanthimala
8 Aakhn Khat Chetan Anand Rajesh Khanna, Master Bunty,
Indrani Mukherjee
9 Mera Naam Joker Raj Kapoor Raj Kapoor, Dharmendra, Manoj j
Kumar, Rishi Kapoor, Rajendra
Kumar, Simi Garewal, Padmini
10Satyakam Hnshikesh -ndra,
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Top 10 Hits
Movie Director Cast
1 Bobby Raj Kapoor Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia
2 Haathi Mere Saathi Chinappa Devar Rajesh Khanna, Tanuja
3 Pakeezah Kamal Amrohi Ashok Kumar, Meena Kumari, Raj Kumar

4 Yaadon Ki Baraat Nasir Husain Dharmendra, Zeenat Aman,
Tariq, Vijay Arora
5 .Zanjeer Prakash Mehra Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Pran

6 Deewaar Yash Chopra Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor,
Parveen Babi, Neetu Singh, Nirupa Roy
7 Jai Santoshi Maa Vijay Sharma Kanan Kaushal, Anita Guha,

Ashish Kumar
8 Johnny Mera Naam Vijay Anand Dev Anand, Hema Malini
9 Roti Kapda Aur Makan Manoj Kumar Manoj Kumar, Zeenat Aman,
Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan,
Moushumi Chatterjee
10 Sholay Ramesh Sippy Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Hema

Malini, Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra
i
1970s
Top 10 Flops
Movie Director Cast
1 Reshma Aur Shera Sunil Dutt Sunil Dutt. Waheeda Rehman, Raakhee
Amitabh Bachchan.
2 Joshila Yash Chopra Dev Anand, Hema Malini. Raakhee.
|
3 Imaan Dharam Desh Mukherjee Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Shashi
Kapoor, Aparna Sen
4 Satyam Shivam
Sundaram Raj Kapoor Shashi Kapoor, Zeenat Aman
1
| 5 Ishq Ishq Ishq Dev Anand Dev Anand, Zeenat Aman,
Shabana Azmi
Shahmar Krishna Shah Dharmendra, Zeenat Aman
I '
1 / Mehbooba Shakti Samanta Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini
1 The Burning Train B R Chopra Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Vinod
Khanna. Parveen Babi
9 B R Chopra Dilip Kumar, Sharmila Tagore

1
1 10 Sanjay Khan ay Khan, Parveen Babi ^^^Htfi
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Facing page: Oh.irmondra
Top Actors
Heroes Heroines
'.Mlini
2 Jaya Bhadun
3 Df 3 Ze<
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5 v 5 SI
1980s M^^^HHM^^Hâ^^^HMI MHH
Top 10 Hits
Movie Director Cast
1 Ek Duuje Ke Liye K. Balachander Kamal Haasan, Rati Agnihotri
2 Qurbani Feroz Khan Feroz Khan, Zeenat Aman,

Vinod Khanna
3 Naseeb Manmohan Desai Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini,
Rishi Kapoor, Reena Roy
4 Coolie Manmohan Desai Amitabh Bachchan, Rati Agnihotri,
Rishi Kapoor.
5 Hero Subhash Ghai Jackie Shroff, Meenakshi Sheshadri
6 Ram Teri Ganga Maili Raj Kapoor Mandakini, Rajiv Kapoor
7 Mr India Shekhar Kapur Sridevi, Anil Kapoor

8 Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak Mansoor Khan Aamir Khan, Juhi Chawla
9 Tezaab N. Chandra Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit
10 Chandni Yash Chopra Sridevi, Rishi Kapoor, Vinod Khanna
1 Maine Pyar Kiya Sooraj Barjatya Bhagyashree, Salman Khan
Top Actors
Heroes
1 Amitabh Bachchan
2 Jeetendra
1 3 Dharmendra
i:
1
1-
Heroines
|
1 Rekha
2 Sridevi
3 Padmini Kolhapure
4 Zeenat Aman
5 Rati Agnihotri
Right:
Below: A scene from Ram Ten Ganga Ma-h

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Facing page: Hema Malm- <»ert) and Antl Kapoor
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Top 10 Flops
Movie Director Cast
H S Rawail Jeetendra. Tina Munim, Rishi Kapoor
2 Razia Sultan Kamal Amrohi Dharmendra, Hema Mahni

Silsila Yash Chopra Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha, Jaya Bhaduri;
Shashi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar
4 S s
Ramesh Sippy Kamal Haasan, Dimple Kapadia, Rishi Kapoor
5 Su Mukul Anand Dharmendra. Sunny Deol, Sndevi,
Juhi Chawla
•
JP D Sanjay Dutt. Amnta Singh, Rishi Kapoor,
Dharmendra
7 V Yash C hopra Rajesh Khanna, Hema Malini, Anil Kapoor,
Meenakshi Sheshadn
8 Mahaan Amitabh Bachchan, Waheeda Rehman,

Zeenat Aman
•
Nayi Paheh K BaJachandef Rhi Kuril,, r. Hema Malini, Kamal Haasan,
Padmini Kolhapure
Ramesh !
Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan,
i Patil
Below: Shah Rukh Khan in Dilwale
Dulhaniya Le Jayenge..
Right: Madhuri Dixit and Salman Khan

in Hum Aapke Hain Koun.
Facing page: Aishwarya Rai in Hum Dil
De Chuke Sanam.
Top 10 Hits
••
Movie Director Cast
| 1 Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge Aditya Chopra Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol,
Amrish Puri, Anupam Kher
g 2 Hum Aapke Hain Koun Sooraj Barjatya Salman Khan, Madhuri Dixit
| 3 Kuch Kuch Hota Hai Karan Johar Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Rani
Mukherjee, Salman Khan

1 4 Ashiqui Mahesh Bhatt Anu Aggarwal, Rahul Roy
5 Rangeela Ram Gopal Varma Aamir Khan, Urmila

Matondkar, Jackie Shroff
6 Border J. P. Dutta Sunny Deol, Sunil Shetty,
Akshaye Khanna, Jackie

Shroff, Raakhee, Tabu
7 Raja Hindustani Dharmesh Darshan Aamir Khan, Karisma Kapoor

8 Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam Sanjay Leela Bhansali Salman Khan,
Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgan
9 Darr Yash Chopra Shah Rukh Khan, Sunny Deol,

Juhi Chawla
10 Karan Arjun Rakesh Roshan Shah Rukh Khan, Salman
Khan, Kajol, Mamta Kulkarni
1990s
Top 10 Flops
Movie Director Cast
1 Lamhe Yash Chopra Anil Kapoor, Sridevi
2 DilSe Mani Ratnam Shah Rukh Khan,

Manisha Koirala, Preity Zinta
3 1942: A Love Story Vidhu Vinod Chopra Anil Kapoor, Mnaisha Koirala
4 Khamoshi The M Sanjay Leela Bhansah Nana Patekar, Manisha Koirala,
Salman Khan, Seema Biswas
5 Tnmurti Mukul Anand Anil Kapoor, Shah Rukh Khan,
Jackie Shroff, Gautami,
Priya Tendulkar
6 Roop Ki Rani Choron Ka Raja Satish Kaushik Sridevi, Anil Kapoor,
hroff
7 Aiooba Shashi Kapoor Amitabh Bachchan, Dimple

Kapadia. Rishi Kapoor
J 8 Mntyudaata Mehul Kumar Amitabh Bachchan, Dimple
lia, Kansma Kapoor
9 P fv Aamir Khan, Saif Ah Khan,
Raveena Tandon
P Dutta Dharmendra, Sunny Deol,

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Heroes Heroines
1 Madhun Dixit
2 Amitabh Bachchan 2 Kansma Kapoor

3 Kajol
4 Aamir \
4 Manisha Koirala
5 Raveena Tandon
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Movie Director Cast
1 Lagaan Ashutosh Gowariker Aamir Khan, Gracy Singh
2 Gadar: Ek Prem Kahani Anil Sharma Sunny Deol, Amisha Patel
3 Kaho Na. .Pyar Hai Rakesh Roshan Hrithik Roshan, Amisha Patel
4 Devdas Sanjay Leela Bhansali Shah Rukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit,
Aishwarya Rai
5 Baghban Ravi Chopra Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini,
Salman Khan, Nakul Vaid
Left: Kareena Kapoor and Hrithik

Roshan in Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon.
Right: Madhuri Dixit in Devdas.
Facing page: Preity Zinta in

Mission Kashmir.
Top Actors
Heroes
1 Shah Rukh Khan
2 Amitabh Bachchan
3 Hrithik Roshan
4 Salman Khan
5 Aamir Khan
Heroines
1 Aishwarya Rai
2 Rani Mukherjee
3 Preity Zinta.
4 Kareena Kapoor
5 Sushmita Sen
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Movie Director Cast
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Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan.
2 LOC J P Dutta Sanjay Dutt. Abhishek
Bachchan. Akshaye Khanna,
Ajay Devgan, Manoj Bajpai,
poor, Raveena
Tandon, Esha Deol
Subhash Ghai Vivek Oberoi, Isha Shravani
Room
Shroff,
han, Hnthik
Roshan, Preity Zmta

Index
/942: A Love Story, 94, 1 3 1 , 1 69 Anuradha, 20, 21, 25 Bandit Queen, 95, 1 56 Biswajeet, 120, 163
1947— Earth, 88, 121 Aradhana, 38, 39, 40, 43, 44, Bannerjee, Victor, 66 Biswas, Seema, 83, 94, 142,
AakhriKhat, 28, 34, 163 66, 85, 116, 117, 162, 163 Banu, Saira, 42, 80, 99, 162, 156, 169
Aakrosh, 67, 147 Arora, Prakash, 12, 13, 161 163 Black, 96, 152, 157
Aan, 17, 52, 161 Arora, Vijay, 54, 164 Bapat, Vasant, 148 Blackthorne, Paul, 138
Aandhi, 56, 57 Arth, 74, 150, 151, 157 Barjatya, Sooraj, 117, 130, 166, Bobby, 52, 79, 101, 102, 126,
Aap Ki Kasam, 54, 55 Arshad, M., 156 168, 171 127, 129, 164
Aap Ki Sewa Mein, 42 Ashirwad, 36, 37 Barood, 129 Bobby, Master, 44,
Aarti, 71 Ashq, Ibrahim, 90, 94 Barsat, 50 Bombay, 81, 99
Aaye Din Bahaar Ke, 63 Asif, K., 21, 22, 66, 69, 87, 91 Barua, P.C., 14, 22, 43, 51, 78 Boot Polish, 12, 13, 20, 161
Abhimaan, 51, 52, 67 Asli Naqli, 46 Barve, Bhakti, 106 Border, 106, 112, 168
Agha, Jalal, 126 Asoka, 137 Basant, 121 Bose, Kamal, 14, 24
Agnihotn, Rati, 128, 166 Asrani, 50, 52 Baswani, Ravi, 104, 105, 106 Bose, Nitin, 23,26, 162
Ajit, 22 Astitwa, 128, 157 Batradekar, H.S., 10 Bose, Satyen, 27, 34, 98, 162
Akhtar, Farhan, 92, 171 Athaiya, Bhanu, 118, 138 Bazaar, 72, 124, 149 Bose, Tarun, 29
Akhtar, Javed, 69, 88, 91, 92, Attenborough, Richard, 118 Bedi, Pooja, 77 Bunty, Master, 28, 163
107, 112, 131, 138, 140 Avishkar, 51, 114 Bedi, Rajinder Singh, 40, 41, 54, Burman, R. D., 33, 44, 50, 51,
AlamAra, 19, 96, 60 Awara, 10, 11, 147, 160, 161 100 54, 55, 57, 58, 60, 62, 67,
Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Ayutha Ezhuthu, 81 Bedi, Rakesh, 104, 105 68, 70, 736, 75,99, 103,
Aata Hal 64, 67 Azmi, Kaifi, 18, 28, 29,40, 48, Behl, Mohnish, 117, 130, 157 104, 116, 131, 140, 144
All, Muzaffar, 66, 73 53, 111, 120, 150 Bemisaal, 67, 72, 134 Burman, S. D., 14, 16, 18, 19,
All, Nafisa, 136 Azmi, Shabana, 61, 64, 68, 71, Benegal, Shyam, 66, 103, 106, 20, 24, 30, 31, 38,44, 52,
Ali, Subhasini, 137 74, 76,82, 88, 106, 116, 136, 144, 145, 146, 147 54, 59, 98, 101, 105, 121,
Alvi, Abrar, 24 136, 144, 145, 146, 150, Bhaduri, Jaya, (see Bachchan, 144,
Aman, Zeenat, 50, 56, 164, 152, 154, 157, 165 Jaya) Caravan, 144
165, 166, 167, 171 Azmi, Shaukat, 53, 66 Bhagyashree, 130, 131, 166 Chachi420, 106, 108
Amar Akbar Anthony, 59, 61, Baazi, 78 Bhandarkar, Madhur, 92 Chakra, 69, 148
142 Babbar, Raj, 66, 78, 141, 154 Bhanja, Samit, 46 Chakraborty, Arjun, 153
Amar Prem, 43, 44 Babi, Parveen, 58, 61, 102, 151, Bhansali, Sanjay Leela, 14, 15, Chakraborty, Mithun, 72
Amarjeet, 1 10 164, 165 37,83,93, 96, 131, 133, Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, 23, 98,
Amrohi, Kamal, 11,48, 120, Bachchan, Abhishek, 95 152, 153, 168, 169,170 99
161, 164, 167 Bachchan, Amitabh, 29, 44, 49, Bharat Ratna, 136, 151 Chanakya, Tapi, 98
Anand, 43, 44, 45, 59, 67, 86 52, 54, 56, 58, 59,60, 61, Bharadwaj, Vishal, 88 Chandavarkar, Bhaskar, 64, 71,
Anand, Chetan, 28, 39, 111, 64, 65, 67, 70, 71,95,96, Bharathi, 42 151
163 99, 100, 117, 118, 127, 134, Bhatia, Vanraj, 66, 74, 80. 106, Chandavarkar, Leena, 115
Anand, Dev, 20, 21, 30,45,46, 156, 164, 165, 166, 167, 136, 145, 146 Chandni Bar, 92, 138
50, 110, 111, 121, 152, 157, 169, 170, 171 Bhatt, Hnshita, 137 Chandni, 85, 124, 129, 166
160, 161, 162, 164, 165 Bachchan, Jaya, 46, 47, 50, 51, Bhatt, Mahesh, 150, 151, 152, Chandra, N., 153, 166
Anand, Santosh, 42, 68 52, 54, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 168 Chandralekha, 46
Anand, Tinu, 108 89, 99, 100, 101, 118, 156, Bhatt, Pooja, 112 Chashme Buddoor, 69, 1 04,
Anand, Vijay, 21, 30, 33, 56, 164, 167 Bhatt, Pravin, 150 105
62, 63,111 121, 157, 162, Badayuni, Shakeel, 16, 22, 23, Bhatt, Suresh, 148 Chatterjee, Anil, 151
164 24, 25, 32, 36, 98 Bhatt, Vijay, 44, 1 60 Chatterjee, Basu, 100, 104,
Anandji, 37, 42, 43, 56, 64 Badr, Nusrat, 93 Bhattacharya, Abhi, 20 105, 144
Anand-Mllind, 74 Baghban, 170 Bhattacharya, Basu, 32, 46, Chatterjee, Dhritiman, 96
Anarkali, 160 Bairagi, Balkavi, 49 114, 163 Chatterjee, Moshumi, 50, 56,
Andar Bahar, 75 Bajpai, Manoj, 87, 94, 156, 171 Bhattacharya, Mom, 26 63, 141, 164
Andaz, 10, 15,44,45, 50, 75, Bakhtiar, Zeba, 130 Bhave, Ashwini, 130 Chatterjee, Priyanshu, 94
115 Bakshi, Anand, 30, 34, 38, 39, Bhavna, 77, 150 Chattopadhyay, Harindranath,
Anhonee, 34 42,44, 50, 54, 55, 60, 61, Bhopali, Asad, 130 126
Anjaan, 64, 141 63, 65, 67, 70, 76, 100, 101, Bhopali, Kaif, 11, 48 Chaudhvin Ka Chand, 25
Anjali, 87, 116 102, 115, 124, 126, 128, Bhumika, 60, 124, 145 Chaurasia, H.P., 124
Ankur, 51, 103, 144, 145 129, 132, 134, 137 Bhuvan Shome, 86 Chawla, Juhi, 74, 124, 158,
Ankush, 79, 1 53 Balachander, K., 128, 166, 167 Bidaai, 54, 115 166, 167, 168
Anokhi Raat, 35, 37 Bali, Geeta, 33, 78, 160 Bijalani, Sangeeta, 140 Chekravarthy, 87
Anubhav, 44, 46, 114 Bambai Ka Babu, 20, 26 Bilgrami, Madhosh, 64 Chhaya, Shefali, 87
Anupama, 29, 34, 46 Bandini, 24, 29 Bindu, 39, 44, 52 Chitnis, Leela, 10, 30
Chopra. Adrtyn . Orf C/wiftt* Ha Ghove. Gauta' itaazat. 73. 82
Ghularru. 72. 80 70. 116. 136
«S#. 80. 81.85. 111. 169 Indrvar. 35. 37.42.43. 141
Godboie. 5hnrang. 157 msaaf Ka Tarazu. 69
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100. 132. 133. 168 Goimaa/ I na. 35. 126

Dwwrj. Or Chandrapr... Gopjfcmhnan. Adoor. 93 ntefaq. 40. 122
Ravi. 84 Jaane Bhi Do Vaaron. 75. 106
66. 167. 168. 169 Gowwamt. frndrya. 103 <*eed. 72. 104. 105.
uat. 56. 100 Oo Atnkhtn Bar* Hm" Gowar* 37. 138 130. 150
Chowdhjry. Ranpl 82. 148 Gutft* : • ••d. 82
Chowdhury. fchangy Do 8*1. lagfeftaho. 14.22.59. 161
Chovvdhory. Si 0o8v-> Gudr iat Santoshi Maa. 57. 104. 164
144 Ja*dev. 26. 49. 110. 128
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101 Ooova Aadm>. 62 104. 105. 152
Or XbCnrj Ki Am* » .• |
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166 87 B 108. Jam. Ravmdra. 72. 102. 103.
80.98 130
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Kanhaiyalal, 16 Khan, Farah, 77, 85,91, 92 Kolhapure, Padmini, 68, 69, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, 27, 34, 39,
Kanoon, 122, 123 Khan, Feroz, 34,43, 166 166, 167 40, 42, 52, 55, 56, 61, 63,
Kanwar, Aneeta, 106 Khan, Irfan, 76 Koppiker, Isha, 89, 94 65, 68, 72,100, 107, 115,
Kanwar, Raj, 138 Khan, Ml., 77 Kora Kaagaz, 54, 56 126, 128
Kapadia, Dimple, 78, 79, 92, Khan, Mansoor, 74, 77, 166 Koshish, 50, 123 Lekin, 89, 123
102, 123, 126, 127, 129, Khan, Mehboob, 10, 12, 16, Krishen, Rajinder, 99 Lever, Johnny, 1 18
164, 167, 169 17, 27, 34, 62, 74, 160, 161 Krishna, Manmohan, 18 Light of Asia, 17, 23
Kapoor, Anil, 75, 76, 91, 107, Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali, 156 Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, 86, 87, Love in Tokyo, 63
131, 166, 167, 169 Khan, Nasir, 11, 23, 161, 162 116, 118, 168 Loy, 92
Kapoor, Anu, 71, 107 Khan, Saif All, 92, 134, 169 Kukunoor, Nagesh, 158 Ludhianvi, Sahir, 14, 16, 18, 26,
Kapoor, Ayesha, 96 Khan, Salman, 83, 86, 117, Kulkarni, Atul, 92, 136 52, 58, 110, 111, 114, 127
Kapoor, Bharat, 149 130, 133, 166, 168, 169, 170 Kulkarni, Mamta, 168 Maachis, 84, 104
Kapoor, Jennifer, 136 Khan, Sanjay, 27, 165 Kumar, Anoop, 98 Madhoo, 80, 131
Kapoor, Kareena, 89, 95, 118, Khan, Shah Rukh, 13, 78, 85, Kumar, Ashok, 18, 24, 25, 31, Madhubala, 22, 66, 81,87,98,
137, 170, 171 86, 93, 118, 124, 132, 136, 33, 36, 37, 38, 42, 48, 59, 99, 120, 121, 160
Kapoor, Kansma, 89, 131, 168, 137, 138, 168, 169, 170 98, 100, 104, 107, 114, 120, Madhumati, 17, 24, 34, 160,
169 Khandhar, 71, 75 121, 129, 150, 162, 163, 164 161
Kapoor, Pnthviraj, 10, 22, 89, Khanna, Akshaye, 92, 112, 168, Kumar, Dilip, 10, 11, 14, 15, 17, Mahajan, K.K., 86, 100, 155
96, 160 171 22, 23, 25, 28, 35, 36, 70, Mahal, 16, 50,99, 120, 121
Kapoor, Raj, 10, 1 1, 12, 13, 14, Khanna, Padma, 49 79,98, 146, 160, 161, 162, Mahendroo, Anju, 145
21,26,28, 32,45,47,68, Khanna, Rahul, 88 163, 165, 167 Mahendru, Balu, 70
69, 72,83, 101, 126, 127, Khanna, Rajesh, 28, 38, 39, 40, Kumar, Hemant, 29 Main Chup Rahoongi, 71
128, 130, 160, 161, 162, 43, 44, 45, 52, 54, 55, 59, Kumar, Kapil, 1 14 Main Hoon A/a, 77, 155
163, 164, 165, 166 66, 79, 85, 101, 114, 115, Kumar, Kishore, 38, 43,45, 51, Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki, 35,
Kapoor, Rajeev, 72, 166 122, 123, 162, 163, 164, 56,66, 98, 99, 100, 107, 63
Kapoor, Randhir, 130 165, 167 126, 161, 162, 163 Maine Pyar Kiya, 86, 130, 131,
Kapoor, Ranjit, 1 56 Khanna, Vinod, 48, 61, 63, 64, Kumar, Manoj, 42, 47, 56, 163, 166
Kapoor, Rishi, 47, 61, 62, 65, 123, 129, 165, 166, 164 Makharand, Master, 150
68, 79, 89, 126, 127, 128, Kharbanda, Kulbhushan, 72, 77, Kumar, Pradeep, 34 160 Mali, Antara, 142
129, 130, 140, 163,164, 166, 82, 140, 150, 151 Kumar, Raj, 16,48, 79, 91, 141, Malik, Anu, 89, 112, 137
167, 169 Khayyam, 28, 66, 127, 149 148, 160, 162, 164, 167 Malik, Verma, 56
Kapoor, Shammi, 33, 45, 68, Kher, Anupam, 74, 76, 90, 117, Kumar, Rajendra, 16, 18, 25, Malmi, Hema, 45, 58, 60, 112,
162, 163 131, 132, 152, 156, 157, 28,47, 160, 162, 163 136, 164, 165, 166, 167, 170
Kapur, Pankaj, 71, 76, 106 168 Kumar, Raman, 69 Mamta, 31, 35
Kapur, Shekhar, 107, 116, 156, Kher, Kiron, 93 Kumar, Rattan, 12, 161 Mandakmi, 72, 166
158, 166 Khilona, 42, 43, 123 Kumar, Sanjeev, 35, 36, 40, 41, Mandi, 76, 106, 124
Kardar, A.R., 34, 44, 163 Khosla, Raj, 20, 39, 63, 134, 162 42,46, 50, 51, 55, 57,60, Mangeshkar, Hridyanath, 78,
Karmakar, Radhu, 21 Khote, Durga, 22, 52, 58, 65, 68, 102, 123, 152, 164, 167 148
Karnad, Ginsh, 146 115, 126 Kumar, Sudhir, 27, 162 Mangeshkar, Lata, 14, 19, 26,
Karz, 65, 68 Khote, Shobha, 128 Kumar, Sujit, 44 28, 30, 31, 34, 35, 37,42,
Katha. 72, 105 Khubsoorat, 68, 104 Kumar, Sushi!, 27, 162 49, 50, 51, 52, 63, 68, 70,
Kati Patang, 63 Khushboo, 57, 58 Kumar, Uttam, 62 78, 84, 88, 91, 100, 120,
Kaul, Arun, 85 Kingsley, Ben, 118 Kumari, Meena, 11, 24, 25, 32, 123, 124, 127, 148, 149, 151
Kaul, Mani, 87 Kiran, Kajal, 129 48, 49, 71, 93, 160, 161, Manish, 36
Kaur, Ranjeeta, 102, 128 Kiran, Raj, 65, 150 163, 164 Manmohan, 18, 38
Kaushal, Kamini, 39, 42 Kiron, Usha, 59, 101 Lagaan, 137, 138, 140, 149, 170 Marmik, 77
Kaushik, Satish, 107, 169 Kisan Kanya, 28 Lagoo, Reema, 117, 130 Masoom, 76, 116, 117
Khadekar, Sachin, 157 Kishen Kanhaiya, 98 Lahiri, Bappi, 141, 150 Matondkar, Urmila, 82, 87, 94,
Khamoshi, 40, 41 Kishen, Prem, 102 Lahore, 16,41, 50 117, 168
Khamoshi: The Musical, 83, Kismet, 14, 36, 150 Laila Majnu, 61, 128, 129 Maya Memsaab, 78, 91
103, 152, 169 Kissa Kursi Ka, 1 07 Lajmi, Kalpana, 78, 155 Mehboob, 80, 81, 82, 95, 133
Khan, Aamir, 74, 77, 82, 88, Kitaab, 61, 62 Lai, Mohan, 142 Meher, Sadhu, 144
92, 138, 166, 168, 169, 170 Kohli, Dev, 94, 117, 130 Lalit (see Jatin-Lalit) Mehmood, 99, 123, 155, 162
Khan, Ahmed, 107 Kohraa, 32, 120 Lamhe, 76, 89, 169 Mehra, Prakash, 64, 164
Khan, Amjad, 60, 64, 123, 140, Koi... Mil Gaya, 94, 150 Lani, Hriday, 64 Mehra, Umesh, 137
165 Koirala, Manisha, 81, 83, 85, Laxman, Ram, 130 Mehra, Vinod, 44, 67, 134
Khan, Bahadur, 53 131, 142, 169 Laxmi, 126 Mehta, Anil, 133, 138
1
1MIKX
Mehta. Ashok. 151 Nadhi 29.93. 133.

Mehta. Oecpa. 82. 88 •
abbar. 148 168. 170
I 154 Nag. A* 96 17.21. 31.37
j3. 104. 154 \. 142
Mrra Mi 1 Nahata. Amnt. 108 Pattw. Rata Hanshchandra. 10. 11. 12.
Men* Apne. 47. 48 Medu.1* Path*. • 154
MemBK, . fto *m, Aor m*. 64 Rainigandha. 53. 144
ua mtiteob i\ n ica MHbftjl Rapj Ban Gaya Gentleman, 1 3.
W.l*n. 34 NamakHarar 92
Namdto. Govmd. 88. 1S6 Rajvansh. Pnya. 1 1
MWKMfl *.»8 73 Paw* Ralhan. OP. 32

*Ur<'. i
*s»n**. 74 Ram Aur Shyam, 37.98
Phagun S3 54 S5 RamBakam. 101
•~d. 64 Ram Lakhan. 75. 86
Phoo/A •
Ram Laxman. 117. 30 1
PhOO/Aufftr
%•*-• 166 RftfeN Ram Ten Ganga Math, 72. 81.
Modi. Sol Hnaon *W. M 166. 167
flmii Sayaad 94 ••
Rameshwan. 102
Rana. D
Ranao
Mohan. luUcton. 41. SO. 60. 18.91 <t»and. 120 Rangeeia. 82. 101. 168
"28 1 P»aka*h. 0~ 99. 1C j*v*a. 21.88. 141
Monmi Bhavrvr. .
Ranpura. Babut
MoNud *•>• a—m Rao. A 5ubt
*av» • • Rao. SS. 108
Mofhar/hoV* '. *angn-- Ratnam. Man.. 48. 80. 81. 85.
^60 MO* 116
Mot u Ntha.89 ^f '
* «^ *>fl *• '
Hklrvl. 166 Gownd.80.

-
28, 162.
AAjgna<« 26. 66. *V*6 Ay *»* •,

'
Rawari. Rahul. 140
»0.99 08. 109. 79. 108. 140
MtaVw frw Do. 26. 27, 30

lOt on.. 106. 152
Obrnn Rahmar
Mukhtf.- Obmo •••da. 16. 18. 19.
fttr. tl J6. 108. 1 49.

'
68. 76.98. 120. 127.
%dbv. Puinpa*. 83. 108 163.
Pigfe. *y*i •
104. •
| Nmui.« P>«*- 4. 63. 64. 65. 66. 72.
: 104. 165. 166. 167
Mukhan»a. M.» 164 P>«v. Reihma Aur Shera. 48. 49. 165
***.*< Anx*. 100. 1' Otyamaf > Qayamat 116

Poja .80. 81.99
Ntt*
Mukh»f|aa, Vof- Panda. Vmod. 146 AaafA Rood Ki Ram Choron Ka Raja,
55.98. Pandr, 169
Panda**""' 70. 71 Rosha

P*^,py» W 104. 1
89.90.91.94,
MuqadOWa S*anoV 40. 162 Rafran. 171
Panch... 62. 90. 94.
fennd*. 75. 86
/Worn* Rag/ 90. 94. 104.
Rahm«n. AR.80. 81.82. 85. 168

56. 164
Naaj. B . . *>. 170 88.89.91.95. 138
Roy. Bimal, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, Sen, Geeta, 71 Shukla, Saurabh, 87 Tees/7 Kasam, 32, 36, 163
24, 57, 82, 137, 160 Sen, Jamal, 1 Shukla, Vmay, 88 Teesri Manzil, 33, 36, 63
Rcy, Kannu, 46, 114,152 Sen, Mrinal, 71, 85, 87 Shyamlee, 102 Thakur, Dinesh, 46, 144
Roy, Nirupa, 12, 58, 59, 61,98, Sen, Nandana, 96 Shyamli, Baby, 116 The Jazz Singer, 1
156, 164 Sen, Raima, 88 Siddharth, Geeta, 53 Tijori, Deepak, 77

Roy, Reena, 72, 166 Sen, Suchitra, 14, 20, 31, 57, Sikandar, 121 Umrao Jaan, 66, 71, 73
Roy, Sharmista, 86 161 Silsila, 71, 167 Uski Roti, 87
Rudaali, 78, 79, 92 Sengupta, Joy, 156 Singh, Amnta, 140, 167 Vachchani, Ajit, 130
Saaransh, 79, 1 52 Seth, Maia, 88 Singh, Chandrachur, 84 Vairele, Kiran, 68
Saath Saath, 69, 73 Seth, Raghunath, 146 Singh, Dara, 47 Varma, Deven, 29, 40, 62
Sablok, Arjun, 134 Seth, Sushma, 68, 131 Singh, Gracy, 138, 170 Varma, Ram Gopal, 48, 82, 87,
Sachdev, Achala, 56 Sethumadhavan, K.S., 126 Singh, Jagjit, 69, 150 142, 168
Sachdev, Asha, 89 Shah Jahan, 44 Singh, Kuldeep, 69, 153 Varman, Ajit, 147, 152
Sadanah, Kamal, 131 Shah, Kundan, 106 Singh, Manmohan, 123, 132 Vasan, S.S., 46, 161
Sadhana, 25, 46, 110, 162, 163 Shah, Mohammed Qutb, 146 Singh, Manohar, 131 Veena, 18, 36,48
Sadma, 70, 77 Shah, Naseerudm, 64, 66, 71, Singh, Neetu, 58, 61, 62, 127, Verma, Pradeep, 146
Saeed, Sana, 86 72, 73, 74, 80, 105, 106, 164 Vikram, 126
5a far, 42, 43 116, 117, 136, 145, 146, Singh, Nisha, 153 Vohra, Chandar, 42
Sagar, 79, 81, 167 147, 148, 149, 152, 154, Singh, Sukhwinder, 157 Vyas, Bharat, 1
Sahi, Deepa, 78 155, 158 Singh, Uttam, 94 Vyjanthimala, 14, 17, 23, 28,
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, 24, 25, Shah, Satish, 106 Sinha, Mala, 16, 18, 114, 161, 36, 59, 121, 160, 161, 152,
29, 71, 76 Shahane, Renuka, 1 17 163 163

Sahni, Balraj, 12, 20, 36, 39, 53, Shahryar, 66 Sinha, Sandali, 94 Wajood, 1 53
111, 162 Shaikh, Farooq, 53, 66, 78, 105, Sinha, Shatrughan, 42, 43, 48 Walker, Johnny, 16, 17, 18, 44,
Sahni, J., 142 149 Sinha, Suneel, 84 108
Sahni, Pankshat, 35, 127 Shailendra, 10, 12, 13, 14, 17, Sinha, Tapan, 48, 76 Waqt, 77, 162, 163
Sahni, Sonia, 126 20,21, 24,28, 30, 32,47, Sinha, Vidya, 62, 100, 102, 144 Yaadein, 72
Sahu, Kishore, 30 83, 121 Sippy, Ramesh, 45, 60, 70, 71, Yadav, Raghuvir, 78
Salim-Suleiman, 158 Shakti, 70, 71,74 103, 112, 140, 164, 167 Yadav, Rajpal, 92
Saigal, K.L, 22, 43, 51 Shandilya, Sandesh, 1 18 Sivan, Santosh, 89, 137 Yeh Raste Hai Pyar Ke, 27
Salim-Javed, 58 Shankar, Pandit Ravi, 20 Sparsh, 79, 1 52 Yogesh, 59, 100, 144
Saluja, Bikram, 89 Shankar-Jaikishan, 10, 12, 13, Sndevi, 70, 76, 107, 129, 166, Yuva, 48, 81, 95, 156
Samanta, Shakti, 38, 39, 44, 99, 21, 28, 32, 34,45, 47, 91, 167, 169 Zafar, Bahadur Shah, 106
162, 165 92, 127 Subah, 148, 157 Zaheeda, 35
Sameer, 79,86,89, 118, 136 Shantaram, V., 15, 34,44, 64, Sujata, 19, 25 Zakaria, Anf, 88
Sandhya, 15 110, 131 Sultan, Rehana, 41 Zanjeer, 54, 98, 121, 165
Sangam, 28, 32, 162, 163 Sharar, Dewan, 1 10 Sultanpuri, Majrooh, 10, 11, 19, Ziddi, 45
Sangharsh, 36, 39, 41, 123, Sharma, Pandit Narendra, 68 20, 27, 31, 33, 41, 48, 52, Zmta, Preity, 85, 92, 94, 169,
127, 128, 163 Sharma, Rahul, 151 54, 62, 74, 77, 83, 91, 98, 170, 171
Santoshi, Raj Kumar, 141 Sharma, Shiv K., 124 121 Zuber, Marc, 1 50
Sanyal, Pahadi, 38 Shashikala, 19, 29, 30, 32, 114 Suraiya, 154
Sanyal, Sumita, 36, 44 Sheesh Mahal, 121 Suri, Sanjay, 94
Sapnon Ka Saudagar, 32 Shelley, Rachel, 138 Swamy, Arvind, 80, 81
Saraiya, Govind, 37 Sherawat, Mallika, 20 Swapna, 128
Saraswatichandra, 35, 37, 40 Shergil, Jimmy, 84 Swaroop, Jyoti, 99
Sargam, 129 Sheshadri, Meenakshi, 79, 140, Swayamvaram 93 ,
Sarhadi, Sagar, 149 141, 166, 167 Tabu, 84, 92, 108, 112, 157,
Sathyu, M.S., 53 Shetty, Suniel, 112, 168 168
Satya, 87, 118 Shirodkar, Namrata, 91, 157 Tagore, Sharmila, 29, 30, 38,
Satyakam, 40, 1 63 Shiva Ka Insaf, 122 39, 40, 43, 44, 52, 58, 60,
Satyavan Savitn, 12 Shiva, 127 63, 68, 101, 114, 115, 162,
Saudagar, 53, 90, 131, 132 Shiv-Han, 76, 124, 129 163, 165
Seeta Aur Geeta, 51, 98 Shivpuri, Om, 50 Tahil, Dalip, 90
Segal, Mohan, 30 Shravan, Nadeem, 79 Tak, Sawan Kumar, 90
Sehgal, Zohra, 133 Shree420, 13, 21, 160 Tandon, Lekh, 102
Sen, Aparna, 39, 145, 151, 165 Shroff, Jackie, 75,82,93, 112, Tanuja, 46, 78, 1 16, 121, 164
Sen, Asit, 31, 35, 40, 41, 43 131, 158, 166, 168, 169, 171 Teen Deewarein, 151, 158
I
Hindi films. Choosing the best 200 Hindi films ever made from the
1940s onwards, Subhash K. Jha gives concise and enjoyable reviews
of the films, along with trivia and anecdotes about actors and
actresses of that time and about the making of the films. The book
also has a timeline of films and landmark events in Indian cinema.
Entries are arranged genre-wise—take your pick of drama, comedy,

action, romance and many more
:
ilm critic Subhash K. Jha's opinions on
Hindi movies are extensively read in
more than thirty newspapers across

India. Currently residing in Patna,
Bihar, he is an incorrigible sucker for
the 'Friday-first-day-first-show'.
Kabhi Khushi
Kabhie Gham.
%
\
2?A £

The Essential Guide To Bollywood - Subhash K Jha

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may be transmitted or reproduced in any form or by

© Roli & Janssen BV 2005

Ph: ++91-11-29212271, 29212782

Editor: Nandita Jaishankar; Design: Arati Subramanyam

Photo Credits: National Film Archives Pune,

Private Collections, Roli Collection, Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Printed and bound in Singapore

Foreword by Amitabh Bachchan

Lata Mangeshkar Simi Garewal

Amitabh Bachchan Jagdish Chandra Jha

Jaya Bachchan Prabhavati Jha

Kamal Haasan Abhas Jha

Sanjay Leela Bhansali Saroj Jha

Sanjeev Kohli Lata Jha

Piostenty interests me. And the endeavours to record

have documented events and happenings of a nation that

little, or perhaps not enough, is officially known

Films and entertainment is one such area

birth, been an entity rudely discarded in the

l m of this nation Documenting

average citizen, it has

become extremely important that we

culture', thai boasts of being the largest

film industry in the world and is projected

by merited economists, as being one of the

three top industries by the year 2020.

book The Essential Guide to Bollywood ... the word

Bihar! His ability to stay informed and connected, almost by

writings appear everywhere: the national press, the locals, the

colloquial, in magazines, on the net ... everywhere.

For someone with such a prolific presence in the

entertainment media, it is welcoming to have him put

together an exhaustive account of all that matters in the

cinema industry of India.

By choosing to lead the reader through film titles, genre-

wise is interesting. But following it up with a description of

supported by valuable anecdotes, is brilliant. He has captured

to it 'under one roof.

Instead of rummaging through millions of newspapers

all you want in ... The Essential Guide to Bollywood by

Posterity is valuable. Thank you for making me a part of it

Director Bimal Roy Director Prakash Arora

Music Salil Chowdhury Music Shankar Jaikishan

Lyrics Shailendra Lyrics Shailendra

masterpiece Father Panchali, producer Raj

of a peasant from streets by their aunt. The film's credibility

his village. Burdened emanates from the utterly natural

by feudal financial performances by the two little actors. The fine

obligations, Shambhu (Balraj Sahni) migrates to and now forgotten

reverberation of Roy's treatise on socialism was bearings and learn

far-flung and profound. Four years later, to live with dignity.

naturalistic performance went a long way in train, where the two

TIMELINE: FILMS AND LANDMARK EVENTS

Cast xr. Nargts. Nadira

Director Raj Kapoor

Music Shanfcar. jaikrthan

Lyrics Shailendra. Havat jaipun

parable on the goodness of the heart as opposed to the

1942 1942 1942

Director Bimal Roy Director Sombhu Mitra/Amit Moitra

Music S.D. Burman Music Salil Chowdhury

character study looks at Devdas Chatterjee man's experiences in