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Tuesday, November 5, 2024
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Reel Take

‘Aasha’ explored a different view of one-sided love—that of the woman

Aasha, played by Reena Roy, is complex and empathetic—something female characters in Om Prakash movies have in common.

Sai Paranjpye’s ‘Sparsh’ squashes the ‘lachar-bechara’ image of blind people

Sparsh also highlights that number of books in Braille is abysmally low. It also shows how stories for the blind must make sense to them.

‘Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se’ was a remake of an American novel. Here, parents aren’t villains

It steers clear of the traditional Bollywood stereotype of the Christian woman who goes on dates and loves to party. Lily is shown as an intelligent, studious and ambitious woman.


‘Mashaal’ mixed news media with melodrama. It made Anil Kapoor an ‘A-grade hero’

The 1980s were a tough time for Yash Chopra. He directed Mashaal after two of his major films, Silsila and Faasle, flopped at the box office.

‘Julie’ tackled pre-marital sex and pregnancy sensitively. It still fell prey to stereotypes

What stands out the most in Julie is the music. Music director Rajesh Roshan says he created the song Dil Kya Kare in 10 minutes. And Kishore Kumar was at his magical best.

Disturbing, unsettling, but necessary—Shyam Benegal’s ‘Nishant’ could easily be a 2024 story

Benegal’s 1975 film is violent and brutal, an unflinching gaze on everything that can go wrong in a society where illiteracy is rampant and landlords hold all the power.

‘Boot Polish’, comedy drama with a critical view of a newly independent India

In an era when most Hindi films featured adult characters as protagonists, 'Boot Polish' stood out with its child lead roles—Bhola and Belu.

Parinda introduced gritty realism to Bollywood. A fire on the set injured Nana Patekar

Parinda depicted a new side of Mumbai—the underworld with raw authenticity, unlike the glamorisation seen in earlier films like Deewar.

A courtesan without shame or guilt—1966 film ‘Amrapali’ gave us a proud, powerful heroine

Every tawaif is said to be a corpse in ‘Pakeezah’. In ‘Amrapali’, however, the heroine fights for her status as a ‘nagarvadhu’ and takes pride in it.

Manoranjan—1974 film defied moral police. Zeenat Aman played an independent sex worker

Bright outfits, exaggerated comic scenes, and the lack of long-drawn emotional moments make Manoranjan entertaining. But it was a box office failure.

On Camera

A Donald Trump presidency threatens Indian economy. Just see his record

The chances of a trade war that raise inflation and reduce India’s economic growth are much higher under a Trump presidency.

Watch CutTheClutter: Flattening INR-USD rate, and debate on pros and cons of a ‘strong’ rupee

In Episode 1544 of CutTheClutter, Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta looks at some top economists pointing to the pitfalls of ‘currency nationalism’ with data from 1991 to 2004.

Rifles slung upside down, on ponies. Indian troops go on their 1st patrol in Depsang since 2020

Troops patrolled up to Patrolling Point (PP) 10 on Monday. Though there are PP 10, 11, 12, 12A & 13 in Depsang Plains, it was decided that only one or two PPs would be patrolled.

Xi wanted to teach India about imbalance of power. We should take a budgetary lesson from it

While we talk much about our military, we don’t put our national wallet where our mouth is. Nobody is saying we should double our defence spending, but current declining trend must be reversed.