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Thursday, December 4, 2025
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Reel Take

Khatta Meetha was Bollywood’s first blended-family film. Progressive without preaching

The beauty of Basu Chatterjee’s storytelling in Khatta Meetha was that he didn’t show remarriage as something frowned upon or in need of justification.

Gumnaam turned Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit into a Bollywood masala film

Unlike Agatha Christie's book, which explores the lives and thoughts of the characters, Gumnaam puts the spotlight on Mehmood's antics and Manoj Kumar and Nanda's chemistry.

Satish Shah played a dead body in ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro’. And stole the show

Few movies have been able to do justice to dark humour the way this four-decade-old film does. The corpse at the centre of the film speaks loudly about the death of morality.

A ghost, war veteran & a lost nation—Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Naukri was ahead of its time

Similar to what Charles Dickens did in A Christmas Carol, the ghost in Naukri becomes a device to teach the living the meaning of life.

Amitabh and Amjad’s real-life friendship played out in Yaarana. It’s usually different on-screen

Tere Jaisa Yaar Kahan—a Kishore Kumar classic—not just echoed the friendship between the characters in the movie, but also how the duo stood by each other in real life.

Satyajit Ray’s 1960 Devi shows God-fearing rural Bengal—and devotion delusion

Sharmila Tagore delivers one of the most haunting performances of her career in Devi. She was only 14 years old.

From Kasegaon to LSE — documentary brings Gail Omvedt and Bharat Patankar to global stage

Director of Gail & Bharat documentary Somnath Waghmare said even upper-caste scholars who have worked on Dalit literature are not called Dalit scholars, but Omvedt is addressed as an Ambedkarite scholar.

Bachchan’s revenge drama Adalat heralded the ‘woman in refrigerator’ trope of 1980s

‘Adalat’ was one of the biggest blockbusters in 1976. However, it is often not counted among Bachchan’s iconic portrayals in the '70s.

A Kannada short film uses Udupi’s Janmashtami to ask who belongs, and who doesn’t

'Rakkasa' was shot in four days, with all Janmashtami visuals captured in real time during the actual celebrations. Director G Vishnu highlights the everyday rhythms of life and the spirit of Udupi.

Mammootty, Mohanlal reunite after 17 years in espionage thriller Patriot

Mohanlal had a cameo appearance in Mammootty’s film Kadal Kadannu Oru Maathukutty (2013). However, their last film together was Twenty:20, which released in 2008.

On Camera

My grandmother saved her children in Bhopal gas tragedy—and sacrificed her own life

‘Mother kept pouring water in our eyes whenever the burning became unbearable. She pushed our bodies deep into the blanket, making sure not a single part was exposed,’ my father said.

India’s Russian oil imports are showing up in cryptic new places. The crude map stands redrawn

December oil imports from Russia may drop nearly 50%, but Indian buyers already shifting to non-designated Russian entities and opaque trading channels to keep Russian oil flowing.

India to commission new squadron of submarine-hunting Romeo choppers in Goa later this month

The helicopters produced by Lockheed Martin are known as ‘submarine hunters’. India ordered 24 of these aircraft in 2020 to replace the Sea King helicopters. 15 have been delivered till date.

Gaali cricket: Bavuma stands tall, India’s Test ego cut to size

The India-South Africa series-defining fact is the catastrophic decline of Indian red ball cricket where a visiting team can mock us with the 'grovel' word.