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Friday, November 14, 2025
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Reel Take

Uttam Kumar’s Saptapadi is the 1960s’ inter-faith love story that rings true even today

Saptapadi’s famous, moving Othello scene, which was directed separately by Utpal Dutt, deserves special praise.

Do Raaste cemented Rajesh Khanna’s position as Bollywood’s first superstar

Do Raaste shows how a middle-class Indian family tries to adjust when people with different outlook share the same roof.

On Guru Dutt’s birth anniversary, a look at Pyaasa that continues to leave Indians in awe

Guru Dutt’s magnum opus – second only to Kaagaz Ke Phool – is the perfect example of art-house cinema marrying Bollywood.

In Uttam Kumar & Sharmila Tagore’s film ‘Amanush’, floods restore faith in human spirit

Directed and produced by Shakti Samanta in both Bengali and Hindi, Amanush is a classic and a lesson in the complexity of human emotions.

As Chennai grapples with water crisis, Do Boond Pani shows what Day Zero can look like

The film exposes the broken government system, and the shoddy execution of welfare projects.

Anyone who is not a doctor should watch Pankaj Kapur’s Ek Doctor Ki Maut before blaming them

Tapan Sinha's brilliant 1990 film shows the slow death of innovation in India's health sector due to a broken and corrupt system.

In Manthan, Girish Karnad showed why change matters through the Amul story

Manthan is not a simplistic do-gooder story about rescuing a village with new ideas. The film is beautifully layered and had an outstanding cast.

An IAF pilot, a love triangle & Raj Kapoor: Why Sangam is a Bollywood hit even after 50 yrs

The film, which was originally four-hours long with two intervals, was hailed as Raj Kapoor’s magnum opus and his finest performance.

Mujhe Jeene Do: When Sunil Dutt shattered inter-faith marriage taboo while playing a dacoit

Written by Sunil Dutt’s closest friend, Aghajani Kashmeri, the script of this 1963 film isn’t black and white, even if the picture was.

Mrinal Sen’s Padatik, about dispirited Communists in 1970s Calcutta, is a tale of our times

Padatik is last in Mrinal Sen’s Calcutta trilogy, in which Communists are risking their lives for a cause that forever seems out of reach.

On Camera

How Nitish Kumar turned all rules of voter behaviour on their head

The conventional wisdom is that if a govt fails to improve the lot of the voters, it is punished. Kumar presided over an economic disaster for 20 years and was re-elected by a landslide.

Wealth nears $99 trillion, still Asia’s rich don’t have succession plans

Much of this wealth is tied to founder-led businesses that employ millions and help anchor regional economies.

Turkey blocks transport of Apache choppers to India through its airspace, new route being worked out

Indian govt officials last month skipped Turkish National Day celebrations in Delhi, in a message to Ankara following its support for Islamabad, particularly during Operation Sindoor.

Bihar is where politics moves, and everything else stands still

Bihar is blessed with a land more fertile for revolutions than any in India. Why has it fallen so far behind then? Constant obsession with politics is at the root of its destruction.