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Wednesday, December 17, 2025
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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

Top 10 picks of Serendipity Art Festival 2025 by Rohit Chawla

Through film, textile, scent, sound, and gesture, spectators are invited to descend into an immersive environment where inherited knowledge seeps through material and form.

India’s merchandise exports to US rising month-on-month despite Trump tariffs, govt data shows

November exports to the US saw 10% growth from the previous month. Overall, in the first 8 months this fiscal, the merchandise exports to the US touched has touched $59bn.

US clears $686-mn package to breathe fresh life into Pakistani F-16s

Of the total package, $649 million will be utilised for additional hardware, software, and support services, and the remaining for Major Defence Equipment (MDE).

India’s top airline just handed sarkar the keys. That’s IndiGo’s real ‘crime’

Don’t blame misfortune. This is colossal incompetence and insensitivity. So bad, heads would have rolled even in the old PSU-era Indian Airlines and Air India.