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Thursday, May 21, 2026
TopicOld movies

Topic: Old movies

1976 film Chhoti Si Baat is one of Bollywood’s most progressive portrayals of masculinity

Films such as Kabir Singh and Animal have normalised toxic masculinity to the point where the gentleness of Arun in the 1976 film Chhoti Si Baat is almost disorientating.

In Angry Young Man era, Khel Khel Mein stood out for its wisecracking rogue — Rakesh Roshan

Rakesh Roshan, never known for his success in leading roles, outshines Rishi Kapoor in 1975’s Khel Khel Mein, Bollywood’s first college murder thriller.

Asha Parekh set the tone for 1970s glamour in Aan Milo Sajna

‘Achha toh hum chalte hain’—it’s the songs that stuck around in the 1970 film Aan Milo Sajna.

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.

Barsaat ki Raat was a rain-soaked romance. It had a qawwali that Shah Rukh Khan loves

If a luminous Madhubala is the heart, Sahir Ludhianvi’s Urdu poetry is the soul of Barsaat Ki Raat, 1960’s second-biggest hit after Mughal-e-Azam.

Khandhar is Mrinal Sen’s most poetic film. It’s a masterpiece of stillness and silence

Khandhar’s emotional core lies in what is left unsaid. Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah's towering performances convey unspoken yearning and forbidden longing without relying on dialogues.

With Aavishkar, Basu Bhattacharya turned his troubled marriage into a masterpiece

Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore played a couple falling apart in Aavishkar. Basu Bhattacharya based it on his own marriage and even filmed it in his house.

Haathi Mere Saathi captured true human-animal bond—long before CGI

Rajesh Khanna brings a rare sensitivity to the character of Raju. His interactions with the elephants exude authenticity—so much so that one forgets he’s acting.

Ek Dil Sau Afsane exposes a society obsessed with male child. It remains relevant even today

The grandmother's insistence on consulting a girl’s astrological birth chart to determine her capacity to bear a son underlines how superstition and patriarchy are deeply intertwined.

Dil Hi Toh Hai was a ‘Muslim social’ — but it put insaniyat and sharafat above khandan

The 1963 film Dil Hi Toh Hai, starring Raj Kapoor and Nutan, is a compelling outlier in the ‘Muslim Social’ genre. It defied conventions, even if gently.

On Camera

Norway’s Modi cartoon was not satire. Just colonial laziness

Political satire is indispensable to democracy, racial caricature isn’t. If Europe’s liberal press still cannot tell difference, then decolonisation never happened in their imagination.

Recovery of unclaimed shares, dividends now takes days, not yrs. EAC-PM credits investor watchdog revamp

PM-EAC paper says overhaul of Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority system sharply improved processing speed and reduced paperwork for investors.

Dragon’s armour: How Xi reshaped China’s military with theatre commands a decade before India’s push

While India yet to set in motion theaterisation of armed forces, China's military reforms combined China’s Army, Navy, Air Force and Rocket Force aimed at regional dominance & tight political control.

Pakistan is tactically brilliant, strategically disastrous. It’s primed for repeated blunders

Pakistan has ended up losing every war against India but that hasn’t prevented it from claiming victory. We will go over the evidence to anticipate what to expect next.