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Sunday, August 2, 2026
TopicOld movies

Topic: Old movies

Qurbani gave Bollywood a new kind of cool. It has never gone out of fashion

More than four decades after Qurbani became the biggest hit of 1980, Aap Jaisa Koi, Laila O Laila and Qurbani Qurbani are still reliable ways to up the...

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.

On Camera

Ajinkya Rahane’s farewell closes the chapter on India’s greatest Test generation

Ajinkya Rahane was at the heart of India's rise under Kohli and Shastri. Nowhere was his understated value more immortalised than during the 2020–21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Despite PM Modi’s appeal to cut fertiliser use, farmers show no sign of scaling back—Parliament data

Combined sales of urea, DAP, MOP and complex fertilisers rose 25 percent in April even as Modi asked farmers to cut chemical fertiliser use by up to half to save soil and foreign exchange

In Delhi, an emotional farewell to former Army chief Gen VN Sharma with full state honours

The three service chiefs paid tributes, along with several former Army chiefs. Friends & fellow soldiers remember him as a 'natural charmer'.

India’s Gen Z has opened a breach, for BJP to fill or Opposition to widen

The young people broke the self-imposed silence among the elite not to speak a word critical of the Modi government, except to whisper on the sidelines, looking left, right and behind.