Abha Dhulia, Shama Zaidi, Shyam Benegal, Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Naseeruddin Shah, Preeti Sagar & Prahlad Kakkar at Eros Cinema...

Saumesh Bangera Saumesh Bangera’s cinema is a perfect manifestation of the phenomenon of democratisation of filmmaking since it got...

Technology rules. Consequently, die-hard collectors of Bollywood music soundtracks are in a fix. That thrill of rushing to the closest...

Suresh Jindal ‘Hirsute’ is the description Sai Paranjpye and I had coined for him. With his abundant salt-and-pepper hair always brushed,...

The two are completely different, the songs of Amar Singh Chamkila of Punjab and Lavani of Maharashtra. While Chamkila was a pop singer...

Anand Bakshi At the outset, a quick run-through the facts: Bakshi Anand Prakash Vaid was born in Rawalpindi now in Punjab, to a Brahmin...

J.Jayalalithaa Never too late perhaps. I’d been avoiding the series with the longest barge-pole. On a fallow day, lately, I started on it...

Manoj Kumar as Bhagat Singh in Shaheed (1965) Either you were apprehensive about the lavish productions which he wrote, edited and...

The last image I have stored of Mehmood is that of an ailing, helpless septuagenarian, in a baggy white kurta and brown cashmere shawl,...

It’s an eternal mystery. So many stalwart directors who contributed immeasurably in the last millennium to Mumbai-produced cinema have...

Raaj Kumar & Priya Rajvansh in Heer Ranjha (1970) While tracking down Hindi cinema's golden oldies - through whichever source accessible...

On seeing a bunch of Mani Ratnam’s early films, variously in Tamil and Telugu -- Mouna Ragam (1986),  Nayakan(1987), Geethanjali (1989)...

Sridevi & Rajeev Ravindranathan in English Vinglish(2012) Ostensibly, Mumbai-produced cinema makes films in Hindustani, a blend of Hindi...

Naushad Tall, lithe, spotlessly dressed – black sherwanis suited him the most. Naushad Ali was so at home conjuring tunes on a piano that...

Yash Chopra Imagine, Yash Chopra, his wife Pam, trusty cinematographer Manmohan Sigh and I in a helicopter, hovering over a fairy...

Undeniably, we romanticize the movies we were weaned on during our childhood, exaggerating the   precious memories tattooed on our hearts...

Grandma Fayazi, my educator in movie matters, had a thing about Vyjayanthimala. So one January afternoon, she’d bundled me up in a...

Social media despite the clampdowns is a relatively democratic space where one can express oneself about anything, right from what one...

Bhagwan Dada The fast-crumbling chawl in an emaciated by-lane was a brisk 10-minute walk away from Dadar station. I had been asked by...

Chetna(1970) For sure, he had an USP. Sex, lies and the exploitation of women at different levels of the social strata were his preferred...