While Prince Salim revolted against his father, Emperor Akbar, in ‘Mughal-E-Azam’ (1960), films like ‘Sangram’ (1950) and ‘Shakti’ (1982) put fathers and sons on the opposite sides of the law. Then, there is ‘Rustom Sohrab’ (1963) in which the father and son met on the battlefield.
While financial crime is not something often seen in Bollywood films, web series like ‘Scam 2003: The Telgi Story’ and ‘Scam 1992’ are some examples that have gone deep into how the scamsters in these cases identified obvious gaps in the system and exploited those using their daring, intelligence, and influencing ability.
When familiar comic book characters from our childhood bedtime reading come alive in animation movies, the nostalgia is enveloping.
Bollywood’s stock reason for its characters’ mental health issues has been an agony-filled childhood, but there have also been characters who were just born that way. The mental illnesses have also been used to generate backstories about characters and generate sympathy.
Actor Tarun Bose found his opportunities only within the Bengali camp, unable to break through into the heavyweight Navketan, BR Films, Mehboob Films, Filmistan, or Nasir Hussain camps. Even within the Bengali producers, Bose never found favor with Shakti Samanta or Promode Chakravorty, save for a solitary ‘Love in Tokyo’ with the latter.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee made quiet films about issues confronting the modest aspirations of the ordinary Indian middle-class. His narratives were simple, linear, and definite, and easy for the masses to understand who flocked in droves.
Mughal-E-Azam, released to unprecedented reception on August 5, 1960, ranks as one of Bollywood’s towering commercial and critical successes ever and makes for interesting debates and discussions over coffee, writes Balaji Vittal.
On Amjad Khan’s 31st anniversary of passing, let us step around that urn of embers called Sholay that set Amjad’s career aglow and explore the shadow years before Gabbar Singh happened.
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