the rough guide to film

8/3/2019 The Rough Guide to Film

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THE ROUGH GUIDE TO FILM

Ritwik GhatakIndia, 1925-76

Ritwik Ghatak was 22 years old when the Partition separated Pakistanfrom the newly independent India and divided the states of Bengal and

Punjab along religious lines, causing the deaths of half a million people andthe dislocation of some ten million more. It was the defining trauma of

Ghatak's life, the powder keg for his vehement, incendiary art. A writer and aMarxist, Ghatak became involved in the radical Indian People's TheatreAssociation (IPTA) in Calcutta, acting and writing plays, determinedto rousethe conscience of the audience. He turned to film to expand that reach. "Iwanted to use the cinema as a weapon", he wrote. "What has seemed to me a

most urgent need, is to present to the Bengali people this miserable,Impoverished face of divided Bengal, to make them conscious of their ownexistence, their past and their future." Ghatak's first feature was Nagarik

(T he C itiz en , 1953), about an idealistic young man's fruitless search for ajob,and the poverty and misery which consume his family. Too hard-hitting forthe time, it was released only posthumously, in 1977. The great Indian

filmmaker Satyajit Ray mused that, had it been released at the time, Nagarikmight have defined Bengali cinema. Instead, it was Ray's PatherPanchali

(Song O f The Road, 1955) which received accolades at home and abroad. Thetwo men admired each other's work, and there is no need to pit them againsteach other, but given Ray's pre-eminence in the critical canon, and Ghatak'srelative obscurity, it is worth quoting Jacob Levich on their differences: "Rayis the suitable boy of Indian film, presentable, career-oriented, and reliablytasteful. Ghatak, by contrast, is an undesirable guest: he lacks respect, has'views', makes a mess, disdains decorum. Worst of all, he talks politics."After a short sojourn in Bombay (where he scripted Bimal Roy's hit

Madhumati , 1958), Ghatak returned to Calcutta and had a success with thepoignant comedy A jantrik (P athetic F allacy, 1957) about a taxi driver'srelationship with his battered old cab. A children's film, B aru theke paliy


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(Runaway, 1959), followed. But it was his next film, The C loud-C apped Star(1960), which crystallized his style and made his reputation. A searingmelodrama about a refugee family in Calcutta, it's the story of Nita, the

oldest daughter, whose selfsacrifices fail to forestall tragedy. Melding popularidioms (Bollywood melodrama, song, myth and folk tale) with anexpressionist, modernist aesthetic - particularly in his use of non-

naturalistic sound - Ghatak forged a cinema that was unique and unsettling,critically engaged with socioeconomic and historical realities but never in

thrall to realism. Most commentators consider this to be Ghatak'smasterpiece. He himself preferred E-Flat (1961), an ambitiously structuredautobiographical film recreating his experiences of IPTA. But it was savagelyattacked by the Communist press and derided by the audience. Ghatak'salcoholism dates back to this failure. The third in his de facto "partitiontrilogy", Subarnarekha (G olden R iver) was filmed in 1962 but not releaseduntil three years later. Arguably an even greater accomplishment than TheC lo ud -Capp ed S ta r, S ub arna rek ha was rejected at the time =Ior its relianceon melodrama and coincidence. Yet these criticisms seem trite beside thepower and intensity of the film - few directors can match Ghatak's ability toexpress utter, unadulterated anguish. As the young writer Abhi comes torealize in the film, people do not want to hear about suffering. Subarnarekhawas another commercial failure, and Ghatak did not make another feature

until A River C alled Titash in 1973, by which time he was fightingtuberculosis and alcoholism. In between, he did direct several documentaries,wrote quite extensively on cinema, and spent two fulfilling years teaching atthe Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, where he was a significantinfluence on Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Kumar Sahani, Mani Kaul and Ketan

Mehta, among others. Reflecting the difficulties of its production,A R iver C alled Titash is a sprawling, ragged and frustrating film, yet shotthrough with moments of brilliance. Two years later, his last film, Reason,

Argument And Story (1975), featured Ghatak himself as a "broken"intellectual, an author on the rocks, consumed by alcohol and impotence,winding his way through Bengal towards his own death. The film is butsemi-coherent and finds its =rnaker for once on the brink of self-pity, butstill pressing for justice, rich in longing, and searching for radical solutions


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not just to cinema, but to the world at large. Ghatak died in 1976 at the ageof 50.

The Cloud-Capped Star (Meg he dhaka tara) 1960, 127 min, b/wCast: S u p r iy a C h ou d h u r y , A n il C h a t t e rje e , B ijo n B h a t ta c h a r y a , G u it a D e , G i t a G h a ta kcinematography: D in e n G u p ta music: J y o ti r in d ra M o i tr a

Ghatak's best-known film is a brilliantly structured melodrama about the terribledemands of poverty and family on the prospects of a young woman (Supriya

Choudhury). Her tragic flaw, the sin of omission: she fails to protest at injustice toherself and her dreams, and at the hands of those she loves most dearly.

Subarnarekha (Golden River) 1965, 143 min, b/wCast: A b hi B h at t a c h a r y a , M a d ha b i M u k h e r je e , S a ti n d r a B h a t t a ch a r y a , B ijo n B h at t a c h a r y a , G i t a D ecinematography: D i l ip ra n ja n M u k h e rje e music: B a ha d u r K h an

More explicitly political than Cloud-Capped Star , Subarnarekha begins with scenes ofabandonment and separation in the wake of Partition. A young orphan boy, Abhi, is adopted

by the educated Bengali refugee Ishwar and his younger sister, Sita.lshwar almostimmediately quits the refugee colony where he was to teach to take up a provincial clericalpost. Putting his own family's security above his people's future, Ishwar sets himself up for aterrible fall. The extraordinary climax quotes from Tagore, T.5. Eliot's The Wa ste L an d and,

musically, Fellini's Lado lc e v ita .

Ashutosh GowarikerIndia, 1968-

After playing supporting roles in Indian film and television for over tenyears, Gowariker finally took the plunge into directing in 1993 with the

mediocre thriller Peh la Na sh a. The cops and terrorists tale Baazi (1995) wasonly marginally better. But after this faltering start Gowariker stepped back,took stock of his situation and decided to follow his heart. After a longperiod of struggle, he convinced his friend and Baazi leading man,

Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, to act in his dream project L agaan (L andTax, 2001). Khan also produced the film. The heady blend of cricket andcolonialism was a box-office smash in India and became only the thirdIndian film to be nominated for the Oscar for best foreign-language

film. Itwas followed by the critically acclaimed Sw ades (O ur C ountry, 2004),which contrasted a young scientist's hi-tech environment at NASA with the


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simple village life to which he returns in a bid to get his childhood nanny tojoin him in the US.

Lagaan (Land Tax) 2001,224 minCast: A a m i r K h a n , G ra c y S in g h , R a ch e l S h e lle y , P a u l B la ck th o r n e , S u h a s in i M u la y

cinematography: A n il M e h ta music: A .R . R a hm a nIn the late 1890s, Bhuvan, an upright villager, takes up the challenge of beating thelocal British rulers at their own game - cricket - in exchange for getting land taxeswaived for the next three years. A loss would mean the village paying double the tax.The film cleverly combines India's passion for Bollywood with its love of cricket and is

ultimately an inspirational tale about the triumph of the underdog in the besttraditions of sport-themed cinema.

Aditya ChopraIndia, 1971-Son of revered producer/director Yash Chopra, Aditya Chopra burst onto

the Bollywood scene with his debut feature D ilwale d ulh an ia le ja yen ge(The Big-Hearted W ill W in The Bride, 1995). Shrewdly pitched at the non-resident Indian market, the film broke all records and overtook RameshSippy's Sholay (1975) as the longest-running Indian film ever, playingfor over 600 weeks at the Maratha Mandir cinema in Mumbai. More

importantly for Chopra, the film entered the UK and US mainstream charts.His star-studded follow-up, Mohabbatein (L ove Stories, 2000), did not fare sowell, but was still a box-office success. Since then, Chopra has reinventedhimself as one of India's most successful producers, farming a series of hitsincluding a number of his father's films. Something of a recluse, known forsneaking into cinemas incognito and taking copious notes on audience

reactions, Chopra has transformed his family company Yash Raj Films intoone of Asia's most successful production houses, modelled on the tightly

controlled family-run studios of the past.Dilwale dulhania Ie jayenge 1995, 189 min

Cast: S h a h R u k h K h a n , K a jo l, A m ris h P u r i, A n u pa m K h e r, F a r id a J a la l, S a t i s h S h a hcinematography: M a nm o ha n S in gh music: J a tin , L a l i t


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When Londoner Simran (Kajol) is taken to her family's native Punjab to get married toa local lad, her boyfriend, fellow Londoner Raj (Khan), follows, determined to win overher stern father. Carefully designed to stir feelings of nostalgia amongst moneyedSouth Asian audiences worldwide, the film successfully played up traditional Indianvalues. It established Khan as the top romantic lead of his generation and created asuccession of similarly themed films that cashed in on the diaspora market with

varying degrees of success.

Baldev Raj ChopraIndia, 1914-

The writer/producer/director B.R. Chopra started out as a film journalistbefore turning his hand to directing. He is best known for filmsthat tackle social issues. Naya daur (The New Age, 1957) explored the

conflict between modernization and the traditional way of life, Insaafkata razu (Th e S cales O f Justice, 1980) dealt with rape and its aftermath, whileN ika ah (Ma rria ge, 1985) was an examination ofMuslim marriage. Kanoon(T he L aw , 1960) was a rarity in Hindi cinema - a courtroom drama withoutany song sequences. Chopra also nurtured the career of his brother Yash,giving him his directorial break with Dhool ka phool (F lowers O f The Dust,

1959). Apart from his contribution to cinema, B.R. Chopra will beremembered for his epic television series Mahabharat (1988-90), basedon the Indian epic. Commanding a 96 percent viewership in India, it was noless than a cultural phenomenon. In 1998, Chopra was accorded India's

highest film prize, the Dadasaheb Phalke award.Naya daur (The New Age) 1957, 173 min, b/w

Cast: D il ip K u m a r, A ji t , V y ja ya n t im a la , C h an d U s m an i, J ee va n , N a s i r H u ss e in , M a nm o h a n K ris hn acinematography: M . N . M a l h o tr a music: D . P . N a y y ar

Shankar (Kumar) is a horse-cart driver in a village. When the local landlord's sondecides to introduce a bus service,it threatens to put him and his fellow carters out ofbusiness. Shankar is challenged to a race between horse-cart and bus, which he mustwin to keep the village alive. Naya daurworks because it believes in its own Utopianfantasy. In newly independent, Nehruvian-socialist India where rapidly encroachingmechanization was seen as a threat, the film was a huge hit among the masses.


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Yash ChopraIndia, 1932-If your perfect Bollywood movie features warbling heroines swathed in acres

of diaphanous chiffon, lovers being inexplicably transported to the snow-capped mountains and verdant meadows of Switzerland just as they burstinto song, and a prevailing air of charming amateurism and serious camp,then Yash Chopra is the director for you. It's probably fair to say, however,that Chopra isn't viewed in this cynical way in India, where he is a majorplayer. Not only one of the Bollywood film industry's longest servingdirectors, he is also a mogul with his own studio and distribution network,a man dubbed the "King Of Romance" by the country's newspapers.

According to his biographer Rachel Dwyer, Chopra hasn't just left his markon Indian cinema, but on Indian culture itself, where the phrase "a YashChopra wedding" is common parlance. Working for his brother's

production company, B.R. Films, Chopra directed his feature debut DoolK a P hool (Blossom O jD ust, 1959), a kitchen sink musical about an arrangedmarriage and an abandoned child. Of his early films Waqt (T im e, 1965) isgenerally considered to be the most important, the start ofYash Chopra'slove affair with conspicuous consumption. In the 1970s,the director turnedmogul and started his own production company, Yash Raj Films, for whichthe love triangle melodrama Daag (1973) rang cash registers all across thesubcontinent. The director then turned his hand to action movies such asDeew ar (The W all, 1975), an immensely popular synthesis of gangsters,

gunplay and catchy musical numbers, and the two- fistedmelodrama T rish ul (T he T rid en t, 1978).This bullets and ballads formuladidn't continue to work its magic at the box office in the 1980s, as Indiancinemas started to echo with the sound oflove songs and hearts beating asone, so Chopra changed direction with Faasle (D is tances, 1985) and Chandni(1989). The former was the first of Chopra's films to use Switzerland as animprobable backdrop, while the latter set the romantic template for his

subsequent movies, including the star-crossed drama Lamhe


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(Moments, 1991) and the stalker flick Darr (F ea r, 1993). In 1997, Chopratook seven years off directing to concentrate on his business empire andproduce movies by his son Aditya Chopra, but he made a triumphant

return in 2004 with Veer-Zaara.Waqt (Time) 7965,206 min

Cast: S u n il D u tt , S a d ha na S h iv da sa n i, R a a j K u m a r, S h a sh i K a p oo r, S h a rm i la T a g o r e , B a l r a j S a h n icinematography: D h a r a m C h o p ra music: R a v iA classic variation on Chopra's favourite theme of starcrossed lovers, Waqttells theconvoluted tale of a family split apart after an earthquake destroys their home. Thechildren go their separate ways, but two of the brothers later become rivals for theaffections of the same woman. Chopra demonstrates his unerring knack for tragicirony and even more tragic kitsch, especially in the earthquake scene whose shamelessuse oftoy buildings and back projection would even give EdWood second thoughts.

Deewaar(The Wall) 7975, 774 minCast: S h a s h i K a p oo r, A m it a b h B a c h ch an , N e e tu S in gh , N ir u pa R o y , P a r v e en B a b i, M a d an P u r icinematography: K a y G e e music: R . D . B u r m a n

Credited as creating a new kind of antihero in Bollywood cinema - the angry youngman - Deewaarlaunched actor Amitabh Bachchan's career into the stratosphere. Here,he plays the black sheep of the family, the head of a smuggling ring corrupted by atoxic mixture of penthouse suites and louche women. Despite the fact that Chopraleaves no cliche unturned, especially in his flagrant use of thunder and lightning to up

the melodramatic ante, this film is oddly compelling.

Chandni 7989, 786 minCast: S rid e v i, R is h i K a p oo r, V in o d K h a nn a , W a h ee da R e hm a n

cinematography: M a n m oh an S in gh music: H a rip ra s a d C h a u ra s ia , S h iv K u m a r S h a rm aWide-eyed ingenue Chandni is set to marry her photographer boyfriend until hisfamily and India's strict caste system intervene. Chopra imbues his romance with aninfectious glee, which is largely generated by the perky charisma of actress Sridevi asthe eponymous heroine. She spends much of the film kitted out in chiffon and singingin the rain, which has the result of turning the movie into a wet sari competition.


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Gurinder ChadhaKenya, 1960-

When critics reviewed Gurinder Chadha's debut Bhaji On The Beach(1992), many cooked up puns with the word masala, but there is some truthbehind the clever wordplay. Itcould be said that Chadha makes masala

movies, both in her themes, about mixing British and Asian identities, and inher approach to directing, which blends the didactic with the popular, andthe personal with the universal. Born in Kenya to Punjabi parents, shemoved to Southall, London, in 1961, and after college made television

documentaries including I'm British But ... , about being a second-generationBritish Asian. Bhaji On The Beach was the first major British feature film tobe directed by an Asian woman, but despite critical plaudits, she couldn'tfind the backing for her next script, a searing drama about Sri Lankan

immigrants. When television work dried up, Chadha moved to Los Angelesto make What's C oo kin g? (2000), a comic drama about four ethnicallydiverse families preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. American critics inparticular weren't kind, referring to "sitcom stereotypes". In response, thedirector decided to write "the most commercial movie I can with an Indiangirl in the lead". The result, the soccer melodrama B end It L ike B eckham

(2002), won over audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. However, the feel-good factor didn't transfer to all the critics, many of whom couldn't resistcounting all the sporting cliches in Beckham, or "Arundhati Roy Of TheRovers" as Philip French waggishly rebranded it. The thorny problem ofmaking populist drama - simultaneously pleasing audiences and critics -remained unsolved in B ride A nd P reju dice (2004), which gave Jane Austen aBollywood makeover. However, highbrow respectability seems to remainlow on the list of priorities for a director who aims to make films that are

"entertainment as well as informative". Itseems, though, that the faint praiseveiled so thinly in the epithet "crowd pleasing" will always accompany her

work.Bhaji On The Beach 1992, 101 min

cast: K im V it h a n a , J im m i H a rk is h in , S a ri t a K h a ju ri a , M o S e sa y , L a l i t a A h m e dcinematography: J oh n K e nw a y music: J o h n A ltm a n


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A coach load of women from Birmingham descend upon Blackpool to have "femalefun" in a sprightly comedy which deftly fuses the deep-dish themes of interracial

relations, domestic violence, the yawning gap between first- and second-generationAsians and a stirring Hindi rendition of Cliff Richard's "Summer Holiday".

Bend It Like Beckham 2002, 112 minCast: P a rm i n de r N a g r a , K e i r a K n ig h t le y , J o n a t h an R h ys M e ye rs , A n up am K h e r, A rc h ie P a nja b icinematography: L in J o ng music: C r a ig P r u es s

Ebullient teens Keira Knightley and Parminder Nagra share an obsession with soccerthat soon creates domestic strife: Keira's mum believes her interest in soccer revealssapphic tendencies, while Parminder's father decides a woman's place is not on thefootball pitch. The uplifting story only really performs when Chadha concentrateson the quiet autobiographical details of living in a Sikh household under the flight

path to Heathrow airport.

Shyam 8enegalIndia, 1934-The nephew oflegendary actor-director Guru

Dutt, Benegal was an important member of India's Parallel Cinemamovement, which aimed to create a thoughtful, naturalistic, arthousealternative to the typical Bollywood fare. After introducing the luminous

Smita Patil in C harandas chor (C harandas The Thief, 1975), Benegal went onto make four films that would place him squarely in the vanguard of the

Parallel Cinema movement. Made outside the commercial Bollywood systemand featuring talent from the Film and Television Institute ofIndia and theNational School of Drama, A nkur (The Seedling, 1974), N is ha an t (N ig ht'sEnd, 1975), Manthan (The C hurning , 1976) and Bhum ika (The Role, 1977)galvanized the Indian arthouse scene and gave rise to a new generation ofindependent Indian filmmakers. The following year he directed the masterlyhistorical drama lunoon (A F light O f P igeons). After the demise of ParallelCinema, Benegal redefined the face of Indian television with the ambitiousseries B harat ek khoj (1988), based on Jawaharlal Nehru's book TheDiscovery

O f I nd ia . Though he never stopped making feature films, Benegal's star


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waned in the 1990s. He made a comeback of sorts with Zub eid aa (2 00 1),featuring bankable Bollywood stars.

Bhumika (The Role) 1977,142 minCast: S m it a P a t i l , N a s e e r u dd in S h a h , A n a nt N a g , S w a bh a D e s h pa nd e, A m o l P a le ka r, A m ris h P u r icinematography: G o v in d N i h a la n i music: V a n ra j B h a tia

Based on the life of actress Hansa Wadkar, Bhumika follows the rise of actress Urvashi(Smita Patil), whose on-screen success makes a cruel contrast to her sad personal life inwhich she is exploited by a series of men and is unsuccessful in love. The film is also ajourney through the evolution of Hindi cinema, beginning in black and white and

ending in glorious Technicolor.Junoon (A Flight Of Pigeons) 1978,141 min

Cast: S h a sh i K a p oo r, J en n i f e r K e n d a l, S a n ja n a K a p o o r, S h a b a na A z m i , N a se e r u dd in S h a hcinematography: G o v in d N i ha la n i music: V a n ra j B h a tiaBased on Ruskin Bond's novel A Flight Of Pigeons, Junoon is possibly the finest film tobe set during the tumultuous 1857 uprising of Indian sepoys against their British rulers.A Muslim nobleman (Shashi Kapoor) hides an English family in his home to protect

them from rampaging Indian soldiers, smitten as he is by the family's young daughter.This causes problems both within and outside his home, the tensions reflecting the

wider chaos unfolding around them.Zubeidaa 2001, 153 min

Cast: K a r is m a K a p o o r, M a n o j B a jp a i , R e kh a , R a ji t K a p oo r, S u r e kh a S ik ri , A m r is h P u ri \cinematography: R a j a n K o t ha r i music: A .R . R a h m a nIn a departure from her usual raunchy dance numbers Bollywood star Karisma Kapoorplays Zubeidaa, a Muslim actress leaving her family (including her son by a previousmarriage) to become the second wife of a Hindu Rajput king. When the king stands forelection in newly independent India, Zubeidaa is marginalized. The film is notable for

the regal performance ofveteran actress Rekha as the king's first wife.

Karimuddin AsifIndia, 1924-71Though he directed only three films in a career spanning thirty years,

Karimuddin Asif will always be remembered as a man who thought on anepic scale. After directing the successful P hoo l (T he F low er, 1945),Asif

trained his sights on subcontinental history. Mughal-E-A zam (The E mperorO f T he Mugh als, 1960) was the most expensive Indian film of its time and


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took over fifteen years to complete. Progress on the film was hampered whenthe leading man, Chandra Mohan, died before shooting began. He waseventually replaced by Bollywood legend Dilip Kumar. After the film wasreleased, Asif began yet another ambitious film, Love And God, starring

Sanjeev Kumar. This time production was stalled by the director's own death.In 1986, Asif 's widow patched together a version and released it. Asifhasbeen a huge influence on his contemporaries and on Indian cinema ingeneral, particularly on Mughal-E-Azam writer Kamal Amrohi who wentthrough similar trials for his landmark P akeezah (P ure H eart, 1971).

Mughal-E-Azam (The Emperor Of TheMughals) 1960, 173 min, b/w and colCast: D il ip K u m a r, M a d h u b a la , P r i t h v i r a j K a p o o r; D u r g a K h o te , N ig a r S u l t a n a , A ji t K u m a r, J a la n A g h a

cinematography: R . D . M a t h u r music: N a u s h a dThis grand retelling of a popular subcontinental legend isjustly known for its grandsets, lavish dance sequences and cast of thousands, but at its heart is a tender lovestory. The romance between Mughal prince Salim and the commoner dancer Anarkali

is set against a backdrop of political intrigue, as the Emperor Akbar is forced toprioritize his empire above his errant son. The length doesn't in any way detract fromthe jaw dropping splendour of the proceedings. The film was colourized and re-

released in 2004, and was a success allover again.

Ramesh SippyIndia, 1947-Though he has made several accomplished films in his long career, Ramesh

Sippy will forever be known as the director of Sholay (1975). The greatesthit ever in the history of Indian cinema, it was, until recently overtaken byAditya Chopra's D ilw ale dulhania le jayenge (The Big H earted W ill W in The

Bride, 1995), the longest-running Indian film ever, showing for 286consecutive weeks in one Mumbai cinema. Son of the veteran producer G.P.Sippy, he began his career with the mature romance A ndaz (The G esture,1971). The rollicking comedy Seeta aur G eeta (1972) followed. Then came

Sholay, which marked the start of his association with the legendaryAmitabh Bachchan. A nonentity when the film began shooting, Bachchan


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was a superstar by the time it was released. Sadly, Sippy was never able toreplicate the film's success. The big-budget, James Bond-like S ha an (1 98 0),though very competent, was not a patch on its predecessor, nor was thebrooding Shakti (1982) or the Iove-triangle-themed Saagar (1985). Not tobe deterred, Sippy turned to television and made the monumental familysaga Buniyaad (1987). After returning to the big screen for a string of

forgettable films, he turned producer.It's only appropriate that Ramesh Sippy's Sholay (1975), the greatest hit in the history of Hindi cinema,in terms of both box-office returns and cultural impact, stars the greatest movie actor that Hindi

cinema has ever known. Son of the renowned poet Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Amitabh started his adultlife quietly enough, working in the shipping industry in Calcutta. A burning desire to become a starbrought him to Bombay (now Mumbai). After debuting as one of the seven leads in K.A.Abbas's war-

themed Saa t Hindus tan i (1969), Bachchan made an impact in a supporting role in HrishikeshMukherjee's Anand (1970) starring the then superstar Rajesh Khanna. A string of box-office failures

followed. Then star screenwriting duo Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar noticed him in a fightsequence in the comedy B om bay T oG oa (1972) and recommended him to director Prakash Mehra.Though he was the third or fourth choice for the role, Mehra cast Bachchan in Zanjeer (1973), in whichhe played an intense, terse cop who battles corruption by day and his childhood demons by night. Therole firmly cast Bachchan in the mould of the "angry young man" who takes on the system, and he waspraised by the masses and intelligentsia alike. Hit upon hit followed, not in the least, of course, beingSholay, in which he played a laconic small-time crook with a ready supply of sardonic one-liners.By the

late 1970s, Bachchan had evolved into an all-singing, all-dancing, wisecracking, showboating,heartstring- tugging entertainer, a process that began with Manmohan Desai's Amar Akba r An thony(1977). After he suffered a near-death experience on the set of Desai's Coolie (1983) all of India prayedfor him and heaved a sigh of relief when he recovered. Arou nd the same time, his childhood friend

Rajiv Gandhi became prime minister of India and persuaded Bachchan to enter politics. The experiencewas a disaster and also coincided with ill-health and a waning film career, with disappointing moviesfrom former stalwarts such as Desai's Gangaa J amuna a S ar aswa th i (1988), Mehra's Jaadugar (1989) andSippy's Akayla (1991). After a slump through most of the 1990s, Bachchan reinvented himself again in2001 as the host of Kaun bane ga k arodpa ti, the Indian version of Who Wants T oB e A M illio na ir e. He

became a national favourite again and roles commensurate with his age were specially written for him.Always a consummate actor, he won acclaim for his roles in films such as Karan Johar's Kabh i khush ik abh ie gham (2001), Ravi Chopra's Baghban (2003), Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black, Ram Gopal Varma'sSarkar (both 2005), and Johar's Kabhi a lv ida naa k ehna (2006). Today Bachchan is revered as the elderstatesman of Hindi cinema and has been heaped with encomiums asvaried as doctorates, the Legiond'honneur and a wax likeness in Madame Tussaud's amongst others. His son Abhishek Bachchan anddaughter-in-law, former Miss World Aishwarya Rai,are also big Bollywood stars in their own right. In1999 a BBCOnline poll saw Bachchan being voted as Star of the Millennium, beating off challengesfrom contenders such as Laurence Olivier, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin by alarge margin. At 65, he continues to be busier than his younger Bollywood contemporaries and is anever-present face in India, staring down from countless bil lboards and television commercials.


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Sholay 1975,204 minCast: S a n je ev K u m a r, D h a rm e nd ra , H e m a M a l in i, J a ya B h a du ri , A m ita bh b B a c h ch an , A m ja d K h a n

cinematography: D w a rk a D iv e c h a music: R .D . B u rm a nOften dubbed a "curry Western", Sholay is essentially a revenge drama in which aformer police officer hires two small-time crooks to capture the dreaded bandit

Gabbar Singh who had decimated his family. Blending elements of Akira Kurosawa'sSeven Samurai (1954), John Ford and Sergio Leone with uniquely Indian humour,music and emotion, Sippy pulled off that rare feat - a film that almost every Indian

knows scene by scene, line by line.

Mrinal SenBangladesh (formerly India}, 1923-One of the great triumvirate of Bengali filmmakers (along with Satyajit Rayand Ritwik Ghatak), Mrinal Sen is easily the most political of the three.

After dabbling in journalism, Sen joined the Marxistleaning Indian People'sTheatre Association, which took agitprop plays to isolated rural areas, andbecame a member of the Communist Party. After making several openlyMarxist-therned Bengali films, Sen burst upon the Indian national

consciousness with the Hindi-language B huvan Sham e (1969), a spare filmin which an uptight urban widower finds emotional salvation amongstsimple village folk when he goes on a rural hunting expedition. Around thistime, Sen and several of his contemporaries attempted to develop a sociallyengaged "Parallel Cinema" to compete with mainstream Bollywood. The1970s and 80s were Sen's most fertile phase; he placed Bengali middle-classconcerns against the larger backdrop of urban political unrest in such filmsas Calcutta 71 (1971), Ek din pratidin (And Quiet Rolls The Dawn, 1979),

A kaler sandhane (In Search O jF am ine, 1980) and K harij (The C ase Is C losed,1982).The influence of directors Francois Truffaut, Glauber Rocha,Fernando Solanas and Robert Bresson is also evident in many of the filmsfrom this period. Sen's commitment to political issues in his work meantthat he had an intellectually fractious relationship with Ray, who was

avowedly apolitical in his filmmaking.Akaler sandhane (In Search Of Famine) 1980,115 min


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Cast: S m it a P a ti l , S re e la M a ju m d a r, D h ri t im a n C h a tt e rje e , S a t y a B a n e r je ecinematography: K . K . M a h a ja n music: S a l i l C h o u d h u ryA film crew goes to a small village in Bengal to shoot a recreation of the 1943 famine(man-made by the British as food was diverted for World War II troops). The realitythe crew encounter is shockingly far removed from their urban Calcutta lives. Themasterful film-within-a-film structure enables a critique of the way in which the storyof the famine has been retold - both in other films such as Satyajit Ray'sAshan i sanket(Distant Thunder , 1973) and in this film itself.

Bimal RoyBangladesh (formerly India), 1909-66

The Vittoria De Sica of Hindi cinema, Bimal Roy masterfully orchestratedpoignant and lyrical hymns of Indian neo-realism. Even though his subjectswere marginal and occasionally criminal, he filtered the miserable travails ofthese victims of the caste system through a poetic, almost romantic ensibility.Born to moneyed landowners in Bengal, Roy had to up sticks and find work

in Calcutta when his family were cheated out of their wealth. Findingemployment at the New Theatres Studio, Roy quickly established himself asa talented photographer of still and moving pictures, forming a formidablepartnership with director P.e. Barua, notably on Devdas (1936). In 1943 Roymade Benga l Famine, a powerful documentary about the famine that haddevastated the region, displaying a social commitment that would becomethe hallmark of his subsequent work. Class conflict was a running battle in

Roy's movies: his heroes would often find themselves locked in aninternecine struggle with a boss or landowner. In Udayer pathey (The NewDawn, 1944) the sister of a rich industrialist defies her family by falling inlove with a radical novelist. Strident and unflinching in its naturalism, it wasa commercial success and a milestone in Indian cinema. Roy made a fewmore movies in Calcutta until the city's film industry dwindled, and movedto Bombay in 1951. It was about this time that he saw De Sica's BicycleThieves, a film that had a profound and lasting effect on Roy. The Italiandirector's neo-realist influence was most evident in Do bigha zamin (Two

Acres O f Land, 1953), Roy's undisputed masterpiece. In 1955, Royunexpectedly returned to a film he had photographed for Barua twenty years


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earlier, Devdas. Even though it is the one film of Roy's that has crossednational borders, it wasn't his most commercially successful work. That

honour goes to Madhumati (1958) an evocative and atmospheric ghost storyabout a man who is haunted by the death of his lover. Criticized for themarked absence of Roy's usual social critique, the story revolves around avillainous, venal boss, in this case the owner of a timber estate played byBollywood's legendary film villain, Pran. In Roy's last feature film, theexcellent Bandini (1963) a prison doctor falls for one of the inmates, the

Bollywood star Nutan, and discovers the tragic reasons that led her to kill incold blood.

Do bigha zamin 1953, 142 min, b/wCast: B a l r a j S a h n i , N ir u pa R o y, R a ta n K u m a r, M u ra d

cinematography: K am a l B o s e music: S a l i l C h o u d h u r yDescribed as one of the founding films of Hindi cinema,this is the powerful tale of a father who has to move toCalcutta to repay a loan. He lives in abject poverty as arickshaw driver while his son becomes a shoeshine boy.Bristling with a sense of social justice, Roy's masterpiece isall the more poignant for its autobiographical inflections.

Devdas 1955, 159 min, b/wCast: D il ip K u m a r, V y ja ya n th im a la , M o ti la l, S u c h i t r a S e n , N a s i r H u s s a in , M u ra d , K a n h a iy a la l, M o n i C h a tt e rje e

cinematography: K am a l B o s e music: S a ch in D e v B u rm a nIn one of the ten versions of Sarat Chand ra Chatterjee's classicnovel, Devdas, an impish boy spends an idyllic childhoodwith his neighbour Paro. When his antics become too muchfor his family he's sent away. Returning as a man, Devdas

and Paro instantly fall in love but are prevented from marryingbecause of the caste system's social regulations. With a

muted grandeur, Roy's mellifluous black-and-white photographyisachingly lyrical and beautifully modulated.

Bandini 1963, 157 min, b/wcast N u ta n B e h i, A s h o k K u m a r, D h ar m e n d ra , R a ja P a ra n jp ecinematography: K am a l B o s e music: S . D . B u r m a n

A prison doctor falls in a love with a beautiful prisoner(luminous screen legend Nutan Behi) and gradually discovers

why this apparent innocent is doing time for murder.


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The tale is told in flashback, Roy's dexterous ability withnarrative matched only by his expressionistic use of sound

and vision, which seems to get inside the head of its tormentedfemale protagonist during the celebrated murder

sequence.

Satyaj it RayIndia, 1921-92

Satyajit Ray is India's most renowned director. His films represent theserious arthouse strand in Indian cinema, in contrast to the masalamainstream of Bollywood. Raywas still working as an illustrator andcopywriter for an advertising firm when he made his debut, Fa ther pancha li(1955). Funded in part by the sale of his wife's jewellery, and made atweekends over the course of three years, the production would have

probably carried on in the same piecemeal fashion if it hadn't been for JohnHuston. On a visit to India, the director of The African Q ueen saw rough cutfootage and his enthusiastic support for the work-in-progress caused an

unlikely chain reaction that resulted in the West Bengal government fundingthe rest of the film. Itwas a sensation on release, both at home and abroad,meaning Ray was finally able to quit his day job. Ray was never popularthroughout India - the commercial success of his pictures was restrictedby his use of the Bengali language, as opposed to the more widely spokenHindi. But even though the language was specific to his region, Ray's

films spoke clearly to discriminating Western cinema-goers (the directoronce admitted that his international audience helped him survive as a

filmmaker). This is not really surprising, as Ray learned his craft by not onlystudying Vittorio De Sica's B icyc le Th ie ve s (1948) but also lapping upAmerican movies, especially those of John Ford and Frank Capra. And

although there is little of Hollywood's influence to be seen in the leisurelypace and the local subject matter, it's very much evident in the melodramatic

impulses and deft ability to quietly craft a narrative. There is a Frenchconnection too, in the humanist lens of his mentor Jean Renoir, whom Rayhad assisted on T he R ive r (1951). In all, Ray made over thirty films, writing,


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directing and editing them, designing the sets and eventually composing hisown scores. The Apu trilogy films - Pather panchali, Aparajito (The

Unvanquished, 1956) and The World O f Apu (1959) - are the best known.But Ray's oeuvre includes a number of other standout films. In T he Mu sicRoom (1958) a lonely widowed landlord puts on lavish concerts in hiscrumbling mansion. Devi (1960) was a disturbing fable of devotion anddeification. Charulata (The Lonely W ife, 1964) returned tothe theme ofloneliness, this time in the figure of a neglected wife. The magisterial DaysAnd Nights In The Forest (1970) told the story of four youngmen from thecity whose lives are quietly but fundamentally transformed when they

holiday in the country. D ista nt T hu nd er (1973) was a captivating, curiouslyuplifting domestic drama set against the Bengal famine of 1943. Anotherhistorical film, T he C he ss P la yers (1977) was the cheerfully eccentric tale oftwo Indian noblemen complacent in the face of British designs on their

territory. The HomeAnd The World (1984) was a compelling, slowburningchamber piece about the Indian practice of purdah. His later career was

marked by severe illness. A loose adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy OfT he P eo ple in 1989 represented a brave comeback, and Th e Stran ger (1992 )was a graceful final feature. Above all, Ray revealed himself to be a directorof moments. At their best, his films burned with a sensuous, incandescentquality, mastering one of cinema's most uncanny magic tricks, the illusionthat the camera is somehow able to capture the light from inside a humanbeing. Ifhe wasn't nicknamed "Ray of Light", then he should have been. Hehas been classified as a neo-realist but, in truth, Ray belongs to an oldertradition of fatalistic pantheism, displaying an appreciation of natureand misery reminiscent of the novels of Thomas Hardy. Despite its sourtragedies and unrelenting poverty, Ray's universe is a world of wonder. Soit's not surprising to discover that he was also a children's illustrator, or thatthis middle-class director was accused of an immoral alchemy, of turningpoverty into beauty. The distinct lack of an overt political agenda also

aggravated some left-wing critics. Instead, Ray evinced a warm humanismoften transmitted through a deceptively simple yet profoundly resonant

close-up of the human face: cinema's li ngua f ranca .


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Pather panchali 1955, 115 min, b/wCast: S u b ir B a n ne rje e , K a n u B a n ne rje e , K a r u n a B a n n e rje e , U m a D a s G u p ta , C h u n ib a la D e v i

cinematography: S u b ra ta M i tr a music: R a v i S h a n ka rAn impoverished writer has to leave his wife to look for work in the big city, leaving his

children (Apu and his fruit-stealing sister) to their own devices, with tragicconsequences. The tracks of Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thievesare evident throughoutthis spare, episodic classic, which at times segues effortlessly from neo-realism to

expressionism, evoking the magic of a child's world with the same eerie enchantmentas another masterpiece from 1955, Charles Laughton's Night Of The Hunter.

Aparajito (The Unvanquished) 1956, 110 min, b/wCast: P in a k i S e n gu p t a , S m a ra n G h o s a l, K a n u B a n n e rje e , K a r u n a B a n n e rje e , S a n ti G u p t a , R a m a n i S e n g u p ta

cinematography: S u b ra ta M i tr a music: R a v i S h a nk a rIn what initially feels like a documentary on city life in the subcontinent, Apu takes onthe role of wide-eyed ethnographer, spying on his neighbours and observing obscurerituals. When his father dies, he returns reluctantly to village life, but eventually

vacillates between town and country, much to the chagrin of his lonely mother. It's inthe city that the movie really comes to sweaty life, with Ray revealing an eye forsqualid yet remarkable detail, his deep-focus photography immersing the viewer

head-first in the hubbub of urban India.The World Of Apu (Apur sansar) 1959,117 min, b/w

Cast: S o u m it r a C h at te rje e , S h a rm i la T a go re , A lo k C h ak ra va rt y , S w a p a n M u k h e r je e , D h ir e s h M a ju m d a rcinematography: S u b ra ta M i tr a music: R a v i S h a n k a r

The third part of the Apu trilogy possesses less of the universal resonance that Ray hadpreviously mined so successfully, but remains a remarkable and lyrical achievementnonetheless. Now a young man, Apu is struggling to pay the rent working as a writer.When he attends a wedding at which the groom goes mad, Apu is drafted in as a

substitute husband. His new wife doesn't take to his down-at-heel lifestyle at first, butsoon their domestic difficulties turn into something else: bona fide tragedy.

The Music Room (Jalsaghar) 1958, 100 min, b/wcast C h a b i B is w a s , P a dm a D e vi , P in a k i S e n g u p t a , T u ls i L ah a r icinematography: S u b ra ta M i tr a

music: U s ta d V ila ya t K h a n , A s is K um a r, R o b in M a ju m de r, D a k h in M o ha n T a k hu rMaking a perfect double bill of yearning with Charu/ata, The Music Room zeroes in on alonely widower named Biswambhar Roy, the last of the landlord class. His only realcompanions are his memories and the guests who attend the lavish concerts that heregularly holds in the fading glory of his music room. The rest of the time Biswambharrattles around his ramshackle mansion like an Indian Charles Foster Kane. Spare,

evocative and exquisitely plangent.


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Charulata (The Lonely Wife) 1964, 117 min, b/wCast: S o u m it r a C h at te rje e , M a d h a b i M u k h e r je e , S h a ile n M u kh e r je e , S h y am a l G h os ha l, G i t a li R o y

cinematography: S u b ra ta M i tr a music: S a ty a ji t R a yRay's diary of a lonely housewife springs a couple of surprises: the song halfwaythrough the movie that seems to be either a nod to or a parody of Bollywood

conventions, and Ray'sfree-form style, which gives the film a nouvelle vague quality, asit gently oscillates between edgy, lyrical and impressionistic moods. Theoverwhelming sense of yearning, however, is almost too much to bear.

Mani RatnamIndia, 1956-

Unlike the garish excesses of most South Indian cinema, Mani Ratnam'sfilms - most of which are in the Tamil language - are models of subtlety.After a quiet debut, Ratnam broke through with Mauna ragam (A Silent

Symphony, 1986), a sensitive study of the break-up and subsequentreaffirmation of a marriage. His next two films - the Godfatheresque

N ayakan (H ero, 1987) and the sibling rivalry tale Agn i n ak sh atr am (1988) -became huge critical and commercial successes and firmly established

him as a bankable filmmaker with arthouse sensibilities. He followed themwith Gitanjali (1989), a tender love story between two people who don'thave long to live, and Anjali (1990), which saw him working with a large castof children for the first time. Raja (1992), a sensitive look at the Kashmirissue, was Ratnam's all-India breakthrough film. His best-known film,

Bombay (1995), came next. The politically themed Iruvar (The Duo, 1997)and D il se (From The Heart, 1998, his first Hindi film) did not achieveanything near the ecstatic response accorded to Bomba y. A la i p ayuth ey(Waves, 2000) saw Ratnam tackling the issue of marriage again, whileKannathil mutham ittal (A Peck On The Cheek, 2002) returned to politicalthemes with its story of a child's search for her mother set against thebackdrop of ethnic strife in Sri Lanka. A quasi-biopic of a controversialbusinessman, Guru (2007) was Ratnam's first Hindi-language film to be amajor success. Whatever the themes of his films, Ratnam is at his best when

exploring the nuances of human relationships.


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Bombay 1995, 141 minCast: A rv in d S w am y , M a n is ha K o i r a la , N a s se r, K it t y , T in nu A n a nd , A k a s h K h ur a na

cinematography: R a jiv M e n o n music: A .R . R a hm a nA love story between a Hindu man and a Muslim woman set against the backdrop ofthe 1993 sectarian violence in Bombay, this film caused controversy with its thinly

veiled portrayals offundamentalist leaders and its realistic depictions of inter religiousriots. The couple's twin sons, who are brought up to respect both religions, bring theirwarring Hindu and Muslim grandfathers together, and the film's message of tolerance- combined with A.R. Rahman's chartbusting songs -led to considerable box-office

success.

Mira NairIndia, 1957-

Mira Nair was originally a documentarian, and the documentary maker'scommitment to making sense of life as it is lived powerfully underpins hervivid, often beautiful films. Influenced by the Italian neo-realist filmmakers,Nair's films dramatize and document cultures, their frequent clashes,

misunderstandings and connections. Another preoccupation is the tensionsbetween the traditional and the modern. Nair studied at Delhi Universityand then at Harvard, where her thesis project was a documentary short,lam a M asjid Street Journal (1979), about a traditional Muslim community inOld Delhi. Other early documentaries include In dia C ab are t (1985), abouttwo striptease dancers, and Children O f A Desired Sex (1987), about theabortion of female foetuses. Nair's international breakthrough was thedrama S alaam B om bay! (1988), an outstanding debut film which won theCamera d'Or at Cannes for best first feature. Her next film, Mississippi

Masala (1991), was about an Indian family forced to leave Uganda duringthe rule of Idi Amin who settle in the American South. She also directed ashort film inspired by the death of the South African Communist leaderChris Hani, The Day The Mercedes Became A Hat (1993). Th e P erez F am ily(1995) was a Hollywood studiomelodrama about Cuban families coming to

Miami. My Own Country (1998) was another story of immigrants incontemporary America. Nair returned to her documentary roots with TheLaughing Club O f India (1999), which explored the phenomenon of clubs

where people meet for organized therapeutic laughter. Nair then experienced


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her biggest success with the lavish Monsoon W edding (2001), a teemingfamily-gathering movie in which all the disparate strands were beautifullyintegrated. In 2002, Nair contributed a piece to 11 '09"01, in which elevendirectors looked at the effects of 9/11 on people around the world. The livelyV anity F air (2004), an adaptation of a classic nineteenth-century novel, wasa change of direction. Starring Reese Witherspoon as plucky social climberBeckySharp, it looked stunningbut lacked Nair's usual incision. The

Namesake (2006) was a return to form and to Nair's perennial theme of thechallenges facing Indian immigrants abroad - in this case New York.

Salaam Bombay! 1988, 113 mincast S a f iq S y e d , S a r fu d d in Q u ra ss i, R a ju B a rn ad , R a gh ub ir Y a da v , A n e e ta K a n w arcinematography: S a n d i S is s e l music: L . S u b r a m a n i a mA classic slice-of-life realist drama about a child's journey from innocence to

experience, Salaam Bombay! Follows the life of a street kid called Krishna who isabandoned by his family and ends up in the Bombay slums. Through a panoply ofcharacters, city life is revealed in all its energy and desperation. The film was shot in

Bombay using child actors recruited from the streets.Monsoon Wedding 2001, 113 min

cast N a se e r u dd in S h a h , L il l e te D u be y , S h e fa li S h e tt y , V ija y R a az , T i lo ta m a S h o m e , V a s un dh a r a D a scinematography: D e c la n Q u in n music: M y ch ae l D a nn a

A number of stories intertwine as an upper-class family in Delhi prepare for anextravagant wedding. The film explores familiar Nair territory: culture clash and the

relationship between tradition and modernity. Luxuriating in wedding paraphernalia -from flower petals to henna tattoos - the film nevertheless has a rough home-movie

quality imparted by the loose hand-held camerawork.

Deepa MehtaIndia, 1950-Deepa Mehta epitomizes the new generation ofIndian directors makingfilms for a global audience. Based in Toronto since 1973, she made her

feature debut, Sam And Me, in 1991. It told the story of an Indian immigrantto Canada who forms an unlikely friendship with an elderly Jewish man, forwhom he works as a carer. Though Mehta has made other well-receivedfilms since, such as the romance The Republic O f Love (2003), she is best


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known for her "elements" series. The first of these films was the lesbian-themed Fire (1996). Earth (1998) was an accomplished look at the

India/Pakistan partition through a child's eyes. Filming of Water (2005),about the plight of widows in 1930s India, was forcibly interrupted whenactivists accused the film of being anti-Hindu. Undeterred, Mehta shot thefilm in Sri Lanka. Itwas nominated for best foreign-language film at the

2007 Oscars.Fire 1996, 108 min

Cast: N a nd ita D a s , S h a b a n a A zm i , K u lb hu sh a n K h a rb an d a ,J av ed J a f f r e y , R a n ji t C h ow d hu rycinematography: G i le s N u t tg e n s music: A .R . R a h m a n

Sita marries video-store owner Jatin, who lives with his brother and sister-in-law Radha.The brothers have no time for their wives, and gradually Radha and Sita are drawninto a lesbian relationship. The film enraged Indian fundamentalists for its frank

depiction offorbidden love and also for a scene in which a manservant masturbates infront of the brothers' paralysed mother while she watches religious TV programmes.

Earth 1998,110 mincast M a ia S e t h na , N a nd it a D a s, A a m ir K h a n , R a hu l K h a n n a , K itu G id w an i,

cin G i le s N u t tg e n s m A .R . R a h m a nSet in the simmering political cauldron of Lahore, 1947, just before the traumaticpartition of India and Pakistan, Earth looks at the increasing divide between Hindusand Muslims as the reality of separation draws closer. Based on Bapsi Sidhwa's

bestselling autobiographical novel, the story is seen through the eyes of a young girlfrom the neutral Parsee community.

Mehboob KhanIndia, 1907-64

Regarded as one of India's greatest ever filmmakers, Mehboob Khan willalways be known as the champion of the underdog, highlighting themes ofsocial oppression and the fight against it in film after film. Born RamzanKhan in rural Gujarat, he ran away to sample the glitter of Bombay's film

world. Some supporting acting work later, Khan finally debuted as a director


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in 1935 with Al Hilal (judgement Of Allah). The De Mille-esque epic, inwhich ill-equipped Arabs defeat the might of the Roman army, has an eerieresonance to today's times. Aurat (1940) documents the travails of a peasantwoman whose life is a long fight against the elements and sleazy landowners.Khan revealed his left-leaning ways (his production company logo was ahammer and sickle) with Roti (1942), a scathing attack on the capitalist wayof life. He changed tack with the love-triangle drama of Andaaz (1949), inwhich superstars Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar sought the beautiful Nargis'sfavours. Khan will, however, be always remembered for his remake ofAurat,the celebrated Mother India (1957) which, in additionto winning the bestactress award for Nargis at the Karlovy Vary festival, was nominated for the

best foreign film Academy Award.Mother India (Bharat Mata) 1957,172 min\

Cast: N a rg is , S u n i l D u tt , R a je n dr a K u m a r, R a a j K u m a r, K a nh a iy a la lcinematography: F a r e do o n A . lr a n i music: N a u s h a d

This sprawling epic depicts the struggles of Radha, who has to farm a tiny piece of landand bring up two young sons in conditions of extreme poverty after her husband

leaves them. In addition, she has to fend off the sexual advances of the local landlord,to whom the family is in debt. One of her sons eventually becomes a bandit and Radhahas to choose between maternal love and justice. This hugely influential film raised

the role of the mother in popular Indian cinema to almost divine heights.

Karan JoharIndia, 1972-

Son of the well-known producer Yash [ohar, Karan [ohar is a director,screenwriter and producer, as well as the host of a popular TV chat show.With only a handful of directorial credits under his belt, he is already one ofthe most successful filmmakers India has ever produced. After a minoracting role in Aditya Chopra's Dilwale dulhania lejayenge (The Big-HeartedWill Win The Bride, 1995), [ohar made his debut as a writer/director withthe Archie-comicsinspired candyfloss romance Kuch kuch hota hai

(Something Happens, 1998). The film was phenomenally successful amongstIndians globally and broke into the UK Top 10. Itwas followed by the familymelodrama Kabhi khushi kabhie gham (Happiness And Tears, 2001), which


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debuted at number three in the UK charts. [ohar continued his golden run,this time as a producer, with Kal ho naa ho (Tomorrow May Never Come,2003) and Kaa l (T im e, 2005). Returning to directing, he polarized Indianaudiences with his take on modern marriage in Kabhi alvida naa kehna

(N ev er S ay F arew ell, 2006). [ohar is one of the pioneers of the Non-ResidentIndian (NRI) genre that espouses traditional Indian values for the benefit of

Indian audiences worldwide.Kabhi khushi kabhie gham (Happiness And Tears) 2001,210 minCast: A m it a bh B a c hc ha n , S h a h R u kh K h a n , H r i th ik R o s ha n , K a jo l, R a n i M u kh e r je e

cinematography: K i r a n D e o h an s music: S a n de s h S h a nd il y a , B a b lo o C h a k r a v o r t h yThe youngest son of a family tries to reunite his estrangedelder brother with their stern father. Shrewdly mixingfamily values and jingoism with song and dance and

melodrama, the film is populated by a virtual who's who ofBollywood. Set mostly in national heritage locations in theUK, it is a multi-generational, multi-hankie spectacle that

appeals to the eyes as well as the heart.

the rough guide to film

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