50.Sholay

'Sholay' flopped. The critics were harsh, the performance at the box-office was mixed, and the industry, waiting for the smallest hint to knock the mega project of the brash young director, was merciless.
For the first time since Salim-Javed narrated the four-line idea two and half years ago, Ramesh panicked.
The weeks leading up to the release had been a blur. Ramesh was bug-eyed from lack of sleep.
The climax re-shot and re-mix had increased the birth pangs ten-fold. Prints and negatives were flying between Mumbai and London. There was no time to savour the finished product.
Meanwhile the hype had assumed a life of its own. The trade could talk of little else. Every day there was a new rumour: the film was being offered an 'Adults only' certificate; the censor board wanted further cuts;
the 70mm prints were not ready, so the Sippy's postponing the release date... and on and on.
A column in 'Trade Guide', the industry trade magazine, wrote: 'Wherever we went, we heard nothing but 'Sholay'... sometimes we also thought we would get allergic to it. Everyone wanted to see nothing but 'Sholay.' Many people in the industry preffered to discuss 'Sholay' to their own film.

Minerva, on Mumbai's Lamington Road, had been selected as 'Sholay's main theatre.
Minerva was known by its tag line: 'The pride of Maharashtra.' It was the only theatre at the time with a screen big enough for 70mm and six-track sound, and with 1500 seats it was also the largest cinema in the country. The theatre was dressed up like a bride for the release. Outside stood 30-foot cutouts of the star cast: Dharmendra, Amitabh, Sanjeev, Hema, Jaya and, of course, Amjad Khan. Inside were rows of photographs from the film, and garlands of flowers.

The premiere night was a glittering affair. On 14 August, two premieres were held simultaneously, one at
Minerva and one at Excelsior. For the cast and crew, it felt like life had come full circle. It was pouring outside, just as it had been on the first day of the shoot, and Jaya was glowing again - this time pregnant with Abhishek. The industry's top names, all spiffed up and shiny, walked into Minerva to see what the fuss was about. But there was a problem - the 70mm print hadn't arrived yet. It was still stuck at the customs.

The 70mm saga was a plot worthy of Salim-Javed. A senior bureaucrat in the finance ministry had declared war on the Sippy's. Since a large part of the post-production work was done in London, several permissions were sought. The bureaucrat felt he hadn't been given adequate importance and was still simmering. He decided to use every ploy to throw 'Sholay'off track.

When the unit went to London, he wrote to the Indian High Commission there to keep close tabs on them.
The Commission obliged. When the 70mm print came out, Ramesh decided to have a screening for friends and family. It was fixed for 10 one morning at the Odeon at Marble Arch. Ramesh also rang up the High Commissioner. 'But how,' said a senior secretary at the commission, 'can you have a screening? You don't
have permission for that. Your contract says materials must go straight from Technicolour to India.'
Then suddenly the secretary changed track: 'Okay, we'll come.' Ramesh had an intuition that all wasn't well and at the last minute cancelled the screening. It was fortunate. Because at exactly 9:50, people from the High Commission turned up to seize the print.
Orders were sent out to stall the Sippy's at every level. When Ramesh landed in Mumbai, he was stripped searched. When even that didn't produce anything, the bureaucrat simply told the custom officials not to clear the print. On the morning of 14 August the prints were still lying in tins at the customs.

G.P Sippy, never a man to take a beating lying down, went into action. He organized a high-level meeting.
Attending on G.P's terrace were Rajni Patel, a noted lawer and a close confidant of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, and V.C Shukla, minister for Information and Broadcasting, who was also the chief guest at the premiere. Shukla simply called Delhi and blasted into the bureaucrat: 'What are you trying to do?
Tell them to release the prints now.' The bureaucrat, taken aback by the reach of the Sippy's, mumbled a quick 'Yes sir.' But he managed to delay the prints by a few more hours. By the evening they still hadn't
reached the theatre, so 'Sholay's premiere audience saw a 35mm print.

Through the screening; there was little reaction. The audience seemed unmoved. There was no laughter, no tears, no applause. Just silence. 'It was very scary,' recalls Geeta (Sippy). In the stalls sat Prakash Mehra, who had once been one of the contenders for the four-line story. 'Maine yeh kahani kyun cchod di? he asked
himself aloud. After the film, as the audience streamed out of the hall, Pancham, who had been sitting next to Mehra, whispered to him: 'Log to gaaliyan de rahen hain.' 'Don't worry,' Prakash replied, 'this film is a hit.
No one can stop it.'

The morning-after-the premiere grapevine dripped poison. The film was dubbed 'Chholey', and the main cast, 'Teen maharathi aur ek chooha (Three warriors and a mouse)'.
Everything was wrong with the film. Why would women and family audiences want to see so much gore?
The friendship was in such bad taste. Amjad had no presence, and no voice...
'Hindustaniyon ko aisi picturein nahin achhi lagti hain (Indians don't like films like this),' pronounced a prominent industry figure.
The critics agreed. Taking off on the title of the film, K.L Amladi writing in 'India Today' called it a 'dead ember'. Thematically, its a gravely flawed attempt,' he wrote. Filmfare's Bikram Singh wrote: 'The major trouble with the film is the unsuccessful transplantation it attempts- grafting a western on the Indian milieu.
The film remains imitation western-neither here nor there.' The trade magazines weren't gushing either.
'The classes and families will find no reason for a repeat show,' said 'Film Information.'
'Trade Guide' called it a milestone but qualified the praise with a negative comparison with 'Deewar'
Now it was upto the audience. On 15 August 1975, 'Sholay' was released in the Bombay territory with forty prints.

50.Sholay

Dispite the notorious Mumbai ki barish which was coming sown in torrents, the crowds turned up; in fact, many people had started queuing up outside the theatres the night before the advance booking had opened.
The demand for the tickets was so high that in some theatres the managers just put the phone off the hook.
Looking at the advance, trade pundits were predicting that the film would cross a business of eleven lakh rupees in its first week.

But the buoyancy was balanced by the legions of cynics. After the premiere, the critics and indusrywalas had already given their verdict, and their had been more brickbats than bouquets. Even the black marketeers-
those most knowledgeable of critics - were a little apprehensive about the film.
Sure, it was the Midas touch of the Sippy's and Salim-Javed, and yes, the film had an impressive starcast,
but the story sounded strange: Sanjeev was playing a handicapped man and Jaya a silent widow, and there was some new villain who wasn't in the mould of the suave smugglers of the day like Ajit and Pran.

The Sippy's only hope was that the audience would prove them all wrong.

There was no reaction. On Friday, 15 August, the first day of 'Sholay's release, Ramesh drove from one theatre to another to assess the reaction of the audience. As on the premiere night, there was only silence.
Over the weekend, panic set in. The theatres were full but the reports were mixed. Pundits were now predicting disaster. No one told Ramesh that, but he could see it in their faces of all those he met.
Every one wore that peculiar expression of pity and awkwardness. They met him like he was a man in mourning.

The Sippys moved into damage-control mode. On the weekend, a hurried meeting was convened at Amitabh's house. G.P Sippy, Ramesh and Amitabh put their heads together to try and come up with solutions. Since there was no fear of piracy at the time, the release of the film in the major territories was being staggered. They could make substantial alterations before 'Sholay' hit the rest of the country.
One suggestion was re-shooting the end again. Amitabh, post'Zanjeer' and 'Deewar', was too big a star to die.
Jai was just a petty thief, he hadn't done anything to deserve death. Perhaps an ending in which the two couples walk into the sunset would salvage the film.

Salim-Javed were vehement that the film shouldn't be touched. Ramesh considered the suggestion for a new ending, but not for long. His head said he should do it but his heart wouldn't allow it. He went with his heart A happy end would compromise his film even further. It was important that the audience leave the theatre with a feeling that something had been left unfinished. That slight ache in the heart was part of the film's appeal. Not a frame would be touched. He would swim or sink with the film.

As the week wore on the anxiety of the crew turned into depression. On Monday morning, when the second week advance booking opened, there were modest queues outside Minerva and Excelsior where the 70mm prints were showing. At other theatres, hardly two or three people stood for tickets. In most of the suburban theatres, matinee shows had less than fifty per cent collections.
For Ramesh, this was confirmation that all was lost. He was devastated. That evening he walked into Film Center, where more prints were being made, and told Anwar, 'Printing band kar do. Abhi kuchh samajh main nahin aa raha hai (Stop the printing. I don't understand what's going on.)'
At home the unflappable demeanour cracked. It was the first time in his remarkable career that he was facing a flop. 'I think I've failed,' he told Geeta.

At the Sippy house the tension was palpable. G.P Sippy stood rock-steady and characteristically optimistic.
He was sure that the film would turn around. But at the back of his mind sat unpleasant thoughts:
The film had gone way over budget and creditors had to be paid back. They might never be able to make another film again. This was one gamble that could put them back years. There were even rumours that the
Sippys were packing up and leaving the country.

One week later, on 22 August 1975, 'Sholay' was released in Bangalore in six theatres.
Suresh Malhotra, the distributer, organized a grand premiere. The entire main cast and crew flew in for the night. Suresh loved 'Sholay'. When interviewed by 'Film Information' in July, he had predicted that the film would do a business of one crore. But it didn't look like the business would bear his claim. Even before the first week was over, collections took a dip in Bangalore.

But the worst affected was Amjad. As negative feedback filtered in, Amjad became more and more silent.
The normally effusive and volatile man retreated into a shell. His house was enveloped in gloom.
An equally disheartened Asrani visited him in the first week. Asrani had been shooting at the nearby
Mehboob Studio with Aruna Irani and she had suggested dropping in at Amjad's.
'Maine dam laga diya, ab nahi chali. kya kar sakte hain (I gave it all I had, but it hasn't worked. There's nothing to be done now),' Amjad told them mournfully.
'Lekin aapki taareef to bhut ho rahi hai (But theres great things being said about your performance),' Asrani
countered. Praise was little consolation. 'What's the use, yaar?' Amjad replied, fighting back tears.
'Salim-Javed have told Ramesh that my voice ruined the picture. Sorry folks, I've missed the bus.'

In all the sound and fury, Salim-Javed stood firm. 'Nothing doing,' they said to re-shooting proposals.
'This film will run.' It was the cockiness of youth and the confidence of a job well done.
The following week, the two put an advertisement in the trade papers. The ad said, 'Salim-Javed predict that
'Sholay' will be a grosser of rupees one crore in each major territory of India.'
The trade sniggered. Going by the response, the Sippys would be lucky if 'Sholay' managed forty lakh per territory.

Salim-Javed were wrong.
As it turned out, one crore was a conservative estimate. Mid-week, a curious thing happened: there was little advance booking, but the theatre's were full. The proprietor at Geeta cinema in Worli told Ramesh,
'Don't worry, your film is a hit.' It was the first time Ramesh had heard the word used in connection with his film. 'How can you say that?' he asked. 'Because the sales of my soft drinks and ice-creams are going down,'
the man replied. 'By the interval the audience are so stunned that they are not coming out of the theatre.'

Finally Ramesh understood why there was no reaction. People were overawed by what they were seeing.
They needed time. Now, clearly 'Sholay' had found its audience.
Word of mouth spread like a juicy rumour.
The visuals were epic and the sound was a miracle; when Veeru threw the coin in the climax,
people in the 70mm theatres dove under their seats to see where it had fallen.
By the third week, audiences were repeating dialogues.
It meant that at least some were coming in to see the film for a second time. Polydor noticed this and was quick to act. Record sales weren't good and the music company was in a panic.
Even though people came out of the theatres with smiles on their faces, they didn't buy the music.
The music men were bewildered. What was the problem here? Some key managers were dispatched to the theatres to see the film with the audience. They realized that the reaction to the dialogue was extraordinary.
Obviously 'Sholay's visuals and dialogue were so overpowering that the music barely registered.
If Polydor wanted to sell more records, it would have to give the audience what they remembered when they left the theatre: the dialogue.
The strategy succeeded. Polydor couldn't keep up with the demand as records flew off the shelves.

The tide had turned. 'Sholay' was beginning to prove all doomsayers wrong.

As the film caught on, tickets became priceless. The lines at Minerva stretched a few kilometres, from the theatre to the nearby Tardeo bridge. The bus stop outside was renamed 'Sholay' stop'. The Minerva manager,
Sushil Mehra, could barely keep up with the demand. He stayed at the booking window from 8 a.m to 8 p.m
and finally just moved his family into a two-room apartment at the theatre; going home seemed pointless.

The Sippys stopped listening to the trade. As the collections mounted, it became obvious that they were looking at something big.
In September, Ramesh left for London to take his much-deserved holiday. But every week the collections were given to him over the phone.
Ten weeks after its release the film was declared a super hit, and on 11 October 1975 'Sholay' already a blockbuster, was released in the territories of Delhi, U.P, Bengal, the Central Provinces and Hyderabad to a
record-breaking box office.

Several months later, Asrani ran into Amjad. Both had been invited to inaugurate a studio in Gujarat.
On the flight, Asrani laughed: 'Haan ji, did you miss the bus?' Amjad broke into a broad grin.
The studio was about forty kilometres away from the airport. While driving there, Amjad's son felt thirsty,
and they stopped at a small roadside stall. It was a ramshackle place selling cold drinks, biscuits and cigarettes. There was no other building or even a hut to be seen for miles.
As they entered the shop, a voice crackled on a rickety gramophone:

'Kitne aadmi the?'

Gabbar Singh's dialogue boomed through the shop.
The stall owner served the group drinks but did not recognize the star.
For a minute, Amjad stood absolutely still.
His eyes squinted in recognition of his own voice.

Then, listening to his voice playing in a shanty on a dusty, deserted road

in the middle of nowhere,

Amjad Khan sat down and cried.

50.Sholay

Sanjeev Kumar

Hari bhai died in 1985. He was only forty-seven, but a lifetime of unhealthy eating and drinking habits had caught up with him. Sanjeev never achieved the status of 'phenomenon' as Rajesh Khanna or Amitabh Bachchan did. In fact, toward the end, he had become increasingly careless about his looks.
But his name was a standard for good acting. And unlike other stars, he wasn't bound by commercial considerations. He enthusiatically donned a gray wig to play the Thakur. For Sanjeev, always, the role was the prize.



dharmendra/Hema Malini

Dharmendra and Hema Malini married in 1980. Amma's strict admonitions were no match for Paaji's charm.
But Hema's image as a dignified dream girl was so strong that even though she became Dharmendra's second
wife, she escaped vilification from both the press and public. The couple have two daughters.



Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan held on to superstar status for two decades. The uncharismatic underdog who couldn't get a film left his rivals eating dust. Nobody else even came close. He was ranked number one to ten.
Amitabh survived a near-fatal accident on the sets of Manmohan Desai's 'Coolie', the debilitating disease myasthenia gravis, and a scandal-ridden plunge into politics. By the late 80's and early 90s, Bachchan's films were propelled purely by star appeal. In 1992, the 'one-man industry' took a long holiday from films and returned three years later.



Jaya Bhaduri

The lady of the lamps was among Jaya's last roles. Engrossed in her children and marriage, she abandoned her career soon after 'Sholay'. She returned in 1981 in Yash Chopra's 'Silsila' and has since done the occasional challenging roles.



Amjad Khan

Amjad died on 27 July 1992 at the age of forty-eight. Amjad was candid enough to acknowledge that a role like Gabbar happens only once in a career. 'From here,' he often said, 'the only place i can go is down. This
cannot be repeated.' But Amjad became a leading villain and character artiste, playing parallel roles in hits such as 'Mukaddar Ka Sikandar', 'Suhaag', 'Lawaaris' and 'Mr Narwarlal. He also turned in a critically acclaimed performane in Satyajit Ray's 'Shatranj Ke Khiladi.'
On 15 october 1976, Amjad met with a near-fatal accident on the Mumbai-Goa road. Swerving to avoid hitting a boulder, he drove the car into a tree. The steering wheel went into his chest. He recovered from the
serious injuries, but the drugs administered to him caused a serious weight problem. He ballooned dramatically, and soon the roles coming to him were comedies. But Amjad rarely complained. 'I've come with nothing and whatever i've made in this life is profit,' was his philosophy till his untimely death.



G.P Sippy

Gopaldas Parmanand Sippy was the right man at the right time, he was a man who felt these changes in the air and responded to them in his films. His mind was keen and his instincts impeccable. He was a lawyer by
training and a gambler by nature. He had run a restaurant, constructed buildings, produced films, directed
films and even dabbled in acting. G.P had the knack for spotting an opportunity, and the guts to run with it.
In 1947 the Sippy's had migrated to Mumbai from Karachi with only their shirts on their backs. Stories of how G.P built back the family fortune are now industry folklore. Legend has it that he was eating in a restaurant in Colaba when he noticed that there was a long line outside the door. He asked his neigbour the
reason and was told that the offices in the area had just halted work for lunch. So G.P decided to open a restaurant. He located an appropriate shop, but he did not have the Rs 5000 required to rent it. In fact, he had hardly any money at all. But in the morning he opened a bank account with Rs 100, and wrote out a cheque to the landlord. The shop was his. G.P then promptly mortgaged the shop for Rs 5000 and deposited
the money in his bank.



Ramesh Sippy

Ramesh Sippy Couldn't escape 'Sholay'. But Ramesh never capitulated to 'Sholay's success.
He defied audience expectations, and instead of rehashing the 'Sholay' formula, chose to always experiment.
The team followed 'Sholay' with 'Shaan', an urban James Bond style caper about two petty thieves.
'Shaan' was a technically polished product, which recovered its money but fell short of expectations.
Ramesh's next film, 'Shakti', an intimate portrait of a tragic father-son relationship, was praised for its craft and award winning performances. As was the next venture, 'Saagar', a lyrically shot romance.
Ramesh then moved his sights to television and created the small classic 'Buniyaad'. A partition soap opera,
'Buniyaad' was so popular that streets from Lahore to Mumbai emptied out when the show was aired.



Salim-Javed

Salim-Javed split. Through the seventies and early eighties, they fashioned the trends in Hindi cinema,
churning out hit after hit. Though none of their later works could recreate the magic of their early films like
'Zanjeer', 'Deewar' and 'Sholay', they had already made the Hindi movie writer one of the central figures in the movie-making business. Their names were prominently displayed on hoardings, and their payment ultimately reached an unheard-of sum of Rs 21 lakhs per film. In some projects, Salim-Javed shared up to
twenty-five per cent of the profit. No other writer in the business has ever matched their success.
But eventually the egos grew too big for the hyphen. In 1981, they parted ways and pursued individual careers as writers. Javed's creativity found expression in songs. His name can still be seen on hoardings.
only now it's an award-winning lyricist. Salim eventually married Helen and retired. His sons, actors
Salman and Arbaaz and director Sohail, carry forward the torch.



R.D Burman

The most innovative, futuristic and trail-blazing composer of all time, Pancham alias Rahul Dev Burman
Intregrated Western and Indian music into a synergistic blend.
His highly individualistic style was evident from his earlier films like 'Teesri Manzil'. Later 'Aandhi',
'Amar Prem', 'Caravan', 'Hare Rama Hare Krishna', 'Jawani Diwani', 'Kati Patang' and 'Padason' proved his
class and mass appeal. As a singer, he was indeed unique (Duniya mein logon ko, Mehbooba mehbooba).
Ditched by fickle producers, he went into a decline in the 80s only to leave this world with a daz'zling burst
of final gloryin '1942 A Love Story'.



Anand Bakshi

Anand Bakshi was the most disheartened when the qawwali sung was not used in the film.
The writers decided , for a qawwali in the comedy track of the film. But then, instead of the qawaali,
Javed suggested the chaar bhaand of Bhopal. Chaar Bhaand, a dying art, is a composition sung by
four groups, instead of the qawwali's traditional two, with the audience enjoying the exchange sitting
in the middle. Through Javed's contacts, a chaar bhaand group was found in Bhopal, They came to
Mumbai and played for Pancham in his music room. He developed a qawwali along chaar bhaand lines -
an eight-minute-long musical interplay of words and wit between four singers.
The qawwali was recorded but never shot - the film was already longer than the requisite three hours.
'Perhaps if they had kept it, i might have had a career as a singer', Bakshi said.



Dwarka Divecha

Dwarka Divecha died on 5 January 1978. He had been drinking all night, and in the morning his wife found him dead. He was sixty. At an age when most men transit into comfortable retirement, Divecha found himself in the middle of a scandalous love affair with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter.
'Sholay' had enhanced Divecha's professional reputation and ruined his personal life.
While shooting 'Shaan' at Rajkamal studios, Divecha bumped into Kamlakar Rao, who had done second
unit camerawork for 'Sholay'. 'Have you heard anything about my personal life?' Divecha asked Rao.
Out of sheer respect, Rao said, 'no'. Then, seeing through Rao's politness, Divecha added, with an air of
defeat, 'I only wanted a child.'



A.K Hangal

A.K Hangal, who had done extensive work with IPTA, was also a veteran actor, but he was a newcomer to
films - before 'Sholay', he had only done a few, select films like 'Guddi' and 'Namak Haraam', preferring instead the rigours of theatre. But he had already earned a formidable reputation and prominent directors
turned to him when they had a important character role in their films. Hangal had prepared extensively for his role as a blind man, using what he calls 'psycho-technique'. He imagined the feeling of blindness by
going millions of years to the beginning of evolution, when all life that was to come was contained in sightless single-celled organisms swimming in the dark waters. Once there, he would grope and search
for light. He kept the seaching movement through the scene of Ahmed's death.
Tarachand Barjatya was on location when they shot the scene and was greatly impressed by what he saw.
So much so that he wrote Hangal a letter saying that he had never seen another scene like it.



Asrani

The team had one mantra: No Compromise. Ramesh was a methodical and organized man. Even the peripheral characters were fleshed out in detail. Asrani, a popular comedian of the time, was called in for the jailer's role. While Javed narrated, Salim explained the characterization: this man was an eccentric jailer, a blow hard man, hollow from the inside. Asrani agreed, wondering whether he would be able to deliver the goods.
At a second meeting, Javed brought a World War II book, which had several pictures of Hitler posing.
The jailer's get-up would be Hitler-inspired. Akhtar Bhai from Kachin's made the outfit and Kabeer the wig maker was brought in to fix the hair-do. 'Itne chhote se role ke liye itna detail,' Asrani says, 'yeh log to kamaal kar rahe the'. The jailer's lines were perfected by Asrani himself. He would start at a high pitch and only go higher. It was the perfect ploy to stir passions. To this Asrani added Jack Lemmon's 'Ha Ha' from a film called 'The Great Race'



Saachin

Saachin became a director himself. 'Sholay stayed with him, literally. When he refused payment for his work, Ramesh gifted him an air-conditioner, the first one Saachin ever owned. 'Jab AC ki thandi thandi hawa aati hai,' he says, 'mujhe 'Sholay' ki yaad aati hai'. Two decades later, he paid tribute to his early
mentor by making a parody of 'Sholay' for a television programme.
Saachin wasn't the only one who took home a Sholay momento. On the film's diamond jubilee, the
Sippys gifted a Fiat car to Dwarka Divecha. The main cast received gold bracelets crowned with a diamond stud. It was a fitting gift Like the stone, 'Sholay' is forever.



Jagdeep

The character of Soorma Bhopali had been gestating for years. Finding the right actor here proved easy.
Actor Jagdeep had been starring in Sippy productions since he was a nine-year old child.
Jagdeep had never been to Bhopal, Soorma's hometown. But while working in 'Sarhadi Lootera', he had met
Javed, and they hit it off well. Both were excellent mimics. One evening, during a post-shoot mimicry session, Javed imitated the way some women speak in Bhopal. Jagdeep picked it up and it became a running
joke between them. Years later, when Salim-Javed were crafting the screenplay, Javed remembered Jagdeep.



Helen

Gabbar would follow a weapon-buying spree with a decadent night under the stars.
Gypsies would do 'Mehbooba'. It was the perfect way to squeeze in a sexy Helen number. Javed hated it .
It was a completely generic situation, the villain watching a semi-clad dancer. It was too filmi, and out of character for Gabbar. This was perhaps the only time that he and Ramesh had heated discussions.
But when he heard the song he did a volte-face.
Since no other singer could match the raunchy beat, Pancham decided to sing it himself. And the rest is history.



MacMohan

Sambha, the bit role that would immortalize character actor Macmohan, was factored in only as the dialogue
was being written. The writers wanted to say that Gabbar Singh had a Rs 50,000 reward on his head.
But they thought that a man of Gabbar's arrogance would probably order a flunkie to boast for him. So the following lines were written:
'Arre o Sambha, kitna inaam rakhe hain sarkaar hum par'?
'Poore pachaas hazaar'.
Sambha, Gabbar's echo, was then intregrated into the screenplay.



Viju Khote

Viju Khote became Kaalia for life. Viju's son was only three when the film released, and sometimes when people on the road reconized Viju and shouted, 'Hey, Kaalia,' the little boy would get angry. And Viju
would patiently explain: 'Its okay, beta, we are eating our bread and butter because of that.

50.Sholay

Facts on Sholay.

1.Released on 15 Augast 1975.

2.Real Bullets were used for the close up action scenes.

3.Amitabh was almost killed at the end of the movie when a stray bullet from dharmendra missed him by inches.

4.First scene shot for the movie was Amitabh returning the keys to the safe to Jaya.

5.There are two sets of negatives, one in 70mm and one in 35mm as every shot/scene was done twice.

6.The last shot done in the village was Jai's death scene.

7.Basanti's chase sequence was shot over twelve days.

8.Jim Allen,Gerry Cramton,Romo Commoro,John Gant...some of the foreign technicians who worked on the action sequences.

9.The train sequence took seven weeks to shoot.

10.The last scene shot for Sholay was the Thakur meets Veeru and Jai outside the jail and offers them the job.

11.Sholay took nearly two and half years to complete (450 shifts)

12.Amjad's voice was nearly dubbed as there were whispers it not being strong enough for a villain.

13.The background music took a whole month to complete.

14.Sholay's Budget was close to three crores.

15.Jaya was pregnant during the shooting of the film with Shweta Bachchan.

16.Jaya was glowing again during the premiere of Sholay...this time with Abhishek Bachchan.

17.Sholay's premiere audience saw a 35mm print as the 70mm one was stuck at customs.

18.Sholay was released in Bombay with 40 prints.

19.Saachin was a veteran film actor with 60 films behind him from 1962.... but A.K Hangal was a newcomer to films.

20.Amjad's first scene shot was his introduction scene .....his first lines "Kitne Aadmi The"?

The deleted 'Chaar Bhaand' qawaali. (8 mins)

Playback: Kishore Kumar, Manna Dey, Bhupinder and Anand Bakshi, with chorus.

Chaand sa koi chehra na pehloo main ho
To chandni ka mazaa nahin aata
Jaam peekar shraabi na gir jaahe to
Maikashi ka mazaa nahin aata

(There is no joy in moonlight
Without the moon-faced one by my side.
There is no joy in wine
If having drunk I do not stumble and fall)

flippin hell mate, I actually read all of the Sholay stuff, engrossing stuff, never knew it had so many problems, just goes to show we dont appreciate every thing behind a film.

well done.

Thanks ibster...............

Now* get ready, for the other 50 movies...........

So far the list has one great movie after another.

I am very very pleased that RAJ KAPOOR's work is recognized by you.

Just want to know if anyone of the following will be (or is already) in your list??

ANGOOR
SANGAM
WOH 7 DIN
SATTE PE SATTA
NASEEB APNA APNA
VAASTAV
KABHI HAAN KABHI NAA
KHILONA
ESHWAAR
YEH ZINDAGANI
KAL AAJ AUR KAL
KHAMOSH

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!

Raj
Impressive list, fantastic work. Tell me about Ek Phool Do
Mali *ing Balraj Sahni, Sadhana, Sanjay. Keep it up yaar!

51.Masoom

*Naseeradin Shah,Shabana Azmi,Saeed Jaffrey,
Urmila Matondkar,Jugal Hansraj and Aradhana.


(1982)Shekhar Kapur's
Written by:Gulzar
Music by:R.D Burman

Maybe once in 50 years, a celluloid adaption
transcends its source material.
In his directorial debut, Shekhar Kapur chose
to film Erich Segal's heavily melodramatic
tearjerker 'Man,Woman and Child'

Kapur went beyond both the novel and the Hollywood adaptation to make a film that's sad, and yet uplifting, elitist and yet universal. A lot of the credit for the film's fabulous impact('Masoom' achieved that
rare synthesis of critical acclaim and mass acceptance)must go to the actors who don't just live their roles. They breathe life into every pore of the narrative so that there isn't a single unbelievable moment in the narrative.

Masoom is the story of a family crisis that can affect anyone. G.K. Malhotra was on a business trip when he met a very attractive woman. She was tempting. He was already married and had a baby on the way. But he could not resist the temptation... Years have past. Malhotra has two young daughters. Then he receives the dreadful phone call. His then-mistress is dead. She has a young son that Malhotra will have to care for. Rahul, the young boy, is completely innocent. He can not help being an illegitimate child. But his presence is tearing his father's family apart. What will happen next? Will Rahul have a new chance at life? Will his new family accept him?

Naseeraddin Shah as architect D.K.Malhotra,
who watches his carefully constructed life come apart brick-by-brick, is stunning.
His interactions, not just with his wife and
his newly discovered son, but also with his Punjabi friend (Saeed Jaffrey) are brilliant.
Naseer has gone on record to single out this as one of the most satisfying films of his
career.

And Shabana? Well, what do we say about her
that hasn't already been said?
As the wife whose well-ordered home is thrown
asunder by the arrival of her husband's
illegitimate child, she exudes anguish, anger
and a suppressed fire.
It couldn't have been easy for her to play
this sulking mother who snubs every effort of
the wide-eyed cherubic moppet (jugal Hansraj)
to reach out to her.

Weeping women in the audience could have easily ended hating Shabana's stoic resistance to her maternal instincts.
Surprisingly, women all over the country empathized with Shabana's character and her
dilemma as the seed of her husband's past
infidelity comes to haunt her home.

The children were a delight.
Urmila is the all-knowing too-mature-for-her-age elder daughter and Aradhana (what happened to her)is the precocious younger
Malhotra heir, both peering anxiously and
apprehensively at the angelic stranger
(Jugal Hansraj) who has dropped in their midst.
In the sequences with the kids, notably in the song "Lakdi ki kathi", Shekhar gave us an
inkling of what he planned to do in his next ambitious film, 'Mr.India'.
Lekin abhi ke liye, Mogambo khush hua.
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52.Umrao Jaan

*Rekha, Naseeradin Shah, Raj Babbar, Farooq Shaikh, Leela Mishra and Dina Pathak.
(1981)Muzaffar Ali's

"IN AANKHON KI MASTI KE mastane hazaron hain"
Welcome to the Lucknow of the 1890's, into the court of the beautiful tawaif Umrao Jaan Adaa, who lived her life in solitary splendour, surrounded by fawning fans and drooling admirers, 'Umrao Jaan' was the jaan of all, but the mistrees of none except her own will.

When Muzaffar Ali set out to film the life of this legendary kothewali, as chronicled in the novel by Meer Hadi Hassan Ruswa, he knew exactly what he was getting into.
First, he got the composing maestro Jaidev to record the ghazals and mujras. And then, he scrapped the whole score beause it didn't sound like what Ali's 'Umrao Jaan' would sing.
Next, he got Khayyam to do the tunes for Shahryar's exquisite poetry about searching and never finding love

Rekha certainly 'looked' the part.
With her chiselled expressions, mysterious smile and subtle adaas, she was sufficiently able to cover up her inadequacies as a dancer.
Cinematographer Pravin Bhatt (director Vikram Bhatt's father) did an outstanding job of catching Rekha's face in the light of of approaching evening.
She never looked more dusky, inviting and sensuous.

The beautifully crafted story begins and ends with a song.
In the beginning, we see the child Umrao frolicking to the sounds of the traditional bidaai song "Kahe ko biyahe". The child is then abducted and trained to be a sophisticated tawaif.
At the end, Umrao is back at her long lost home, revisiting her childhood memories through the song
"Yeh kya jagah hai doston".
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53.Muqaddar Ka Sikandar

*Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Raakhee, Amjad Khan and Rekha.

(1978)Prakash Mehra's

This was a 5-angled love tale about misplaced affections, which seem to have written itself out on the sets.
Bilawal (Amjad Khan) loves the stunning kothewali Zohrabai (Rekha) who loves Sikandar (Amitabh Bachchan) who loves Kamna (Raakhee) who loves Vikas (Vinod Khanna).

The film today is recalled mainly for Amitabh Bachchan's powerhouse performance, and Rekha's smouldering intensity as the kothewali who pines away to death for her beloved.

Looking at 'Muqaddar Ka Sikandar' today, we still find the film fresh and appealing in the chemistry among the characters. Everyone loves passionately in the film, whether it's the villainous Bilawal or the intense Sikandar. All their crimes of excesses are excused because everyone is a lover.
The only namby-pamby charactor is Vikas, who dosn't seem to have the same grip on the grammar of love as the other characters.

Prakash Mehra's other successful collaborations with Amitabh and Vinod like 'Khoon Pasina' and 'Hera Pheri', and even the solo Bachchan starrers, 'Zanjeer' and 'Lawaaris', were predominantly action films.
'Muqaddar Ka Sikandar' and later 'Sharaabi' were the only two Bachchan-Mehra collaborations where love made the world go around.

The long film, edited swiftly and efficiently, moves through the roads and highways of Mumbai linking the 'Devdas'-theme to an urban setting.
The ghetto and gallis were prominently created on studio floors. The film looked big in size and emotions.
The opening scenes, where the junior Sikandar is shown to be slavishly devoted to the junior Kamna, as she sits by the piano singing "O saathi re tere bina bhi kya jeena" in Asha Bhosle's voice, is linked to the later version of the same song that Amitabh Bachchan sings on stage in Kishore Kumar's voice, as a moving tribute.

Rekha's long death sequence mid-way through the film announces Amitabh Bachchan's impending death.
It's almost as though the two characters were doomed from the start.
'Muqaddar Ka Sikandar' was the tale of Sikandars's muqaddar.
It changed the muqaddar of the movie industry. It vied with the other Bachchan-Raakhee blockbuster that year, Yash Chopra's 'Trishul', and emerged a bigger success in several centres.
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54.Roti Kapada Aur Makaan

*Manoj Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman.

(1974)Manoj Kumar's

'Roti Kapada Aur Makaan' was the biggest hit of 1974.
It established the multi-starrer trend that got consolidated in the following year with 'Deewar' and 'Sholay'.
It also established Shashi Kapoor and Zeenat Aman as a popular team that went on to do ten more films, none of which did as well.
Even more important, it was the first of the many Shashi Kapoor-Amitabh Bachchan multi starrers.

The story-line, as was usual for Manoj Kumar, was simple. It dealt with an educated but unemployed youth,
Bharat (Manoj Kumar) who find out the harsh reality that in 20th century India, his academic degree is not worth the price of the paper it is printed on as it does not even help him get the three basic necessities of life
-food, clothing and shelter.
His mercenary girlfriend ditches him to marry a tycoon, while his younger brother is equally disillusioned.

"'Roti Kapada aur Makaan' followed the tradition of 'Upkar' and 'Purab aur Paschim' in focussing on a major national problem. It was like a huge sugercoated pill and remains my biggest hit to date as s filmmaker," says Manoj Kumar, actor, writer, editor, producer and director of the film.

According to Manoj, the basic idea was always floating in his mind as one of his seniors in scholl had a habit of saying 'Maang raha hai Hindustan, Roti kapada aur makaan' which was incorporated in the song
"Mehangi maar gayi". Shortly after 'Purab Aur Paschim', he read a news item where a girl had torn her degree at the invocation ceremony itself because she was unable to get a job and provide basic comforts for her family members who were dependent on her, despite graduation.
"The citizen in me was touched very deeply," he recalls. "I had always remained in touch with the common man in various ways, and having tackled other problems in my previous films, I decided to write a story about the unemployed son of India - Bharat. I wrote the script in five days."

The issues highlighted in the film are probably even more relevent today than when the film was released 26 years ago. That is why 'Roti Kapada Aur Makaan' will always remain topical.
As an exercise on celluloid, it remains one of those rare films that showed all round cinematic and technical excellence and yet emerged as a mega-hit that, along with its brilliant music, endures to this day.
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55.Border

*Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff, Sunil Shetty, Akshaye Khanna, Tabu, Raakhee, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Puneet Issar, Pooja Bhatt and Sudesh Berry.

(1997)J.P.Dutta's

'Men At Their Best. War At Its Worst.'

While Hollywood is seen to be quite obsessed with war-movies, when it comes to our film industry, the only two significant films we can talk about Cheten Anand's classic, 'Haqeeqat' and J.P. Dutta's 'Border'.
Though 'Haqeeqat' was based on the 1962 Indo-China war and 'Border' inspired by 1971
Battle of Longewala, that comparisons would br drawn was a foregone conclusion.
But both films are classics in their own right.

According to Dutta, the distinguishing factor between the two films is that 'Haqeeqat' was
defeatist in nature, 'Border' signifies victory in battle - triumph in the face of bitter adversity,
snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, so to speak.
He promised that this film would have people elated with joy, something rare as far as war films go. Having seen it once, so sure was he of a repeated viewing from the public.

The story revolves around a small Indian battalion at the border region of Longewala, merely fifty in number, which withstands the enemy's attack to capture it - a force of two thousand men with their tanks and ammunition. The Indians emerge triumphant with the dawn of the next day when the Air Force arrives in the nick of time to gain losing glory. A very well-researched script, the film was gripping in its narration and was even approved by the Ministry of Defence.

As is the norm in all his films, J.P. went in for a star-studded parade for this film as well.
He cast star-actors like Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff, Sunil Shetty and Akshaye Khanna to play the main lead in this war epic.

One of the most significent aspects of the film is that it was shot on actual locations amidst the vast deserts of Bikaner. Not only that real armymen particpated in the shooting of the film and genuine equipment including tanks, armed jeeps and other ammunition was used to realise this dream of the filmmaker.
For The stars of the film too, the shooting was almost like an adventure, though without any fills.
Sunil Shetty recollects how every time they opened their mouths to speak lines, small insects would make their way in their mouths.

Sunny Deol, playing a Sikh commander, brilliantly essayed his part, delivering some of the bset lines of his career. A performance par excellance, he realistically inspires his men to fight the enemy to the finish.
Jackie Shroff, who played an Air Force pilot states that he is proud to be a part of this landmark film.
Though his role was short in terms of footage, his character brought a sunshine of hope at a time when India was almost on the verge of losing the post to the foe.
'Border' in a way, also brought glory to Akshaye Khanna who was struggling on shaky ground after a bad start.

The film's music scored by Anu Malik is easily considered among his best, with instant chartbusters like
'Sandese aate hain' and ' Aye jaate huhe lamhon' besides other sensitive numbers penned by the poet-lyricist,
Javed Akhtar.

'Border' remains a benchmark film, which will go down in history as one of the only two highly successful war films made in India.
And like 'Haqeeqat', it will ever serve as a yardstick for any filmmaker attempting to make a film on this theme.
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56.Aandhi

*Sanjeev Kumar, Suchitra Sen, Om Shivpuri, Manmohan, A.K Hangal, Om Prakash and Rehman.

(1975)Gulzar's

Music:R.D.Burman
Lyrics:Gulzar

A combination of marital romance and political intrugue.

A woman politician, Aarti Devi (Suchitra Sen), fights an election against the powerful Chandersen.
Her headquarters are in a hotel owned and managed by her estranged husband J.K (Sanjeev Kumar).
Their memories of life together are intercut with the election campaign, the opposition turning her nightly meetings with her ex-husband into a scandal.

She eventually wins the election following an impassioned speech from Chanderson's platform in which she proclaims the man to br her husband and insists on her right to marital privacy.

The Bengali musical superstar Suchitra Sen's last Hindi film role is controversial because of her character's
obvious references, during the Emergency, to Indira Gandhi (e.g the streak of white hair; the reference to an
ambitious father who caused her marriage to break up), producing some mild censorship problems.

There were also some popular Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar duets such as
'Is mod se jaate hain', Tere bina zindagi se and Tum aa gaye ho noor aa gaya hai.
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57.Kala Patthar

*Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Raakhee Gulzar, Shatrughan Sinha, Neetu Singh, Prem Chopra, Parveen Babi, Poonam Dhillon, Parkshit Sahni, Iftikhar, Madan Puri,
sp: Sanjeev Kumar.

(1979)Yash Chopra's

Script:Salim-Javed
Music:Rajesh Roshan/Salil Choudhury
Lyrics:Sahir Ludhianvi

A coal-mining tale about three main characters who try to avert a mining disaster in a colliery owned by
Seth Dhanraj (Prem Chopra).
Vijay (Bachchan) is a court-martialled merchant navy officer who abandoned his ship during a storm and is riddled with guilt. He works as a miner to forget his past.

Mangal (S.Sinha) is a dacoit hiding from the police among the miners.
Ravi (S.Kapoor) is an engineer working for Seth Dhanraj. He discovers his greedy employer's scheme that will endangour the lives of hundereds of miners in a coal-rich shaft.
The men meet women who transform their lives. Vijay falls in love with Sudha (Raakhee), a doctor.
Mangal flirts with a bangle seller (Singh) and then rescues her from rapists.
Ravi meets his old flame Anita (Parveen Babi) who is now a journalist and has come to do a story about mines.

The wall of the mine shaft collapses and there is a deluge, leading to a long disaster-movie sequence as Mangal atones by sacrificing his life for his fellow miners.
Vijay and Ravi survive after rescuing many workers.

The film refers to several mining disasters in Dhanbad and Chasnala where organised criminal gangs, often
masquerading as trade unions, had become major political issues in the pre-Emergency period.
Despite these references, most of the script is largely subordinated to the necessity of providing each of the several stars with equal footage and a hand in the action.
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58.Ghulami

*Dharmendra, Naseerudin shah, Smita Patil, Mithun Chakraborty, Reena Roy, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Anita Raaj, Om Shivpuri, Mazhar Khan, Bharat Kapoor and Raza Murad.

(1985)J.P.Dutta's

Dialogue: O.P.Dutta
Music: Laxmikant Pyarelal
Lyrics: Gulzar

Violent ruralist melodrama about Rajput oppression in the dessert of Rajasthan.

The hero Ranjit Singh (Dharmendra), son of a jat farmer, leads a popular rebellion against the corrupt zamindar (Shivpuri) and his three nephews.
Dharmendra is aided by a policeman (Kharbanda) whose son had been killed by the nephews, and an army officer from the Jat regiment (Chakraborty) who decides to use his military skills to defend his community from the rapacious Thakurs.
On the side of the zamindar is his son-in-law, the police officer Sultan Singh (Shah).
However, the cop's wife Sumitra (Patil) is sympathetic to Ranjit Singh's cause.
The jat's objective is to capture and burn the account ledgers of the moneylending thakur community to free
themselves from bonded labour.

Rajasthan's arid desert landscape, its vultures and shots of the famous folk fair at Pushkar (a major tourist attraction) give the film both an exotic and primitivist atmosphere.
However, it went beyond poetic metaphor in several inflammatory scenes addressing the region's charged communal situation. The scene where the hero's mother rushes into the villain's house to save her son without taking off her slippers, and is then humiliated by being forced to put the slippers on her head and walk out, led to riots in several small cities in Rajasthan.
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59.Mahal

*Ashok Kumar, Madhubala, Kumar, Vijayalakshmi, Kanu Roy.

(1949)Kamal Amrohi's
Music:Khemchand Prakash
Lyrics:Nakshab

Amrohi's debut is now considered a Hindi classic.

It is a complicated ghost story psychodrama choreographed by Lachhu Maharaj and featuring hero Shankar
(Ashok Kumar), who moves into an abandoned mansion that has a tragic history.
He notices his resemblance to a portrait of the mansion's former owner and sees the ghost of the man's mistress Kamini (Madhubala) who tells him he must either die if they are to be united or that he must marry her reincarnation, the gardener's daughter, Asha.

His friend Shrinath (Kumar) tries to break the obsession by arranging Shankar's marriage to Ranjana (Vijayalakshmi). However, Shankar's obsession continues to the distress of his new bride who is expected,
among other things, to live in a snake- and bat-infested hut.

Ranjana commits suicide, accusing Shankar of the deed, but the truth comes out in the courtroom drama when the gardener's daughter admits to having masqueraded as the ghost.
Shankar is nevertheless condemned to death for Ranjana's murder but in a strange reversal of fortunes, transfers his obsession to Asha: instead of being fascinated by a dead woman, he is now the near-ghost
fascinated by the living Asha.

The deep-focus photography is perhaps German cameraman Wirsching's best work in his career at Bombay Talkies. It is complemented by a remarkably advanced soundtrack.
The film includes the song hit, 'Ayega aanewala' (sung by Lata Mangeshkar and regarded as a turning-point in her career), used as a leitimotif for the ghost.
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60.Agneepath

*Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Danny Denzongpa, Madhavi, Neelam, Tinnu Anand, Alok Nath, Rohini Hattangadi and Archana Puran Singh.

(1990)Mukul.S.Anand's

Music:Laxmikant Pyarelal
Lyrics:Anand Bakshi

The hero Vijay Chauhan aka 'Bhai' (Bachchan) witnesses his schoolmaster father (Nath) being falsely implicated in a scandal with a prostitute and lynched by the villagers.

Bhai grows up to become a gangster and encounters the main villain Kancha Cheena (Denzongpa) in a
luxurious place in Mauritius.
He joins the villain's gang only to have him arrested by the police.
When Cheena is released (by arranging to have a key witness killed), the hero murders Cheena after negotiating the 'path of fire' referred to in the film's title.

The most violent of Bachchan's later films, it was also the most sustained effort to rehabilitate the politically
discredited star.
The title and opening sequences borrow from a poem by Amitabh's Father Harivanshrai Bachchan, and show
today's New Man walking through the fires of hell to redeem a brutalised world and make it into a new utopia. The mother obsession of Bachchan's previous films is still in evidence.

In spite of Mukul Anand's usual fast-moving camera and distorted perspectives, the film occaisonally lapses into earlier cinematic idioms (e.g the foot stomping-song picturisation of Archana Puran Singh's Alibaba song)

Anand's familiar anachronisms suggest that very different historicalm epochs are 'actually' very similar:
an exotic James Bond-type tourist resort and blood and stench of Mumbai's gang wars.

Although still playing the vigilante hero, Bachchan initially abandoned his well-known baritone voice to suggest an older man speaking in a heavy 'Mumbai Hindi' accent, but later had to re-dub the voice when the experiment proved unpopular.
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61.Barsaat

*Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Nimmi, Premnath, K.N.Singh.

(1949)Raj Kapoor's

Raj Kapoor's 'Barsaat' remains a watershed movie for Hindi cinema.
The title literally means 'rain' but Raj Kapoor's interpretation was different.
The film's theme was the flow of human desire that resembled the constant fall of rain,
drenching the earth that symbolized man and woman.

Raj played Pran, who loves Reshma (Nargis), and his love is reciprocated. Reshma, a poor girl, defies her father who opposes their romance. On the way to meet her lover, she drowns on the way - or so it is thought.
Pran's friend Gopal (Premnath) has a more casual approach to love and he jilts the village girl Neela (Nimmi) who kills herself.
Gopal is repentant. A short while later, pran and Gopal are driving through the countryside when they stumble upon Reshma, who is being married off to a fisherman (K.N. Singh) .
Pran deliberately crashes his car, and love triumphs at the eleventh hour.

The thundering success of this simple love story put R.K.Films on the road to glory as Bollywood's premium production company of all time. After the lukewarm reception to his maiden venture 'Aag',
Raj Kapoor became a commercial-cum-artistic force to reckon with as a filmmaker with this film.
His leitmotif - the depiction of love as pure passion with just the right mix of physicality and sublime spirituality - was first seen in this film, to evolve as the stamp of a titanic filmmaker all the way to his 1985 swan song, 'Ram Teri Ganga Maili'.

'Barsaat' signalled the coming together of the greatest team ever in Hindi films - Raj Kapoor, Mukesh,
Shankar Jaikishan, Hasrat Jaipuri and Shailendra.

After 'Aag' Raj had already signed music director Ram Ganguly again but due to some problems with Kapoor, Ganguly's two assistants with whom he had already formed a distinct tuning, the tabla player
Shankar and the harmonium player Jaikishan were signed as composers.
Raj's father Prithviraj Kapoor had introduced him to a bus conductor whose simple shaayari at a mushaira had impressed him- Hasrat Jaipuri.
A little later, an Indian Railway employee who wrote poetry and needed the money - Shailendra - came in.

The result was some of the most fantastic music that Hindi film sangeet buffs have ever heard - including nuggets like Lata's "Jiya beqaraar hai", "Hawa mein udtaa jahe", "O mujhe kisise pyar ho gaya",
"Ab mera kaun sahara", "Barsaat mein humse mile tum sajan" and the Lata-Mukesh duets, "Chhod gaye baalam" and "Tirchhi nazar hai", besides the plaintive Rafi gem "Main zindagi mein hardam rota hi rahaa roon." 1949 was the brakethrough year for Lata Mangeshkar and 'Barsaat' led her parade of hits that year to make her emerge as Hindi cinema's supreme female singer.

With 'Aag' and 'Andaz' as predecessors, Raj and Nargis had already established an on-screen chemistry that made the distributors ecstatic.
But 'Barsaat' clinched the team that was to do 15 more films and emerge as the icons of screen romance in Hindi cinema. The film also marked the debut of cinematographer Jal Mistry and the entry of actress Nimmi and writer Ramanand Sagar into the R.K fold.

The film has one more significance for R.K. Films - the famous RK emblem of a man holding a woman by her waist in near ballet pose was derived from a still of Raj and Nargis from this film.
Launched on the day of Dassera in 1948 within weeks of the release of 'Aag', 'Barsaat' was completed in nine months - with shoots in places like Kashmir and Mahabaleshwar - and premiered on 30th September 1949. As one critic opined, 'Barsaat' is a creation in totality.
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62.Upkar

Manoj Kumar, Asha Parekh, Pran, Madan Puri and Prem Chopra

(1967)Manoj Kumar's

It was at a special screening of 'Shaheed' that Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri told writer-actor Manoj Kumar, "Why don't you write something on 'Jai Jawaan Jai Kisaan'?" That was Shastri's clarion call in the year of the 1965 Indo-Pak war, and something in the impassioned way Shastri said those words inspired the writer in Manoj - and 'Upkar' was born.

With 'Upkar', Manoj plunged into (official) direction for the first time.
Well-meaning friends advised him to lay off - "Everyone cannot be a Raj Kapoor!" they told him.
But Manoj had tasted blood in the ghost direction he had done earlier.
And of the compliments that came his way after the films release, the one he most treasures is Raj Kapoor's remark after watching the film - "I was competing only with myself every time. Now at last I have someone else!" It was 'Upkar' that made Raj also ask Manoj to be creatively involved as more than a mere actor in the first chapter of Kapoor's 'Mera Naam Joker'.

Another point of reference to Raj Kapoor lay in the plethora of well-meaning and almost panic-stricken warnings to Manoj Kumar about casting Pran in a major positve role, complete with a song!
"All my friends, Nari Sippy, Raj Khosla, Kalyanjibhai even made trunk calls to me if they were out of town!
They told me that even Rajsaab had failed in depicting Pran in a positive role in 'Aah'.
I argued that the film had failed and that Pran - like Premnath, was the Anthony Quinn of India, a man who could do any role, a man you could sign if you could not think of an actor for any role. And I was proved right."

Pran himself recollects how Kalyanji was the first person to call him up and congratulate him after watching his song "Kasme vaade pyar wafaa" on screen. "I was wrong in trying to discourage Manoj," the composer told him gracefully. "Other actors sing our compositions with their lips, Aapne gale se gaaya!.

After 'Upkar' the positive feedback that Pran received was so intense that he decided to switch to positive roles, and earn his greatest fame in later years.
And the stupendous box-office success of the film (it competed with 'Milan', 'Farz', 'Shagrid' and 'Ram Aur Shyam' in the box-office sweepstakes) facilitated the switch.
It was also thanks to 'Upkar' that a song with Pran too ended up as a commercial compulsion and the precursor of today's 'item song in more than 20 later films.

For Manoj Kumar however, music has always been a part of story telling, as he firmly believed that a song should not halt the flow of his screenplay.
The music of 'Upkar' was a rage as big as the film, and "Mere desh ki dharti" is unmatched to date as a patriotic anthem, and won Mahendra Kapoor a National award.
Lyricist Gulshan Bawra had written the original song years ago and would hum it often to himself. Manoj thought that the song suited his film, provided that the lyrics were (considerably) modified.

A Golden Jubilee, 'Upkar' picked up several awards as well - and the encomiums never stopped coming.
"'Upkar gave me the love and affection of the masses," says Manoj.
"There was no hysteria, as is there for a star sensation. Instead, there was dignity."
The publicity line, 'Story Of A Man And Land Both Named Bharat' had hooked the populance.
Manoj was accorded a civic reception and an award in Pune city.

An admirer wrote a letter saying, "Now there are two MKGs in India -
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Manoj Kumar Goswami."
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63.Johny Mera Naam

*Dev Anand, Hema Malini, Pran, I S Johar, Sulochana, Padma, Iftekhar, Sajjan, Premnath, Jagdish Raaj and Jeevan.

(1970)Vijay Anand's

Music:Kalyanji Anandji

OH, BROTHERS! That's the first reaction to seeing this mazedaar classic again.
Brothers Dev mand Vijay "Goldie" Anand team up yet again for a story about two brothers played by Pran and Dev Anand.

Pridictably one brother becomes a criminal, the other a cop. Scriptwriter Goldie Anand repeats the trick he used so brilliantly in 'Jewel Thief', making the hero masquerade as a criminal named "Johny" to infiltrate his brother's gang.

The film revolves around Mohan (Pran) and Sohan (Dev Anand), who witness tragedy early in life when Ranjit (Premnath) murders their father. Mohan disquises himself as Moti and joins hands with Ranjit, not knowing that the latter is responsible for his father's death.
Sohan, on the other hand, becomes a cop and he too changes his identity to 'Johny'.
Johny also becomes a part of Ranjit's gang; the objective being to expose his dirty deeds.
In this mission, Rekha (Hema Malini), who also has an axe to grind with Ranjit, assists him.
Then there was the groundbreaking quadruple role by comedian I.S. Johar, a hilarious spoof on filmi double roles.

'Johny Mera Naam' also forshadowed the exposure of fake religious Godmen in films (as well as real life) with the scene in which Pran and Hema Malini diguise themselves as a sadhu and a jogan to rob a twmple, inspiring a spate of later films and characters.
And who can forget that utterly seductive Asha Bhosle song, "Husn ke lakhon rang", picturised on Padma Khanna and Premnath. Very few songs can match the oomph of this tempestuous number.

And finally, there's a certain simplicity in the film that's endearing to watch today.
The villains in drainpipe trousers and greased back hair rushing around pillars and ruins after the hero, the vivacious beauty of Hema Malini in her prime and a Dev Anand, whose typical mannerisms were still lovable and unique, all this was terrifically passtime stuff, taken to the nth degree.

A fun entertainer whose box-office smash success still seems well deserved, even after thirty years after its first release. You can't say the same for most old hit films.

Filmfare awards won

Best Commedian: I S Johar
Best Editor: Vijay Anand
Best Screenplay: Vijay Anand
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64.Naseeb

*Amitabh Bachchan, Shatrughan Sinha, Rishi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Reena Roy, Kim, Prem Chopra, Kader Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Jeevan, Lalita Pawar, Amjad Khan, Pran,Amrish Puri.

(1981)Manmohan Desai's

Music:Laxmikant Pyarelal
Lyrics:Anand Bakhsi

An all time classic!

Manmohan Desai's most extravagantly plotted film and one of the most costliest for its time 'Naseeb' (Destiny)

Namdev (pran) a waiter, a band musician (Jagdish Raj), Damodar (Amjad Khan) the photographer and Raghubir (Kadar Khan) the hack driver jointly win a lottery ticket.

After being framed for the murder of the musician, Namdev is presumably killed by Damodar and Raghubir who use the money to set up a criminal empire.

The story then switches to the second generation: John Jani Janardan (Amitabh Bachchan)
and Sunny (Rishi Kapoor), are the sons of Namdev; John's buddy is Damodar's son Vikram (S. Sinha).
The dead band musician had two daughter's: the singer Asha (Hema Malini) and and schoolgirl Kim (Kim).
Namdev was not killed after all and later resurfaces as the henchman of the ultimate crime boss, Don (Amrish Puri).

Unlike Desai's other Bachchan films ('Amar Akbar Anthony' etc) the convoluted plot and the multitude of characters overwhelms the superstar along with everyone else in the film.
The dialogue accompanying the surfeit of physical action merely conveys information as quickly as possible.
Desai's virtual abandonment of narrative structure is complemented by innumerable references to his own as well as to other films and commercials.
Bachchan sings at a celebration of Desai's earlier 'Dharam Veer'.
Charles Bronson's 'Hard Times' aka 'The Streetfighter' is replicated in Bachchan's secomd profession as boxer.
'The Towering Inferno' is evoked as a revolving restaurant goes up in flames;
In the last song the heroes are dressed as matador (Bachchan), a cossack (Sinha) and as
Chaplin (Rishi Kapoor).

All in all, Its one of the all time best commercial movies of Hindi cinema. Its a good combination of both Western and Indian ideas. Due to its good action scenes, comedy and great music.

Other stars who made cameos in the Mohammad Rafi Song "John Jani Janardan" were,

Raj Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman, Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, Randhir Kapoor, Raakesh Roshan, Sharmila Tagore, Shammi Kapoor and Mala Sinha...
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65.Rangeela

*Aamir Khan, Jackie Shroff, Urmila, Reema Lagoo and Gulshan Grover.

(1995)Ramgopal Varma's

Music:A.R. Rahman

"Rangeela re" - The magic mantra that waltzed Urmila into the hall of fame.

It was probably one of the greatest comebacks Hindi cinema has ever witnessed. Here was an actress who had been launched with great fanfare by a maker like N. Chandra in 'Narsimha'.
She worked with stars like Shahrukh Khan and producers like Boney Kapoor. But somehow, success continued to elude her.

It was one film that changed all that. Ramgopal Varma's 'Rangeela'.
The film not just gave Urmila a brand new glamorous image but also skyrocketed her into the top rung of heroines. What most actresses hadn't managed even after a dozen odd films, Urmila achieved with just one strike.

'Rangeela' could actually draw parallels with Urmila's real life story. The film features around a junior artiste (Urmila) who dreams of making it big as an actress. Aided by her childhood 'tapori' friend Munna (Aamir Khan), she keeps her struggle going in the big, bad world of films.
Finally, one day, due to a top heroine's sudden ouster from a project, she gets the opportunity to work opposite a bigtime hero (Jackie Shroff), who eventually falls in love with her.
But theres a catch here unaware to her , Munna is also in love with her.
Ramgopal Verma weaves a beautiful story with just three characters and still manages to hold the interest of the audience. The characterizations are so apt that it's difficult to establish whom Urmila should choose between the two men who love her.

For Aamir Khan, who played the role of 'Munna' in the film, this was a film that established his credentials beyond doubt. The general feeling was that Aamir could only excel in the lovey-dovey romantic roles.
This was the first time that a director had experimented with his existing image. And the gamble worked.
'Munna' of 'Rangeela' is perhaps one of Aamir's best-ever characterizations.

One of the major highlights of the film was its electrifying music by A.R Rahman. Tracks like the title song, "Tanha Tanha", "Yaaron sun lo zara", "Pyar yeh jaane kaisa hain" and the spirit of 'Rangeela' were simply
exceptional. Varma did complete justice to the songs with his picturizations. The choreography by Saroj Khan and Ahmed Khan was exemplary and even fetched them a few awards.

'Rangeela' was also Ramgopal Varma's first major hit in Hindi. Earlier he had made some dramatic and remarkable movies like 'Shiva', 'Drohi' and 'Raat' but none of them was as big a success .
'Rangeela' put him in a different league. Varma was so enamoured by his protagonist of 'Rangeela' that he tried repeating the formula again in his next film 'Daud', where the emphasis was totally on unadulterated
passion-power. But that experiment failed. However, that didn't deter Varma from giving Urmila a huge variety of roles in following films like 'Satya', 'Mast', 'Kaun' and 'Jungle'.
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66.Sangam

*Raj Kapoor, Vyjanthimala, Rajendra Kumar, Lalita Pawar, Achala Sachdev,Raj Mehra, Nana Palsikar, Iftekhar

(1964)Raj Kapoor's

Music:Shankar Jaikishan

With 'Sangam', Raj Kapoor finally came into the modern era. Both in terms of technique, by using colour for the first time in an R.K Film. as well in terms of locales, by shooting extensively abroad, a trend that's become a part of virtually every Hindi film now but was almost unknown then.
In many ways, 'Sangam' was his first attempt at a modern subject in a modern style.

The story was a classic love triangle: Two childhood friends Gopal and Sundar are in love with the same woman. Sundar wins the woman, marries her and tries to live happily ever after.
But here's where the story takes a modern twist. Sundar is plagued with doubts about his wife's infidelity, and its even implied that he becomes impotent as a result.

What makes 'Sangam' memorable is its understated yet sharp depiction of sexual tensions of many kinds.
The initial part of the film where Sundar woos Radha clearly underlines how passionately attracted he is to her, while she very definitely doesn't find him attractive.

There's also the classic correlation between attractiveness and wealth, especially in the scenes where she comments on how small his boat is and refuses to sit in it while admiring Gopal's large, expensive motorboat.
Immediately after this scene, when Sundar tries to kiss her, she resists in a way that clearly shows she's interested in much fatter fish.

Filmfare awards

Best Director Raj Kapoor

Best Actress Vyjantimala

Best Sound Recordist Allaudin

Best Editor Raj Kapoor
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67.Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam

*Meena Kumari, Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman.

(1962)Guru Dutt's

Bhoothnath (Guru Dutt), a middle-aged architect wanders through the ruins of an old haveli. Flashback to end of the 19th century. The lower-class but educated Bhoothnath arrives in colonial Calcutta looking for work. He lives in the grand haveli of the Choudhury's, a family of zamindars while working beyond its compound at the Mohini Sindoor factory run by Subinay Babu, a dedicated member of the Brahmo Samaj. Subinay Babu's young daughter Jabba (Waheeda Rehman) is amused by Bhoothnath whom she considers an unsophisticated rustic. Bhoothnath becomes fascinated with the goings-on in the haveli and every night observes the decadent lifestyle of the Choudhury bothers. One night the servant, Bansi, takes Bhoothnath to meet the younger zamindar's (Rehman) wife Chhoti Bahu (Meena Kumari) who implores him to bring her Mohini Sindoor believing it will keep her unfaithful husband home. Bhoothnath is struck by her beauty and sadness and inadvertently becomes Chhoti Bahu's secret confidante. A bomb explodes in the market place and Bhoothnath is injured in the ensuing crossfire between Freedom fighters and British soldiers. Jabba looks after him. Bhoothnath becomes a trainee architect and goes away to work on a training project. Chhoti Bahu's repeated attempts to appease her husband have failed till she becomes his drinking companion in order to keep him by her side. Bhoothnath returns some years later to Calcutta to find that Subinay Babu has died and that he and Jabba were betrothed as children. He returns to the haveli and is shocked to find it in partial ruins. Chhoti Bahu is now a desperate alcoholic and her husband, paralyzed. She asks Bhoothnath to accompany her to a nearby shrine to pray for her ailing husband. Their conversation is heard by the elder zamindar, Majhle Babu. He orders his henchmen to punish her for consorting with a man outside the Choudhury household. As Bhoothnath and Chhoti Bahu travel in the carriage, the carriage is stopped. Bhoothnath is knocked unconscious and Chhoti Bahu, abducted. When he wakes up in hospital, Bhoothnath is told Chhoti Bahu has disappeared and the younger zamindar is dead. The flashback ends. Bhoothnath's workers inform him a skeleton is found buried in the ruins of the haveli. From the jewellery on the corpse, Bhoothnath realizes it is the mortal remains of Chhoti Bahu...

Though compared to Satyajit Ray's Jalsaghar (1958) as a commentary on Bengal's decaying feudalism, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam is a romantic and somewhat nostalgic tale of a bygone era. The film is a magnificent and sombre work with heightened atmosphere, rich dialogues, haunting cinematography, extraordinary song picturizations and brilliant performances.
The decadent lifestyle of the zamindars at the end of 19th century Bengal is shown through the two Choudhury brothers who seldom work but spend most of their time in pigeon racing or in the company of dancer-prostitutes while their wives are left to distract themselves by having jewellery made and remade! While the servant Bansi, acts as chronicler of the Choudhury's history, Bhoothnath is a witness to the ravages of time and change in the haveli. The narrative is told largely from his perspective with other events being relayed by Bansi whose on-screen explanation of events provides the continuity between the various time periods in the narrative. Bhoothnath's own history is in sharp contrast to the zamindar class. With no special privilege beyond his Brahmin status, he rises from humble rural beginnings to become a successful architect who ironically oversees the destruction of the very haveli which had so overawed him when he came first to the big city.
Chhoti Bahu is the pivotal character of the film. Her personality is ambiguous and perceived differently by different people. For her obese sister-in-law, Chhoti Bahu is a simple and foolish woman who has not learned to enjoy her new status and wealth. For her husband, she is an ordinary bland woman from a poor background whose traditional upbringing teaches her to be the perfect wife and to regard him as god. For Bhoothnath, she is an ethereal being who is always beyond his reach

The build up to the moment when we first see Chhoti Bahu is reminiscent of Carol Reed's introduction of Harry Lime (Orson Welles) in The Third Man (1949). In a marvelously staged sequence, the camera takes Bhoothnath's POV and follows the pattern of a rich carpet on which he walks to enter the room. His eyes are lowered and he is terrified of meeting her. We hear Chhoti Bahu still off-screen telling him to be seated. Then we see a pair of feet adorned by alta vermilion colour walk across the room. As Bhoothnath sits humbly on the floor, he is asked his name. As Chhoti Bahu asks him what sort of a name is Bhoothnath, he looks up. The camera tracks in dramatically and holds on a close-up of Chhoti Bahu. Her aura startles Bhoothnath (and us) and from that first look, he (and us) becomes forever her 'slave.' It is a magical moment in the film and shows cinema's wonderful ability to mythify its own characters.
Chhoti Bahu is actually a woman ahead of her times. She is not content to be a subservient and docile wife and fights for her husband's attention, demanding her own sexual needs be met. She even dares to suggest that Chhote Babu is probably impotent despite all his masculine bravura. However she too cannot escape the decadence of the zamindari era and when she ventures out of the haveli for the first and only time, it costs her her life.

As usual Guru Dutt had a different cast and crew in mind before starting work on the film. He considered Shashi Kapoor and then Biswajit before taking on the part of Bhoothnath. Nargis and then Jitendra Arya's wife Chhaya were considered for the role of Chhoti Bahu. He wanted S.D. Burman and Sahir Ludhianvi for the music and lyrics but S.D. Burman was unwell and Sahir declined the offer.
While each of the performances are spot on, if there is one person who is the heart and soul of the film, it is Meena Kumari Her portrayal of Chhoti Bahu is perhaps the greatest performance ever seen on the Indian Screen. The sequence where Chhoti Bahu dresses for her husband singing Piya Aiso Jiya Main is a poignant exploration of a woman's expectations and sexual desire. And later on when she has become a desperate alcoholic, you cannot help but cry with her in the sequence where she pleads with her husband to stay with her and then angrily turns on him to tell him how she has prostituted her basic values and morals to please him. However the common factors between the actress's life and Chhoti Bahu are too dramatic to be merely coincidental - The estranged marital relationship, the taking of alcohol, turning towards younger male company, the craving to be understood and loved - all elements evident in Meena Kumari's own life.

Hemant Kumar's evocative music particularly Chhoti Bahu's songs give the film a haunting quality. rendering of the three Chhoti Bahu songs - Koi Door Se Awaaz De Chale Aao, Geeta Dutt's Piya Aiso Jiya and Na Jao Saiyaan represents some of the finest singing she has ever done. Her voice with all its sensuality and pain complements Meena Kumari's performance perfectly. Chhoti Bahu's 'signature tune' - the melancholic music played each time Bhoothnath meets her adds enormously to the aura of tragedy surrounding her. Mention must be made of Bhanu Athaiya's costumes and Biren Naug's Art Direction and above all V.K. Murthy's stunning cinematography with masterly use of light and shadow, none better than the mujra - Saaqiya Aaj Mujhe Neend Nahin Aaegi, where the lead dancer is always in the light and the dancers in the background lit up in a manner that no light falls on their faces. This when often there is both character movement and camera movements being coordinated in the course of the shot! And rarely has the Indian screen seen better use of close-ups particularly those of Meena Kumari who looks absolutely stunning.The editing rhythm with its many dissolves and fades adds to the film's mysterious feel.
The film was a modest commercial success dividing audiences. The more traditional just couldn't accept a pious Hindu wife taking to drink or the friendship (even though totally platonic) between Bhoothnath and Chhoti Bahu. The film was however a huge critical success. To quote the review featured in the Times of India dated June 24, 1962...

"The well-knit screenplay, achieving an effective balance between the various characters and emotional phases, provides a neat dramatic pattern. It appears to be a specially successful job considering the verbosity and digressiveness of the novel of Mr. Bimal Mitra who, though often brilliant, writes in a highly disorderly way."

However the last song of the film, Sahil Ki Taraf Kashti Le Chal sung by Hemant Kumar was edited out of the film. The song had a shot which showed Chhoti Bahu resting her head on Bhoothnath's lap in the carriage. Audiences reacted sharply to this so Guru Dutt removed the song and the 'offending shot' changing the carriage scene to a dialogue exchange between Chhoti Bahu and Bhoothnath. He also shot an additional scene with the paralyzed husband repenting his sinful and debauched lifestyle. Hemant Kumar reused the tune for Sahil ki Taraf for the song Ya Dil ki Suno from Anupama (1966).
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam went on to win Filmfare Awards for Best Film, Director, Actress and Photography. Shockingly Hemant Kumar lost out the Award for Best Music which went to Shankar - Jaikishen for their populist score in Professor (1962). The film also won the President's Silver Medal and the 'Film of the Year' Award from the Bengal Film Journalist Association. The film was also screened at the Berlin Film Festival in June 1963 and was India's official entry to the Oscars that year.

The controversy about who actually directed Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam has increased over the years. Since the film is characteristic of Guru Dutt's feel and style, it is difficult to think that he did not direct the film. However Guru Dutt never denied Abrar Alvi's role in the film nor did he make any counter claims when Alvi won the Filmfare Award for Best Director for the film. Abrar Alvi has stated that Guru Dutt did direct the songs in the film, but not the film in its entirety. The editor of the Film Y.G. Chawan however says that for the film it was Abrar who sat with him. To quote him...
"Abrar worked so hard on that film but he never got any credit. People say it was produced by Guru Dutt so it had to be Guru Dutt's film."
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68.Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak

*Aamir Khan, Juhi Chawla, Dalip Tahil, Goga Kapoor, Alok Nath, Asha Sharma, Zutshi, Shehnaz

(1988)Mansoor Khan's

The subject was trite. But its timing, perfect. QSQT (as it is more popularly known) is attributed cult status for resuscitating back into commercial cinema, a life that was choking under the revenge and gunpowder cloud, which loomed large right through the eighties.

Released in 1988, the film put on the upswing the budding careers of several names associated with it. To begin with, its lead pair - Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla. Both grew to be the teenage heart- throbs of a movie-crazy nation that was waiting to experience fresher cinema. One distinctly remembers the mania Aamir had whipped-up among the fairer sex. A case in point being a QSQT publicity poster that read "Who's Aamir Khan? - Ask the girl next door". It is even believed that as part of marketing strategy, to heighten the romantic appeal of the lead pair, Aamir went to the extent of concealing his marriage to long-time girlfriend Reena.

As for Juhi, despite former success with the Miss India crown and several prestigious modeling campaigns to her name, success in Bollywood eluded her thanks to an inconsequential debut in an action flick called "Sultanat" (another lame stag from the revenge - and - gunpowder stable). But life changed post-QSQT. Her radiant freshness and charm as Rashmi put her in the running as a top lead for a long, long time to come.

Second, and probably more importantly, 'Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak' revived the hallmark of a commercially viable Hindi movie - good music. Music duo Anand - Milind were unheard of until they got Udit Narayan (another nobody then) to render "Papa kehte hain". A number that turned out to be a chartbuster as did the other lilting melodies of the film.

But the single most distinctive element about QSQT was its presentation. In fact, debutante director Mansoor Khan's work ethos and young-blooded perspective on filmmaking could be singled out as the push-factor that swung the floodgates open for a young and 'rarin' to go' breed of filmmakers like Sooraj Barjatya, Aditya Chopra, Karan Johar and Ramgopal Varma.

Mansoor had a set belief about the feel his film would carry and ensured that the hackneyed story idea sustained itself for well over two hours.

A chocolate - faced Raj (Aamir Khan) is besotted by the innocence of Rashmi (Juhi Chawla). Their love tale blooms within the backdrop of a bitter family feud and continues through a series of meetings, separations, an eloping into the distant hills and finally a tragic climax where both lovers die in the arms of each other. What lent credibility to a story that had hitherto been milked dry was the convincing honesty of the actors who narrated it.

A supporting cast comprising Dalip Tahil, Alok Nath, Goga Kapoor and debutante Zutshi (who plays Aamir's friendly cousin Shyam) knitted itself well together to portray the burning rivalry of two 'thakur parivaars' refusing to call it a truce.

In creating a "formula" film the director had extracted appropriate emotional content in terms of mush, drama, sop. Remember the scene where a crying Rashmi receives a tender kiss from an equally emotional Raj while their lost in a jungle? Or a scared, timid Raj pleads with Rashmi's infuriated father, Ranbir Singh (Goga Kapoor), to keep their discovered tale of romance under wraps only on promising never to meet Rashmi again?
This was mush and drama all the way.

But the cream of the sop was reserved for the climax where a shocked Raj weeps over the bloody, dead body of Rashmi and finally stabs himself to death as well. The acting was far from exaggerated but the intensity sufficed to keep the drama alive. It ensured that a weeping audience went home fully convinced of the power of unflinching love. Only to return to watch several reruns of the love tale.
QSQT had undoubted repeat value. And Mansoor Khan never complained.
For he knew that all he had was an un-refreshing story. Very refreshingly told.

Filmfare awards

Best Movie Nasir Husain
Best Cinematographer (Colour) Kiran Deohans
Best Director Mansoor Khan
Best Screenplay Nasir Hussain
Best Playback Male Udit Narayan
Best Music Anand Milind
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69.Seeta Aur Geeta

*Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini,Roopesh Kumar, Manorama, Pratima Devi, Honey Irani

(1972)Ramesh Sippy's

Prod:G.P.Sippy

Music:R.D.Burman

SIBLINGS SEPERATED AT BIRTH. Twins with opposite personalities. The mix-ups that result when these two seperated sibs exchange places accidentally.
These may seem like staple fare in movies now. Even back in 1972, it was already a plot device as old as story-telling itself.
Dilip Kumar is still remembered for his scene-stealing antics in 'Ram Aur Shyam'.

But young dynamic director Ramesh Sippy brought a new element to the mix.
Instead of brothers, he made the lead pair sisters. And this changed everything.
After the long-past days of fearless Nadia and her death-defying stunts and action set-pieces,
Hindi film heroines had been relegated to glamorous showpieces, used mainly for singing songs and melodramatic histrionics, with the occasional comic misunderstanding thrown in for variety. Cabaret dancers and vamps handled dances, comedy was handled by full-time movie comedians or by the hero himself, and heroines were a passive lot, good only for romancing or rona-dhona.

One of the films that broke this mould was 'Seeta Aur Geeta'.
In her dual role as identical twin sisters seperated at birth by a gypsy, Hema Malini got the meatiest role of her time. Comedy, drama, romance, action, she got to do it all.
And she did it with style too. The action stunt pieces, although done with the help of a professional stuntwoman, amazed audiences who were used to seeing women portrayed as docile damsels in distress.

The sequences in which the two twins are mistaken for one another by their respective beaus
- Dharmendra and Sanjeev Kumar - are classic examples of situation comedy at its best.
For once, brilliant actor Sanjeev Kumar was forced to play second fiddle to a heroine in a comedy sequence, and he rose to the challenge admirably.
Dharm also extended his range by playing one of the first and best "drunk hero" sequences that later prompted every director to include a similar scene in his films.
Including Ramesh Sippy who used the device again in his own 'Sholay' three years later.

'Seeta Aur Geeta' excelled in every department.
R.D.Burman's songs were a melodic hit, especially the then famous "Hawaaa ke saath saath"
sequence featuring Sanjeev Kumar and Hema on roller skates and Dharm's drunken song.

Incidentally, this was one of star-writers Salim and Javed's early films and they were only relegated to penning down the dialogues of the movie. But there was hearsay that they had a major hand in the screenplay of the film as well, even though they weren't given due credit for the same. But above all, Ramesh Sippy's ability to develop a heroine-oriented premise so strongly and entertainingly, surprised the industry as well as fans.
Inspiring a legion of less successful attempts over the years, including the remake 'Chaalbaaz', which was the only one to come close to the original, mainly due to star Sridevi's career-best performance.

Even today not many commercially successful films can claim to have been based on heroines. 'Seeta Aur Geeta' was one of the first eye-openers that pulled this stunt off brilliantly.

Filmfare awards

Best Cinematographer (Colour) P Vaikunth
Best Actress Hema Malini
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70.Ghayal

*Sunny Deol, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Raj Babbar, Moushami Chatterjee, Amrish Puri, Annu Kapoor, Shafi Inamdar and Om Puri.

(1990)Raj kumar Santoshi's

Produced by Dharmendra, and designed to create a definitive screen image for Sunny Deol as the urban Rambo-style vigilante (like Stallone, Sunny Deol has in every film, at least once and sometimes on several occasions, a scene where he is chained, insulted and physically tortured as the camera lingers over his sweating and bulging muscles).

Here Sunny Deol plays Ajay, whose elder brother Ashok (Raj Babbar) becomes involved with drug-dealing villains led by politician Balwant Rai (Amrish Puri).

When the politician collaborates with legal top brass to convict Ajay for murdering his own brother, Ajay becomes a one-man army against the state.
He kidnaps the police commissioner (K.Kharbanda), informs Balwant Rai that the day of judgement is at hand and finally gets his man in a huge Coney Island style amusement park.

The film established Raj kumar Santoshi, the son of P.L.Santoshi, song-writer and director of C. Ramchandra musicals, as a director in his own right.

Ghayal is one of the few good action films of the 90's but it is beyond good. Ghayal is one of the best action films ever. Raj Kumar Santoshi has made a hard hitting film. What is especially notable is Sunny Deol's Filmfare and National Award winning performance.

Filmfare awards

Best Director Raj Kumar Santoshi
Best Editor V N Mayekar
Best Cinematographer (Colour) Rajan Kothari
Best Actor Sunny Deol
Best Art Director (Colour) Nitish Roy
Best Movie Dharmendra
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71.Dharam-Veer

*Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Pran, Zeenat Aman, Neetu Singh, Ranjeet, Indrani Mukherjee, Jeevan, Sujit Kumar, Dev Kumar, Chand Usmani and Pradeep Kumar.

(1977)Manmohan Desai's

Music:Laxmikant Pyarelal

A Manmohan Desai-style fairy-tale adventure story freely mixing elements from different film genres and historical periods.

A lone hunter (Pran) secretly marries the maharani (Mukherjee) of a princely state.
In a scene crying out for a psychoanalytic reading, a wild tigress manifests herself during
their wedding night.
The bride believes her husband to have died as a result and marries a more powerful man,a
prince (P.Kumar). Before the maharani gives birth to twin boys, her husband is killed;
his dying wish that the boy's parentage be kept secret.

The twins are seperated: Dharam (Dharmendra) is raised by a woodcutter while Veer (Jeetendra) becomes the heir-apparent to the throne.
Unaware of their relationship, the two become buddies and go through a series of adventures. Dharam woos the haughty princess, (Zeenat Aman) of a neighbouring kingdom
and Veer falls a gypsy girl (Neetu Singh).

The maharani's evil brother (Jeevan) provides complications to the plot and the key action scene,
presided over by the haughty princess, is a jousting tournament won by Dharam.
When the victorious knight is captured, Veer, disguised as a gypsy, rescues him.

The end of the film includes a spectacular battle between two pirate ships.
The film also features a trained hawk, which was responsible for saving Dharam as a child and which
intervenes several times on behalf of the good guys.
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72.Arth

*Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rohini Hattangadi and Raj Kiran.

(1982)Mahesh Bhatt's

MAHESH BHATT'S ONGONG process of cinamatic cannibalization began with 'Arth' where he ripped off chapters from his own life to make a turbulent raw and never-before marital drama about the safe-and-secure
Pooja Malhotra (Shabana Azmi) who wakes up one day to realize that her husband, ad filmmaker
Inder Malhotra (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) has left her for the clingy neurotic mistress Kavita (Smita Patil).

Seen entirely through the wife's point of view, thereby making itself vulnerable to charges of blinkered honesty,
'Arth' was a ground-breaking film. It broke through taboo topics such as infidelity and domestic violence to
depict urban lifestyles as hypocritical and ugly.
Sequences such as the one in which a sodden Shabana drops her pallu to confront the cowering mistress at a
cocktail party, have now become part of cinematic history.
It would be no exaggeration to say that Bhatt's semi-autobiographical narration got its emotional and spiritual sustenance from Shabana Azmi's powerhouse performance.

As the wife whose illusion of domestic bliss comes crashing down, Shabana recorded every sound of her character's crashing heart in minute and memorable detail, making this one of the most accomplished performances of Indian cinema.
Smita Patil, as the mistress was deliberately portrayed as a wreck, wrecking havoc on a seemingly perfect marriage with her toxic neurosis. In a thankless, role Smita did her best, often rising above the inherent restrictions of playing a unidimensional homebreaker.

The film received more than a fare share of the media glare, thanks to Bhatt's rooftop declarations of autobiographical ambitions. Parveen Babi naturally took great offence to being portrayed as a shrieking whining harridan. But wife Kiran Bhatt's reactions were never divulged.
While Shabana rightfully and inevitably walked home with the second National Award of her career.
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73.Chupke Chupke

*Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri, Om Prakash, Asrani and David.

(1975)Hrishikesh Mukherjee's

music:S.D. Burman

An all time classic and one of the great comedies to come out of Hindi cinema.

Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra team up together once again after 'Sholay' to deliver another sterling performance as a team well supported by Sharmila Tagore, Jaya Bhaduri and Om Prakash.

Dharmendra plays the role of a professor of Botany, and due to circumstances has to impersonate first as a 'chowkidar' and then later as a chauffeur.
Which in turn bounds him to some hilarious chaos and a few sensational confusions.

The chowkidary dosn't last long as Sharmila soon comes to know of Dharmendra's
true identity and falls in love with him, and he himself falls in love in adoration of her smartness and marries her.

But Dharmendra, the professor, was confronted with the image of Sharmila's genius 'jijaji'
(Om Prakash). And so Dharmendra feels an urge to challenge the unseen foe and win for himself a respectable status in her mind.

Dharmendra conspires against the jijaji and plans to be a driver at his jijaji's residence,
Enter his friend Amitabh Bachchan as the fake professor of Botany and a fake husband
to Sharmila Tagore who goes and falls in love with Jaya Bhaduri while trying to teach her
Botany. And this is when all the fun starts.

This is vintage Hrishikesh Mukherjee for you. His forte is light comedies which can be watched with your entire family right from your great-grandfather to great-grandkid. And this one in particular is very funny.

The film starts off slow, but builds up to a hillarious pace as the story unfolds in the second half. Music dosn't play too much of a part in this film though. But a good story, good dialogues and very good performances by the entire starcast makes it a movie worth watching again and again.
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74.Silsila

*Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Rekha, DevenVerma Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Sudha Chopra.

(1981)Yash Chopra's

Music:Shiv Hari
Lyrics:Javed Akhtar,
Harivanshrai Bachchan,
Rajendra Krishan,
Hassan Kamal,
Nida Fazli.

Shobha (J.Bhachchan) is in love with air force officer Shekhar (S.Kapoor).
Shekhar's younger brother Amit (Bachchan) writes poetry and plays and woos Chandni (Rekha).

Shekhar dies in the war, leaving Shobha pregnent. Amit sacrifices his love for Chandni to marry Shobha and save her reputation.
Chandni marries a doctor (Sanjeev Kumar) in the same town where Shobha and Amit live.
Soon the ex-lovers meet in an accident in which Shobha loses her baby.

Amit and Chandni have an affair while there marital partners suffer in silence.
The lovers elope after a highly stylised confrontation between the two women
(the two rivals standing back to back).

The film features Amitabh's alleged offscreen lover Rekha and his wife Jaya Bachchan
(who came out of retirement to play the part).
Several scenes appear designed to fuel or exploit the gossip journalism which underpins
and surrounds film careers.

In the end, the sanctity of marriage triumphs and the original married couples are restored.
Amitabh mostly sang his own songs in this film and declaimed numerous poetic couplets addressed to Chandni, fully exploiting a key aspect of his star persona: his deep baritone voice. And songs picturized in Dutch tulip fields helped to promote Rekha's image as a glamorous but unattainable object of desire.
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75.Saagar

*Rishi Kapoor, Kamal Hasan, Dimple Kapadia, Nadira, Saeed Jaffrey, Shafi Inamdar A.K. Hangal and Madhur Jaffery.


(1985 )Ramesh Sippy's

Producer:G.P. Sippy

Music by: R.D. Burman

Saagar is one of the best movies ever made in Hindi Cinema on love triangles.

'Saagar' is the story of a peaceful little village by the sea where a tavern's daughter Mona
(Dimple Kapadia) stirs up a fierce storm of passion, romance and turbulance that engulfs the entire village.

The story is also about Raja (Kamal Hasan), a simple fisherman who as all other village folks, visits the local restaurant of Mona and her father (Sayeed Jaffery).
Raja and Mona are childhood friends and he is secretly in love with Mona.

Not far from the village lives the haughty millionairess Kamladevi (Madhur Jaffery) whose sole
heir, her grandson Ravi (Rishi Kapoor) comes to live with her.

On a memorable dawn, Ravi stumbles upon a venus-like beauty arising from the sea, and time stands still. Ravi mingles with the fishermen and becomes a good friend of Raja, and a well wisher of the village, much to Kamladevi's dislike.

Ravi and Mona attain new heights of romance and ecstasy. Little does Raja know that Ravi, his friend, is also dreaming of the very same Mona - his Mona, his only reason for living.

Then fate takes a cruel turn, Raja decides to sacrifice his love and life for his friends Ravi and Mona.

The movie explores the comic in Kamal with laughs at opportune moments.
A sterling performance by Kamal Hasan won him the Filmfare award for best actor.
He is ably supported by the rest of the starcast.

The camera work is breathtaking and Dimple Kapadia's wardrobe is well chosen and the general feel of the movie is updated for the times. Dimple also takes a daring move with a brief and well executed nude scene.

Directed superbly by Ramesh Sippy, it adds to the illustrious list of films made by this film-maker.

'Saagar' also marked the return of Dimple Kapadia after her debut in 'Bobby' several years back.

Another highlight of the film is superb music by R.D. Burman. And above all, powerhouse performances by all the lead Actors.


Filmfare Awards Won:

Best Cinematographer (Colour): S M Anwar

Best Actor: Kamal Hassan

Best Actress: Dimple Kapadia

Best Playback Male: Kishore Kumar
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GREAT CHOICES,RAJ IS IT POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO LIST THE NAMES OF THE SITES OR FORUMS YOU VISITED WHILE RESEARCHING FOR YOUR TOP 100 AS I MIGHT GET SOME INFO ON SOME OTHER MOVIES NOT INCLUDED IN YOU TOP 100 AND PROVIDE MORE INSIGHT ON HINDI MOVIES.

Hi stormy,

I've mainly compiled my list from various books,mags etc.
But these are two sites I visited when I started my list.


http://movies.indiatimes.com/flashback/flashback.html


http://www.filmfare.com/filmcults/filmcults.htm