He’s 90 now and easily the greatest villain that Hindi cinema has even seen. Such was his impact as the baddie that a survey among Indian schools in the 1970s showed there were no children named Pran! One has been totally taken in by his performances in several films – Afsana (1951), Bahar (1951), Halaku [...]

Let’s start with the obvious. India is easily the largest Film ‘Industry’ the world over or what one could call the largest Institution of the Imaginary. And yet even though we release films by the hundreds every year, there are many, many more that fail to make it to the finish line.
A film has [...]

Since its launch half a decade ago, Reva, India’s only electric car manufacturer, has sold 3000 cars in 24 countries. Not bad for a product that (unfortunately) looks like a glamorous rickshaw and is still having teething problems (fuse box issues, slow, safety issues, et al). Issue no. 1 seems to have been addressed [...]

The owner’s story:

West End Theatre in Pune was established by late Keki Modi, who was the youngest of the 10 siblings. The most famous and the eldest among them was the legendary Sohrab Modi. While Sohrab went in to the creative field, Keki began developing a passion for the exhibition of films. His early days [...]

West End theatre in Pune in its old form was a quintessential movie theatre. It was (and still is) in the heart of Pune cantonment. A tall wall flanked by two open gates at the centre of the compound wall displayed the poster of the film that was playing. In the courtyard of mud [...]

Out of sheer boredom now that TV is filled with piffle, the bored people in Pakistan have been twiddling their thumbs making idle talk and out of this useless chatter comparisons have emerged between our own ex General Parvez Musharraf, who has now changed species and turned into a mere Civilian and the former Ugandan [...]

The wily Mr B Ramalinga Raju of Satyam couldn’t have timed his confession better.  He had a good 4 days to go into hiding, analyze the aftermath, and resurface. If news channels are to be believed (and really everything they say nowadays should be taken with a pinch of salt) it gave ample time for [...]

She acts well only above the shoulders, especially in pathetic situations. But in the dance sequences her deformed back and squeezed up figure without any grace or contours become repulsive.”
This, describing Nargis’ performance in Aag (1948), was part of a typical review one found in Filmindia, a popular movie magazine of its time that was [...]

Film trade magazines usually have a ‘this day in history’ sorta section full of useless interviews, facts, and box office figures that have no meaning any more. Some of the scribbling under a section titled ‘Tit Bits’ of 1983 includes: Himmatwala is tipped to be the quickest film to collect 1 crore in under a [...]

One of the high points of my life as a filmmaker came sometime in August 2001. I was shooting a documentary, Climb Every Mountain, in Dungarpur District in South Rajasthan on how the women from the villages of Bichhiwada region had turned their lives around by planting trees in their village wastelands through the efforts [...]