Released in: 1957 Cast: Guru Dutt, Mala Sinha, Waheeda Rehmaan, Johnny Walker, Rehmaan Director: Guru Dutt Music: S.D. Burman Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi   By far one of the most influential works of literary cinema in post-independence India, Pyaasa portrays the restless poet-protagonist Vijay (Guru Dutt) as an insatiable traveller longing to find a place where [...]

Released in: 1957 Cast: Sunil Dutt, Nargis, Raj Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Kanhaiyalal Director: Mehboob Khan Music: Naushad Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni   Mehboob Khan’s landmark film Mother India was the first Indian film to be nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign film category in 1958. Mehboob’s film missed the distinction by a solitary vote [...]

Released in: 1957 Cast: V. Shantaram, Sandhya Director: V. Shantaram Music: Vasant Desai Lyrics: Bharat Vyas   Like the prolific filmmaker’s other human drama ‘Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani’ made 15 years earlier with Shantaram and his real-life wife Jayshree in the lead, ‘Do Aankhen Barah Haath’ is the quasi-biographicalstory of a jailor (Shantaram) and [...]

Released in: 1956 Cast: Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Motilal Director: Sombhu Mitra/Amit Moitra Music: Salil Chowdhury Lyrics: Shailendra, Prem Dhawan   Moving away from the operatic opulence of his style Raj Kapoor hired 2 avant-garde Bengali filmmakers to direct a story about one thirsty man’s experiences in Kolkata during the course of one night.   Jagte [...]

Released in: 1955 Cast: Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Nadira Director: Raj Kapoor Music: Shankar, Jaikishan Lyrics: Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri   Aparable on the goodness of the heart as opposed to the evil designs of the city folk, Shri 420 features Raj Kapoor as the village bumpkin who finds out about the ways of the big bad [...]

Boot Polish is remarkable for being the precursor to cinema about street children and also for the cult of ghost-direction that many illustrious filmmakers in Bollywood devised as a means of spreading their creative wings. Raj Kapoor credited the direction of this film to his assistant, Prakash Arora.   A year ahead of Satyajit Ray’s [...]

Released in: 1953 Cast: Balraj Sahani, Nirupa Roy, Rattan Kumar Director: Bimal Roy Music: Salil Chowdhury Lyrics: Shailendra   Arguably the most potent social drama ever conceived in this country, Do Bigha Zameen follows the heartrending plight of a peasant from his village.   Burdened by feudal financial obligations, Shambhu (Balraj Sahani) migrates to kolkata [...]

Released in: 1953 Cast: Nasir Khan, Meena Kumari Director: Kamal Amrohi Music: Jamal Sen Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kaif Bhopali   Kamal Amrohi’s Daera is a deeply experimental look at a young and frail woman’s mis-marriege with a man old enough to be her father and the suicidal fascination that her young neighbour (played by Dilip [...]

Awara figures in the list of the 3 most influential films in Indian Cinema. Awara immortalized the Raj Kapoor-Nargis duo and made the blue-eyed hero the darling of the masses all the way to the former Soviet Union. Father and son Prithviraj Kapoor and Raj Kapoor came together in the first of such collaborations. Shashi [...]

Released in: 1949 Cast: Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, Nargis, Cuckoo Director: Mehboob Khan Music: Naushad Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri             The mother of all romantic triangles featuring the dream cast of Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Nargis, Andaz and its complexities dwelling on the man-woman relationship within the ‘modern’ post-independence Indian context is, to this day, [...]