Hare Rama Hare Krishna A daringly different treatment of the relationship between a brother and sister in Hindi films, the story deals with the strong bonds of love that exist between the subdued brother and the unconventional, bold, and strong willed sister. Separated in childhood, the parents being too self centered to care for their children, the brother returns to India with the mother, and the sister remaining with the father in Montreal.

Years later when the brother tracks down his sister in Nepal he finds her with a band of hippies. The attempts of the brother to reclaim his sister from the grip of drugs form the gist of the story.

TRIVIA This was Zeenat Aman’s debut film and she picked up the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance. Initially Dev Anand had asked Zaheeda his co star in Prem Pujari to do the role. But she wanted nothing less than the heroine’s role. But the role of the heroine went to Mumtaz. The song Dum maro dum by the sultry voiced Asha Bhosle became the anthem song of the age. PLAYBACK R. D. Burman came up an absolute winner with this film.

The following songs were super hits:

1. Phoolon ka taaron ka Lata Mangeshkar R. D. Burman and the soulful repeat of the song by Kishore Kumar
2. Dum maro dum Asha Bhosle
3. Kanchi re kanchi re Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar
4. Dekho o deewanon tum ye kam na karo Kishore Kumar.

This was Zeenat Aman (more…)

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Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding) adds her angry voice to the cinema of forgotten children in this wrenching drama of an 11-year-old boy (real-life street kid Shafiq Syed) who heads to the big city and joins a sea of homeless kids and down-and-out adults scrambling to survive the pitiless streets. The fantasy of Bollywood dreams hangs just out of reach in posters, movies, and radio tunes, momentary respites from the hard reality of a world ruled by brutal pimps and drug dealers. In the tradition of Los Olvidados and Pixote, former documentarian Nair’s feature debut is shot entirely in the slums of Bombay with a largely nonprofessional cast from the same streets. Though the drama is at times misty and melodramatic, her clear-eyed look at the mercenary world around these ultimately fragile forgotten children earned her the Caméra D’Or at Cannes in 1988. –Sean Axmaker

From director Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding), this “brilliantly achieved, stunning and p (more…)

Story
In colonial India, subedars (tax collectors) went from village to village, with soldiers, often demanding more than taxes. A subedar commands Sonbai, a beautiful and confident women whose husband is away in the city, to sleep with him. She slaps him and flees for safety to a spice factory where women grind chillies into fine powder. The aged factory guard, Abu Mian, locks the door behind her, refusing to open it to the soldiers, to the cowardly village men led by the mayor, and to the subedar himself. The town’s teacher, who follows Gandhi, and a few women, led by the mayor’s wife, protest ineffectually against this village-approved rape. The stage is set for a final confrontation

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