Bharati Dubey

The 1973 classic captured a changing India, from youthful romance and new fashions to a new musical and cinematic language. By the early 1970s, Raj Kapoor had reached a curious point in his career. He was one of Hindi cinema’s most recognisable filmmakers, an institution whose name was inseparable from films such as Awaara, Shree 420 and Sangam. Yet his most ambitious film, Mera Naam Joker, had proved a commercial disappointment. Kapoor, who had spent decades building a distinctive cinematic...

How Mumbai’s studios and streets celebrated cinema Mumbai: Mumbai’s Ganesh Utsav has always been more than a religious celebration. For generations, it has also intersected with the city’s other great passion-cinema. Long before photographs of stars welcoming Ganpati Bappa at home became an annual fixture on television and social media, the festival had a presence inside Mumbai’s film studios. Beyond the studio gates, Ganesh mandals were also bringing movies directly to neighbourhood...

Mumbai: The failure of ‘Batwara 1947’ has emerged as one of those box-office mysteries that is difficult to explain purely through the usual parameters of filmmaking. The film brought back the celebrated combination of Sunny Deol and director Rajkumar Santoshi after nearly three decades, carried a powerful Partition backdrop and featured acclaimed performers. Yet, despite the pedigree, the film struggled to attract audiences to theatres. For trade analyst Taran Adarsh, the failure was...