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Category: Bollywood Retro Gems

Retro Bollywood movies – Critically acclaimed, commercial super hits and memorable movies that have shaped Bollywood’s history.

Garm Hava 1974
One of the most authentic movie on partition and immediate fallout in post partition India, Garm Hava delves into the lives of the minorities who chose to stay back or one’s who migrated overnight without even informing their nearest ones. The struggle and the atmosphere of suspicion and communal strife prevalent at the time is beautifully captured in the film through the eyes and story of a patriarch of a minority family doing business in the North Indian city of Agra. North India and Uttar Pradesh and surrounding areas in particular were the hub of this dilemma the families faced, to migrate or not. Though depressing in parts the movie ends with a hope for all as the focus changes from the problems of the partition to the problems of survival and earning in the young nation, which has just woken up to the realities of what freedom brings with it, it is time to think ahead and buil ....
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Seeta aur Geeta 1972
Before she did Sholay and put life into Basanti's character in that film, Hema Malini did title role of Seeta aur Geeta, which is also a G.P. Sippy Production's film which was like a precursor to her Basanti. This was a female version of Dilip Kumar’s Ram aur Shyam but had better entertainment value. Seeta Aur Geeta was tale of identical twin sisters separated at birth bought up in different ways which has a bearing on their personality and traits. It also has a later day version with Sridevi named ‘Chaalbaaz’. This was probably one of the movies’ where Hema Malini really let down her hair and played both demure and inconfident Sita and an abuse spitting boisterous Geeta with aplomb so much so that the heroes in the movie are relegated to being the necessary evil for the sake of casting. This movie laid the basis of casting for Sholay as G.P. Sippy wanted to do an action movie ....
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Aashiqui 1990
This memorable movie made the Bhatt camp a formidable force in Bollywood. Aashiqui gave us two new faces and new hope Rahul Roy and Anu Aggarwal. Mahesh Bhatt had spotted Anu at a party. Settled in Paris she was already an International model (first Indian Super model) and had no interest to come to Bollywood but one thing in the script clinched her okay and that was when the heroine says “I want to do something of my own’ which was also her life philosophy. Anu Aggarwal was dark complexioned; which was a rarity in Bollywood during the 90s where people usually liked to see fair toned heroines, that notwithstanding she was accepted whole-hardheartedly. Rahul Roy was also spotted by Bhatt when he went to his mother Indira Roy's house to wish her. Though Aashiqui was a super-duper hit, it did not help in the careers of the lead actors as it should have due to various reasons, mayb ....
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Jai Santoshi Maa 1975 film
The most successful film on mythology in India is Jai Santoshi Maa. This movie about an unknown Goddess till then brought about a revolution to the nation thirsting for and searching for hope in Emergency times. The mythological film Jai Santoshi Maa started a trend which was followed for years to come. During 1975 the film grossed over 5 Crore Rupees and in today's value this amounts to Rs 200 Crores. Jai Santoshi Maa is to be credited with the Friday fasts became a rage with almost every woman in India observing the fast. The offering of Jaggery and gram to the Goddess for 16 consecutive Fridays and break the fast was rampant all over the country. Rarely has any other movie caught the fancy of the populace like this movie. Not only did people follow the regimen but there were also myths that if the sequence is broken it will be a bad omen for the person observing the fast and so on. ....
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Waqt 1965
Waqt, a powerful tale of lost and found was one of the earliest multi-starrers on India screens which started the later day trend for the same. Produced by B.R. Chopra and directed by his brother Yash Chopra, Waqt is remembered for the classic song ‘O meri Johrajabin’ picturized on Balraj Sahani serenading his lady love and wife in the movie. B.R. Chopra is a film maker known for his movies with a social message like Naya Daur, Hamraaz etc. This movie also had the message that Waqt or time is most powerful, it makes or breaks fortunes and that one should not be proud of one’s own achievements as they can easily be destroyed by time as it can change anytime. One gets the glimpse of the Yash Chopra style opulent lifestyle of the characters like clubs, high society bungalows etc. as early as in this film which he followed up in movies made by his own YRF studio in the later years. ....
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Qurbani 1980
Feroz Khan (FK) was a stylish personality and his movies also had his touch of style. Qurbani was one of his best with a good storyline, execution and fantastic songs and music. This definitely was one of the best movie roles after Hare Rama Hare Krishna for Zeenat Aman, role that was tailor made for her. Qurbani also kick started the career of Shakti Kapoor as a villain and also gave us the exotic Pakistani singer Nazia Hassan with some chartbuster numbers in the movie. Produced and directed by FK it released on 20th June 1980, FK spared no cost in the production department, there is a scene right at the beginning where FK ruins the Mercedes of the villain (Mercedes was an expensive car and in those days it was not so common to see it around). In fact some scenes were even lavishly mounted and that showed in the final product, it was one of the best movies with rich production values ....
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Ardh Satya 1983
A hard hitting cop drama directed by Govind Nihalani which catapulted the careers of Om Puri and to some extent Shafi Inamdaar and of course Sadashiv Amrapurkar. Ardh Satya was Nihalani’s second outing with Puri after the dark Aakrosh of 1980. It released on 19th August 1983. Initially Amitabh was roped in to play the role of the cop but could not and it fell in the laps of Puri. The movie’s title - Ardh Satya is derived from the Marathi poem by Dilip Chitre which is also referenced in the movie and changes psych of the main character and the flow of the movie. After the socials of ‘60s and the soft romantic and experimental movies of the ‘70s the Rajesh Khanna variety it was the era of Amitabh Bachchan in the ‘80s with his angry young man and compelling movies. Ardh Satya was one such movie which catered to the art movie sensibilities and well as mainstream cinema dramat ....
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Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro 1983
It was a satire on the murky happenings in a big city. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro explored the nexus between the big business men, the politicos and the press who would go all out and are ready to stoop to any level, back-stab or front stab for that matter, to get their own pound of flesh. The city in question is none other than Amchi Mumbai here. Adorned with the class actors of the then art cinema world, the cast of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro is led by Nasseruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Om Puri, and Ravi Baswani and not to forget the dead meat Satish Shah because of whom the whole mad bungle in concrete jungle happens. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro was a story by Sudhir Mishra and the talented Kundan Shah who also directed it. It seemed the story developed itself as it was being filmed, with incidents happening one after the other in sequence and taking the story forward at good pace infused with dry humor, dark ....
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Gulzar's Angoor 1982
This 1982 movie is a delightful Indianised adaptation of Shakespeare's play 'Comedy of Errors'. Angoor is a remake of 1963 Hindi film Do Dooni Char with two sets of twins. It is a superb subtle comedy with great artistes like Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma. Directed efficiently by Gulzar and released on 5 March 1982, it is a genuine comedy of errors as both the sets of twins do not know about each other, no lying and no impersonation. Angoor was a comedy of different caliber rarely viewed on Indian cinema screens. It was in the league of comedy like Pyar kiye jaa and Padosan the evergreen comedy classics. Mr and Mrs Raj Tilak (Utpal Dutt and Shammi) have twins and due to some convoluted logic, name them both as Ashok, and as luck would have it they adopt a set of twins and name them both Bahadur as per the same logic. Shortly after fate intervenes and each parent is separated with o ....
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Mother India 1957
This magnum opus from Mehboob Khan was a remake of his earlier movie Aurat released in 1940. Mother India is an all time classic and is what defines Indian cinema. It describes the village life in the backdrop of agriculture, which at that time was very much dependent on rainfall with 70% of the Indian population living in the villages and also dependent on agriculture. It was released on 25 October 1957. Mother India captures the Indian ethos of the time. A woman has a prime place in Indian culture and are revered as goddesses. Mother has a special place in every child's life especially in India and this movie celebrates that. The title was deliberately chosen so, as it was also the title of a book by an American author denigrating the Indian ethos and with this Mehboob Khan wanted to put paid to that by showing that the opposite was actually the truth and Indian women had enough gri ....
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