Retroscope - The Healing Touch

The following is no filmy story. But it has the possibility of inspiring a Raju Hirani or a Vidhu Vinod Chopra with a central character who is as delightful as Munnabhai an...

Retroscope - Unsung Talents

It was the day they got married, remembers Mrs Salil Chowdhury, chuckling to herself, when the letter arrived inviting Chowdhury to Bombay. The particular letter that was t...

Retroscope - A Veritable Carnival

The 19th edition of CFSI’s festival turned out to be a veritable carnival, a feast of colourful sights and sounds.
Had I not gone, I would have missed the robust...

MANNA DEY

It was in late 1996 that I started the Bimal Roy Memorial with a view to honour my father, whose films continued to thrill audiences, and still do. Very few individuals fro...

Curtain Raiser

“Everything is a celebration in the garden of childhood”
- Pablo Neruda

A question which frequently haunted me raises its head as I write...

Meena Kumari - A Legend

Meena Kumari’s rags to riches saga has a poignant edge to it. Dubbedthe greatest tragedienne of the Indian screen, her doomed personal life flashing with deep tragedy...

Durga Puja Special

For many years now I have enjoyed Puja in Bombay, the city of our adoption like thousands of probasi Bengalis. The Bengali community was once close, everyone knew ...

The Portrayal Of Violence Against Women In Indian Cinema

It has become something of a cliché to claim that the 1950s was the golden age of Indian cinema, and that during the 1950s, we had more women-centric films than at o...

A Personal Tribute To Smita

That was sometime way back in the seventies. I still remember the two young women in our Tashkent film delegation who were fashionably late for meals, meetings; who giggled...