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...

Suchitra Sen - Revisiting Icons

Standing at the far end of the room she resembled a house wife in a simple cotton saree. A few gold bangles twinkled musically round her wrist. That plump figure was out of...

Arunaraje Patil’s newly released memoir is justly titled FREEDOM. It matches the title of her best known directorial work – RIHAEE- or liberation. The film, she...