The celebration in the air is palpable. His old superhits are being screened in theatres for the last few days. There have been panel discussions on the TV and the internet, news articles, music shows—all about that one man who turns 25 four times over today. In Indian films, epithets like ‘superstar’, ‘tragic hero’, ‘romantic hero’, ‘angry young man’ have been attached to different actors across ages. But ‘evergreen’ belongs only to one—the legendary Dev Anand.

Within the luminescent world of Bollywood, where dreams dance on celluloid, a parallel story of patriotism, heroism, and villainy has been etched over the decades. As India marks its 76th Independence Day, it's a fitting occasion to peer into the cinematic mirror that reflects the nation's fervour for freedom and its complex relationship with its past, its neighbours, and the world at large. Beyond the dazzling song-and-dance routines, Bollywood has woven narratives that resonate with the beating heart of a nation's aspirations, trials, and triumphs. Join us on a captivating journey through time, as we explore the evolution of patriotism's portrayal in Bollywood, from the era of colonial censorship to the modern age of global challenges and diverse villains.

The India of the 1950s was a child born in the throes of partition and displacement, unemployment and rich-poor class divides. But young people, despite everything, still fell in love with each other. This love amidst pain is reflected in the intense romantic tragedy of our films of the 1950s, which were very aptly black-and-white — one might say there wasn’t much colour in the lives of most Indians of those times.

One day, about ten years ago, when I went to get a signature on a project report from my boss, he remarked dramatically, “Jao, pehle uss aadmi ka sign lekar aao jisne yeh project initiate kiya tha!”. And we both started laughing at the parody of Amitabh Bachchan’s famous dialogue. So, I thought, why not talk about retro themes in Bollywood films.

At the turn of the millennium, a special brand of safecrackers seemed to jump out of the pages of Indrajal Comics and Diamond Comics into Bollywood. These Superman-like characters were the headliners of films whose plots were too fantastic to be credible and yet told with amazing confidence.

In the last twenty-odd years, to the western world, India has been that low-cost country that has snatched away their jobs. But prior to that, for most part of modern history, the elephant has been one of the key identifiers of that faraway exotic land called India (snake charmers, spices, and hunters with bows and arrows being the others). And it was a mix of ironic justice and an old-guard inertia that an Indian film with an Indian (not African, mind you) elephant as the central character should win the Oscar this year at a destination halfway around the globe.

On International Women's Day, we salute eight of the strongest women characters of Bollywood. They belonged to different social strata and professions and were confronted by different types of challenges. But each was exceptional in her own way.

Roses from an anonymous sender delivered at the doorstep, strumming the guitar for her by the quay, her strawberry pink lips caressing his two-day old stubble – Bollywood is a montage of mushy sequences like these. But there are a few unusual love stories where the Valentines had to battle through past traumas, insecurities, loneliness, physical disabilities, and orthodoxy. Whether they won or lost in love is best left to interpretation and is immaterial. Their story of their battles themselves made for extraordinary romances.

Pele and RD Burman were born a little over a year apart. Coming on 4th Jan as it does, the ‘RD Burman Immortality Day’ (his fans justifiably refuse to term it his ‘death anniversary’) this year is too close to the date of the Brazilian football legend’s demise for us to miss the connection between RD Burman (Pancham) and Latin American music.