Decoding Bollywood!

The late eighties saw a paradigm shift in the template that Bollywood used in the 70s and 80s – from the stories of angry-young-men to passionate love stories marred by violence. Director N Chandra’s Tezaab, released in 1988, was a movie which blended the two themes with a simpleton-turned-messiah, Munna (Anil Kapoor), at the centre of the story. Tezaab, which means acid in Hindi, also gave us one of the brightest stars of all times, Madhuri Dixit. Tezaab does not boast of anything path-breaking in terms of filmmaking, but gets a mention in the list of movies that define Bollywood for its perfect blend of commercial elements with romance and action. It also marked the beginning of the association of Madhuri Dixit and Saroj Khan, who went on to give us numerous impeccably choreographed chartbusters! And Tezaab gave Madhuri Dixit her first moniker – Mohini and the song she is still revered for – Ek do teen! But Tezaab is much more than just the songs and dance – it is a true-blood

All through our lives, we have been conditioned to believe what has been commonly accepted as the norm. Be it the axiom we read in school, ‘two parallel lines intersect at infinity’ or something as trivial as ‘the lion roars and does not mew’. Seldom have we questioned these, since these were universally accepted facts. None of us ever questioned if a mathematician went to the imaginary space called ‘infinity’ and saw two parallel lines intersect. Director Rajat Kapoor’s 2014 drama, ‘Ankhon Dekhi’ is a simpleton middle-aged man’s take on being rational and only believing what he sees with his own eyes – Ankhon Dekhi. The movie opens with an introduction to a modest household in old Delhi, where the patriarch, Rajesh/Bauji (Sanjay Mishra) narrates his dream to his family over their daily chores. In his dream, he sees himself flying like a free bird. But in reality, he is not free from responsibilities and has a family to feed – a supportive wife, a daughter of marriageable age, a