Mumbai's retro era has always found favour with Bollywood !
Here's a look at the hits and misses at the box office this week.
'The security guards at the stadium did not recognise him. He kept saying he was Zakir Hussain but they did not permit him to enter.' 'Zakir bhai was calm and told me it is not their fault. They were doing their job.'
National-award winning actor, producer, hotelier, ex-politician, cricket team owner, philanthropist, highest tax payer, reality show judge, animal lover and, above all, people's hero -- Mithun Chakraborty -- who has been conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke Award -- is truly a force of nature, notes Sukanya Verma.
'That comparison, "Oh look at Vicky, do you also see yourself being that successful in life?"' 'Vicky has seen a lot and done a lot and he is where he is. I feel really happy about it.' 'But I have my own journey.'
The Slumdog director wants to make another film in Mumbai.
Amazon Prime Video has announced a huge number of assorted Web series and movies, and the slate sure looks interesting.
Gems you can enjoy from the time he was at his handsome and magnetic best.
Bombay Velvet paints a pretty postcard but not the soul of its decade, feels Sukanya Verma.
'It would have made (Producer) Ramesh Taurani very happy if I taken two Bombay stars, but the reason why I kept mentally rejecting the regular sort of casting was to discover this excitement, you know, can I crack it?'
'You treat me like eye candy and I will leave you like you're a wrapper.'
Thousands of movie buffs remember the double deckers of Mumbai, associating them with stars and blockbuster songs of yesteryear, recalls Debarghya Sanyal.
'The thinking of society, even today, is that a woman always needs a man to be complete.' 'I am 50. I am single. I am invincible because I have been there, done that.'
A look at films that were shot in Sri Lanka.
Aseem Chhabra watched some great films and some huge disappointments in 2021.
Prayag Raj, who was so successful at his peak, ought not to have slid into oblivion, observes Deepa Gahlot.
'Ameen Sayani was copied by generations. Now everyone is trying to become smaller Ameen Sayanis in their own way.'
Many films and shows go back in time to bring alive so many fading and forgotten memories.
Does Manmarziyaan feature in your list?
The ninth episode of Koffee with Karan Season 8 sees Bollywood's Singham Ajay Devgn grace the couch along with Director Rohit Shetty.
'There are too many things that haven't gone out of you. So even though the years may have gone by, you are still close to the films in terms of the making.'
Is Mumbai done with shared lives and overshared living spaces?
'I was very keen to make another film and I was dying to say action and cut and get back into creating characters and creating worlds.' 'But I just didn't have a script I was happy with.' 'I was working every day on the writing and I was struggling with that.'
Some of her best films are not available on streaming platforms, but Deepa Gahlot looks at her Hindi cinema oeuvre on OTT.
'We share everything with each other.'
Here's what your favourite Bollywood celebrities are tweeting.
While about 8,000 people are in the long list of invitees, the select list features 506 A-listers, including prominent politicians, leading industrialists, top film stars, sportspersons, diplomats, judges and high priests.
Deepa Gahlot lists 10 popular Mani Ratnam films that you can watch on streaming platforms.
'Some icons are living textbooks, teaching us about leadership, success, and legacy. Extraordinary yet human and approachable, they inspire and guide us.' 'India has lost a true son and champion.'
They realised that the Portuguese were better prepared to defend Daman than Dadra and Nagar Haveli. If reinforcements from Daman were to reach Silvassa, there was no chance of defeating the Portuguese. They decided that cutting Daman's communication lines would have to be their top priority before attacking Silvassa. A fascinating excerpt from Neelesh Kulkarni's new book, Uprising-The Liberation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
'What the film shows is an India, which was headed in a completely different direction than where we are headed.'
'Gerson existed at the intersection of principle and conscience. 'One of our conversations turned to his return to India from Brazil. 'He spoke about the choices he made and the things he felt he had failed at. 'What emerged was how he always steadfastly stuck to his beliefs and was true to them and himself. 'The need to -- in Spike Lee's words -- Do The Right Thing.' Director Dev Benegal remembers Gerson da Cunha, 'friend, guide, light'.
'Pancham told me once, "It's very difficult to be taken seriously when there are stalwarts like Shankar-Jaikishan, S D Burman, Madan Mohan and Naushad... How do I make my mark?"' Amit Kumar salutes R D Burman on his 30th death anniversary on January 4.
Aseem Chhabra picks the finest Indian films in the 2010-2019 decade.
While work on his most ambitious project Bombay Velvet is on, Anurag Kashyap's taut and gritty thriller Ugly screened at the ongoing New York Indian Film Festival.
In the next few weeks, the Bombay High Court will hear the institute's petition to review its 2011 directive to vacate the land it occupies in Film City.
'Never in the history of Indian cinema did we have a distribution system for 240 countries, but we have it now.' 'And if we still keep catering to the B and C-tiers of our country, and not the whole world, then we are really being losers.' 'The visionaries of the industry must pull up their socks and say that now we will create for the world.'
It was heartening to see so many women -- young and old, many in hijab and burqa shaking their bodies, raising their arms and singing with complete abandonment.
Anger cannot be an end in itself to Rahul Gandhi's politics -- it must instead catalyse a new political strategy, argues Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
