This episode unpacks one of the most important Indian films, Ankur (seedling) directed by the late Shyam Benegal. It stars veterans of Hindi, Oriya, and Kannada films: Shabana Azmi, Sadhu Meher, and Anant Nag in pivotal roles.

Ankita and Azhar discuss how caste affects desires and the complex interplay of cowardice and casteist power represented through the character, Surya. Allegedly based on real incident, Ankur remains a testament of powerful storytelling in Indian cinema. It generates a nostalgia, a desire to go back to the socialist foundations of Indian/Hindi cinema being lost in the post 2014 Hindutva era. Can such a film be still made today?

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In this short episode, Ankita unpacks the 1967 Hindi film Around the World starring Raj Kapoor, Rajshree, Mehmood, and Pran. In a reversal to his socialist image, Raj Kapoor plays a millionaire embarking on a world tour but there's a problem. He only has eight US dollars. The film is touted as a mindless film but Ankita argues that this is one of the most important Cold War films made in Bollywood.

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The student, the educator, the cinephile, and the rebellious Indian combine in this episode to unpack the relevance of the 2006 Hindi film Rang De Basanti. Ankita and Azhar do so via the Cockroach Janta Party led student protests unfolding in India. Consider this a tribute to revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh, the rebellious spirit of Indian masses, and India as well–the India which at one point aimed to be the symbol of decoloniality. The hosts extend their solidarity to the Indian students, complicate CJP, criticize mainstream Bollywood's cowardly right-wing turn while unpacking questions like:

1) What is revolutionary optimism?

2) What are the reasons behind the pessimistic belief that protests lead to nothing?

3) Why are the Indian students protesting and hows does RDB blur the lines between fact and fiction?

4) Why is RDB is still a relevant radical political film?

References:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly72e3zrjno

Ankita and Azhar unpack one of the finest war films in Bollywood history. Though set in 1962 during the Indo-China war, Haqeeqat (Reality) deals with the trauma of losing Jawahar Lal Nehru and perhaps his vision for a non-aligned India. Dharmendra, Balraj Sahni, Sudhir, Vijay Anand, Jayant, and Priya Rajvansh star. While the film can be seen as a cinematic revenge against China's aggression in 1962, it nonetheless opens the questions about war-labor, absurdity of human-made borders, illusion of nation, postcolonial sovereignty, ideal citizenry and more. Ankita and Azhar engage in a complex discussion of the film while lamenting the impossibility of such films being made in Bollywood today.

Our latest episode dicusses one of the finest and heavily overlooked Hindi film Yahudi (English: The Jew) from 1958. Starring Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Sohrab Modi, and Nazir Hussain, the film is a testament of postcolonial ethnic solidarity that shaped Bollywood. It is based on the play Yahudi Ki Ladki by the Urdu poet, playwright, and dramatist Agha Hashar Kashmiri, a classic in Parsi-Urdu theatre. Wajahat Mirza's dialogues are outstanding while Shankar Jaikishan's melodies haunt. Directed by the socialist Bengali filmmaker, Bimal Roy and produced by the Jewish-Indian sound enginner Savak Vacha, the film imagines Jewish persecution in Roman Empire to tell a story of love, empathy, and the sheer idiocy of religious and hyper nationalist hatred.

For Azhar, this film is a healing balm to the Indian population traumatized and wounded by Partition and Ankita thinks it is time we bring back the amalgamation of socialism, literariness, and melodrama back to Bollywood!

Hope you enjoy this episode!

Happy Karl Marx Day! In this episode Ankita is joined by Zane Merritt as they unpack the 1973 Hindi film Abhimaan.

Abhimaan stars Amitabh and Jaya Bachhan along with the phenomenal Bindu and Asrani in pivotal roles. Ankita sees this film as a befitting response to western capitalist imperialism heightening during the cold war. Whether Mukherjee intended it or not, the film is a staunch critique of hyper individualism that capitalism promotes. Hope you enjoy this episode!

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In this episode, we discuss the 1974 blockbuster Hindi film Roti. The film stars Rajesh Khanna, Mumtaz, Pinchoo Kapoor, Sujit, Nirupa Roy, and Om Prakash along with the who's who of 70's Bollywood. We love Roti for its stellar soundtrack but even more for the subtle pro-China subtext during the cold war era. Manmohan Desai was an expert of Masala films (a mix of genres) and here, he brilliantly uses and abuses the many possibilities of melodrama to push for a more socialist aligned narrative during a time when India was determined to stay non-aligned. Was this a result of the anti-imperialist leadership of Indira Gandhi? Or could this film be a quiet rebellion when communist movemment in India was being deliberately crushed? Many readings are possible.

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We bring you the first ever Hindi film jointly produced by India and the Soviet Union–the 1957 film Pardesi (Khozhdenie Za Tri Moray or The Foreigner), starring Oleg Strizhenov, Nargis, Padmini, and Balraj Sahani along with a special appearance by Prithviraj Kapoor. Made in Russian and Hindi, this film is a testament of Indo-Soviet solidarity. It is based on travelogues of a 15th century Russian traveler Afanasy Nikitin who wrote a memoir called A Journey Beyond the Three Seas.

Ankita and Azhar discuss the importance of watching this film today, its portrayal of East-West cultural engagagement and why this film matters especially today when US imperialism has gone berserk.

Here is the blog post mentioned by Ankita

Also, listen to this fanstastic episode on the Soviet film Letter Never Sent by Cold War Cinema podcast

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