Manoj Kumar AKA Bharat Kumar AKA Harikrishan Giri Goswami was among the last icons of the Golden Era who still graced us with his presence till yesterday when he also joined the other legends of Bollywood's most influential and artistic era. The images of the plow yielding Bharat Kumar singing the patriotic masterpiece "Mere Desh Ki Dharti" in Upkar is not only etched into our memories but the psyche and identity of the nation. Our heads rise with pride at the sight of Manoj Kumar standing tall in a foreign land singing praises of the land that gave "Zero" to the world in Purab Aur Paschim. His eclectic and experimental visuals of Roti Kapda Aur Makaan's "Main Na Bhoolunga", Shor's "Ek Pyar Ka Nagma" and the iconic "Dulhan Chali" will stay with us forever.

Manoj Kumar had a great eye for talent as can be witnessed by the appearance of pre-fame superstars like Amitabh Bachchan in Roti Kapda Aur Makaan and Vinod Khanna in Purab Aur Paschim. Even the career trajectory of one of Bollywood's greatest villains like Pran changed when Manoj Kumar cast him in a fantastic character role as Malang Chacha in Upkar. He even managed to entice his idol Dilip Kumar out of retirement to return to Bollywood in a new avatar with Kranti. However not even many fans of the Masala era know Manoj Kumar's hidden contribution to one of Cinema's game changing entertainer named Don.

Nariman Irani was Manoj Kumar’s cinematographer and friend whose amazing camera work can be seen in classics like Phool aur Patthar, Saraswatichandra, Shor and Roti Kapda Aur Makaan. He decided to produce a movie named "Zindagi Zindagi" with Sunil Dutt, Waheeda Rehman and Ashok Kumar in the 70s which was a massive commercial failure and drowned him in debt. When his friend and collaborator Manoj Kumar found out about his debts during the filming of "Roti Kapda Aur Makaan", he advised Nariman to make a movie with his not so famous costars of the movie “RKAM”, Amitabh Bachchan, Zeenat Aman and asked his assistant director Chandra Barot to direct the movie. Big B, Zeenat and Barot all agreed to do the movie for almost no fees to help Nariman out and asked Salim-Javed to write a story for the movie. Salim-Javed offered them an untitled script which had been rejected by Dev Anand, Jeetendra and Prakash Mehra and nobody wanted to make. Manoj Kumar also asked his friend Pran to work on this movie for a low fee. So the cast and story for Don was finalized on the set of Manoj Kumar's Roti Kapda Aur Makaan.

It would take the movie 4 years to complete due to its low budget and challenges in getting dates from the actors who had become superstars over time. Then disaster struck. Nariman Irani who was the reason all these great artists had come together was filming Manoj Kumar’s “Kranti” in the rain when a wall collapsed on him. He died as a result of this accident in 1977, 6 months before the movie’s release. Manoj Kumar, Barot, the cast, all rallied to get the movie finished quickly in order to honor Irani and help his family in this time of need. Barot showed his final cut to Manoj Kumar a few weeks before release date, however Bharat Kumar felt that the movie needed some musical relief in its busy action packed 2nd half. Manoj asked Kalyanji Anandji to dig out a catchy dance song from their archives at a short notice. Kalyanji Anandji told him about a song they composed for Dev Anand’s "Banarasi Babu" but was never used. A quick call to Dev Anand and the song was released and re-recorded with Kishore Da who decided to chew paan in the recording studio for effect as he sang the verses of “Khaike Paan Banaraswala”.

The movie released to a poor opening as it struggled to compete with a blockbuster named “Trishul”. Then through word of mouth its destiny changed. Many fans started singing “Khaike Paan Banaraswala" and soon a frenzy took over the nation as fans started singing the songs and quoting the iconic one liners penned by Salim-Javed. Don became a superhit, Amitabh Bachchan won his first award for best actor, Kishore Da won for best singer for "Khaike Paan Banaraswala" and rest is history. The cast and crew of Don celebrated the success and dedicated the movie to Nariman Irani. Manoj Kumar quietly went back to directing his magnum opus and mega starrer blockbuster Kranti. Such modest geniuses are rarely born. Manoj Kumar may have left us but his legacy will linger on forever.

Tell me your all time favorite dialogue of any Bollywood movies

Hi, I'm working on an assignment about how actors perform in scenes where one actor plays multiple versions of themselves—like clones, self-duplication, or split personalities—especially when they appear in the same shot.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could recommend some scenes that feature this kind of performance. Any type of scene where an actor is interacting with a duplicate of themselves would be super helpful! If you could provide specific episode examples or brief descriptions, that would mean a lot

I don't watch movies much, I would love some recommendations

So I sat myself down and spent time watching Prithviraj Chauhan especially after the adrenaline rush of watching Chhaava twice. I could notice obvious flaws that made it so hard for me to focus on the movie and lose attention.

To get the obvious points off, Akshay Kumar and his 30 day shooting fiasco, not preparing enough for the role , etc are all said and understood.

Some points that irked me the most were:

1. Terrible color grading. More than half the scenes were pitch yellow as if colored using a kid's crayon, that sight of turmeric yellow is so nauseating.

2. Sanjay Dutt's tapori dialogues: AE KYA BAKK RAHA HAI TU, AYE MAI SAR KATWAUNGA LEKIN BAKWAS NAHI SUNUNGA, AYE BATUE BOLNA!, this was as bad as Adipurush's "teri jali kya" innovation.

3. The movie's motive seemed to highlight Prithviraj's love life and his women empowerment, even if they didn't want to half the movie revolved there, and to ruin it further, there was a love track and dance too, does that make it any better?

4. The motive was highly misplaced from Swayamvar to Prithviraj's samants laying their lives out so that a woman's honor (Prithviraj eloping with Sanyogita from her swayamvar because her father didn't want her to marry Prithviraj) and then to spend so many minutes over the conversations of false bravado around laying their lives for their dharma while what they did was technically infighting to expand territories.

5. Even the women's empowerment angle was a mere token with no gravity attached. The attendees publicly calling Prithviraj out for letting his wife attend the royal court and Prithviraj extending his message of women empowerment in what can best be called an Anupama-level script.

6. The Dance India Dance before Jauhar scene was cringy and unnecessary.

7. Last but not the least, Akshay kumar's terrible acting, mispronunciation of words didn't help the case either.

I am not accounting for historical/ factual inaccuracies as they are deterrents in movie-watching experience.

If only the entire movie was as fast-paced and no-nonsense as the last 5 mins, the watch would have been worth it. In the existing state, the movie seemed like multiple episodes of a historical TV serial put together (with the quality of a tv serial).

I feel like this was a good women centric movie. Despite underperforming at the box office, I found it to be a good watch. Your thoughts?

Well this is quite random, but I am spiraling over not remembering the name of this movie.

So I saw this as a kid, I loosely remember it's plot, so the story goes like (it may not be perfect so you can suggest even some close plot movies, which you think can fit this) -

There is a small village girl who is crushing over a guy (maybe a film star), who was from the village and set to marry her when they grew up, but since she is not modern enough for him now, he rejects her and goes back to the city.

Cut to the girl follows him, and then she ends up being found by a women who was maybe a ex of the guy from the film industry wanting to get back at him, she transforms the girl, making her learn English and styling her, and eventually making the guy fall for the girl where he has no idea that she is the same girl from the village.

That's all that I remember, I hope someone's gets it from this (botched up) story line..

I just watched guzaarish today, im so upset that this movie didnt get the recognition it deserves, its tragically beautiful and poetic cinematography is topnotch!

Arre bhaiyon aur behno, zindagi mein har ek ka ek filmy moment toh banta hai! Toh batao, kaunsa Bollywood dialogue aapki life ko perfectly describe karta hai? Mera toh 'Yeh zindagi ke mele, duniya mein kam na honge' chal raha hai – thodi masti, thodi si reality check! Aapka kya hai? Comments mein spill karo, aur thodi si filmy andaaz mein likho toh mazaa dugna ho jayega!"

I'm looking for a list of movies that the censorship board forced to heavily edit and/or outright ban.

Appreciate any links.

Having watched his earlier movies like Sarfarosh, Jones Jheeta Wohi Sikandar, Hum hai Rahi Pyar Ke, Akele TUM Akele Hum, Baazi, Rangeela, Raja Hindustani,Lagaan, Fanaa, Talaash, Taare Zameen Par, Ghajini, PK, 3 Idiots, Dil Chata Hai, Rang De Basanti and Dangal his range as an actor and the movies he has made might be the best catalog of any actor ever in Bollywood.

I mean it was a flop, but the whole films has a indie film vibe (even though it's dharma). The story line is basic, but I loved the picture in its whole sense. The cinematography, sound tracks, the emotions all really kept me engaged and in a sense of awe.

How was it for you..

I clearly remember watching this movie a few years ago, maybe on netflix, but I can’t find this anywhere nor the evidence of it ever existing. I’m positing it here in dire hopes that someone has watched it and can name the film.

I also distinctly remember madhuri dixit being the main character, but it is not listed in her filmography on the web.

The plot goes like this.

There’s a bollywood heroine who lives with her mother and family (husband, one daughter, one son). she is successful and established, but lately theyre having financial troubles. her husband is a bit abusive and the mother controlling. her son is gay. the husband is insisting on selling the house, she doesnt want to because they bought it with her money. she shoots a film, and then goes missing. turns out a painter in a remote village who painted movie posters was obsessed and kidnapped her. audience goes wild and the movie marketing shoots up, going house full during release. turns out she had faked her own kidnapping by collaborating with the painter, and her daughter knew and helped all along. but in the very end she betrayed her mother and left her in a locked cargo so that she could get the limelight for her career as the poor daughter who will be the next “mother’s character”

Update: Thank you to everyone who helped me with the name -“FAME GAME”, glad I could find people to help while AI failed. And to clarify, its NOT a MOVIE BUT A SERIES. My goldfish memory must’ve remembered it as a movie since I watched it in one go. Thankyou everyone🫶

No need to be salty about the honest mistake though, since the series had only one season :)

It's so sad that he's been trying to make this film since 2014 and news outlets and even Instagram pages have been accusing him of plagiarism. To clarify he has literally published parts of his synopsis and story on his instagram.

Mine: Ranbir & Nargis in Rockstar

I don't remember this movie at all, I just remember a scene, I'll try my best to describe it.

So there is a man (let's call him A) being blackmailed on the phone by a blackmailer (let's call him B). I'm pretty sure they know each other.

B is forcing A to shoot someone that is talking to someone(on the phone), back faced. Now A keeps denying, this is happening while the B and A are on call. B forced A to shoot the random man who's back is towards him, A gives in and shoots the man, the man is shot and turns around and its revealed that it was B himself, A gets shocked to see that the blackmailer (B) made A shoot himself (B).

Now I'm not sure but I think Sanjay Dutt was in this movie, And I think the movie is 'Kidnap' but I'm still not sure

GOOD BYE, ANIMAL, CHHAVA, SIKANDAR. She hasn’t been putting up any extraordinary performances in these films (considering that there are better actresses than her in the industry). Also considering the fact that she has been under continuous public scrutiny. Do you think she might just be overhyped because of her work in the telugu film industry? Or is she really good?

Which one is your favourite??