Reel power

Mughal-e-Azam (1960)
Refusing Emperor Akbar’s offer of money in return for forsaking Salim, Anarkali sings “Pyar kiya to darna kya” at the durbar, a rousing act of defiance against patriarchy, class distinctions, and power structures.

Mahanagar (1963)
Subrata has lost his job. In the middle of the night, Arati wakes him up and tells him that she has an idea: she will start working. Beginning a complex and liberating journey.

Samskara (1970)
When Naranappa the Brahmin dies, his body is left outdoors to rot, because he had had been in love with the lower caste Chandri. Flouting caste hierarchy, Chandri offers her meagre jewellery to Praneshacharya to perform the last rites.

Ankur (1974)
After Surya the Landowner vents his guilt and fear by beating the deaf-mute husband of Laxmi, the woman who is carrying his child, a small boy hurls a stone at Surya’s house and shatters a window, in a symbolic act of rebellion against India’s social structures.

Manthan (1976)
Entrenched political and commercial interests have thwarted Dr Rao’s every attempt to start a milk cooperative. As he prepares to leave, defeated, the village tough, Bhola, comes forward with his can of milk in a lustrous moment of empowerment.

Arth (1982)
After Inder left his wife Pooja for Kavita, she rebuilds her life with help from friend Raj, adopts her battered maid’s daughter, and turns Inder away when he wants to come back. But she doesn’t want to be with Raj either. As she walks away in the last scene, she is truly independent.

Mirch Masala (1985)
As the subedar and his soldiers move in to abduct Sonbai, the village women confront them in a spice factory. When they throw red chilli powder into the men’s eyes, chilli is empowerment, weapon, sexuality, rebellion, shakti.

Amma Ariyan (1986)
As Purushan and friends walk towards Hari’s home to inform his mother of Hari’s death in police custody, the small group that started the journey develops into a crowd of young men in a breathtaking scene denoting the rising of a people.

Sarfarosh (1999)
His superiors believe Salim, being a Muslim, should not be on a case involving the ISI. When DSP Ajay Singh Rathore tells him that he needs 10 Salims, not one, he answers: “You’ll get 10,000 Salims if you trust them. Never tell a Salim that this country is not his home.” Even Hindu fundamentalists would feel a lump in their throats.

Lagaan (2001)
Bhuban’s ragtag army defeats Captain Russell’s men in cricket.

Swades (2004)
The ever-present mineral water bottle is the quirky but totally real symbol of the US-returnedness of Mohan Bhargava. When on a train journey, he drinks normal water, at that moment, he becomes Indian again