Reel power

Parasakthi 1952Gunasekharan hides behind a temple idol and fools everyone that it8217;s God speaking. When he finally reveals the truth, ...

Parasakthi 1952
Gunasekharan hides behind a temple idol and fools everyone that it8217;s God speaking. When he finally reveals the truth, he injects reason into the mind of a community.

Mother India 1957
Shyamu has run away, leaving Radha with her little sons Ramu and Birju to face evil moneylender Sukhilal. With no money to buy an ox, Radha picks up the yoke herself and tills her land, perhaps the classic image in Hindi film history.

Mughal-e-Azam 1960
Refusing Emperor Akbar8217;s offer of money in return for forsaking Salim, Anarkali sings 8220;Pyar kiya to darna kya8221; 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 Surya8217;s house and shatters a window, in a symbolic act of rebellion against India8217;s social structures.

Manthan 1976
Entrenched political and commercial interests have thwarted Dr Rao8217;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 maid8217;s daughter, and turns Inder away when he wants to come back. But she doesn8217;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 men8217;s eyes, chilli is empowerment, weapon, sexuality, rebellion, shakti.

Amma Ariyan 1986
As Purushan and friends walk towards Hari8217;s home to inform his mother of Hari8217;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.

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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: 8220;You8217;ll get 10,000 Salims if you trust them. Never tell a Salim that this country is not his home.8221; Even Hindu fundamentalists would feel a lump in their throats.

Lagaan 2001
Bhuban8217;s ragtag army defeats Captain Russell8217;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