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In this Subhash K Jha feature, he focusses in Paoli Dam’s powerful vendetta act on Hate Story. Paoli speaks exclusively about the film.

Long before The Kashmir Files, Vivek Agnihotri directed this interesting revenge drama released on April 20, 2012. The fascist avenging woman has always been a favourite figure of fantasy fashioning for our films. Who can forget Nargis gunning down her own son in Mehboob Khan’s Mother India? The motivations for revenge in Hate Story are not quite the ones that impelled the woman protagonist to rise up in arms in Mother India or, for that matter, in Bhavna, a film directed by Hate Story producer Vikram Bhatt’s father Pravin Bhatt, where Shabana Azmi killed her own husband.

Really, who needs a gun to get even when you have sex? Paoli Dam doesn’t give a damn if her bare back or flesh flash across the screen.

By numbers, her work in the Hindi film industry seems quite scanty — at 33 films in around a decade and a half. But the statistics fail to reveal that, save around five, all were box-office hits, and some of them broke new ground, making her one of the most popular and successful actresses of all times — and a fashion icon too.

Though she struck gold right from her debut as female lead, and went on to become an “in demand” actress for everything, from frothy romances to tear-jerkers, Sadhana is most remembered for her trademark hairstyle — the famous “Sadhana cut” of fringes or short bangs (itself inspired by the elfin and charming Audrey Hepburn) — and pioneering form-fitting kurtas and churidar pyjamas.

But in her comparatively limited outings, Sadhana, who was born on this day in 1941, showcased her acting prowess. She could essay roles of a rich heiress to a village belle...

If one were to look at the promos of Jhootha Hi Sahi, does not something click in them in the mind after seeing the character being played by John Abraham in the film? Oh come on, still not able to co-relate? Well, does the looks of John Abraham in Jhootha Hi Sahi not inspired by the looks of the Superman that Superman used to go along with when he was portraying the normal character in his films. Indeed, it reminds one of the linkages with Superman, and the looks have consciously been designed in such a manner to give it a superman like appearance.Jhootha Hi Sahi.s moments seem to have been inspired from Lage Raho Munna Bhai, where Sanjay Dutt plays the role of online counselor who uses the medium of a radio for counseling, while in case of Jhootha Hi Sahi John Abraham morphs into the role of an online counselor,...