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Sunil Dutt didn’t pretend to be a feminist. It came naturally to him. He would pick up his wife the great Nargis’s trailing gown from the floor as easily as he could play the reformist hero of his lovely leading lady Nutan in the fabulous Sujata. And when Nutan became the dominant spouse in Khandaan , Dutt Saab surrendered wholeheartedly to the mollycoddling.

In an interview conducted in the 1990s, Sunil Dutt told Subhash K Jha. “I didn’t think of these things, whether my role was more or less than my leading lady. In Mother India, Nargisji was the hero. I am thankful for the opportunity to play her son in Mother India, that’s how we met and became man and wife.”

Among all the screen heroes, Sunil Dutt was the only true feminist. While several leading men pretend to believe in gender equality their actions prove otherwise.

Was there an actress more enchanting and engaging than Nutan? One thing is for sure. Nutan was unlike any other screen legend. She wasn’t a conventional beauty like Madhubala, nor as sprightly and spontaneous as Geeta Bali, or as graceful and rhythmic as Vyjayanthimala.

And yet, there was something about Nutan. Something deep and knowledgeable, as though she had unearthed the secret of the universe and couldn’t live with the burden of the knowledge. Born in 1931, Nutan Samarth was introduced to the screen by her mother, the legendary-in-her-own-right Shobhana Samarth, in a film aptly entitled Hamari Beti. Earlier stalwarts like Chandulal Shah and K Asif had offered her roles. But the doting mother took it upon herself to launch her beti.

Ironically, Nutan fell out with her mother over property disputes. The two women didn’t speak to each other for nearly two decades. Nutan was a fascinating mixture of steel and satin.

The film that Sushant Singh Rajput will be most remembered by, Sonechiriya, which turned six on March 1, is the most anguished plea against injustice and oppression since Bimal Roy’s Sujata. The deep silences in Abhishek Chaubey’s clenched narrative reminded me of Roy’s film about a Harijan girl (Nutan) looking for an identity.

We don’t have Harijans anymore as targets of exploitation. Director Abhishek Chaubey uses eerie silences in the stunning Chambal landscape to punctuate a sense of excruciating oppression. Besides Sushant and Ranvir Shorey, I came away with two heroes in Sonechiriya. The little brutalized girl from whom the film gets its title, whose devastated eyes still secrete a smile after all she has gone through. Raw, gritty, and compelling, Sonechiriya conveys a clandestine narrative style that never impinges on the violent disarray of the characters’ brutal, unpredictable lives. It is as Indian in spirit as cinema can get,...

Sridevi Mithun Chakraborty Romance (Photo Credit – Instagram)

The world of Bollywood has seen its fair share of love stories, some that stood the test of time and others that ended in heartbreak. Among these, the relationship between superstar Mithun Chakraborty and the late Sridevi remains one of the most talked-about romances of the 1980s. Sridevi and Mithun Chakraborty were two of the biggest names in Bollywood in the 1980s and 90s.

The two stars met each other on the sets of Jaag Utha Insan, a 1984 movie directed by K. Viswanath. After that, the two stars reportedly began dating and even got married, as per various reports. However, Mithun was already married to Yogeeta Bali at the time. All in all, this chapter of both Mithun and Sridevi was full of turbulence before they excelled in their separate personal lives.

Sujata Mehta says Sridevi was distraught after the breakup with Mithun...

Ahmedabad, April 25 (Ians) Reigning Indian Women’s League (Iwl) champions Gokulam Kerala Fc will be hoping to start on a positive note against debutants East Bengal Fc as they attempt to win a hat-trick of titles at the Eka Arena here on Wednesday.

The two teams are placed in Group A and will be looking to make a solid start to the season.

Indian Super League (Isl) side East Bengal are the first timers in Iwl. Under the tutelage of head coach Sujata Kar, the Red and Gold Brigade are determined to leave a good first impression.

“We formed a team with some girls from the Calcutta league, three from Manipur and two from Arunachal Pradesh. We’ve tried to form a good team and had a chance to train for 10 to 12 days. My target for the coming days is to go to the final “ound,” said Sujata on her...