Raincoat

Rituparno Ghosh, 2004

Although Neeru (Aishwarya Rai) broke Manu's (Ajay Devgan) heart by dumping him for a rich man, she's still the woman of Manu's dreams.With empty pockets and no support from his family or friends, Manu heads to the big city of Kolkata in search of his long-lost love.On a rainy day, wearing a raincoat he borrowed, Manu finds his way to Neeru's house to profess his love for her once and for all.If only it were that easy. …

Heat and Dust

Merchant, 1984

Two women, related but separated by one generation and 60 years, have parallel experiences in the evocative mystical environment of India in this period drama from producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory. Based on the 1975 novel by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, the story begins with Ann (Julie Christie) who discovers some letters written by her grandfather's first wife Olivia (Greta Scacchi) that open up a whole new world as Ann travels to India to continue researching her grandmother's past. The letters reveal that when she was young, the free-spirited grandmother fell in love with an Indian nobleman (Shashi Kapoor) and left her husband—an administrator in the British colonial government—for her lover. After Ann arrives in India, her life and the modern rush of cars and people are played off against flashbacks to Olivia's life in a colonial setting. When the environment of each woman is compared and the nature of their momentous decisions placed side-by-side, their rites of passage and the society that dominated their choices stand out in high relief.

Chalti Ka Naam Gadi / That Which Runs Is a Car

Satyen Bose, 1958

This frothy 1950s Bollywood comedy casts three Kumars (Ashok, Kishore and Anup) as car-mechanic brothers running from amorous attachments. Plans for permanent bachelorhood are foiled when the lovely and stranded Renu (Madhubala) putters into one brother's life. The siblings come to blows over the affair until another brother's lost love is recovered after being held by the mob. Happy endings ensue after the bad guys take a beating.

Lagaan

Ashutosh Gowariker, 2001

A remarkable story about the triumph of the ordinary, set in 1890s India. Although a drought has impoverished the entire region, the ruling British have imposed a harsh tax (lagaan) on the farmers, prompting the villagers of Champaner to plead for a waiver until the rains come. Feeling himself insulted by one of the young men of the village, an arrogant and capricious British commander, Capt. Russell, challenges the villagers to a cricket match: If the villagers win, they'll avoid taxation for 3 years; if they lose, they'll pay the tax thrice over. The only problem? The people of Champaner have never before played cricket....

The Legend of Bhagat Singh

Rajkumar Santoshi, 2002

Bhagat Singh (Ajay Devgan), a young revolutionary, single-handedly takes on the far-flung might of the British Raj, and in doing so, gives his life so that India might be free. After being arrested, tried and condemned to death, Singh is martyred—but his inspiring legend lives on and inspires young people to follow in his path.

Mangal Pandey or 1857: The Rising

Ketan Mehta, 2005

Mangal Pandey—The Rising is an epic tale of friendship, love, loss and betrayal set against the backdrop of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. British colonial rulers are plundering the country, treating the locals unjustly and causing widespread resentment. Worst of all they are using the Indians as sepoys, the infantry of the army to control and regulate the population. After a hundred years of subjugation, India is awakening to the revolutionary prospect of change and self-rule. During the fierce battle in the Afghan wars of the mid-century, Mangal Pandey, heroic sepoy rescues his British commanding officer, William Gordon. The event creates a strong friendship and binding loyalty between them that transcends consideration of rank and race. The friendship is soon challenged, first by the arrival of a charming and beautiful young aristocrat, Emily Kent, and then by the introduction of controversial new gun cartridges among the troops....

A Passage to India

David Lean, 1984

Adventurous young Englishwoman Adela Quested (Judy Davis) journeys to colonial India with open-minded Mrs. Moore (Peggy Ashcroft). Ignoring English customs, the women one day accompany a "native"—Dr. Aziz—on a tour of the Marabar Caves. The excursion turns ugly when Adela emerges from the caves accusing Aziz of rape. British authorities urge Adela to press charges, but the truth isn't as obvious as the government believes it is. …A remarkable film about faith, friendship, and the limitations of cross-cultural communications, adapted from E.M. Forster's novel of the same name.

Gandhi

Richard Attenborough, 1982

Epic and unforgettable, Gandhi swept the 1983 Oscars, winning eight awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Ben Kingsley), Best Screenplay and Best Director for Richard Attenborough. The awe-inspiring story of Mahatma Gandhi, the diminutive lawyer who stood up to the British in India and became an international symbol of nonviolence and understanding, brilliantly underscores the difference one individual can make.

Earth

Deepa Mehta, 1998

Deepa Mehta directed this stirring tale about the religious and civil strife that broke out in India and Pakistan during the 1947 Partition. The second movie in a trilogy from Mehta (it was preceded by Fire and followed by Water), Earth is based on the autobiographical novel Cracking India by Bapsi Sidhwa and is told through the eyes of an 8-year-old Parsi girl, Lenny (Maia Sethna), who has one leg in a brace.The story centres on Lenny's Ayah, and her once-harmonious circle of friends and suitors, now threatened by rising communal hostilities.

Salaam Bombay!

Mira Nair, 1988

This first fiction film from Mira Nair (director of Monsoon Wedding) won her the new director's award at Cannes in 1988. The wrenching story concerns a 10-year-old boy who's tossed out onto the streets of Bombay to find work. As he tries to earn enough money to return home, he finds it's hard enough just trying to stay alive in this lawless world. Nair hired many Bombay street kids for the film, and some scenes are filmed in an actual brothel.

Rang de Besanti

Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, 2006

Traveling to India to film a docudrama about the country's revolution against British rule in the 1920s, an idealistic English filmmaker (Alice Patten) turns to a group of student actors (Aamir Khan, Siddharth, Kunal Kapoor, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni and Soha Ali Khan) to help her stay within her budget. It doesn't take long for her cast to realize, however, that their modern-day lifestyles do little to honor their forefathers' sacrifices.

Fire

Deepa Mehta, 1996

Deepa Mehta's Fire, the first Indian film to explore lesbian relationships, follows two Hindu women struggling with loveless, arranged marriages. When Sita (Nandita Das) discovers that her husband, Jatin (Javed Jaffrey), has a mistress, she shares her unhappiness with her sister-in-law, Radha (Shabana Azmi), whose sorrow is her infertility—as well as her husband's coolness. Acquaintance turns to friendship. friendship to love—and all hell breaks loose.The film offers an incisive, often poignant view of the collisions between tradition and modernity, family responsibility and individual desire, affecting not only Rita and Sadha, but all those around them as well.

Monsoon Wedding

Mira Nair, 2001

As the monsoon rains loom in director Mira Nair's romantic drama, Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah) and his extended family reunite for the last-minute arranged marriage of his daughter Aiditi (Vasundhara Das) in New Delhi. As wedding preparations proceed, five stories intersect, highlighting different aspects of love and crossing boundaries of class and continent. The long-guarded secrets that emerge threaten to tear the family apart.