Nehru at the talkies

A film fest in town brings alive the spirit of popular Bombay cinema in the Nehruvian Era, and with a purpose

It's been long since Nehru's made a comeback. Finally, it's time. The fun way. To promote the charismatic leader's ideas, legacy and values, Nehru Bioscopes, the film club at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), is organising a film festival Popular Bombay Cinema of the Nehru Era u2014 to mark his 120th birth anniversary. The show-list is all about evergreens from the Golden Era; reason enough to take parents and grannies along.



This man, those years

Blockbuster favourites like Shri 420, Mother India, Pyaasa and Mere Mehboob et al will be screened at the fest.

"We want to represent the different film personalities of Nehru's times. These films both articulate a Nehruvian vision and ideology, as well as view critically the homogenising and capitalistic impulses of the nationalist project during that period," says Vagish K Jha, co-ordinator of the multimedia library, NMML.

Expert take

Interestingly, all the movies will be introduced and discussed by film scholars like Ira Bhaskar, Shikha Jahingan and Smita Mitra. One may note that Bombay cinema responded in many different ways to the euphoria of the early years of Independence, as well as to the modernising impulse that provided such an ideological impetus in the Nehru years. And this festival is an ode to that.

Popular Bombay Cinema of the Nehru Era
On till: Novemberu00a0 29
Where: Auditorium, Library Building, Teen Murti House
Ph: 23414666, 23015333