Nehru at the talkies

A film fest in town brings alive the spirit of popular Bombay cinema in the Nehruvian Era, and with a purposeIt'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 yearsBlockbuster 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 takeInterestingly, 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 EraOn till: Novemberu00a0 29Where: Auditorium, Library Building, Teen Murti HousePh: 23414666, 23015333 Dateu00a0 Name of the Film/ year/ filmmaker Introduced and discussed by film scholar Nov 6 Shri 420 / 1956 / Raj Kapoor Ira Bhaskar, School of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU Nov 9 Mr and Mrs 55 / 1955 / Guru Duttu00a0 Shikha Jhingan, Lady Shri Ram College, D U Nov 12 Naya Daur / 1957 /B R Chopra Divya Bajpai Jha, Rajdhani College, D U Nov 16 Mother India / 1957u00a0 Mehboob Khanu00a0 Vagish K Jha, NMML Nov 20 Nau do Gyarah / 1957 /Vijay Anand Smita Mitra, Delhi College of Arts & Commerce, D U Nov 21 Pyaasa / 1957 / Guru Dutt Rashmi Doraiswamy, Jamia Millia Islamia Nov 27 Phir Subah Hogi / 1958 / Ramesh Saigal Madan Gopal Singh, Fellow, NMML Nov 28 Sujata / 1959 /Bimal Roy Madhava Prasad, Visiting Professor at SAA, JNU Nov 29 Mere Mehboob / 1963u00a0 / H.S Rawail Ravikant, Centre for the Study of Developing