Best Indian Film of Each Year (1931-2018)
The Best Indian Film of each year starting from 1931 to 2018 (in my opinion)
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- DirectorJamahedji Jehangirji MadanStarsNissarJehanara KajjanMohammed HussainBig budget musical narrating a legend from the Shanama. The Persian sculptor Farhad falls in love with Queen Shirin. The shah khusro, who had promised Farhad a reward for having built a canal, agrees to let him marry Shirin provided he first single-handedly demolishes the Besutun mountain. Shirin and Farhad are finally united in death as Farhad's tomb miraculously opens to accept Shirin.
- DirectorDebaki Kumar BoseStarsDurgadas BannerjeeKrishna Chandra DeyManoranjan BhattacharyaThis film is about Chandidas, a legendary 15th-C. Bengali Vaishnavite poet whose biography remains obscure but was an influence on the better documented Chaitanya (1486-1533), a school teacher who promoted the Vaishnavite ideology in Bengal, mostly through hymns about the Radha-Krishna legend. The film stressed the poet's teachings through the love story between Chandidas and a low-caste washerwoman, Rami. The conventional villain of the saint film genre, who represents the established order threatened by the outsider's revolutionary influence on common people, is the rapacious upper-caste merchant Bijoynarayan. When Rami rejects his advances, he persuades the high priest to insist that Chandidas must repent or be punished for associating with a low-caste woman. Chandidas agrees to repent but when he sees the injuries Rami has suffered at the hands of the merchant's goons, he rejects institutionalized religion in favor of the higher Vaishnavite call for a more democratic god and leaves the village with Rami.
- DirectorDebaki Kumar BoseStarsChoudhury Mohammed RafiqM. KumarAnwariThe legend of Prince Puran, born under King Silwan of Sialkot's curse which binds his parents never to set eyes on him until he is 16. Accused of leading a debauched life by an evil general and by the king's second wife, Puran is sentenced to death. Rescued by the mystic Gorakhnath, he becomes an ascetic. When the king is overthrown, Purna rises from his meditations to depose the general who has seized power, before returning to his life of renunciation.
- DirectorShantaram Rajaram VankudreStarsChandra MohanNalini TarkhadSureshbabu ManeThis classic opens with a sensational low-angle circular track movement as Chandika cult followers meet in a dungeon of flickering lights and deep shadow. As the more rationalist King Krantivarma (Varde) banned human or animal sacrifices from the increasingly fanatical festivals dedicated to the goddess, the cult's high priest (Chandramohan/Date) orders the hapless Vishwagupta (Kelkar) to kill the king. He obeys but is then betrayed by the perfidious priest and caught. His son Madhavgupta (Mane) and daughter Sumitra (Apte) together with the princess (Tarkhad) and the people finally overthrow the priest. There are several famous scenes, including the twice-told legend of the churning of the seas, once by the priest to show how evil must be exorcised, and again by a good general to show how demons often appear disguised as gods. Although invoking divine intervention when Madhavgupta is about to be sacrificed, the film's strongly political thrust has the people rise in revolt.
- DirectorNitin BoseStarsBiswanath BhaduriDurgadas BannerjeeKrishna Chandra DeyShyamlal kidnaps Deepak, the son of his elder brother Hiralal, to get a larger share in Hiralal's will. Deepak is raised by the blind singer and stage performer Surdas. Deepak grows up and falls in love with Meera. Plagues by the uncertainty of his parentage, they decide to elope and are chased by detectives employed by Hiralal. Following an accident, Deepak loses his memory, only to regain it when he sees Surdas on the stage.
- DirectorFranz OstenStarsDevika RaniAshok KumarMonoramaAn "untouchable" girl and a Brahmin boy fall in love, but the strict caste system and the gossip of the villagers threaten to keep them apart.
- DirectorVishnupant Govind DamleSheikh FattelalStarsVishnupant PagnisGauriB. NandrekarThis film chronicles the life of Tukaram (17th century), one of Maharashtra's most popular saint poets, activating the 20th century resonances of his turning away from courtly Sanskrit towards vernacular rhythms of religious poetry which constituted the first major emancipatory movement against Brahmanical caste domination. The episodic plot pits Tukaram (Pagnis) against the Brahmin Salomalo (Bhagwat), who pretends to be the true author of Tukaram's songs while calling for his ostracization.Year: 1937
- DirectorPhani MajumdarStarsK.L. SaigalKanan DeviBoken ChattoThe film's story tells of two childhood friends, Bhulwa (Saigal) and Manju (Kanan Devi), who grow up to become street singers in Calcutta. Bhulwa dreams of becoming a stage star but it is Manju who succeeds. At the height of her fame Manju almost forgets Bhulwa until at the end - in an obviously symbolic landscape (literally showing a boat washed ashore in a storm) the two are united.
- DirectorShantaram Rajaram VankudreStarsShahu ModakShanta HublikarSundarabaiA love tragedy featuring a policeman, Ganpat (Modak) and a prostitute, Mainal (Hublikar). Ganpat saves Maina from a police raid on a brothel and they fall in love. Her reputation and sense of guilt resist his attempts to rehabilitate her. Ganpat's respectable middle-class mother (Sundarabai) symbolizes all that Maina would like to be, but she is arrested for murdering her evil uncle and refuses Ganpat's offer to release her from prison.
- DirectorMehboob KhanStarsSurendraSardar AkhtarLala YaqoobRadha (Sardar Akhtar) is an indomitable woman, toiling away to feed her three sons and to pay off Sukhilala (Kanhaiyalal), the village's rapacious moneylender. When she learns that she is pregnant again, her husband, Shamu (Arun Kumar Ahuja), runs far away, leaving her to fend for herself against poverty and the lecherous advances of Sukhilala. Later, the two eldest children die, leaving her with only two sons: the straight-laced Ramu (Surendra) and the wild Birju (Yakub). Ramu becomes a bandit which eventually forces Radha to take drastic actions.
- DirectorSohrab ModiStarsSohrab ModiPrithviraj KapoorVanamalaThe story is set in 326 B.C. The film begins after Alexander the Great (Sikander in Hindi/Urdu) conquers Persia and the Kabul valley and approaches the Indian border at Jhelum. He respects Aristotle and loves Persian Rukhsana (known in the west as Roxana).
- DirectorDebaki Kumar BoseStarsShanta ApteJeevan DharMahesh Kaul
- DirectorGyan MukherjeeStarsAshok KumarMumtaz ShantiShah NawazWhen Shekhar comes to know that Rani became disabled because of him, he decides to help her by hiding his real identity.
- DirectorBimal RoyStarsMaya BasuBiswanath BhaduriRadhamohan BhattacharyaAnup writes for a newspaper, and his sister is invited to a girl's birthday party by her rich friend Gopa. After she leaves the party, accused of being a thief, Gopa comes to the house to apologize and meets Anup. He refuses her personal apology, saying it's a societal problem. Anup's boss sends him to a rich official's office who needs a speech written. This man is Rajendra, brother of Gopa and husband of the birthday girl. The speech Anup writes goes well, so Rajendra steals Anup's manuscript for a novel and publishes it under his own name. Rajendra is praised for his insight into the issue of poverty, but the workers at his company go on strike. Anup and Rajendra's sister Gopa, support the striking workers, but his paid goons squelch the strike. Disillusioned by the hypocrisy, Gopa leaves her comfortable wealth behind to be with Anup.
- DirectorNitin BoseStarsUpendranath AshkK.N. Singh
- DirectorChetan AnandStarsRafiq AnwarUma AnandKamini KaushalWealthy landlord's sewage diversion into village sparks protests led by Balraj against housing project. Sarkar's daughter Maya sides with villagers, falling for Balraj. Epidemic from sewage endangers villagers, threatening Sarkar's power.
- DirectorUday ShankarStarsUday ShankarAmala ShankarLakshmi KantaKalpana is a dramatic dance fantasy, about the story of a young dancer and his dream of setting up a dance academy.
- DirectorMehboob KhanStarsNargisDilip KumarV.H. DesaiDilip loves Neena, but she treats him only as a friend. Later she gets married to Rajan. When he comes to know that Dilip once loved Neena, he misunderstands them and things change a lot then.
- DirectorNemai GhoshStarsGangapada BasuBijon BhattacharyaJalad ChatterjeeA group of farmers from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) who were forced to migrate to Calcutta because of the partition of Bengal in 1947.
- DirectorRaj KapoorStarsRaj KapoorNargisPrithviraj KapoorA poor young man named Raj joins a criminal gang to feed his mother. But when he falls in love with Rita, he decides to reform himself for her.
- DirectorVijay BhattStarsMeena KumariBharat BhushanSurendraIn Mughal Emperor Akbar's court, young musician Baiju challenges maestro Tansen to a musical duel in order to avenge the death of his father, which he holds Tansen responsible for.
- DirectorBimal RoyStarsBalraj SahniNirupa RoyRatan KumarIn the hope of earning enough money to pay off his debts and save his land, a poor farmer becomes a rickshaw puller in Calcutta and faces many difficulties.
- DirectorSundaram BalachanderStarsShivaji GanesanPandari BaiJawar N. SitaramanAfter an engineer is shot dead, several people around him relate different versions and the related incidents that may have led to the murder.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsKanu BannerjeeKaruna BannerjeeSubir BanerjeeImpoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.