Because I'm on the topic, here are a few of my favorite Bollywood heroines - ( Item girls and character actresses will be for another day! )

Purab Aur Pachhin, as well as it's director Manoj Kumar, is an easy film to mock for the many details that are just not cool to our 21st century eyes. Our hero, Bharat, whose mother is named - wait for it - Ganga - is an idealistic, nationalistic, dutiful, and forgiving man. And the challenges he faces don't make him waver from his convictions one bit. The whole film pivots around Bharat and how everyone (in the West) changes for coming into contact with him.

Rather than East vs. West, the real match up here is between materialism and spirituality. Characters in London constantly question why they would want to go live in India where there are no houses, food, or clothes there. ( More ramblings under here. )

The treatment of women in the film could be an essay all of its own. I'll have to pick it up again at a later date. Saira Banu proves again that she is actress of considerable force.


( Or you can just skip to the pictures of Saira Banu in a mini-skirt smoking a cigarette. I wish Saira still made movies. )