It’s 2022. We are progressing and thriving in making good movie content. Content which is changing with times or which are changing times. People are accepting these films with open arms. Indeed it is required. However, in past years of Hindi Cinema, many films were made which were trying to change the times.
Below are some films which were ahead of their times.
1. Pyaasa (1957)
Director- Guru Dutt
Cast- Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehmaan, Mala Sinha, Johnny Walker
Unemployed Vijay is the youngest of three brothers and a widowed mother in his family. His passion is poetry, which his brothers disapprove of and want him to focus on finding a job instead. After the British left India, Vijay’s poetry is highly radical, in which he laments about the impoverished, the needy, and the rich’s arrogance. His attempts to have them published have been fruitless. He begins to drink, gets into legal trouble, is shunned by his family, and ends up at a brothel, where he encounters a prostitute named Gulabo. Gulabo is sympathetic and resolves to help Vijay after listening to him pour his heart out. Watch what happens when Gulabo enlists the help of some of her more affluent clients to help Vijay have his work published without revealing that he is an alcoholic, unkempt, and homeless man.
2. Ghar (1978)
Director- Manik Chatterjee
Cast- Vinod Mehra, Rekha, Asrani, Prema Narayan
Vikas, the successful lawyer’s son, disagrees with his father over his life partner and marries his girlfriend Aarti. They break away from the tradition of staying with their widower father and embrace the joys of marriage. When they go home from a date, they come across a terrible incident that makes the news. Their lives are forever changed as a result of this catastrophe. The horror continues to intrude into their daily lives. When Aarti’s mother moves out of town to start a new job, the burden on Aarti and Vikas becomes unbearable.
3. Mera Naam Joker (1970)
Director- Raj Kapoor
Cast- Raj Kapoor, Simi Garewal, Manoj Kumar, Rishi Kapoor
Raju is a clown and a joker. It’s who he is, and it’ll always be who he is. He must always make people laugh and be happy, no matter how sad he is within. As a result, his life story unfolds in three chapters, from his school days to the circus to the streets. Raju falls in love and loses along the way, but he must constantly wear a grin on his face because, as his circus boss puts it, “the show must go on.”
4. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983)
Director- Kundan Shah
Cast- Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Basani, Satish Shah, Om Puri
Vinod and Sudhir are two professional photographers who are attempting to open their own photography studio. The activist magazine Khabardar (literally “beware”) gives them their first major assignment, which takes them into the dark world of Bombay real estate. They learn that Tarneja, one of Bombay’s most powerful builders, is attempting to bribe Municipal Commissioner D’Mello into awarding him a bridge contract. In the meantime, D’Mello is in talks with Tarneja’s arch-rival Ahuja. Finally, the contract is awarded to a third party. Vinod and Sudhir discover Tarneja’s murder of D’Mello by happenstance.
5. Masoom (1983)
Director- Shekhar Kapur
Cast- Naseeruddin Shah, Jugal Hansraj, Shabana Azmi, Urmila Matondkar
With his wife, Indu, and two school-aged kids, Pinky and Minni, D.K. Malhotra leads a comfortable existence. He works in an architect’s office. D.K. receives a phone call one day while the family is relaxing, and he brings home a young school-aged boy named Rahul. Indu is taken aback when she learns that Rahul is D.K.’s son from a previous relationship with Bhavana, who is no longer alive. D.K. tries but fails to make Rahul feel at ease. Rahul also believes that Indu dislikes him, despite the fact that Pinky and Minni adore him. Finally, D.K. decides to enroll Rahul in a boarding school in Nainital, which is a long way away. Rahul unwillingly agrees to cooperate with his new uncle/friend. Rahul discovers that D.K. is his biological father when he is asked to put his paperwork together for school.
6. Fire (1996)
Director- Deepa Mehta
Cast- Nandita Das, Shabana Azmi, Jaaved Jaffrey, Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Biji, a widow, has two sons, Ashok and his barren wife, Radha, and Jatin, who is in love with a Chinese-Indian woman named Julie, as well as a male servant named Mundu. Ashok has abandoned marriage and is now living a celibate life as a devotee of Swamiji, a religious guru. As a result, Radha and Sita are often left alone. While Ashok, Radha, and Sita run a take-out Punjabi food company, Jatin owns a video store where he secretly rents out pornographic films. Radha then surprises Mundu one day by telling Ashok to fire him. But Mundu is aware of Radha’s secret, a secret that, if disclosed, will shatter the family’s lives.
7. Cheeni Kum (2007)
Director- R. Balki
Cast- Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu, Paresh Rawal, Zohra Sehgal
Buddhadev Gupta believes he owns London’s best Indian restaurant, so when Nina Verma returns his Zafarani pulao to the kitchen, he gives her a piece of his mind. She bothers him once more a few days later when she sends around the well-prepared food. Despite the fact that he is near twice her age and she needs to return to Delhi soon, these encounters and the loan of an umbrella because of the London rain may mean the start of a romance.
