My previous installment for the Gutter, Dharam-Veer, falls into the Fully Fictional sub-genre of Historical Wackadoodle. Today we’ll look at an example of its counterpart: the Real-Ish. These films are part of a grandiose tradition of Hindi films that refer to real events but usually give them musical, […]
Dharam Veer is a Hindi cinema TARDIS, holding way more bedazzled boots, pirate shirts, Elizabethan doublets, Roman sandals, feisty gypsies, hand guillotines, romantic princes, creepy statues, sworn promises, lost relatives, baby-switching schemes, court politics, sword fights, naval battles, and eye-for-an-eye justice than you imagine could possibly fit inside […]
In the world of underappreciated Indian films, Youtube spelunking often leads to treasures. Years ago, while looking for cabaret songs by one of my favorite 1970s and 80s stars (Rekha, seen frequently on The Gutter), I happened across a number from Chehre Pe Chehra, an adaptation of…. Dr. […]
A Disney-backed production with a big budget and competent cast and crew does not really qualify for a spot in the cultural gutter. But even in 2020, despite its global audiences and massive output, Indian cinema rarely figures in international discussions of popular culture, let alone “cinema” and […]
It’s been far too long since we last discussed an Indian snake movie on the Gutter, so today I bring you Tum Mere Ho (Hindi, 1990). In essence this is a tale of star-crossed lovers sandwiched in what Indian cinema calls a mythological, a story about deities, displays […]
What if James Bond went to Bombay in the late 1970s and wasn’t so much a secret agent as a stylist and interior designer for a particularly aesthetics-oriented villain? The plot of Shaan has very little to do with any of the Bond films that I can remember. […]
Find t-shirts, mugs, totes and more at our new Guttermart location at Teepublic!
The Cultural Gutter 