We are celebrating the 100 glorious years of Indian cinema and what better occasion would I get to mention the movies that proved to be a milestone in these wonderful years of Bollywood. With the first feature film of Indian cinema “Raja Harishchandra” began an era of romance, dance, music, action, thriller, suspense, drama and everything we can imagine about movies. So I take you to the glorious journey of the Indian cinema, the movies which proved to be a landmark for Bollywood. Starting right from the first silent film of the Indian Cinema “Raja Harishchandra” to the blockbuster movie “Lagaan” the movies that I personally believe were epics in true sense of the Bollywood history.

Raja Harischandra

We all know a silent, black and white Raja Harishchandra was the first all Indian feature film of Indian cinema. It was directed and produced by the legend Dadasaheb Phalke. He was also the script writer of the film and is today known as the “father of Indian cinema”. The story was picked from the epics of Indian mythology. It was released on May 3, 1913. The film was on Raja Harishchandra who was a truthful and noble king. He sacrifices his kingdom, then his wife and children in order to keep his promises to a sage named Vishwamitra. The sage was impressed and pleased by his truthiness to his promises and at the end returned the kingdom and family to the king.

At that time women had yet not come into cinema and the lead female role in the movie had to be played by a male actor called Anna Salunke. It is said that it became very difficult for Dadasaheb Phalke to search the female lead who was needed to play Raja Harishchandra’s wife in the film. While sitting tensed at a tea shop he noticed the hands of the boy who offered tea to him. He thought to himself that these hands look feminine and that was the moment that he had the idea that he can make a male actor to play the female lead role in the movie. He offered the boy 15 rupees for playing the role and the boy readily agreed. The boy was Anna Salunke. The male lead was played by a Marathi stage actor called D.D. Dabke, while the role of Harishchandra’s son was played by Dadasaheb Phalke’s own son. The role of the sage Vishwamitra was played by G.V.Sane.

The movie went on to become a hit and proved to be a landmark for Indian cinema. It played an important role as the foundation stone for Indian cinema.

Alam Ara

It is remembered as the first talkie of Indian cinema. It was the movie that paved the way for Indian Bollywood music industry. Playback recording had not yet been introduced and the song was thus recorded live. It was directed by Ardeshir Irani and was released on March 14, 1931. The film showed a love story between a prince and a gypsy girl. The story was adapted from a Parsi play by Joseph David. It is a story about a king and his two wives. The wives were namely Dilbahar and Navbahar. The two wives become rivals of each other when a fakir predicts that Navbahar will give birth to the successor if the king’s throne. As a plan to take revenge Dilbahar tries to have an affair with the chief minister of the kingdom named Adil. The role of Adil was played by Prithiviraj Kappor. The affair does not turn out to be in her favor so she imprisons

Adil and sends his daughter to exile. The daughter called Alam Ara was brought up by tribal people and when she returns to the kingdom after the exile she falls in love with the prince of the kingdom. The end is a happy one with the release of Adil and marriage of the love birds.

By this time women had entered Indian cinema and had taken their place. The role of the lead was played by actor Zubeida. The first song of Indian cinema also became a hit. The song sung by the actor who played the fakir in the movie namely Wazir Mohammed Khan and the song was “de de khuda k naam per”. It also had many other songs and thus was a milestone movie that led the path for the feet tapping Indian Bollywood music. At that time there were no soundproof studios so most of the shooting for the film had to be done at night to avoid the excess noises in the recordings. The film was a success and it is said that in some places police had to be called in to control the crowds during the screening of the film at some theaters.

Mother India

Produced, directed and written by Mehboob Khan Mother India is a movie that depicts the hardiness of Indian women Mother India was a movie that threw light on the high spirited women of our country. The story shows a mother and her two sons fighting the odds in their life. The mother Radha’s character was played by the actress Nargis. The roles of the two sons of Nargis were played by actors Rajendra Kumar and Sunil Dutt. Radha has to repay the loan her mother in law had borrowed from a moneylender. Her husband leaves her and she has to raise her sons and pay three quarters of their crop as interest on the loan. Severe storm and flood destroys the village houses and the villagers decide to evacuate the place but give up when persuaded by Radha. She loses her youngest son to the storm but still firmly decides to stay in their village and rebuild it and also convinces the other villagers. She does not even have the money to buy ox to plough her field and thus has to drag the plough through the entire field by herself. In spite of living in poverty she does not part her ways with her morals. Left with her two sons Birju (Sunil Dutt) and Ramu (Rajendra Kumar) she faces all the challenges bravely. Birju is a disillusioned boy and is short tempered and often harasses the girls in the village specially the moneylender Sukilala’s daughter Rupa. He is easily provoked and eventually after committing crimes like theft is branded a bandit by the villagers. While in the village Radha assures Sukilala that she will not let Birju interrupt Rupa’s wedding Birju returns with his gang of bandits on the wedding day and kills Sukhilala and kidnaps his daughter Rupa. The most dramatic point in the movie comes when the mother shoots her own son when he tries to flee to respect the honour of the society. Her son dies in her arms and thus she teaches a lesson to a criminal not considering her as a son but as a criminal only. Radha is respected by the villagers for her act of utter morality and considered as the mother of the village.

The music in the movie was composed by Naushad while the lyricist was Shakeel Badayuni. The movie had twelve songs which were sung by legendry singers like Mohammad Rafi, Shamshad Begum, Lata Mangeshkar and Manna Dey. One of the famous songs of the movie is “Holi Ayi Re Kanhayi” sung by Shamshad Begum.

A movie that was high on morals and emotionally touching too. The film was high on cost with the expenditure costing up to 35-40 lakh. It was the highest expenditure on a movie till that time. An interesting fact about the movie is that for shooting the flood scene for the movie a farmer agreed to flood his 500 acres of land. The film won the Filmfare award for Best Film in 1957 when Nragis also won the Best Actress for her role in the movie. It was also nominated in the foreign category of films at the Oscars.

Mugal-e-Azam

One of the highest grosser the epic movie Mugal-e-Azam directed by K. Asif was truly a Bollywood flick that had everything needed for full time entertainment of the masses and the classes as well. It depicted the love story between the Mughal Prince Saleem and the beautiful court dancer Anarkali. The legendary actor Dilip Kumar played the role of Saleem in the movie while Anarkali was played by one of the most beautiful actress Indian film industry ever had – Madhubala. The story is a short story based on the life of the Mughal Prince Saleem who later became the Emperor Jahangir. He falls in love with court dancer Anarkali and their relationship is strongly opposed by his father emperor Akbar played by Prithvi Raj Kapoor. The love birds stay strong and face all the hurdles in their relationship until Saleem is awarded death punishment by his own father. The emperor announces that Saleem’s life will only be spared if Anarkali surrenders before him. In order to save the life of her love Anarkali surrenders before the emperor and she is punished with death in exchange for sparing Saleem’s life. However at the end the emperor is reminded of a favor Anarkali’s mother did to him by giving him the news of Saleem’s birth many years ago. So he secretly sends Anarkali and her mother to exile. While Prince Saleem never comes to know that Anarkali is still alive somewhere.

The music was composed by Naushad and lyrics were given by Shakeel Badayuni. There were twelve songs in the movie sung by music legends like Lata Mangeshkar. One of the famous songs of the movie was “Pyar kia toh darna kya”.

The film was released on August 5. 1960 and later re-released in November 2004 in colored version. It won the National Award for the best film and the Filmfare Award in the subsequent year of its release. It is one of the highest grosser of Bollywood history of 100 years. The film’s majestic and beautiful sets, cinematic quality along with powerful performances by the actors truly makes it a benchmark movie of the Indian film industry.

Sholay

Released on August 15, 1975 the most loved films of all time the film had drama, romance, music, comedy, emotion and action. The film was directed by Ramesh Sippy and produced by his father G.P. Sippy. The film had multiple star cast with actors Amitabh Bachan, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Jaya Bhaduri and Amjad Khan playing the lead roles. In the movie Sanjeev Kumar is shown as the Thakur who was a courageous police officer and in had caught the dangerous dacoit Gabbar Singh played by Amjad Khan. To take revenge from the Thakur Gabbar Singh kills his entire family. Only thakur’s daughter in law Radha survives the brutal attack. To teach the dacoit a lesson Thakur decides to catch him again with the help of two small time thieves he had once arrested. They were Jai and Veeru played by Amitabh and Dharmendra. The film then progresses and shows Gabbar Singh attacking the Thakur’s village Ramgarh on the occasion of the festival Holi when Jai and Veeru bravely fight the dacoit and he flees but they become furious on Thakur who in spite of having a good chance to shoot Gabbar doesn’t pick up the gun. It is when there comes the dramatic point in the movie when Thakur shuns the shawl off his shoulders and shocks both of them with his cut arms. Then he tells them how Gabbar had killed almost all his family members and cut his arms. The romantic quotient between Veeru and Basanti (Hema Malini), Jai and Radha (Jaya Bhaduri) was much loved by people. The plot further progresses among these romances, bits of comedies placed at the right places and powerful dialogues. At the end it is the win of the good over the evil. In the fight between the dacoit and the heroes Jai loses his life in Veeru’s arms. Veeru and Thakur beat him severely and chop of his arms when at the last moment police arrives and arrests Gabbar Singh alive. Veeru and Basanti leave Ramgarh for a new life while Radha is left alone again.

The music composer for the film was R.D.Burman while the lyricist was Anand Bakshi. The songs of the movie are greatest hits of all time. The most popular songs were “Yeh Dosti hum nahi todenge” , “ Mehbooba oh Mehbooba” and “Holi k din”.

At first the movie was being considered a flop but it progressed slowly and went on to become one of the greatest movies of Indian Cinema of all times. The huge success of film impressed the director Shekhar Kapur and he made a statement that “Indian film history can be divided into Sholay BC and Sholay AD. It was even called the “All Time Blockbuster”. The places where the movie was shot in Southern India are still a tourist attraction. The dialogues of the movie like “Kitne admi the” and “Ye haath humka de de thakur” are evergreen. The movie was declared as the Best Film of 50 years by the jury of the 50th Filmafare Awards.

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Even after 18years of its release this romantic film is still running on a big screen in Mumbai. Branded as the longest running movie of the history of Bollywood, DDLJ (as everyone calls it) indeed proved to be a milestone movie of the Indian Cinema. The film was produced by Yash Chopra, written and directed by his son Aditya Chopra. The film shows a story of an Indian girl named Simran (Kajol) who on a holiday trip to Europe falls in love with an NRI boy named Raj (Shahrukh Khan). While Raj’s father is an open minded parent and supports his son’s choice to marry the girl he loves but Simran’s father is conservative and opposes her choice. He instead is determined to marry her to his friend’s son Kuljeet (Parmeet Sethi). They return to India and marriage preparations start, but Simran has already given her heart to Raj and was very sad about the wedding. Raj follows her to her village where she tells him to take her away but Raj decides to win over his to be father in law. The story next shows how Raj befriends Kuljeet and thus gets entry in his house and then he tries to impress Baldev (Simran’s father). Along with Simran he secretly makes a number of plans to delay the marriage. He soon becomes the favorite of everyone in the family. Later even Baldev becomes on friendly terms with Raj until one day when he comes to know that the boy Simran had fallen in love with on the Europe trip was none other than Raj. Infuriated he tells Raj to leave the house immediately. Raj disheartened goes to the station where Kuljeet drops in to fight with him. Soon Baldev also comes to the station and stop the fight. While Raj boards the train Simran pleads and begs Baldev to let her go with him. Finally when the train starts running Baldev permits his daughter to go with Raj and she runs and catches the departing train.

The music was as famous as the movie itself. The composer Jatin Lalit, lyricist Anand Bakshi and singers Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Kumar Sanu, Abhijit, Udit Narayan did a great job and gave Bollywood songs that still are favorite of thousands of Indians. The film had a total of 7 songs and almost all of them were hits and one can still hear these songs on wedding ceremonies across the country.

The film was shot in parts of London and Switzerland. The movie has been declared as the all time blockbuster of Indian Cinema while it remains the longest running movie till date. On this year in January 2013 it completed nearly 900 weeks of running successfully at the Maratha Mandir in Mumbai.

Lagaan

A movie based on Cricket with the hero in Dhotis released in May 8, 2002. Many thought that a movie on a sport (Cricket) which was such an untouched topic untill then  could never become a success on the box office. However Lagaan proved those people wrong and and went on to become a benchmark movie of Indian Cinema. The film was written and directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar and the cast included Amir Khan (also the producer of the film) and Gracy Singh. The film was shot in Bhuj. The story is set in the India under British Rule. The villagers had to pay high taxes to the British. The villagers in Bhuj are unable to pay the high taxes levied on them due to drought. In a challenge between the villagers led by Bhuvan (Amir Khan) and the British Commander Russel decide to compete in a cricket match. The conditions were that if Bhuvan’s team wins they will be freed of the Lagaan (Tax) and Russel will pay the tax on behalf of the entire province. Initially Bhuvan has to convince the villagers to join the team and fight against the British Rule. Russel’s sister Elizabeth teaches the villagers the rules of the game and falls in love with Bhuvan. However Bhuvan loves Gauri. Bhuvan leads his team of villagers to an enthralling win over the British team defying all the hurdles. With the last ball of the over comes the winning six and the rains that ends all the woes of the villagers. Russel loses and is transferred while his sister Elizabeth returns to her country heartbroken. 

The soundtrack of the movie was given by A.R. Rahman and the lyrics were given by Javed Akhtar. The music was an instant hit with vocalists like Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik and many more adding to the glory of the beautiful songs. The movie had many good scores like “ghanan gahnan” and “Radha Kaise Na jale”. There were inspirational songs in the movie like “O Mitwa O Mitwa” and “Chale Chalo Chale Chalo”.

Lagaan was praised worldwide and won many National awards. It was nominated in the Best Foreign Film category at the Oscars. It was also listed under the “All Time 25 Best Sports Movies”. The movie broke myths and was truly a milestone movie of the Indian cinema.

(All images source -- Wikipedia)