MASOOM: I cried buckets when I saw it. Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi just blew me away with their soulful predicament and you don't know who to feel sorry for the man who fathered a child with a woman before marrying another woman or the wife who has to come face-to-face with her husband's illegitimate son.

Jugal Hansraj as the confused, misplaced son, who cannot call his own father 'papa', literally breaks your heart. And what achingly amazing songs ¦ Tujhse Naraaz Nahin Zindagi enough to make you cry.

AANDHI: My grandmother Suchitra Sen was in this movie. What better combination than a mix of heady politics, ambition and romance?

Suchitra Sen and Sanjeev Kumar are star-crossed lovers against a backdrop on what was surmised to be the life of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Aandhi was a musical extravaganza with songs like Tera Bina Zindagi Se, Tum Aa Gaye Ho, Is Mod Se Jaate Hain I can hear them time and again.

ARTH: The painful, self-destructive love triangle between Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Smita Patil takes you in its hold and does not leave you till the very end.

A simply told story with complex human emotions interwoven in between Arth tells the story of a man (Kulbhushan) who falls in love with Smita Patil despite being married to Shabana Azmi.

I remember the scene where Smita Patil loses control of her emotions and has a breakdown. It's a poignant heartbreaking scene.

SHOLAY: This is an out and out fun film, an entertainer in the true sense of the word. I own a DVD of this film and every time I'm in the doldrums, Sholay cheers me up like never before.

Veeru's drunken speech, Jai's stoic attitude towards Radha and Thakur's simmering anger coupled with Gabbar's ringing voice asking, 'Kitne aadmi the?' This is what cult films are made of.

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL: Is director Roberto Benigni's take on life in a Nazi death camp. This film is my ready reckoner for hope, faith and destiny. It's an unforgettable story of how one father, with his indefatigable sense of humour, keeps his son from suffering and seeing around him the atrocities committed on Jews by the Nazis.

One dialogue plays on my mind all the time, "What kind of place is this? It's beautiful: Pigeons fly, women fall from the sky! I'm moving here!"