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Bollywood is Romancing Period Films!
Mounting curiosity around the lost eras has cajoled several contemporary filmmakers to take a leap of faith on subjects, but in reverse gear. Lets look at some films which wooed the audience with the classic period film!
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Bombay Velvet
Director Anurag Kashyap's 'Bombay Velvet', which released yesterday, transports one to a smoky, seductive Bombay of the '60s with men in sharp suits, women in bouffant hairdos and a city that looks enchanting as well as restless. Starring Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Karan Johar, the film is based on historian Gyan Prakash's book 'Mumbai Fables'.
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Bajirao Mastani
The war-drama, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali featuring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra tells the tale of Peshwa Bajirao and is set in the 18th century.
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Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!
The Dibakar Banerjee film starring Sushant Singh Rajput is set in Calcutta (now Kolkata) of 1943, a city then under threat from a military invasion by the Japanese. In Dibakar's words, Calcutta was not a provincial but a cosmopolitan city in the pre-independence era.
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Hawaizaada
The film was based on the life of Maharashtrian scientist Shivaji Bapuji Talpade, who is credited with having constructed India's first unmanned plane, in 1895. The Vibhu Puri movie starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Mithun Chakraborty and Pallavi Sharda tried hard to recreate the Bombay of the 18th century, but the results were unfortunate.
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Lootera
The film set in village of Manikpur in West Bengal in 1953 takes us to the time when the government dismissed the power of the zamindars. Right from the beginning, director Vikramaditya Motwane manages to build the unhurried tempo, typical of that era.
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The Dirty Picture
This Vidya Balan-starrer was set against the entertaining backdrop of the fierce male-dominated South Indian film industry of the '80s. Apparently inspired by the life of South sex siren Silk Smitha, the film successfully evoked images of the era.
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Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai
This period gangster film highlighted the underworld scene in Mumbai during the '60s and '70s. Reportedly, the film was based on the life of gangsters Haji Mastan and Dawood Ibrahim played by Ajay Devgn and Emraan Hashmi, respectively.
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Parineeta
2005 blockbuster directed by Pradeep Sarkar had Vidya Balan, Saif Ali Khan and Sanjay Dutt in lead roles. The film, set in the '60s was based on a Bengali eponymous novel. Right from the costumes to the diction, the makers managed to capture the vintage visuals with precision.
