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In his 30-year career as an actor Amrish Puri did over 200 films. In his early years, most of the work he did was either quality-oriented work for the avant-garde directors Shyam Benegal and Govind Nihalani or outright kitsch, where he used his powerful voice and screen presence to accentuate the cinematic definitions of evil. Puri’s truly fertile phase as Bollywood’s most dependable character-actor, or actor of character, began in 1992. Here’s a checklist of his best films.

Nishant (1975):Playing the eldest brother in a family of zaalim(cruel) zamindars who abduct and rape a schoolteacher’s wife, Amrish Puri struck a note of immediate and everlasting terror in viewers’ hearts. Though the film had other terrific actors it was Puri who dominated the show in every way possible. The role had apparently been written for the Bengali actor Utpal Dutt, who excelled at playing obdurate disciplinarians. Puri, too,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.Dear readers: We are pleased to share the first Rushes roundup of 2025, with big plans for how this feature will develop throughout the year. Among our ambitions is to better represent the film culture everywhere our readers live. Please help us do so by submitting screenings, series, talks, and other events for our listings consideration. Many thanks! –Ed.NEWSIt’s a Wonderful Life.This holiday season, fans of Frank Capra’s Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) were outraged to discover that Amazon Prime streams an abridged version of the film that cuts almost 25 minutes from the original, including the entire “Pottersville” sequence: what Bedford Falls would look like if George Bailey had never been born. Prime also...

In our latest world cinema column, we examine the enduring appeal of overseas films, and look ahead to Kim Longinotto’s documentary, Rough Aunties...

Whether you call it world cinema, or transnational cinema, or local or trans-global, there is no doubt that certain things compel you to seek out and discover these films. But just what exactly?

Of course it eventually all boils to specific, personal taste as to what cinema you are drawn to, but I believe there are key themes and elements in common for all who watch films and TV from outside the mainstream. After all, a main reason why a lovely site such as Den Of Geek exists is to draw disparate elements (that's you and me) and give them a shared home.

Without wanting to become sucked into a wider socio-ethnographic discourse, and I know how popular they are, I like to believe these elements...