In the early 1900s, the fictional Catfish Row section of Charleston, South Carolina serves as home to a black fishing community. Crippled beggar Porgy, who travels about in a goat-drawn cart, loves the drug-addicted Bess, who lives with stevedore Crown, the local bully.
Cleveland siblings rise with a rock band while coping with personal problems.
Harlem's legendary Cotton Club becomes a hotbed of passion and violence as the lives and loves of entertainers and gangsters collide.
A young lawyer is involved with a ghostly woman in his new house, where the builder and his fiancée died shortly after it was built.
Die Drei von der Tankstelle, meaning The Three from the Gas Station, was advertised as a German operetta when release and with it’s star studded cast would become the forerunner of Musical films. Even today the soundtrack of the comic harmonists is popular in Germany.
Young love and childish fears highlight a year in the life of a turn-of-the-century family up to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.
A poverty-stricken woman raises her sons through many trials and tribulations. But no matter the struggles, always sticks to her own moral code.
A trio of female soul singers cross over to the pop charts in the early 1960s, facing their own personal struggles along the way.
From the mean streets of the Belleville district of Paris to the dazzling limelight of New York's most famous concert halls, Edith Piaf's life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love. Raised in her grandmother's brothel, Piaf was discovered in 1935 by nightclub owner Louis Leplee, who persuaded her to sing despite her extreme nervousness. Piaf became one of France's immortal icons, her voice one of the indelible signatures of the 20th century.
Samar wants to be successful in life but his parents force him to get married. His wife is shy and reserved and Samar does not like this. The other members in the family often ill-treat her.
The career of W. S. Gilbert, a barrister turned comic librettist, and Arthur Sullivan, a composer turned against his will to light music, who together wrote fifteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, to great public acclaim.
Set in present-day Lucknow, Gulabo Sitabo is a social satire about two impossibly peculiar human beings, Mirza Chunnan Nawab, who stays in a dilapidated mansion and one of the tenants, Bankey Rastogi.
Pickwick is a British television musical made by the BBC in 1969 and based on the 1963 stage musical Pickwick, which in turn was based on the 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers written by Charles Dickens. It stars Harry Secombe as Samuel Pickwick and Roy Castle as Sam Weller. This television production was based on the stage musical Pickwick which had been a commercial success. It was adapted for the screen by James Gilbert and Jimmy Grafton. The musical had premiered in the West End in 1963, again with Harry Secombe in the lead role. Running at 90 minutes and made in colour, the TV musical again had lyrics by Leslie Bricusse and a score by Cyril Ornadel. The book was by Wolf Mankowitz and it was directed by Terry Hughes. The programme was first transmitted on 11 June 1969 and again on 26 December 1969. One of the better known songs from the score is "If I Ruled the World". The cast of this production differed somewhat from that of the stage musical.
A celebration of love and creative inspiration takes place in the infamous, gaudy and glamorous Parisian nightclub, at the cusp of the 20th century. A young poet, who is plunged into the heady world of Moulin Rouge, begins a passionate affair with the club's most notorious and beautiful star.
A naive bullock-cart driver falls for a traveling dancer.
The story is about a priest, Father Ferriera, who unwittingly becomes a witness to the rape and murder of a village woman by the rich man of the village, Chandulal Seth. Father Ferriera is framed for the crime by Chandulal Seth and is sent to the jail instead. During the jail time spent Father Ferriera develops a good friendship with some of the jail mates. On release from the jail, he along with his former jail mates decide on taking revenge with Chandulal Seth who is now one of the richest jewelers of the world.
At midnight on his 10th birthday, a boy scours the lesser-known Kolkata streets in search of a father he’s never met, carrying a letter he can’t read.
In a poetic hour and a half, director Mani Kaul looks at the ancient art of making pottery from a wide variety of perspectives.
The story centers around a small town entrepreneur named Maniram who makes a major profit by cheating people and selling them tainted food. His business is run by his daughter-in-law Tejo, who is married to Maniram's mentally challenged younger son. When Maniram's elder son comes back into town to get married, things start to go awry.
Sultana, a small town prostitute and her pimp Khudabaksh migrate to the metropolis, bringing with them their dreams and meagre belongings. Sultana goes about her bright and artful seductions but somehow misses her targets. Her business collapses. Desperately, Khudabaksh too tries his hand at many jobs but is unsuccessful. Sultana's loneliness and despair get objectified in her desire for a 'salwaar' that she needs to complete her black ensemble for the observance of mourning for Moharram.