NATIONAL: Bura na maano, Holi hai! Laughter rings out, plates of gujiya do the rounds and the streets brace for their annual drenching. This year brings a slight celestial twist: with the 3 March lunar eclipse in play, many regions will light the Holika pyre then and break out the colours on 4 March, though local calendars may vary. Either way, if the streets feel too crowded, Tata Play Binge has lined up a clutch of films where Holi is more than backdrop; it is turning point, metaphor and mood-setter.
Here are five festive staples to stream:
Sholay (1975)
No Holi playlist is complete without Holi Ke Din Dil Khil Jaate Hain. Ramesh Sippy’s classic stages the festival in Ramgarh before the mood is brutally interrupted. Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra’s Jai and Veeru, enlisted by Sanjeev Kumar’s Thakur Baldev Singh to stop Amjad Khan’s Gabbar Singh, deliver a scene that swings from jubilation to dread in minutes. It is Bollywood spectacle at full volume.
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013)
If Holi had a millennial soundtrack, it would be Balam Pichkari. Ayan Mukerji’s coming-of-age romance lets Ranbir Kapoor’s Bunny and Deepika Padukone’s Naina drop their guards in a swirl of colour and confession. Kalki Koechlin and Aditya Roy Kapur add to the ensemble in a film where flirtation matures into something more fragile.
Raanjhanaa (2013)
In the bylanes of Banaras, Holi turns intense. Dhanush’s Kundan is hopelessly devoted to Sonam Kapoor’s Zoya in a story that fuses unrequited love with political churn. The colours here feel heavy, a festival reframed as emotional upheaval.
Kati Patang (1971)
Aaj Na Chhodenge Bas Humjoli keeps this Rajesh Khanna–Asha Parekh drama evergreen. Beneath the song lies a tale of reinvention and quiet longing, as a woman assumes a new identity to escape her past. The Holi sequence glows with romance, even as the plot simmers with secrets.
Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)
Youthful and unabashed, this small-town romance pairs Varun Dhawan’s blustering Badri with Alia Bhatt’s self-assured Vaidehi. Holi becomes a flirtatious battlefield before the film pivots to questions of ambition and equality. It is bright, brash and keenly contemporary.
(Note: The cover image is AI-generated and meant for representational purposes only.)
