Director Guru Dutt

Cast Guru Dutt, Waheeda Rehman and Mala Sinha

Plot Vijay (Dutt) is an unsuccessful poet who is torn between streetwalker Gulabo (Waheeda) and his ex-lover from college Meena (Sinha). What follows is an emotional turmoil between the poet, his private world and the world at large.

l The role of Vijay was first offered to Dilip Kumar, who rejected it as he found the character too similar to Devdas, which he played in the Bimal Roy classic in 1955.

l As for the two actresses playing Meena and Gulabo, Nargis and Madhubala were initially shortlisted but with the two undecided on which role to go for, Dutt went for relative newcomers in Mala Sinha and Waheeda Rehman.

l Pyaasa marked the last collaborative effort of the hit musical team of composer SD Burman and poet-lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi.

l SD Burman used one of son Rahul?s compositions Sar jo tera chakraaye that went on to become a huge hit, picturised on Johnny Walker.

l Veteran Bengali comedian Tulsi Chakraborty played a brilliant cameo of a rich babu. In the same year he played the protagonist in Satyajit Ray?s Parash Pathar.

l The man behind Pyaasa?s stunning images, Dutt?s regular cinematographer VK Murthy, was a violinist and a freedom fighter before he entered the world of films.

Director Quentin Tarantino

Cast Uma Thurman, Daryl Hannah, Lucy Liu, Sonny Chiba

Plot The Bride (Thurman) is attacked on the day of her wedding by her former boss, the master assassin Bill. When she wakes up after being in a coma for four years, she goes on a roaring rampage of revenge to kill all those involved in the wedding-day massacre.

l When The Bride stands over the remains of the Crazy 88 killer squad, of the several masked men lying around, one of them is Tarantino himself.

l The masks that O-Ren Ishi?s (Liu) team wear are a tribute to the Green Hornet series, starring Bruce Lee, whereas the yellow track suit worn by Thurman in the same scene (and below) is a replica of the suit worn by Lee in Game of Death.

l The original story for Kill Bill was conceptualised by Tarantino and Thurman and so the credits will tell you: ?Based on a story by Q & U?.

l Tarantino wanted to make Kill Bill one six-hour-long film but at the instance of Miramax honchos Bob and Harvey Weinstein, he chopped the film into two parts. Contrary to popular misconception, Kill Bill Vol. 2 is not a sequel to Kill Bill Vol. 1, but the second half.

l The Japanese version of the film is longer and there is no black-and-white respite for the audience as blood flows red and raw.

l That The Bride?s real name is never mentioned is a tribute to the spaghetti Westerns where Clint Eastwood?s character was called Man With No Name.