Raj Kapoor's Ram Teri Ganga Maili is a love story on two levels: the love for the Ganga, the great Indian river that symbolises India's purity and natural goodness, and the love of a girl called Ganga (Mandakini), who is the personification of the river. The film was made at a time when India was embroiled in a battle with a corrupt political system and a morally decadent society and therefore it had a significant message to deliver: that love and goodness will prevail no matter what the challenge.

The film tells the story of Narendra (Rajeev Kapoor) who, fed up with the dirty political schemes run by his father, escapes to Gangotri, the origin of the river Ganga. There he falls in love with and marries the girl Ganga, whose simple purity contrasts with the ugliness of his past. Faced by a tragedy on his return home, Narendra is unable to keep his promise to bring Ganga back and she is left to find her own way to him. The film traces Ganga's journey to Narendra drawing parallels between the violations she experiences on her way and the abuse of the river Ganga brought on by a degenerate population driven by their own selfish needs.

On the DVD: Ram Teri Ganga Maili on disc is digitally remastered from the original film and presented in 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. The special features include an exclusive interview with Rajeev Kapoor by director Dharmesh Darshan. --Anika Puri

It's easy to forget that this Spartan, violent film, which begat the Rambo series, was such a big hit in 1982 because it was a good movie. Green Beret vet John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) wanders into the wrong small town to find a fellow 'Nam buddy and gets the living heck kicked out of him by the local law enforcement (led by Brian Dennehy). The vet strikes back the only way he knows how, leading to a visceral, if unrealistic, flight and fight through the local mountains. Based on the 1972 novel by David Morrell, this film saved Stallone's then-foundering career and the Rambo character became the inspiration for countless political cartoons. But this film is Deliverance without the moral ambiguity. --Keith Simanton

The Rambo trilogy is also available on DVD as a complete set.

After Rocky and its sequels, Sylvester Stallone cast about for another character that would bring him the same kind of box-office hit--and found it in disillusioned Vietnam vet John Rambo in First Blood, a solid little action thriller. So when all else failed, Stallone went back to the same well in hopes of recapturing the same commercial success. Which this film did. But where First Blood was a no-nonsense thriller that pitted Stallone against a worthy (and not necessarily bad) Brian Dennehy, this one is a sadistic chest-thumper in which Rambo gets to go back to Vietnam: ostensibly, he is there to rescue missing POWs, but in fact the movie was a lame excuse for him to refight the Vietnam War--and win. Audiences ate up the cruel Vietcong (and their Russian manipulators) and Stallone's bogus heroics, but it was strictly by-the-numbers action. --Marshall Fine

The Rambo trilogy is also available on DVD as a complete set.

And the hits just keep on coming. Sylvester Stallone, who can't seem to draw flies unless he's playing Rocky Balboa or John Rambo, went back to the Rambo well (or septic system, as it were) to show his well-known solidarity with the Afghan freedom fighters who battled the Soviet army in the 1980s. This time it's personal: his handler, Richard Crenna, is captured by the Evil Empire and so it is up to Rambo to leave his work in a monastery in Southeast Asia (no, seriously) in order to rescue him from the Ruskies. Ever wonder why the Russians had such a miserable time in Afghanistan? It was because Rambo took them on single-handed and sent them packing with hammer-and-sickle all the way back to Moscow. Cartoonish action, taken ever so seriously by Stallone, who was working desperately to scrape away the unsightly wax build up from his reputation. --Marshall Fine

The Rambo trilogy is also available on DVD as a complete set.