Balraj Sahni — at the peak of his acting career in the late '50s — entered a high-society party in Delhi looking like, what his son Parikshat recalls, a fish out of water. While the men were suited up, he made an entrance in a lungi-kurta and chappals. One woman burst into a tirade about how Indian films are trash. He agreed and asked her if she had seen Do Bigha Zamin. She hadn't. Instead, she replied saying she only watched English and European movies. And the woman also never missed a single French film. Sahni then asked her if she had seen Academy Award-winning Hiroshima Mon Amour. She hadn't.

What happened next defines the title of Parikshat Sahni's memoir of his late father that launches in the city tomorrow — The Non-Conformist (Penguin Random House India). The veteran actor gently broke down the opening sequence of the French movie; vividly describing a naked man and woman that was taboo to the ears of the guests present.