What an year it has been! After a long time, bollywood is on a high and rightfully so. Formulas were broken, fresh faces and stories were introduced and finally, the importance of a good screenplay was realised by one of the world’s biggest film industry.
Ajay Devgan continued his brilliant streak and disproved that quantity hampers the quality of work. Hrithik Roshan disappointed hugely in MPKDH but made it up with Koi Mil Gaya. And the supposed king of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan has to thank his stars that people still queue up to watch his movies despite such consistency in his hamming skills. Urmila Matondkar was the only heroine worth a mention with stunning portrayals in ’’Bhoot’’ and ’’Pinjar’’ (I did not watch Tehzeeb). With the decline of quality music, songs are slowly taking a backseat
Just when I thought that hindi movies will never get their endings right, I was delightfully disproved by Rules..PKSHF and Munnabhai MBBS. .
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I havent watched ALL the good movies this year, especially the well reviewed Teen Deewarein and Tehzeeb, but with the clutch that I have sat through, I am making my top 10.
1. Munnabhai MBBS: When we had a toss up between LOC and Munnabhai as to the last movie we will be watching this year, LOC won and thankfully so. I am a patriot but not enough to endure Mr. Dutta’s half baked tribute to the Kargil heroes. Munnabhai MBBS had no pretensions about the kind of movie it was. A David Dhawan meets Karan Johar movie with a brilliant performance by Sanjay Dutt, I am glad that my film going this year came to end with a lovely note.
Humor is a genre in which most of the hindi movies fall flat on their face. With Munnabhai, bollywood reinvents the genre and very delightfully!
2. Rules...PKSHF: This is on top of the list because of controlled performances, tight screenplay and a lovely ending. Tanuja comes back with a bang in a role tailor made for her. The technique used to tell the story was unique and just for that, this movie deserves a standing ovation.
3. Koi Mil Gaya: Science fiction in bollywood is almost unheard of and Mr. Rakesh Roshan braves out in this successfully executed production. Gets his son out of the flop groove in the process. I had no complaints about the cute ’’jadoo’’ but about the ending which could have been a tad better.
4. LOC: J P Duttas jingoistic tribute to the Kargil heroes, LOC does not merit its length and could have been trimmed to two and a half hours. But Mr Dutta needs to be lauded for making his crew brave it out and tell the story of our heroes. It might not be great cinema but it had the J P Dutta stamp all over it. And sometimes, such signature movies can just get a little tiresome.
5. Kal Ho na Ho: Karan Johar back in action with a great screenplay and Mr Nikhil Advani making a wonderful foray into bollywood. Except for the ending, I had nothing to crib about this romantic caper. It was in hindi parlance, total ’’paisa vasool’’.
6. Pinjar: Mr. Dwivedi goes back to live the times of India’s partition and falters in his effort at making a classic by trying too hard. Manoj Bajpai and Urmila put in sterling performances.
7. Darna Mana Hai: Ram Gopal Verma sticks to his vow of making ’’hatke’’ films. Not all the stories in this movie rocked and the ending was sore but again, I give it a thums up for the spirit of adventure.
8. Bhoot: Ram Gopal Verma with his favorite actress Urmila Matondkar who can smell an award winning role. She did not disappoint but the ending of the movie did. Yet, a few scenes did send spines tingling.
9.Jism: An erotic thriller shot on a low budget in the locales of Pondicherry, it catapulted Ms. Basu straight into the league of Zeenat Aman. It gets a low ranking only because it’s story is inspired from an english movie.
10. Samay: After a long time, bollywood dispenses with the hero and makes a totally heroine oriented movie. Gripping till the climax, the movie let me down very badly. It shattered some formulas (as Pras would say) and yet, left one wanting.
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The tenth position was a toss up between Jhankaar Beats and Samay but some of the non perfromances in the former made me toss it out.
That’s my list folks. It delights me that apart from no 7 and no 8, all the movies are different in charecter. Romance, Fiction, Ghosts, Erotica...it looks like bollywood dabbled in a little of everything this year. Indian movies are slowly but surely coming of age.