2004 was the year of the new generation of Hindi filmmakers taking charge. The year featured many inspiring films and few duds, or maybe the other way around. At one point theaters were showing’brilliant’ fare like Asambhav, Girlfriend and Julie, while some other theaters were showing’insipid’ flicks like Mughal-e-Azam, Sholay and Mother India. Hence the avid connoisseur of Hindi Cinema has a tough task to pick 5 films, considering the fact that there were about a dozen watchable films.
Which film to pick and which to leave out? Making tough decisions is part of what I do at work. Hence using personal experience with a vested interest of having suggested the filmmakers of the 5 films to make changes in their screenplays, which for some odd reason they rejected, without much ado the top 5 films. Also to help the readers of this review, I’ve added my’hatke’ changes to the story which would’ve made it even more interesting.
1. Main Hoon Na
The story of how an Army officer goes undercover to protect a generals daughter. The twist here is the disgraced officer or Ronin, in this case goes as Professor Raghavan(Suniel Shetty) and with the help of whizkid student Zayed Khan, protects the student Amrita Rao from evil soldier posing as student SRK and his sidekick Sushmita Sen.
I liked this film as it was the best total entertainer of the year, a masala flick.
2. Khakee
A veteran cop leads a team of police officers to take a suspected terrorist to prison in Bombay. On route they are chased by mysterious evil-doers. The veteran Cop, AB has a past. He has lost 3 kids in Kumbh Mela. One turns into a playboy cop, Akshay Kumar, the other into a retarded cop, Tushshar Kapoor. The twist is his eldest lost son, lame cop, Ajay Devgan is the leader of the extremists out to kill his family!
One of the better action thrillers with a couple of excellent performances.
3. Masti
3 friends played by Aftab, Ritesh and Vivek Oberoi try to have some extra-martial fun with Lara Dutta, who ends up dead. They are now pursued by a cop, Ajay Devgan. But they are also pursued by the ghost of Lara Dutta who tries to take revenge on the trio for her murder. The ghost enters a Barbie doll and tries to kill the heroes. Now its upto their wives to do the puja to the Gods and Goddesses to save their good-for-nothing hubbies and mangal-sutras.
I prefer to award funny comedy to dramatic mediocrity.
4. Lakshya
Hrithik Roshan plays aimless protagonist Karan, who decides to get into the Army. Shot in the backdrop of the Kargil war and with his ex-fiance played by Priety Zinta, who decides to report the war from the battlefront. A chance interview with Karan is shown on TV. Director Steven Kapoor, played by Gulshan Grover, after his last hit’Rangeela’ decides to cast Karan in his new action film Devdas, with his blind retarded sidekick Chunnilal played by Salman Khan. Will the film become a hit? Will Karan realise his Lakshya of becoming a Bollywood Star? Can Priety get back Karan from the evil charms of Bollywood vamp Kareina played by Kareena Kapoor?
Farhan follows up DCH with another brilliantly directed film in Lakshya with Hrithik showing off tremondous acting chops.
5. Dhoom
Abhishek Bachchan is a honest cop who tries to catch a team of theives who escape with fast bikes. He recruits Uday another galli-ka-kutta racer to catch the villains and to take him to a restaurant. This leads to a bumpy ride with the ultimate fun with a Road trip from Bombay to Mandya(closest to middle of nowhere) where AB jr. and Uday go to eat Sambhar Vadas and chicken Kebabs. And if time permits catch the villains.
A desi version of Fast and the Furious, is a good remake with an excellent soundtrack and good action sequences.
As usual bouquets and brickbats in the Comments section.
Update
When I first wrote this review, I had the choices written down in about 2 minutes.
The difficult part is doing the explaining. Why not this film or that? For all that I have one reason, this is my review and I will list all the films I see fit.
Why not Veer Zaara? too boring and drawn out. despite excellent songs.
Why not Swades? too preachy and exhaustive, no editing. despite a good screenplay, excellent performances and music.
Why not Yuva? the introductions go on too long. despite powerful performances.
Why not Hum tum? Have you seen the original flick, ’When Harry met Sally’?
Why not Dev? Excellent plot, though the roles of AB and Om puri should’ve been reversed.
Why not Ab Tak Chappan? Thats one film that genuinely deserved to be there. but only space for 5. Nana shows what real acting is.
Bollywood has lost its ability to make serious cinema at a reliable pace. There are very few good films nowadays. For me it serves as a medium serving variety entertainment. I get my fix of serious cinema from other film industries like Hollywood, Madras, Taiwan, Japan and France. Thats my 2 cents. Hope 2005 will serve better films like Black and Aamir Khan’s’The Rising’.