We all watch movies, some of us like watching movies, some love them, and some just watch them for fun. We have different purposes of watching movies but every time we watch a movie we put in at least 5 minutes for discussing the pros and cons of the movie. You won’t be surprised if I put it this way, “more than 60% of movies that get released have been masala movies” (A masala movie is a movie which contains all possible aspects of a conventional movie) and the truth becomes more interesting when we find that most number of these masala movies have done good at the box office.
Here I have tried to bring out few of the all time great masala movies(some of these are even close to my heart).
1. Amar Akbar Anthony(1977):
Director: Manmohan Desai
Star cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Rishi Kapoor, Parveen Babi, Shabana Aazmi, Neetu Singh, Pran, Jeevan and Nirupa Roy
Music: Laxmikant-Pyarelal
You can’t get a better masala movie than this, 3 heroes in their bachpan with parents in a happy family, misfortune making them separate from each other and the 3 becoming policeman (Amar-Vinod Khanna), Kawwal (Akbar-Rishi Kapoor) and Gunda (Anthony-Amitabh Bachchan). Fortune brings them together at different stages of their life and in the end its tyical bollywood dhishum dhishum(police force coming in the last is mandatory) and finally their serendipity speaks with them and the family is once again united(with extra bonus of 3 Bahu). Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s music has been top class in this movie; every single song be it “Parda hai parda .” or “Hamko tumse ho gaya hai .” or “My name is Anthony.” or ’Taiyyab Ali pyar ka dushman .’ has fitted to the conditions perfectly. This movie has emotions, tragedy, love, comedy, story(obviously) and dhishum dhishum, in all a complete masala movie.
2. Main hoon na(2004)
Director: Farah Khan
Star cast: Shahrukh Khan, Sushmita Sen, Zayed Khan, Amrita Rao, Suniel Shetty, Boman Irani
Music: Anu Malik
This is what can be said as a perfect example of “Modern Masala Movie”. This movie has the complete masala for today’s generation. Action, sentiments, love, tragedy and comedy were significant parts of this movie. Another aspect of a masala movie is “its hero can do anything, yes you read it right, ANYTHING”, as here the lead hero beats 2600 CC Mahindra Scorpio by a cycle rikshaw. Anu malik’s music is good in this movie, nothing to mention that he got the filmfare award for this movie and Sonu Nigam got best singer for “Main hoon na…”. Few characters have been portrayed just in order to put proper masala, but a great masala movie to watch.
3. Kishan Kanhaiya(1990)
Director: Rakesh Roshan
Star cast: Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Shilpa Shirodkar, Bindu, Kader Khan
Music: Rajesh Roshan
One of the most powerful storyline one can think of; Anil Kapoor doing justice with both the performances; Good support from other actors, and good music from Rajesh Roshan made this movies a super-hit in the year 1990.
4. Jeete hai shan se(1988)
Director: Kawal Sharma
Star cast: Mithun Chakravarti, Govinda, Sanjay Dutt, Mandakini, Vijeyta Pandit, Danny
Music: Anu Malik
Apart from having all the masala, this movie has its unique feature which makes it a bit different from other masala movies and the feature is its “Dialogue delivery” Dialogues have been spoken in most artificial way, nowhere they are close to reality. Another great thing about this melodrama is “it has a separate scene and a song for each hero’s entry”. Mithun Da making his entry with a fight and then singing “Salaam seth, salaam seth.” in Anu Malik’s voice is entertaining enough for the audience.
5. Farishtey(1991)
Director: Anil Sharma
Star cast: Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, Rajnikant, Jayaprada, Sridevi, Sadashiv Amrapurkar
Music: Laxmikant Pyarelal
One more feature of masala movies over the time have been its star cast. Most of the masala movies don’t have a single hero in the movie(More than one hero is a must, preferably 3). This movie is an action-masala movie(more action oriented) but covers all aspects; even it has a song full of jingoism, “Jhanda uncha rahe hamara…” A complete masala movie to watch.
There have been few other efforts and I can’t stop mentioning their names.
Tridev(1989)
Mr. India(1987)
Tahlaka(1992)
Hum(1991)
Himmatwala(1983)
Yaadon ki Baarat(1973)
A masala movie is actually a combination of emotions, tragedy, love, comedy, story(obviously) and action in right proportion. And when you have too many things to fit in a small box it becomes difficult sometimes, here I thank the entire producers, directors who have given us these different shades in just one package and made our lives full of entertainment.
Your valuable comments are most welcome .