My Yearender for Bollywood

With all the year end reviews going on, i thought i'll put in my own fave hindi flicks of the year gone by. I gotta say i was influenced to do this after hearing procalamations that certain mediocre(and dumb) movies (an example wud be Ghajini and Rab ne whatever) are cinematic masterpieces. Considering the Indian movie industry is producing some absolute gems these days, i thought it was blasphemous that these overhyped star vehicles are getting all the plaudits as usual.

So here's my fave from the last year in "Bollywood":
1) Mumbai Meri Jaan - My favourite of the year. This movie marked that rare achievement of bringing together an excellent ensemble of actors and a great director with a theme that was thought provoking. I had seen Nishikant Kamath's Tamil movie Evano Oruvan and found it to be unique and fresh. This time he brings the protagonist of that movie, Madhavan and combines him with Paresh Rawal, Kay Kay Menon, Irrfan Khan and Soha. It was a brilliant character study of these characters and how the Mumbai blasts affected them. Although it doesnt provide solutions. If you just want an easy thrill, i would suggest 'A Wednesday', which in my opinion is a bit overrated.

2) Rock On - This was a movie which had a predictable storyline, cliched situations and some actors who had never really made it big. But wow! The way the story was presented was fresh, original and the actors all did a great job, particularly Farhan Akhtar, Arjun Rampal and Shahana Goswami.

3) Dasvidaniya - The movie that touched me the most the last year. Vinay Pathak gave an endearing performance as the man stricken with cancer and only having 3 months left to live. Some say it was inspired by 'The Bucket List', but somehow, i liked this one much better.

4) Aamir - Another movie which i went for on my gut feeling. It released in the same weekend as Sarkar Raj, and somehow i got the feeling this would be a richer movie experience. Boy, was i right. The movie was 1.5 hours of a pure thrill ride, with the ending putting everyone with the question of what would they have done in the same situation?

5) Jaane Tu.. - This was another movie which i was not expecting to like. After all the story seemed age old and the actors did not seem too charismatic. However, like Rock On, this one was brilliantly presented and hit all the right spots. The comic touches were perfect and you ended up caring for this bunch of kids.

I know no one will agree with me... but i thought i had to put in an honourable mention to Tashan. The public seems to have misunderstood it. I thought it was a brilliant spoof of the movies of the 80's with the larger than life villain, the loverboy caught in the wrong situation, the childhood lovers meeting up in later life, 2 people fighting 20.. but somehow it turned out to be one of YashRaj's biggest flops. Which probably persuaded Aditya Chopra to make the utterly irritating Rab Ne... considering it a safe investment.

One more honorable mention i felt i needed to make. Shaurya may have been taken from 'A Few Good Men', but no one can deny it was a beautifully made movie, and featured probably the best monologue of the year, from Kay Kay Menon. The actor had a glorified special appearance in the movie but left probably one of the most indelible impressions in the whole year.