Saturday, January 3

The Bollywood Roundup : Top films of 2008

The year 2008 has been bad, not only with the terror attacks all over India, the stock market meltdown and the slowdown but also terrorism spread from the likes of Mimoh, Tushar Kapoor and Harman Baweja. In a year when the biggies came out with Jodha-Akbar, Tashan, Race, Rab Ne Bana di jodi and Ghajini, you had chotu filmmakers coming out with Aamir, Mithya, Dasvidaniya, Dil Kabaddi etc. So amidst the gloom and the doom I present my best films list of the year.

Number 5 - Mithya
That Ranvir Shourie is talented actor is very well known, what was not known to us that a combination of Shourie+Vinay Pathak+Rajat Kapoor's wacky direction would be a dark comedy with a bundle of surprises. Watching Mithya I was reminded of a line from the Tom Hanks' starrer Forrest Gump - Life is a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get. The movie starts of on a wild note...goes slow in the second half and the ending well.. breaks your heart. Ranvir Shourie is brilliant and so is pal Vinay Pathak.
Rajeev Masand Review of Mithya.

Number 4 - Race
Having a plot which is as straight as a jalebi, Race is one of those typical 90's films of Abbas Mastan. The only difference being that you have more cleavage, mindblowing 'copied' music(as a certain Mr Pritam is the music director), countless twists and turns and jokes so silly that they make you laugh. Sample this line from Anil Kapoor - Ganna chusenge bolne main accha nahi lagta isliye bol raha hun ganna khayenge.

Movies are for entertainment and if you agree with that, Race is a total paisa vasool.

Number 3 - Aamir
Inspired from
the filipino film Cavite and brilliantly executed by debutant director Rajkumar Gupta, Aamir is an answer not only to the radical islamists in India but also to the current UPA govt, which undertook the Sachar comittee report. On being taunted that he was one of the lucky few, Aamir replies - "I was not lucky. I studied in govt schools and colleges, worked hard, got a scholarship and made my destiny on my own".

Number 2 - Jaane Tu..ya Jaane na
Movie Talkies called it "One of the coolest, warmest, hippest and funniest musical romantic comedy in years has arrived, and a new Khan is born." I would add 'funniest' and the remove the latter line. Jaane Tu is also an example of how great writing and great dialogues can make a simple film work. The gags in Jaane Tu are the funniest I have seen in any Bollywood film since Khosla ka Ghosla.

And the Desiblab Film of the year is...


Number 1 - A Wednesday
I
have reviewed the film previously. And there is nothing more to say that in a year when the aam aadmi was the mainstay of Bollywood, media and Madam Sonia, 'A Wednesday' is the perfect candidate for the film of the year.

Also ran - Jodha Akbar, Dostana, Ghajini, Dasvidaniya, Golmaal Returns, Fashion and Rock On!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

oye lucky lucky oye strongly recommended