For some of you out there, this post is going to seem really out of character for me. After all the cribbing and snuffing of Karan Johar and his lot, people may have started to think that I do not care for our movie industry. That I spurn Yash Chopra for James Cameron. But today I want to put these speculations to rest. Whatever our problems, however scarce actual scriptwriters are and however much the other ones spend on old Hollywood DVDs, I still embrace this industry as an integral part of my growing up and I publicly acknowledge that I am grateful for it.
Right from the old scratchy black and white marvels, such as CID and Bhoot Bangla, through the piled up hairstyles of Sharmila Tagore, through the faux western piece of genius Sholay, through the young heroes debuting in QSQT, MPK and Baazigar to their eventual stardom and to some nuanced performances in new age movies. All through this, I have enjoyed the ride.
Our family was one that enjoyed their movie watching experience. The world of movies was therefore open to me at a very young age. Such was the prodigious nature of the love, that all forms of cinema were equally revered. I saw Hrishikesh Mukherji gems like 'Satyakaam' and 'Chupke Chupke' with equal interest as Manmohan Desai films like 'Amar Akbar Anthony'.
There are many things in Indian cinema that require you to suspend your belief. For e.g. Sanjay Dutt driving in a car on Marine Drive singing a song and as he is just about to reach Nariman Point, the scene suddenly changes to the serene mountains of Switzerland. Switzerland!!.. Somebody show me that shortcut!
But there has to be something said about the magic of the movies. There is stuff for every one's tastes. Middle aged heroes pretend to be 20 years old and go to college, but that it seems is exactly what 16 year old girls want to see. For the older folk, there are stars like Om Prakash and Utpal Dutt. For adults there are some very serious and surprisingly insightful moves like 'Arth' and 'Ardha Satya'. For the housewives trying to escape into worlds that don't involve cutting vegetables and shouting at bais, there are the super luxurious Chopra productions and now the Johar movies. Like I said there's something for everyone.
I realize that for me, the more important thing is the stories. I realize that my all embracing and somewhat eccentric tastes do have a very common core. The story. I am a sucker for two types of stories. The complete formula stories (Sports movies, Love stories, Mysteries) and the complete opposite, which says hell to formula, we'll have some innovation please.
It seems weird to think that I can enjoy both equally. But there is a weird sense of rhythm and comfort in the formulaic tearjerker or inspirational film and a sense of excitement and newness to the other type of movie.
I will leave you with a list of the ten best Hindi movies I have seen (in no particular order). It'll be great if you guys can comment and lemme know about yours. This post is about nostalgia. It'll be great to sit and reminisce, even if it is in the comments column :)
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar
Sholay
Andaz Apna Apna
Satyakaam
Golmaal
Namak Haram
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa
Lagaan
Abhimaan
Muskurahat
29 comments:
Nice Blog
I like Jaane bhi do yaaron though!
As a family, when I was a child, we had a weekly ritual to watch the latest release by renting VHS tapes from this tiny little video library. Surprisingly, he always the movie we wanted! Anyways, I remember hacing to sit through movies such as 'Phool aur Kaante', the hazardous debut of Ajay Devgan and Madhoo, 'Darr' with the horrific attempt at acting by Arbaaz Khan, 'Beta', 'Raja Babu' need I say more?! All in all when I think back about those movies, in some way they some of them did every bit of what you mentioned in your post, and even though I detest most of Indian cinema, mostly because films are set amidst some very highly improbable situations and are executed by some of the biggest melodramatic queens the world will ever have the chance to know.
Listed here are some of my favourites, in no particular order:
Sholay
Andaz Apna Apna
Golmaal
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa
Khosla ka Ghosla
Company
Let's talk
Yarana
Mirch Masala
Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron
P.S. Main Kahan Hoon?
P.S.S Aaj maine tumhara manpasand gaajar ka halwa banaya hai
P.P.S.S. Kehdo kay yeh jhoot hai
and the quintessential 'Ghar mein Maa Behen nahi hai kya', 'Maa behen to hai, lekin......*censored*
hehehe.. loved your p.s. msgs modjo... yes.. i weirdly did not write about dialogs.... for me tho the movie with the most memorable is sholay.. its a hands down winner in tht dept.. and its closely followed by andaz apna apna.. i mean who can forget "gogoji aapka ghaaghra".. hehehehe...
one more clarification to the ppls who shall read comments column... i think rang de basanti can go on my fav list instead of lagaan..
I have memorised practically every dialog from Sholay, right from the incessant rambling of basanti to the one line that made the Imam immortal 'Itna sunnata kyu hai bhai' It was all good, Sholay does go to the top of my list. Andaz Apna Apna had it's moments too, but yes the most recent movie i'll remember for a while to come is Om Shanti Om, not because the dialogs were memorable, but because each one was repeated at least 33 times during every significant point in the movie, almost blatantly forcing the audience to memorise it so that they can say it along the next time Shah Rukh Khan repeated it. I remember it even now, something that starts like 'Badi shiddat se chaha tha tujhe... '. Well I am not going to add much to this and glorify it, but if you have seen the movie you will know what I speak of.
If I may say so, I don't think Amir Khan is anything special. I liked him more in his younger days.
yup.. i agree.. aamir was a better hero in his younger days.. a more restrained actor... he prolly got better movies later on tho... he just made really intelligent choices.. i dunno tht dil chahta hai was great becos of him or anything.. it was just a good movie.. and a good career move by the khan... he's a clever actor.. and good.. not really great
*does the hrithik dance
*sings oooooh oooooh oooooooooooh Comaaaanderrrrr
P.S. I love Aamir Khan...
P.P.S. I've never seen Sholay
Mojo must be thining: Yeh baat sunne se pehle mujhe upar bula liya hota uperwaale!
hehehe.. am still smirking in my head thinking of BOB doing the Hrithik Dance...
dance is another one of those weird things.. one of my american friends once said tht no one in india needs to formally learn dance... they all seem to just follow movie movements...
pliss anshee!!.. Sholay be must!.. it is the movie with the action! drama! emotion! friendship! revenge!.. it is the epitome of all Bollywood..
"aamir khan not a great actor" ????!!!!
have u guys managed to tear yourself away from South Park and seen Taaren Zameen Par?
bunch of pseudo intellectuals. main tumhara khoon pee jaungaa..
hehehe... i didnt expect the psuedo intellectual quip for this post... mr. anonymous.. do look at posts below.. and when u dont understand them.. u can then accuse of feigning intellect..
and weirdly.. why the anonymous?.. i dun mind my friends calling me names... tht's how we survive..
uhhh.. again very opinion based.. i think aamir is good and not great.. after all i've seen naseeruddin shah and pankaj kapoor act... u may think the exact opposite..
btw... see taare zameen par.. and then see Martian Child.. lemme know who stole whose script.. cos i cant figure it out..
Taare zameen par was disastrous in my opinion. Clearly the whole purpose of the movie was to ensure that all the mama's boys and all the mamas cried during that one song 'Meri Maa'. Call me whatever you want, but I stand by that Amir Khan is not all that he is made up to be. Am surprised people take offence to actors being called mediocre. I guess this IS what the post is all about. :)
indians are such closet vampires :P
you can drink all the blood you want mr. anonymous, but be warned it's really bitter.
all of the above was meant in good humour, please don't come back with personal retorts, or else this will get ugly. 'taali ek haath se nahi bajti!.... thaakur'
hahahaha, had to improv on the thakur bit.
Somebody hasn't watched Sholay? Even *I* have watched Sholay! The emphasis on the "I" because Lage Raho Munnabhai is one of the most recent hindi movies I've watched. That's how many hindi movies i watch.
And even *I* have watched Sholay.
Eclectic set of movies, especially from Bollywood. Strangely enough I agree with all of them.
As for taare zameen paar, it was a good concept, with really poor execution.
Southpark on the other hand is sheer brilliance, It's like an animated Voltaire for the 21st century
Mr Anonymous or Ms Anonymous
The next time you watch Southpark, try and look beyond the dirty jokes, and crude animation. You just might find some relevant social satire
FYI, I think the word you were looking for is sophist, not pseudo intellectual.
hehehe... people defending taare zameen par and southpark!.. this is my kinda comments column!
for the record.. i really enjoyed southpark till the Southpark the Movie.. somehow its become a lil more cringy lately... but if comedy central really has anything to offer.. its the daily show and the colbert report!!.. stephen can still be president! i dun care how!
but seriously for those who saw taare zameen par.. see martian child.. uncannily similar concepts..
I have not seen "martian child", but it was released in Nov 2007, and TZP was released in Dec 2007.
Now, Aamir would certainly need some of those Martian super-powers to "copy" the script.
Get your facts straight.
BTW, we were discussing Aamir's emotive abilities, if you can process a single thread of thought at a time.
The bottom line is that you ppl want to go against any mass approved Indian movie whereas praising cr@p like Harry Potter, LOTR and their ilk.
BTW, I love South Park!!
mr/ms. anonymous..
am still amused that you do not wish to share your name with us...
hey.. people in the film industry (even global now) do know whats happening in other under production projects...you dont always have to buy a dvd to find out about it.. anyway.. tht's not the point... i was just bringing the movies' simliarities to light...
second.. i think when i mention people like naseer, paresh rawal, kamal hasan and pankaj kapoor... i dont think i will ever put aamir khan in the same sentence.. he's not in their class... and why do u have to try to make me change my mind abt it anyway?.. u know aamir?
also.. i'm fine with the points of view too... we have all here delcared our love for bollywood, not our contempt for it as you make it sound... just slightly pissed with the fact tht u decide to take an insulting tone in ur posts... completely uncalled for...
i dun think deleting comments is a good thing.. and i wont... but just thot u shud know when ure treading on toes...
yes, i apologize for the insulting tone - but the reason for that is that you seem to have anointed anything from the past decade(s) with
greatness, but seem to think that anything recent is either plagiarized from western cinema or not fit for your haute culture consumption.
I just read the synopsis for Martian Child - Here it is:
"Science fiction writer, David Gordon (John Cusack) is feeling alone after losing his wife two years earlier. David is weighing the possibility of adopting a six-year old orphan boy named Dennis (Bobby Coleman). There is only one thing that may prevent the adoption from happening, and that is Dennis believes he is from the planet Mars. David's sister, Liz (Joan Cusack), tries to talk him out of adopting a child, because he doesn't know the first thing about parenting and this child is over the line and very strange. David has made up his mind and wants to be a father to this strange Martian child. David is having so much fun being a parent that he has stop writing and is about to miss his next book deadline. His agent Jeff (Oliver Platt) tries to bring David back to earth, but David is thinking about Mars more and more. David is letting Dennis be himself, and he is caught up in the fantasy of Dennis actually being from Mars. Whatever the truth, David has changed for the better, and now he has learned how to be a loving and caring parent."
Now, I must be really dense - but pray enlighten me about the similarities between the two.
I dont want to accomplish anything out here..just like treading on toes once in a while. They make nice squishy sounds :)
@ anonymous
hehehe.. we are having quite a conversation here.. oh well.. my comment count goes up..
uhh abt the two movies.. i guess u have to watch them to get whht i mean... its not the story.. its more the moments between the kid and cusack... also the character of the child... the hints that both the kids in MC and TZP are both synesthetes... small things.. anyway.. i was struck by how both movies evoked the same reactions from me..
btw.. if you'd like to know.. i did like both movies... both kid actors are great finds..
about new movies v/s old movies.. i just thing that anything tinged with nostalgia for me seems more attractive... maybe the age gives it an aura of authenticity.. but anyway... these movies have proved that they endure.. (its the same with my hollywood tastes too btw... cant get over movies like Godfather and ET... would consider them better than any contemporary work)...
mass movies have their purpose... as i mention in the post... i have fallen in different demographics over the years.. with different movies appealing to me..
anyway.. am actually in class right now and should stop pontificating :)
do be more open abt ur identity tho... lend more credibility to the comments :)
"btw... see taare zameen par.. and then see Martian Child.. lemme know who stole whose script.. cos i cant figure it out.."
how do you reconcile this comment with
"its not the story.. its more the moments between the kid and cusack."
any more toes left??
about my identity - i might be aamir khan and take great affront to this condescending attitude towards my talents.
scripts have more than just dialogs in them....
anyway... i'm done with this argument...
and even if u are aamir khan... dude learn to just take people's opinions as just that.. opinions... and deal with people not agreeing with you..
WOW!
I could say I like Taare Zameen par. There! maybe now you'll think a little better of me? But who the hell cares?! AMIR KHAN SUCKS and honestly of what I have read from you, YOU DO TOO! It's one thing trying to clarify your point and it's another to impose. We heard you the first time and have been cautious enough to add 'in my opinion' to practically every Amir Khan related comment, but I don't think you get the message do you? Maybe us sophists are using language that is beyond your realm of understanding.
Stop with the bickering already.
If this is Amir, dude you suck. I liked you better in JJWS.
I have no issues with opinions...its the facts that i have issues with.
You accused Aamir of stealing the script from Martian Child, but when presented with the facts - you have tripped over yourself, first making it seem that Aamir has delegated spies across Hollywood to filch stories. When i presented the synopsis of the Martian Child story, it turns out that it has no correlation with TZP (it just struck the same chord with you).
Modjo - I am not trying to impose my opinion, was trying to understand as to why you think Aamir sucks - but so far, i have just gotten script-stealing accusations and how Pankaj Kapoor (??) is so much better.
Hope you kids develop better reasoning skills.
I had fun! Off to the next blog, this time to criticize Aamir :), yes, i know, i have no life
Someday, this war will end....till then...Burn M'f&ker Burn!!
You DON'T like Pankaj Kapoor?!!!! dude, seriously! let me guess, you also like Rahul Bose, eh? Anyways, I hope dp's next post will create just as much stir. :)
Guys, this is hilarious. Opinion and fact, what is a fact anyway, just an opinion (hypothesis) that has been proven in a statistically significant sample size or number of times. And of all the opinions and facts on the face of God's green earth we sit here and debate Aamir Khan's histrionics, I think we all need to get a life...
Oh yeah...CARTMAN RULES!!!
Refreshingly different stuff from the unfettered. :-)
I love just too many of them, ten is just too small a number to ... so here's what's coming to my mind ...
golmaal, anand, kagaz ke phool, ijazat, bulundi, khamoshi, sholay, DDLJ, chhoti si baat, ek doctor ki maut, jaane bhi do yaaron, navrang, mughal-e-azam, guide, ishwar, papiha...
and for the rest read this:
http://blog.ghushe.com/2005/12/13/here-i-go-again/
:-)
btw, how are you doing? And we have to talk about making zen like stuff sound simple. :-)
"You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one"
These famous words from John Lennon's "Imagine" can provide a fitting description to the "dream" that is Bollywood.
The protagonist lives a dream and takes you along with him on his adventure. For those three hours, his joy becomes yours and his sorrow, your sorrow.
An argument between friends or rivals over "Who is the best actor?" or "Which is the best film ever?" is testimony to the fact that Bollywood strikes a chord in every human heart.
Is Aamir better or Pankaj Kapoor?? Well, try arguing with people who love Mithun...and as far as plagiarism is concerned...who cares?? Bollywood has been the best refuge for a person whose life is being strangulated by mundane demons..so if a Karan Johar or Sanjay Leela Bhansali takes an office clerk to Switzerland or fishes a loner out of his depression, he practically lives on those images for weeks together....Viva Bollywood!!!
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