My top 25 movies of last decade (Jan 2001-Dec 2010)

Hey, I am back. :) Its been a while but that is because I have been writing my most challenging blog post so far. No its not on any subject of great importance, national, social, religious, political or personal. Its something related to my hobby. All this while I have been comprising a list of my top 25 movies from last decade, that is 2001 to 2010. Believe me its been a tough ask but after much deliberation I have managed to do so and here are my top 25.

1) Rang De Basanti (2006)

Director: Rakeysh OmPrakash Mehra

Aamir Khan, Sidhdharth, Kunal Kapoor, Atul Kulkarni, Sharman Joshi

Probably not the greatest of Indian movies in terms of plot and storytelling but this movie left me with emotions that no other Indian movie has ever done. Is that not what we go to movies for? To be stirred and moved by them.

2) Dil Chahta Hai (2001)

Director: Farhaan Akhtar

Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Khanna, Preity Zinta

A movie which could rightly claim to be a movie for the youth. Maybe distinctly for the urban youth but what the hell, I am an urban youth. Or was a youth, when this movie came :/ Anyways back then you knew a Sameer, an Aakash and a Sid in your life and today, even after a decade you still know a Sameer, an Aakash and a Sid in your life. Such realistic characterization. Whatever those three guys did and went through, you always felt like doing and you always knew could happen to you. Nothing was unreal, neither their friendship nor their relations.

3) Swades (2004)

Director : Ashutosh Gowarikar

Sharukh Khan

Without an iota of doubt, best SRK movie ever. I wonder if this guy can do this, why does he have to do KJ and YC crap. I believe this is the only movie (that I have seen) that showed patriotism in a true measure reflecting on both bad and good that India has. Superlative performance by SRK. The first and only time I have been moved by his crying was in this movie when he sheds a tear in the train after buying water from a boy.

4) Udaan (2010)

Director: Vikramaditya Motwane

Rajat Barmecha, Ronit Roy

Maybe its fresh in my memory that is why it is so high on my list but I have no complains. Ronit Roy, no matter what stupid award juries say, your performance was best last year and one of the best of the decade.

5) Dev.D (2009)

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin, Mahi Gill

If it was not my emotional attachments with the above 4 movies, this movie would have been my number one. Never seen and never expected to see this kind of movie making by an Indian. Story of a guy torn apart by his love and his ego who gets lost in the underbelly of Delhi with liquor and drugs. In the times when Bollywood movies and actors make smoking and drinking look cool, this movie makes it look like hell. Modern Devdas to the core. SLB and SRK can have their box office collection and awards but deep inside they know this movie kicked their movie’s ass big time.

6) Kaminey (2009)

Director : Vishal Bhardwaj

Fhahid Kapoor, Sh sh sh shahid Kapoo poo poor

Thank you. Thank you Vishal Bhardwaj for believing that Indian audience is intelligent enough to figure out the plot. Thank you for not putting in out of context scenes and dialogues just to give a background picture to the audience. Thank you for making world know that Indian movies are not “leave your brain at home” movies and thank you for DHAN TE NAN. One advice, let the movie confuse you. In the end, it will solve itself on its own. Kudos to Vishal and Amole Gupte for the plot and script.

7) A Wednesday (2008)

Director: Neeraj pandey

Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill

Brave film to say the least. With this kind of ending, director knew he was opening a huge topic for debate but he still went ahead with it and well done to him for that. Excellent cast and expectedly amazing performances. Naseer’s portrayal of common man will be etched in the memories of common Indian men forever. Even if we let go the plot, which in itself is revolutionary, the pace at which movie moves is breath taking. Kudos to writer for writing such a screenplay and to director for giving so much attention to details.

8) Maqbool (2003)

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Pankaj Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri

Even if I had not seen this movie, I would have put it in my list just going by the cast. However I did see the movie and man was it not a movie. In a decade full of directors giving us colorful designer love stories, an offbeat director gave us an adaption of the work of probably the greatest exponent of love, betrayal and guilt. Shakespeare. And what an adaptation it was. A Victorian classic Macbeth, in the heart of our aamchi Mumbai. Who would have thought it? Who would have dared it? But if you think this was Bhardwaj’s only successful attempt, you are mistaken.

9) Omkara (2006)

Director: Vishal Bhardwaj

Ajay Devgan, Viveik Oberoi, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor

May be Bhardwaj thought taking a royal Victorian classic to the underworld of Mumbai was not a challenge big enough. So he thought of taking another Victorian classic (Othello) to the heartland of rural UP. Yet another adaptation of a master piece of love, betrayal and guilt, but this time derived from the caste driven politics of Uttar Pradesh. And who better than Bhardwaj could have executed it. But the most striking part of it was Saif Ali Khan as Langda Tyagi. And he rightly set the tone for the movie with his opening dialogue “Bewkoof aur Ch****ye me dhage bhar ka farak hota hai”. Rest was history.

10) Rocket Singh Salesman of the year (2009)

Director: Shimit Amin

Ranbeer Kapoor, Manish Chaubey

Did we not love the cute sardaar? A below average student who starts his career in the worst possible way. Abused by his highly successful and cunning boss (amazing performance by Manish Chaubey) and ridiculed by his colleagues, he decides to take them on in his own way. Forms up a team with employees who are treated similarly and successfully competes with the stalwart of the industry. Don’t we all want to do that? And Shimit portrayed it without making anything look unreal or larger than life. Neither the aims nor the measures and achievements of Rocket Singh and co. were unrealistic. Inspiring and entertaining, rare combination in Bollywood.

11) Lakshya (2004)

Director: Farhaan Akhtar

Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta

For an actor as talented as Hrithik, I am disappointed that only one of his movies could make up into my list. A superlative performance by him. His transition from a reckless, aimless guy to a determined and dedicated soldier was inspiring to say the least. While first half Hrithik was what all of us have been at some point in our lives, the second half Hrithik was what all of us want to be at some point in our lives. And this is what makes this movie so special to me.

12) Iqbal (2005)

Director: Nagesh Kukunoor

Shreyas Talpade, Shweta Prasad, Naseeruddin Shah

Best sport movie India ever produced and mainly because this was not your regular sports movie with clichéd plot of underdog overcoming giants of sport. This movie exposed the underbelly of sport world which no movie ever tried to. Other notable attempts were centered on a bunch of looked down upon people overcoming the mightiest. Here even though the main protagonist was looked down upon but in no way an underdog and unlike in other movies, the thing stopping him from becoming best was not an opposing team, but the system and his own helpless father. For me Shreyas’ performance in this movie was better than Amitabh’s in Black which was released the same year but then that’s just me.

13) Taare Zameen Par (2007)

Director: Aamir Khan

Aamir Khan, Darsheel Safary

For a change all the ladies cried for something other than a dying husband (who would later come back) on tv or a dying SRK. And this time they cried for a dyslexic boy whose genius was almost lost in the typical Indian upbringing which more often than not kills the Da Vinci, Picasso and Beethoven inside every child. And then there was “Kya itna bura hu main? Meri maa”. Come on. Don’t accuse ladies of being too sentimental. This line would have made Khali cry.

14) Khosla ka Ghosla (2006)

Director: Dibakar Banerjee

Anupam Kher, Boman Irani

So finally a director noticed that there exists a middle class in India which does not wear designer clothes, which does not live abroad and whose problems are not always about loving a girl whose father does not approve you or whom your father does not approve. Finally an Indian family was shown whose problems, whose helplessness looked like ours. And all this, without any loud and over the top emotional drama. A simple movie, which makes you think while making you smile and laugh.

15) Jab we Met (2007)

Director: Imtiaz Ali

Kareena Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor

One movie which would make every boy and girl wish that they get stranded in some railway station with some stranger. Kareena was adorable, Shahid was sweet and the movie had all the fun and confusion to keep you engrossed and make you forget the time. Best part of the movie “Aur ye sale launde, mujhe ganne k khet dikhane le ja rahe hai. Kyu dekhu main ganne k khet. Hai kya un ganno k khet me. Mujhe ni dekhne ganne k khet” :D

16) Socha Na Tha (2005)

Direcotor: Imtiaz Ali

Abhay Deol, Ayesha Takia

Never before in Hindi Cinema I came across a guy as confused as Viren and I loved it. The movie was so well written and directed that being a third person you could sympathize with both Viren and his family. You could understand Viren’s dilemma as well as his family’s frustration and thus everything they did looked sensible to you while watching them doing it. However at the same time you kept praying that you never get into the mess Viren got himself into.

17) 3 Idiots (2009)

Director: Rajkumar Hirani

Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani, Kareena Kapoor

Rajkumar Hirani seems to have mastered the art of mixing a public message into fun filled entertainment. After a dig on medical system and a message on gandhigiri, he chose to expose the flaws in India's education system and that too in his own style. Inspired from Chetan Bhagat’s 5 point someone, if this movie has done anything, then improved upon the original story. So in that regard Bhagat should be thankful to Hirani and Abhijit Joshi. The suspense added to an otherwise straight forward comical college drama takes the movie to a different level. 3 hours you would never realize passing by.

18) Lagey raho Munnabhai (2006)

19) Munnabhai MBBS (2003)

Director:  Rajkumar Hirani

Sanjay Dutt, Boman Irani, Arshad Waarsi

With these two movies Rajkumar Hirani along with Vishal Bhardwaj becomes the second director with three movies on my list. If someone puts a gun on my head and asks to pick up only one director of all, I would probably go with Rajkumar Hirani and I am sure you all would agree with my decision. This fellow gives everything in a movie that an audience asks for. A social message and a truck load of entertainment. All this without overdoing anything. Munnabhai became a cult in Indian cinema and for once people did not mind their children speaking the tapori language.

20) Hazaron Khwahishein Aisi (2003)

Director: Sudhir Mishra

Kay Kay Menon, Chitrangadha Singh, Shiney Ahuja

If you are a Kay Kay Menon fan and you think Shaurya was his best performance, you are mistaken. A free thinking rebellious socialist, a rich nonchalant, non idealistic guy and a gorgeous irresistible woman in between them.  All this in the times of emergency. Do you need to know anything more?

21) Page 3 (2005)

Director: Madhur Bhandarkar

Konkana Sen, Atul Kulkarni, Boman Irani

I don’t think I could have made a list of movies without having a Madhur Bhandarkar special in it. He came across as a very bold director with his debut movie Chandni Bar but Page3 gave him a distinction of being a director of reality cinema. Well after watching Page 3 you cannot argue much on that. Himself being a part of that section of society, making a movie that exposes it, was a brave attempt by him and kudos to him for that. For a change general public got to see beyond the glamorous life of page 3 socialites and they loved it. It made them believe in the law of averages. It made them believe that their lives are as good or bad as of the ones appearing on entertainment channels and city tabloids.

22) Lagaan (2001)

Director: Ahsutosh Gowarikar

Aamir Khan, Paul Blackthrone

One word. EPIC. Probably the best ever Indian period movie and there is nothing periodic about it but for the era in which the story unfolds. Who could have thought there could be 4 hour long movie with 1 and a half hour of a cricket match? But there was and people loved every minute of those 4 hours and every ball of that cricket match. Lagan became symbolic with every sporting triumph of India and even today you jump a little when kachra takes his hattrick or when bhuvan dispatches the last ball over long off for a six. Like I said, EPIC.

23) Gadar Ek Prem Katha (2001)

Director: Anil Sharma

Sunny Deol, Amrish Puri, Ameesha Patel

“Barsaat se bachne ki haisiyat nahi aur golibari ki bat kar rahe hai aap log”. How can I not put this on my list? Most sensible Pakistan bashing movie ever made and I loved it.

24) Gulaal (2009)

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Kay Kay Menon, Raj Singh Chaudhary, Ayesha Mohan

Second movie by Anurag Kashyap on my list and like he himself said, this is an angry movie. Few people might find it disturbing thinking where Indian youth is headed but then Anurag never makes movies for those few. Similar to Anurag’s other movies (Black Friday, Paanch, Dev.D) the vital essence of this movie are love, betrayal, politics, deception, greed, hypocrisy and of course, the ultimate fight to gain power. Kay Kay Menon is at his wicked best and supporting him brilliantly are Raj Singh Chaudhary, Deepak Dobriyal, Ayesha Mohan, Jesse Randhawa and Abhimanyu Singh. Not for everyone, but those who like this kind of cinema will love it.

25) Johnny Gaddar (2007)

Director: Sriram Raghavan

Neil Nitin Mukesh, Rimi Sen, Dharmendra

May be I am saying a bit too much but I believe Alfred Hitchcock would have been proud of this movie. A masterpiece of a thriller where there is no suspense but still you are not aware of what is going to happen. The main protagonist sets out to do nothing wrong but the way things turn out, they make him do one bad thing after other. Every time he does something evil, you feel for him and think that he would do something to fix it but all he ends up doing is messing it up by doing something worse. And in spite of this you sympathize with him because you know he never intended to do it. I guess I have said enough. It is a must watch nerve wracking thriller

Whats the right age?

Into the third hour of my; hmmm let me say 17^th birth day (:D), I suddenly realize how almost everyone around me expects me to get married now. Or at least expects me to start getting acquainted with the idea of marriage (actually it was an SMS wishing me happy born day and also jokingly asking me to get married this year, that made me realize it). However I do not really understand why they expect this out of me. Honestly speaking I have not changed much (read at all) from what I was, say when I was; hmmm 12 years old. So does that mean that the people around me have changed?

Unfortunately the answer is no they have not. It’s in fact this age old, never changing mentality of linking marriage to the age of a person rather than to his state of mind that makes them expect every 27 year old to start looking for a spouse and get married soon, if he is already not married. I always thought that being ready for marriage was related to your state of mind. Or as some hopeless romantics will say with blinking eyelashes, it’s related to your state of heart. But in either case, it is definitely not related to age.  Well it is related to age as per some biological studies but the appropriate minimum age for marriage has been defined on the basis of those studies and the required laws have also been made. However, an unwritten law (defining the maximum age for marriage) exists in our society which says a person should, no, a person must get married by a certain age. There are very few logic behind this unwritten law and the most famous amongst them is “well it’s the right age or else it will get too late”.

Right age? It again kind of puzzles me as to how do people decide what the right age is. 25 years ago 20 was considered the right age, 50 years ago 15 was considered the right age and probably a 100 years ago as soon as a child started walking and talking, he was considered suitable for marriage. So how can something which has not been constant over a period of time, considered a parameter to decide the right time for such an important event in your life? Again there are several theories behind this and I am sure all of you are aware of them. After all a lot of you believe in them, a lot of you have been made to believe in them and rest of you keep hearing them all the time from your parents, buas, mausis, and even from the friendly neighborhood aunties.  The most famous and most common amongst those theories is “umar nikal gayi toh achchi ladki nahi milegi”.

That sounded familiar right? Of course it did. Like I said you guys hear it all the time. It just raises a question in my mind, exactly what is an “achchi ladki”. Since we are talking about the “right age” for marriage, does a good girl only mean a young girl in her early or mid-twenties? I said so because even a girl in her late twenties and thirties can be educated, beautiful, smart, caring, understanding and all the other things that one looks for in a wife. Then why do people expect guys to get married much before thirty so that they can get a girl in her early twenties? Is it about marrying the right person or about marrying the person of right age? I firmly believe that as long as you yourself have everything that a person looks for in a spouse, you will find the right person irrespective of your age. However not many people think this way. In fact a lot of my friends also believe in the “right age for marriage” theory. Well there is nothing wrong in wanting to marry a young girl or not too old man. But then again I wonder should one get married, in spite of not being mentally ready for it, just because he is approaching that dreaded age?  I mean this theory of marry now because you won’t get “acchi ladki” later is like eat now even if you are not hungry because the food will get cold later. Will you do that? Will you really forcefully stuff your stomach just because the food is hot right now and later it will get cold? I know the idea of comparing a person with food is not the best in the world but then I am not the one who believes that a person gets stale (lesser a marriage material) with increasing age.

Well I cannot control how people think, neither do I want to. I know they have their reasons to believe in something and it does not matter what I feel about those reasons. But for me, marriage is a huge step which changes your life completely. So I am not going to bring such a drastic change in my life until I am 100 percent sure that it will make my life better and happier. To me that assurance does not come from social laws or experiences of our parents and grandparents. It comes from my own experiences and from my own logic developed on the basis of those experiences. And my logic says, don’t just wait till the right age, wait till the right time and till you get the right person. Unless of course your life is such a mess that it can only get better no matter whom you marry. In that case marrying anyone at any age will do. But my life is not such a mess right now and I hope it never gets.  I just turned; hmmm let me say 17 (:D), I have an awesome family and great friends and I just don’t feel the need of going on a search for a girl who will supposedly make my life wonderful. My life is already wonderful. 

Happy Born Day to me!!!

PS : I am not 17 years old but is that not pretty obvious? ;)

Pride in being silently proud

After a relatively warm reaction to my first blog, in fact better than I expected (thanks to my constant nagging which forced at least my friends to read it: D), I was in a dilemma as to what to write about next. Not because I could not find anything cool to write about (seriously; I never think about writing cool), but because lately so many thoughts have been fighting with each other in my mind that I just kept sitting and waiting for one thought to emerge as a winner so that I can pen it down. Or rather type it down.  Unexpectedly, it was one thought that never occurred in my mind in its entirety. It just kept springing up here and there and lately it was very much buried under the thoughts of recent events; Anna’s fight and Indian team’s plight. Thus I never imagined it to take over cricket, movies, religion and politics (my favorites) to become the topic of my second blog post. But Speedy Singh’s song “shera di kaum” featuring Ludacris made it happen.

Before I move ahead let me tell you something else. Not many know but I am still pretty much active in Orkut communities, especially cricket community. It is a group of passionate and knowledgeable cricket lovers, mainly from India and Pakistan who discuss each and every thing related to cricket, on and off the field. Not surprisingly they are mostly fighting with each other trying to prove that their team is better than others.  At times the fights turn ugly. The whole of last year, it were the Indians who were  badly bashing Pakistanis on their team’s miserable performances and this year it’s their turn, thanks to our team’s superlative show in England. However one thing happened amidst these cricket fights that led to this blog post. It was South African cricketer Wayne Parnell converting to Islam. It caused some really unexpected celebrations by the Muslim members of the community (mainly Pakistanis), as if his turning into a Muslim was a big achievement for them. It also started a series of threads (an Orkut term) by certain Pakistanis, glorifying Islam and requesting and welcoming every non-Muslim to join this great religion. Anyways, the moderators soon came into action and warned all such members, as due to the diversity of members, discussing any religious or political issue is not allowed there. But all those events did make me think; what made those guys do all that. I mean everyone loves their parents but who would want someone to ditch his own parents and join theirs? What made them so happy?

Now back to shera di kaum. Lovely track right? Well I do not find it too great but that’s not the point. Point is, in a year how many Punjabi songs (with repetitive lyrics about jigra of lions and lassi da glass) will come out in the market glorifying Punjabi culture. How many times will we see Punjabis claiming to be a proud of being a Punjabi in situations where such claims are neither required nor do they make any sense.  I remember in college one Punjabi friend of mine will keep reminding us of him being Punjabi (o hum Punjabi hai ye ni kerte, o hum Punjabi hai wo ker dete hai, o hum Punjabi hai aise ni kerte, o hum Punjabi hai waise ni kerte) time and time again. One day he acted so surprised and even looked down upon me for not knowing Punjabi. For a second I was like, man Hindi is our national language right? All these experiences always made me think what makes Punjabis do all this? Why do they have to keep bringing out how great they think their culture is?

Today while listening to the shera di kaum track, this thought again came in my mind and I concluded that Punjabis and Muslims unnecessarily flaunt their culture and religion respectively. I am sure everyone is proud of themselves, their culture, their practices and their beliefs but you won’t see as many proud displays by other groups of people as you would see by Punjabis and Muslims. I know that what I am conveying here is very strong but it is an honest opinion without any ill feelings or intentions. I am not criticizing them for this but just putting forward an observation.  I trust my friends to understand my intentions here and even invite my Punjabis and Muslim friends to prove me wrong. I will be more than glad to be proved otherwise. I sincerely want to know is it a superiority complex that makes them keep telling others that they are better off than them or an inferiority complex that makes them declare and prove time and again that their culture/religion is best and no matter what others might think of it, they are proud to be what they are? I hope it’s neither of them and it just be a non-intentional, motive less, innocent cultural and religious characteristic.

PS: I apologize if I have offended anyone. However I believe in what I have said and won’t take it back unless proved otherwise.