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Dasvidaniya 2008
Ratnakar Sadasyula
Published: on Dec 16 2008 @ 8:44 am
Disclaimer: This is my personal view point of Bollywood in 2008, of the movies i have seen. As far as Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is concerned, my take is not great, not bad, just plain average, but considering that lot has been said, nothing really of value from my side. And lastly i feel absolutely stupid putting up this disclaimer, but considering some comments i have been getting off late, i am putting it up just in case.
Well its that time of the year when every one starts to take stock of what has happened, and comes up with the Best, Worst list. Some years are quite crazy, they just leave you dumb founded and dumb struck. 2008 was such a year.
Wall Street went bust, thanks to some dodgy business theories, floated by overpaid B-School Grads, who took Michael Douglas words on "Greed is Good" too seriously, and tried to make a quick buck. All it resulted was in investment banks becomming a part of history, savings of many Americans wiped out, and ordinary Americans finding their lives more insecure and indebted.
As Wall Street crashed, the dollar went South, and all economies of the world, closely interlinked with Uncle Sam's, took a big hit. Laissez faire, Liberterian capitalism, received its biggest blow, as proponents of "Market is God" looked for a place to hide. The Bush Govt, which swore by "Less Govt is the Best Govt", had to resort to bailouts, to save the economy, with not much success. The recession is officialy on in the world now.
For the first time in its history, a person who was non White, non Protestant, with a funny sounding name, who was Half Black, Half White, Half Muslim, went on to win the White House. This in a country where riots broke out in 1900, when Teddy Roosevelt, invited a Black scientist to dine with him at the White House. This in a nation where 4 to 5 decades back, Blacks had to sit in separate seats in buses, and were not allowed into restaurants. Barack Obama's election showed a nation, overcomming its guilt and racial prejudices, not fully though. The Deep South, still remains a bastion of Whites First ideology.
For India it was not a good year. The recession and slowdown in US, hit many companies hard, as layoffs and salary cuts, put paid to the dreams of many young Indians. Floods in Bihar and Orissa wiped out thousands of people, while religious conflicts flared in Orissa and Karnataka. Terror attacks took their toll of lives in Jaipur, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and it reached its horrifying culmination in Mumbai on 26/11, which has left wounds on the Indian pysche that will take a long time to heal. The silver lining was in sports though, where India came up with its best performance in Olympics, and the Indian cricket team gave us some moments of sheer pleasure.
So what of Bollywood in 2008? Some ramblings of mine
Too many RGVs make an Aag
In 2007, RGV ki Aag, was taken as the benchmark for a movie that was the worst disaster commercially and critically. This year mainstream movie makers seemed to fall over with each other, to see whose movie would make RGV Ki Aag, look like Citizen Kane.
Tashan, Love Story 2050, Mission Istanbul, Kidnap, Drona, Yuvvraaj the list is quite long. It is apparent that mainstream cinema in India needs to pull itself up. You cant keep venting your ire on pseudo intellectual movie critics and blogs, when it is clearly apparent, that not many are ready to sit through what is being passed off as entertainment. Ocassionally a Race or Singh is King, may make it just on the star power, but that can't happen to every movie. Unless the mainstream movie makers understand that they cant keep fooling the junta, we will keep having more and more Aags out there. The only good mainstream movies we had this year were Jodha Akbar and to an extent Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.
The original Aag creator meanwhile had a mixed year. Sarkaar Raaj was average, Contract was a disaster, and Phoonk was a surprise hit. Rann is keenly anticipated with its take on the TV channels.
Old is Gold
One of the best flicks of this year, starred two old men well into their 50's. But for close to 1.5 hours, Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah, kept the audiences on tenterhooks, comming up with brilliant performances in A Wednesday. Two men, who have shown that sheer brilliance in acting, and a tight screenplay, with deft editing, can make for a gripping movie. More power to Neeraj Pandey.
Farhan can act Saala
We knew that Farhan was a good director, but in Rock On, he made a good debut as an actor also. Though his voice did not exactly gel with rock, he neverthless did well. Rock On was less about rock, and more of a follow your heart and dreams, kinda inspirational fable. On that count it worked rather well for me.
Mumbai Mein Jaan hai
Mumbai Meri Jaan would be one of my top 5 this year. Right from the ensemble characters to the stories to the performances, this movie just connected with me somewhere. And the performances from Paresh Rawal, Vijay Maurya, Madhavan, Kay Kay Menon and Irfan Khan, were top notch.
Jodha Akbar ki Prem Kahani
While not many were pleased with Ashutosh Gowariker's version of the Jodha Akbar story, i would still rate it as one of my favorites this year. The detailing, the sets and the grandeur were authentically recreated, as was also the dramatic scenes. Hrithik gelled well as Akbar, and trust me one of the few times i liked Ash. It was not perfect, the movie needed better editing, and also some more focus on Akbar's political strategies. But still i would commend Ashutosh for attempting a genre, which most of our movie makers would not even touch with a barge pole.
Aamir, Not the Khan
In the first half of the year, there were only 3 movies i liked Jodha Akbar was one, and other two were Aamir and Mithya. For the most part Aamir was an engaging movie, about an ordinary upper crust Muslim doctor, who finds himself in events beyond his control. Though slow in places, the movie works big time, and a great performance by Rajeev Khandelwal in his debut.
One movie that i wanted to see but did miss out was Mithya, hoping to catch it soon.
Movies that Deserved more
Like any other year, there were some movies that deserved a better viewership.
Tahan- Santosh Sivan's fable like story about a young boy in the vales of Kashmir.
Hulla- Though many critics, wrote this off, i really felt it had its own charm, and great performances from Sushant Singh and Rajat Kapoor.
Dasvidaniya- Wonderful charming tale of a man spending the final years of his life. Vinay Pathak take a bow sir.
Oye Lucky Lucky Oye- Great movie but released at the wrong time. People were not just in a mood to go to the theaters after the terror attacks in Mumbai. Hoping that the movie gets its due in years to come. Abhay Deol is fast cementing his reputation as one of the best actors around, and we just hope he gets the due he deserves.
Agar Main Kahoon
Aamir Khan- Yeah i know you are Mr.Perfection, but does every picture, every pose, every promo of yours have to scream out "Look at me i am so perfect, so methodical, so different".
Shahrukh Khan- Would love to see you more as Surinder Sahni. There are dime a dozen folks out there for the Raj/Rahul roles, leave it to them sir jee. We love you as Surinder.
Salman Khan- Just don't sign any movie on dotted line to make your friends happy. Not even Amitabh Bachan could save some rank bad movies. Time to think less on fights, and more on your movies.
Saif Ali Khan- What ever happened to Langda Tyagi of Omkara? Please dont get into a rat Race sir. After all its not always Thoda Pyaar, Thoda Magic.
Ajay Devgan- And again the same question, where is Omkara? Where is the actor who once enthralled us with his performances in Zakhm, Legend of Bhagat Singh, Gangajal?
Akshay Kumar- I admire you just for making it to top, without backing of any of the industry's big banners or big Daddies. Without you Singh would have never been the King. But i know you are capable of more, as in Khakee. We have seen you rise as the super star,now we wanna see you as the actor also.
Rani Mukherjee- Fire your costume designer, your stylist, your hair designer. Black is history, your patented weepy eyes act is now getting repetitive. Time to do a rethink maam.
Katrina Kaif- You have been close to 5 years in the movie industry. Please improve your diction and please learn how to do some acting. The Sexiest Asian or the sexiest Martian tag, has a limited shelf life.
Madhur Bhandarkar- I still admire you for the way you choose to pick up realistic topics. I liked Page 3, and also Corporate, Traffic Signal too. Fashion however looked more like a cross between a Sidney Sheldon novel and Aaj Talk. I dont like either.
Subash Ghai, Harry Baweja- Yaar retire ho jaao, aap ka time ho chuka hai.
Abhishek Bachan- You have an understated presence, and restraint is one of your strong points. You were the only watchable aspect in Dostana. Yaar dosti ke liye, please dont ever do flicks like Drona, which do you no good at all.
Love to see more of these people
Irfaan Khan, Atul Kulkarni, Kay Kay Menon, Abhay Deol, Neetu Chandra, Vinay Pathak, Ranvir Shorey, Sonu Sood, Sushant Singh, Jimmy Shergill, Arjun Rampal, Vijay Maurya, Purab Kohli, Gul Panag, Sharman Joshi, Sanjay Suri, Chitrangada Singh.
And among the new lot Shahana Goswami( Rock On), Prachi Desai( Rock On), Rajeev Khandelwal( Aamir), Aamir Bashir( A Wednesday), Richa Chaddha( OLLO).
In dire need of career counselling
Kareena Kapoor, Vidya Balan, Shahid Kapoor, Rajpal Yadav,Bobby Deol, Sohail Khan, Manoj Bajpayee.
Disappointments
Movies that promised something but ended as damp squibs- Shaurya, Ugly Aur Pagli, Maharathi.
Okayish
Movies not too great, not too bad- Fashion, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Bachna Ae Haseeno, Welcome to Sajjanpur, Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.
And i reserve my comments for Ghajini, but having seen the Tamil version, i am sure that the Hindi version will not make it to my Best movies of 20o8 list.
Till then Dasvidaniya.
Link:
http://passionforcinema.com/dasvidaniya-2008/
Edited by farislove - 16 years ago
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