My Favourites: Ten New Films

With a few exceptions, I have restricted myself on this blog to the films of the fifties and sixties. They are amongst my favourites. It's not that I do not watch new films - there was a time my mother despaired of my sister and me because every Friday evening saw us at the 'first day, first show' at our neighbouring theatre. 'Good' girls from 'good families' didn't go to theatres on their own! Besides, what would people say? Neither my sister and I really cared - besides, the lure of the movies was too strong. And when my sister married (and became staid and respectable), my younger cousin took her place as we merrily watched every new release. :)

Then, I got married. And found out that my new husband was a film-snob - he would watch English movies, he would watch the best of international cinema, and he would watch old black and white Hindi films! But he turned up his nose at the total masala films. Pest! The first few months after my marriage, I spent twiddling my thumbs because I had just come to Bombay, and I didn't have a job. Cooking and cleaning took hardly any time (think of a 500sq ft flat), and so I watched a lot of movies. A lot! The neighbourhood videowala once hailed my husband and said, "Your wife watches a lot of chavvani films, doesn't she?" Considering that he was sourcing The Seventh Seal and The Bicycle Thief  for my husband, I suppose having someone from the same house asking for Andaz Apna Apna and Main Khiladi Tu Anadi was too big a shock to bear! Pest!

In recent years, though, going to a theatre has diminished considerably. I still see the odd movie, but the eagerness to catch every film released is no longer there. The fount of my patience has run dry, as technique and gloss triumphed over content. However, here and there, there has been a glimmer of hope. I now watch films based on directors' names (Vishal Bharadwaj, Raju Hirani, Shimit Amin) rather than stars (with the possible exception of Aamir Khan); or I wait for someone I trust to recommend a film. 

Despite all these self-imposed limitations, I have seen and enjoyed the following films. What I find interesting is that almost all of them are small(er)-budget films. Most of them did not have 'stars'. Almost all of them were above-average boxoffice successes. What they all had in common were good stories, strong scripts, and deft direction. So here, in no particular order, are a dozen of my favourite films from the last few years.

1. Pyar ke Side Effects (2006)

The most unlikely pairing in Hindi films - Mallika Sherawat (yes, she of the itsy-bitsy costume fame) and Rahul Bose (the 'intellectual' actor). It has every possible cliché that one can have in a love story. The hero meets the heroine at her wedding (to another man); soon, he is talking her out of running away from her own wedding. Six months later, he runs into her again. They meet again and again, fall in love, fight, patch up, fight again, and soon, she is on her knees asking him to marry her. 

By the time they are shopping for rings, household appliances, curtains, Siddharth (Rahul) is getting cold feet. Another fight, and Trisha (Mallika) flounces off to Delhi. By the time he realises he really wants to marry her, she is back with her ex-fiance (her father's choice) and all he has is her friend (who despises him) to help him! 

A funny, urban-centric film that pokes fun at Delhi girls, Bombay boys (and vice versa), takes a more adult look at relationships, has hilarious dialogues and a complete irreverence for everything including its own self.

So much fun that you forgive the few flaws.

2. Tere Bin Laden (2010)

Finally, a new comedy that does not mock the intelligence of its audience. It's a hilarious spoof on everything - the media, the US, Pakistan, Osama bin Laden, Pakistan... Mixing satire with a total irreverence, the zany plot careens all over the place as Ali Hassan (Ali Zafar, aspiring journalist, tries to reach his Mecca - the US of A. Unfortunately, passengers on his flight are fast to over-react to his rehearsing how his newscast would sound. Faster than you can say 'Bin Laden' Ali is deported. 

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and Ali is on a bid to earn mucho money so he can go to the US as a Lashkar-e-Amrika operative. On one of his many jaunts around the Pakistani countryside covering rural rooster fights, Ali comes across Noora (Pradhuman Singh), an Osama lookalike, and his rooster. Ding-dong. Ali coaxes him into dressing up as Osama Bin Laden and coaches him on memorising a prepared script (the poor man has no clue what he is saying); the bright idea is to make a fake videotape and broadcast it to the world. Only, things do not work as well in real life as they do on paper (or in your head).

 

Watch what happens as the fake videotape gets into Amrikan hands. 

This is one film that deserved *every* bit of the critical acclaim and box-office success that it received. I haven't laughed so much in ages. Pradhuman Singh was excellent; so were Ali Zafar and Sugandha Garg (of Jaane Tu ya jaane na fame). Supported by a host of excellent character artistes, and a plot that gives you no time to think, Tere Bin Laden came as a whiff of fresh air.

3. Do Dooni Char (2010)

'Neetu Singh was making a grand comeback', screamed the headlines. "She's starring opposite Rishi Kapoor." Well, so? As the hype increased I began to be curious - what was so great about the film? I had not heard of Habib Faisal before (*sniff!*). All I knew (courtesy the Internet) was that he had written the heavily-acclaimed Band Baaja Baarat (which I hadn't seen). So I took a deep breath and waited.

Was it worth the wait! Oh, what a sweet gem of a movie! Finally, there was a story about the teeming middle-class of India, with their own dreams and aspirations; there was the local dialect, the (unwittingly) funny family members (the sister was a hoot!), the dreary flat with the paint peeling off the walls, the helpful neighbours - not since the old Hrishikesh Mukherjee / Basu Chatterjee (or even Sai Paranjpaye) days had I seen such a (affectionately) realistic portrayal of people's foibles and flaws.

Santosh Duggal (Rishi Kapoor) is a mathematics teacher, who ekes out his meagre salary by taking tuitions. His faithful steed is his old Bajaj scooter, and he will brook no diatribes against it. His wife Kusum (an absolutely adorable Neetu Singh) gave up her job as librarian when she got married, a fact that she is always rubbing in. Their two children, Payal (Aditi Vasudev)  and Dipu (Archit Krishna) have all the demands that teenagers have - only, their demands crash and burn against the red file that contains their father's income-tax returns.

When Kusum promises her sister-in-law that they will definitely attend a family wedding in a car, Santosh Duggal is flummoxed. An accident to a borrowed car, and a very natural wish to 'show them' causes Santosh to run helter-skelter to buy a car of his own! 

En route to owning a car, the children learn to have a new pride in their father whom they had derided for being 'too honest'; they also learn that behind his irascibility lies a loving heart. The film is heartwarming without descending into the lachrymose over-sentimentality that is the bane of many. The characters are real, and I guarantee that you will identify with their lives and predicaments.

The supporting cast (Mr Farooqui, take a bow!), from the tuition class owner to the sister to the Inspector whom the Duggals meet at the wedding are all people you and I have met at some point in our lives.

4. Bheja Fry  (2007)

The Rajat Kapoor- Vinay Pathak combine usually come out with something different from the usual, and Bheja Fry is no different. Of course, I came to know later that it was a ripoff of a French movie Le Diner de Cons (The Dinner Game), and I promptly put that on my Netflix queue, but since I was ignorant of its antecedents while watching the movie, I thoroughly enjoyed it. (The French film, while still a comedy, is darker.)

Ranjeet Thadani, the owner of a music company, and his friends, have an unusual habit - they have a weekly dinner, at which they take turns to bring a guest who is a simpleton, and who has an unusual hobby, or habit, from which they derive great amusement. Having run into Bharat Bhushan (Vinay Pathak) before, Ranjeet invites him as his guest - the bakra for that week's dinner. Bharat's ambition is to be a singer. 

That night, everything goes awry. Ranjeet's sprains his back and has to cancel the dinner. His wife (Sarika in a cameo) has just found out about his ongoing affair and may leave him at any time. In the ensuing chaos, he forgets to call Bharat and cancel - so who should turn up at the appointed time? Bharat is almost too eager to please, but every effort of his, to help, turns R's life even more topsy-turvey. The climax comes when Ranjeet finds out who Bharat really is. 

Watch this one for Vinay Pathak, who is slowly becoming one of my favourite actors.

5. Phas Gaya Re Obama (2010)

What happens when the recession in US makes its presence felt in India? While the bubble didn't quite burst in apna desh, the effects were surely felt across the land. The underworld surely felt it more than the salaried worker. Om Shastri (Rajat Kapoor) has woken up to find that overnight, his millions have vanished, and he is facing foreclosure. He has 30 days in which to find the money he owes the bank for the mortgage. The situation calls for desperate measures and Om comes to India to sell his ancestral land. 

A couple of days after he lands, he is kidnapped. By a gang who, hit by the recession themselves, want to hold him for ransom. Bhai Saheb (Sanjay Mishra), the leader of the gang cannot even afford to make ransom calls from his own cell phone. Om crushes his dreams when he reveals that he is broke. Soon, Bhai Saheb is faced with a dilemma - a senior gangster, who is also hit by the recession has heard of this pigeon, plump for the plucking (or so he thinks). He demands that Om be handed over to him. Om has a brilliant idea - he comes up with a plan that will make both kidnapper and kidnapped richer by several lakhs.

Soon, however, Om is shuffled off again - this time to the dreaded woman bandit, Munni (Neha Dhupia), who heads an all-woman gang. Om pulls the same stunt, pocketing a few more lakhs in the process. The journey has not ended for Om. There is another person in line who wants him...

A sparkling satire that masquerades as a screwbal comedy, Phas Gaya Obama gives me renewed hope about the future of Hindi comedies. Plot, characters, dialogues, direction, editing - all come together in a movie so outrageously (and originally) funny that it would be a shame if you haven't seen it yet!

6. Khosla ka Ghosla (2006)

A fantastic directorial debut. A small film with heart, a strong sense of plot and character, a humorous look at a serious issue, - Khosla ka Ghosla has all this and more. This is another film that portrays the middle-class with authenticity. 

Kishore Khosla (Anumpam Kher) has sunk all his earnings into buying a plot of land, upon which he hopes to build a house of his own. His sons are a disappointment to him - the elder one Balwant / Bunty (Ranvir Shorey) has grandiose plans that are never put into action; his younger son Chiraunjilal / Cherry (Parvin Dabas) is only intent on getting a job in an MNC and emigrating as soon as he can. When he takes them along to show them the plot, he is aghast to find that a builder, Khurana (Boman Irani) has unlawfully occupied the land. Khosla knocks on every door he can think of for legal help to evict Khurana, only to find that money talks.

With the help of his hitherto useless sons and their friends, Khosla tries to get his land back on his own. Does he succeed? 

With the Delhi lingo down pat, and deft direction, Khosla ka Ghosla  is a masterpiece of sly humour. Its success owes much to the two leads, Anupam Kher and Boman Irani, as much as it owes it to Jaideep Sahni, the unsung script writer. 

7. Jab We Met (2007)

Okay, I will confess. I'm not a Kareena Kapoor fan. I have never seen her on screen but that I wanted to smack her. No, that's not true - I actually liked her in Refugee. But then, I saw her in her now-famous 'Pooh' incarnation. Gark! Since then, I have wavered back and forth -  I liked her in Dev and Chameli; I hated her in Mujhse Dosti Karoge. So, when Jab We Met rolled along, and I saw it starred her, I almost dismissed it. But it also had Shahid Kapoor (whom I liked), and it was directed by Imitiaz Ali. So, reluctantly, I decided to give it a chance. 

Am I glad I did? Boy, yes! It's a madcap ride with Kareena firmly in charge, and exactly like her chatter, the ride shows any sign of stopping either. It's a simple love story, sort of 'old wine in a new bottle' but Imitiaz treats it differently and is ably abetted by his heroine and supported by a very understated hero.

Kareena's Geet is totally bindaas; she runs into Aditya (Shahid Kapoor) on the train. She is going to meet her family; he is going away from it all. His father has committed suicide, his business is on the verge of collapsing, his girlfriend has ditched him - life is too bitter to endure. She cannot keep silent. At all. He does not want to talk. At all. Geet is a sikhni from Bhatinda, and her non-stop chatter annoys Aditya. When he steps off the train, she stops him, under the impression that she is helping. When she misses the train, she blames him for it, and informs him that he better drop her safely to her home. 

Thus ensues a mad ride where Aditya manages to get Geet to the next station; only, she is too busy talking that she misses the train again! Aditya is stuck with her. By this time, however, he is thawing under her influence. He cannot help but smile at her simple naivete, and occasional street smartness. 

Stray bits of conversation are used beautifully by Geet in a bid to escape censure from her loving family (akeli ladki khuli hui tijori hoti hai intones the station master, and Geet reproduces it verbatim to her annoyed grandfather). Geet also has a solution for Aditya - she is planning to run away to marry her boyfriend; she suggests that Aditya elope with her cousin; they could make a run for it together. Aditya has no idea about the coils that this child-woman can cook up. Ten months later, her brother and uncle are at his doorstep, demanding to know where Geet is!

It's an amazing journey, with a surprisingly mature performance from the young Shahid. The characters are lovingly etched out, and the plot winds down to the climax without overt manipulation.

8. Chillar Party (2011)

Endorsed by the hunk (Salman Khan) himself, I watched this film with reservations. I had had my fill of children in films - saccharine sweet, made to mouth dialogues older than their years, over-smart, over-everything. From the time the credits rolled, I was laughing. As much at the kids, as with them. They are normal children, talk like kids talk, and have nicknames for everyone. Their parents are not caricatures - loving or abusive - they are just - parents. They can be as irrational, annoying, loving, supportive, horrible, wonderful, as any other normal parent. Luckily, it is the kids who take centrestage.

We are introduced to a motley bunch of kids living in Chandan Nagar - a building society - by their nicknames: Shaolin, Akram, Jhangiya, Silencer, Panvati, Aflatoon, Encyclopedia, Second-hand and so on. They are busy with school, and cricket. Until a new kid comes into the society. He is 'Fatka', the boy who comes to take the place of the odd-jobs man; he has an equally disreputable dog, Bhidu, as his sole companion. The children dislike Fatka on sight; Fatka couldn't care less. As long as he can buy biscuits for Bhidu, he is happy. Over time (and cricket) though, a bond is forged between them.

Now that he is one of their own, the children band together when danger threatens. A simple film with a great big heart, it connects with the audience and gets its message across without any preaching. I can only be glad that Salman Khan threw his entire might into supporting the making of this film.

10. Little Zizou (2008)

Another film that deals with children and their interactions with the adults in their lives. Set in the Parsi community in Bombay, Sooni Taraporewala goes back to her roots to take an affectionate, yet realistic look at the way community and society shape our live. Cyrus Khodaiji is a rigid religious scholar who believes that the community should be kept 'pure'. His nemesis is Boman Presswala (Boman Irani), the editor of a Parsi newspaper, who delights in poking fun at Khodaiji's hypocrisies.

Khodaiji's sons Xerxes (Jahan Bativala) and Artaxerexes (Imaad Shah) have no love for their father. Both prefer to spend their time in Boman's home; the younger one for the mothering that Boman's wife Roxanne (Zenobia Shroff) gives him; the latter, because he has a crush on Boman's daughter Liana (Iyana Bativala). When Khodaiji begins to get more strident about the purity of Parsi blood, things begin to go downhill fast.

It's a funny, touching look at a small, but very important community that has woven itself into the fabric of India. Peopled with many interesting characters, speaking the very specific Parsi dialect, Taraporewala manages to give us a glimpse into their very different world. Beautiful.

11. Jaane Tu ya jaane na (2008)

This is another movie that I went to watch with a lot of trepidation. It was a teen romance, had a cast, none of whom were familiar, except the actors who were enacting the roles of the parents, it was by a new director. Moreover, I 'knew' Abbas Tyrewala from his writings on Sulekha.com.  I have seldom enjoyed a film more.  Once again, it is old wine in a new bottle, but oh, the difference in treatment was immense. 

Jai (Imran Khan) and Aditi (Genelia D'Souza) are friends; everyone else around them knows that they are the perfect match, but they are bent on proving 'everyone' wrong. So they decided to find the perfect match for each other. When they do, they are not quite as happy as they thought they should be. 

Once again, the leads are supported by a fantastic group of players - from the newcomers who play their friends, to the veterans (Ratna Pathak Shah, Anooradha Patel (who looks like time stopped for her), Jayant Kripalani, Paresh Rawal) who play parents and enemy. Throw in an absolutely wonderful cameo by Naseeruddin Shah, a foot-tapping music score by AR Rehman, add dollops of humour even to the clichéd climax, and you have a film that leaves you with a smile long after you exit the theatre. Oh, and bonus points for referencing Mera tujhse ka pehle tha naata koi sung so beautifully and so off-key by Imran.

For a detailed review, see here.

12. Loins of Punjab Presents (2007)

A quirky look at the world of reality singing shows. Seven discrete individuals - an arrogant socialite, a wannabe actress, an American with a yen for Bollywood, an Indian American rapper, a teenager who has the talent and wants to make singing her profession much to the dismay of her Gujarati parents who have already plotted her life for her, a businessman lost in love, a yogi who wants to sell his Yoga DVD - and the Loin King. (Seriously!)

It really is much harder than it looks to weave all their disparate stories together in a way that makes us care for them, and even for the outcome of the contest, but debutante Manish Acharya, who was also the film's writer manages to pull it all off with style. From the reason for the name of the film, to the event manager in his shiny synthetic suit, to the manipulations of the upper crust, nothing is safe from his satirical pen.

Set in the US, amongst the Indian diaspora, one of the most effective scenes in the movie is when the crowd chants 'Foreigner, go home' to the sole American contestant.

It's not a great film by any means, but it is truly hilarious, and for those of us who live abroad, it is a very realistic depiction of the Indian community. Excellent casting, superb performances, and deft direction make this a must-watch.

Aside: Manish Acharya died a year ago, in a freak accident.

There are quite a few other movies in recent years that I have really, really liked, but I have deliberately kept this list down to films that did not boast of big stars or overstuffed budgets.

What films have you seen in recent years that you liked?