Jagah Dil Mein Honi Chahiye

• Hazaaron Khwaaishein Aisi: For a powerful script on the emrgency era, and the rise of the Naxalite movement, strong performances by Shiney Ahuja, Chitrangada Singh, and Kay Kay, and for bringing back classical music to Hindi films.
• Saher: The surprise package of the year. A realistic portrayal of the rise of the land-mafia in eastern UP, with no-frills treatment, a subdued performance by Arshad Warsi, and for introducing the word 'varchaswa' to the lexicon of those lucky people who've seen this movie.
• My Brother Nikhil: An emotional journey more than anything else, Onir's movie on AIDS left the audience in tears. Again, a movie straight from the heart, and to the heart.
• Iqbal: A classic tale of the triumph of the under-dog, against all odds. The combination of cricket, Naseer, Shreyas Talpade, and 'aashaayein' was too powerful to not succed in winning people over!
• Parineeta: Read the book recently, the movie deviates from the original in a lot of areas. But then, who cares? When Vidhu Vinod Chopra makes a movie, he ensures that it is a tale well-told(even though he was just producing this one). The movie worked because of Saratchandra's story, Shantanu Moitra's beautiful music, Saif's performance, and above all, Vidya Balan!
• Black: Beautiful, touching, heart-rending, and for some critice - over-the-top. Whatever it was, I came out of the theatre dazed: by Amitabh's phenomenal performance, the girl Ayesha's superb acting, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali's painting of this beautiful picture.
• Sarkar: Again, a movie panned by many, it worked for me because of Amitabh and Abhishek's deadly combo, Kay Kay's intensity, the background score, slick editing, and Ram Gopal Varma.
• Page 3: For daring to peep into the real world beneath the glitz and glamour of our Page 3 animal kingdom.

Discovery of the year- Male: Three contenders

• Randeep Hooda in 'D'
• Mohit Ahlawat in James
• Shiney Ahuja in 'Hazaaron...'

Randeep and Mohit's roles involved uni-dimensional acting- just portray intensity on screen, so I think it's too early to judge their true worth. Shiney Ahuja, for me, was the true find of the year. He is a natural, and was rocking in his debut movie. He might not become a big star due to his slightly unconventional looks, but he sure deserves to get much better work. Amongst others, even though he is not a newcomer, Kay Kay cleaned up the year with Hazaaron..., Sarkar, and Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh!

Discovery of the year- Female:

No contest- Vidya Balan all the way. Notable mention: Chitrangada Singh in 'Hazaaron...'.

Duds of the year:

• Kisna
• Kaal

Both were equally bad and boring. Mangal Panday -The Rising is missing because I haven't seen it and so won't comment on it!

Paisa Vasool Scene of the year:

Shilpa Shetty's flying round-toss kick in 'Dus', and Salman Khan playing the 'been' to the snake while hanging from a cliff, in 'No Entry'.

This wraps up my take on Bollywood in 2005. Will be back soon with Hollywood!

Cheers!

# posted by Obi Wan @ 8:06 PM