5 Most Quotable Hindi Films

Hollywood has it's own 'Film Institute' which takes responsibility of compiling things like greatest scenes and greatest quotes. I thought it would be interesting to make up a list of 100 Greatest Quotes from Hindi movies. And then I realized that I am too lazy and I do not have a whole 'institute' at my disposal, so I am limiting myself to 5 movies which are immensely quotable with a cult following that remembers each of it's dialogues.

Also I consider it necessary that while mouthing pop-cultural gems, we look inwardly and do not go around saying 'Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn' etc, I believe we have our own 'Kitne Aadmi The'

Kitne Aadmi The?

Er...okay, that looks...awkward. Never mind, let's go to the Listing Business

5. Hera Pheri

A lot of you would contest highly the inclusion of a film as recent as Hera Pheri in a list of Most quotable films. However, Hera Pheri, though not exactly a watershed moment in film history is in itself pretty important because of the delicious inanities that writer Neeraj Vohra put into it.

'We gotta make this work...it's the only time after Mohra that the three of  us together are going to succeed'

Hera Pheri was a film that changed Priyadarshan from a director who made films with Anil Kapoor wielding a kick-ass battle axe to someone who thought that the only way to make a movie was to add a cross-country marathon in the end.

It's hard to believe that both movies are made by the same director

But Hera Pheri was a movie that no one had any expectations from, and the producers left no quarter in keeping these expectations low, the trailer for the movie hardly had any indications of what a laugh riot this movie was going to be. Admittedly it was the remake of another movie, but it was a damn good one at that, consider the dialogue when Shyam comes and meets Babu Rao for the first time

'Meri ek Pareshani hai....mera naam Shyam hai'

'Bas! Itti si baat ke liye gaanv se sheher kyun aane ka, naam badal lo problem finish'


When Tabu's character comes for the first time to their house

Raju : Utha le...


Baburao : Arre jaan pehchaan nahi hai kaise utha loon, kamse kam chaalis pachaas  kilo ki to hogi...


Raju : Dhoti...!

The best were perhaps Baburao's responses to the calls that he got to his phone

'Devi Prasad? Woh to 15 minute pehle chal base, kuchh kaam tha kya?'


'Teri machhli...? Usko to main mast tel mein fry kiya aur kha gaya'


 After Baburao the best character in the movie was Khadak Singh played by Om Puri. He brought the childhood rhyme Khadak Singh Ke Khadkne Se Khadakti Hain Khidkiyan to life with so much elan it was hard not to laugh. Sample this beautiful dialogue

'Aap teeno Judwa Ho?'


'Nahi hum Tudwa hain!'


'Haan haan theek hai, pehle Judwa the tabhi to tidke'


Comedy films have it easy, their one liners can easily be used as jokes (etc), that is why we find ourselves quoting comic films more, however the next entry on this list is not comic by any stretch of imagination, and yet it's dialogues have been repeated, parodied etc so much that they have a cult following

4. Deewar (1975)


It is important to mention the year next to the film even in the case of Deewar because there was another one, again starring Amitabh Bachchan

Actually, no one really remembers this one, so perhaps adding the year WAS redundant

Now THIS is what you call an iconic poster

It is hard to imagine that the man who directed the above kick-ass film was the same who made a wimpy cross-border drama called Veer Zaara. Yash Chopra introduced the Angry Young Man as the Angry Young Anti-Hero, a man who operates from the other side of the law to beat up bad guys, it's a concept that is not so novel in hindi films from the past decade or so, but at that time when the hero of the film was expected to be a downtrodden, down on luck, marginalized but all around good guy, Deewar was a change.

Speaking of change, remember this?

This movie defined Amitabh Bachchan's dialogue delivery, it had him playing to the gallery, it was a movie made for the masses who could fantasize themselves to be in Big B's shoes, as the worker crossing over to the dark side, it had him questioning 'Tumhare usool, tumhare adarsh.....aaj mere paas bangla hai, gaadi hai, tumhare paas kya hai?'

The Big B doesn't spare God even, walking up to the temple and addressing the almighty as if he is talking to an old friend.

Aaj Khush to Bahut Hoge Tum...

Even today, Mere Paas Maa Hai is the standard put-downer, regardless of the question.

3 Mughal-e-Azam


Adjusted for inflation, this movie is one of the highest grosser (and one of the costliest). This is a movie, which was colorized from its original B/W and was again a huge hit, it ran for several weeks, considering the multiplex audience and its Epic subject matter.

The movie, loosely based on a chapter of Akbar's life, involving his son's love for a courtesan named Anarkali (a name ruined entirely by Sajid Khan recently), took around a decade to made because the director K. Asif was a bloody hard task master. There was a particular scene in which an army was needed, and he requested the jawans from Indian Army to act as, well, soldiers.

Here he is taming an elephant all by himself for use in the film

Another thing that the movie had going for itself was the most beautiful woman ever to step in front of a camera

And the presence of Prithvi Raj Kapoor, whose performance as the great Mughal has lead at least fifty years worth of school children to think of Akbar as a big strong man, built like an ox and with a voice to shake mountains.

What? You Call yourself Hrithik Roshan? No no..that's NOT Akbar's voice. Saleem!

Much of the movie was based on the conflict between a father and his son's doomed love and in the courtship of Anarkali and Saleem. Sample these (although unrelated) lines between father and son

Saleem! Tumhari baaton se bagawat ki boo aa rahi hai!

....Mera dil bhi hindustan nahi jis par aapki huqoomat chal sake


Or when Anarkali excepts a gift of thorns from Saleem and says 'Kaaton ko murjhaane ka khauf nahi hota'


They say that mockery is a high form of flattery, by the sheer amount of imitations done of the scenes of Mughal-E-Azam, it is perhaps the most praised of all hindi films

A youtube user has done a decent job in compiling the epicness of this flick in around 10 minutes

2. Andaz Apna Apna


Andaz Apna Apna is one film which warrants viewing at least 15 times before you get each joke or each visual gag, because it's so perfectly made with strung along funny moments that there is not a second of seriousness on screen, you will be laughing so hard that you are bound to miss out the next several jokes because of it.

(c) Akshar Pathak 

Incidentally check out the other posters by Akshar Pathak at http://www.facebook.com/MinimalBollywoodPosters

Seriously, the most famous line in this film is not exactly a sentence, it is 'Dhaki Tiki Dhaki Tiki Dhaki Tiki Dhaki Tiki Dha'

Or Crime Master Gogo's catch phrase Mogambo ka bhateeja Gogo, Aaya hoon to kuchh leke jaaoonga, aankhen nikaal ke gotiyan khelunga gotiya

In fact Gogo had the best lines

Ye Teja Teja kya hai...Ye Teja Teja?

The film was released at a time when Aamir and Salman could afford to look like this

Wahan Ki Shaam mujhe bahut pasand hai

Even Govinda had a priceless throwaway line, when Juhi Chawla says 'Ek Aurat ki Majboori to samjho'

He casually looks up and says 'Woh kya hoti hai?'

Even the villains were given Priceless dialogues, Teja has a soliloquy in which he mentions that he would be known as The King of Eggs and The Emperor of Hens.

It is impossible to list down all the best lines from the films because ALL THE LINES WERE THE BEST LINES, cult fans (including me) have the film memorized. And why shouldn't it be, it is the best slapstick comedy to come out of the hindi film industry. Period.

1. Sholay

....enough said.

This movie owes more to Salim-Javed than it does to Sippy