Top 10 Bollywood Soundtracks of 2013

It's been almost 4 months into 2014 and still Aashiqui 2's "Tum Hi Ho" is every one's hot favourite and is played every hour on some random music channel/radio station daily. Popularity of "Tum Hi Ho" was such a phenomenon year back (when it released) that people had that song as ringtone & caller tunes. I am neither against this song nor do I hate it. In fact, I too love this song. I am even happy that at least with this song people came to know about Mithoon who IMO is still much underrated composer in present day Bollywood inspite of giving some chartbuster soundtracks (Bas Ek Pal, Aggar, Anwar, The Train). But the fact that hurts me is that many people still haven't discovered some underrated gems that came out in 2013.

So here is my list where I will talk about Top 10 Bollywood Soundtracks of 2013 - some known, some unknown & some you might have heard but missed it.

But before you proceed further a RULE you should follow regarding this article -

There is no RIGHT or WRONG in music. Your choices may differ from mine. It's about personal viewpoint & liking.

Composer of the Year - Sachin Jigar

Truly 2014 belonged to young & talented composing duo - Sachin Jigar. From composing for flop films like Jayantabhai Ki Luv Story, Issaq, Ramaiyya Vastavaiyya & I Me Aur Main to hit soundtracks of Shuddh Desi Romance, Go Goa Gone & ABCD - Any Body Can Dance they were consistent throughout the year. None of their soundtracks were boring or noisy & had popular yet genuinely wonderful music. From working in small films to big banners, they consolidated their place in Bollywood with magical soundtrack of Yash Raj Film's Shuddh Desi Romance.

Talented duo Sachin Jigar 

It's always difficult to select which soundtrack enters the top 10 list. Sometimes a soundtrack appeals to you initially but in a long run it doesn't while sometimes you hate a particular soundtrack but after watching that movie you start loving & listening to it.

Soundtracks that missed the Top 10 list -

Goliyon ki Raasleela Ram-Leela (Sanjay Leela Bhansali)
Special 26 (M M Kreem)
Matru ki Bijlee ka Mandola (Vishal Bhardwaj)
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (Pritam)
3G (Mithoon)
Madras Cafe (Shantanu Moitra)

Top 10 Bollywood Soundtracks of 2013 -

10. David - Mikey McCleary, Prashant Pillai, BramFatura, Maati Baani, Remo Fernandes, Anirudh Ravichander, Modern Mafia & The Lightyears Explode

Even though David was not as impressive as Bejoy Nambiar's cult debut Shaitan (2011) but surely that man has some good sense of music & the way he incorporates them in his films is just brilliant. And probably it is only in his films that you get to listen a song from Indie rock band. Shaitan had a song by death metal band Bhayanak Maut while David offered a great platter of variety with some Indie names like BramFatura, Modern Mafia & The Lightyears Explode. Considering that David's story revolved around 3 time lines (London 1975, Mumbai 1999, Goa 2010) music too was created with a great detail referencing that era. One of the most underrated soundtracks of 2013.

My Pick - Ghum Huye, Mast Kalandar, Out of Control, Ya Hussain & Tore Matware Naina

9. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag - Shankar Ehsaan Loy

After lackluster music in 2011 & 2012 (barring Chittagong & ZNMD), SEL finally got their mojo back with impressive soundtrack of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. It had some brilliant mix of genres from inspirational tracks to sufi love ballads & even a short "Gurbani" by Daler Mehndi. Soundtrack also saw an assured singing debut by Siddharth Mahadevan & as usual terrific lyrics by Prasoon Joshi.

My Pick - Zinda, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (Rock Version), O Rangrez & Mere Yaar

8. Ek Thi Daayan - Vishal Bhardwaj

It rarely happens that Vishal Bhardwaj - Gulzar combo goes wrong. They have been giving us some great soundtracks since past 2 decades right since Maachis (1994). Ek Thi Daayan was one such short effective soundtrack that had Gulzar's poetry all over it. Being a horror film, VB made sure to have couple of spooky tracks in it. Also try to listen to extremely terrifying background score by Clinton Cerejo.

My Pick - Lautungi Main, Sapna re Sapna & Kaali Kaali

7. ABCD Any Body Can Dance - Sachin Jigar

They became immensely popular with their soundtrack for Remo Dsouza's debut F.A.L.T.U. (2011) & continued their success and popularity with Remo's second film - ABCD Any Body Can Dance. For a dance film what you need is an energetic & foot tapping soundtrack with fusion of various genres and that exactly is delivered by Sachin Jigar here. Though background score is equally fascinating.

My Pick - Duhaai, Bezubaan & Shambhu Sutaya

6. Nautanki Saala! - Mikey McCleary, Falak Shabbir, Rashid Khan, Ayushmann Khurrana & Rochak Kohli

Yet again New Zealander Mikey McCleary spins his magic here with rich magical score. His re-imagination of old classic numbers (Dhak Dhak & So Gaya Yeh Jahaan) were quirky while his original composition too had a fresh feel to it. Entire soundtrack was superbly arranged by Mikey even though he wasn't composer for certain songs & that's what complimented film's SoBo-ish look perfectly.

My Pick - Dil ki Toh Lag Gayi, Draamebaaz & Tu Hi Tu

New Zealander composer Mikey McCleary

5. Go Goa Gone - Sachin Jigar

After Ram Sampath's terrific soundtrack of Delhi Belly (2011), I rarely came across a soundtrack that had outrageously quirky lyrics in it. But Amitabh Bhattacharya is the same man who reinvented his Delhi Belly avatar here with crazy lyrics in trippy "Babaji ki Booti" & Anti Monday anthem "Khoon Choos Le". Sachin Jigar's uber cool music complimented Amitabh's lyrics really well. Also watch out for some amazing editing tricks in both the songs.

My Pick - Babaji ki Booti, Khoon Choos Le & Khushamdeed

4. Raanjhanaa - A R Rahman

No matter what A R Rahman soundtrack is always one of the most anticipated soundtracks of the year. Raanjhanaa was surely one of those soundtracks plus it had Irshad Kamil as lyricist teaming up with ARR after brilliant Rockstar. Rahman pleased us with wide range of genres starting from Folk Classical (Banarasiya, Ay Sakhi, Tum Tak & Raanjhanaa) to contemporary sounds in "Tu Mun Shudi", "Nazar Laaye" & "Aise Na Dekho" to use of aarti chants in "The Land of Shiva". Another great thing about this soundtrack was that Rahman used Shehnaai in almost all songs thus giving tribute to legendary Shehnaai player Ustad Bismillah Khan.

My Pick - Entire Soundtrack is great with wonderful shifts from one genre to another.

3. Kai Po Che - Amit Trivedi

I was fairly disappointed when I knew that this soundtrack by Amit had only 3 tracks. With Swanand Kirkire's fabulous lyrics & Amit's brilliant music made that disappointment disappear. Arshad Khan's melancholic esraj in "Maanjha" still haunts me & soon this short yet sweet soundtrack was on the repeat mode. Also listen to poignant background score by Hitesh Sonik which makers released online. You can listen to entire Original Motion Picture Soundtrack of Kai Po Che including songs & background score here.

My Pick - Amit Trivedi never ceases to amaze me.

2. Shuddh Desi Romance - Sachin Jigar

Shuddh Desi Romance was Sachin Jigar's big ticket to stardom with prestigious YRF producing it. Music had flashes of Rajasthani folk fusion with modern sounds (Jazz, Bossa Nova etc.) & insightful lyrics by Jaideep Sahni. Basically it was the choice of singers (Mohit, Benny, Sunidhi, Shalmali & Divya Kumar) that made this soundtrack a great listen. Sachin Jigar's best work till date.

My Pick - Songs are great no doubt but listen to beautifully orchestrated background scores.

1. Lootera - Amit Trivedi

And.... the Best Soundtrack of 2013 was Amit Trivedi's Lootera. Interestingly this was for the first time that Amit Trivedi collaborated with A R Rahman's regular Chennai String Orchestra. Listen to any song in the soundtrack and you can sense some amazing string sections. From pensive "Shikayatein" to Baul based "Monta Re" to SD Burman style "Sawaar Loon" everything was pitch perfect in this soundtrack. Amit Trivedi hit a great masterstroke here backed by some brilliant lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya.

"Kuch maangna baaki nahi, jitna mila kaafi hai".

My Pick - Every song is spectacular. If you still haven't heard it Do yourself a favour by listening to this poetic masterpiece.

Having read the entire list you may be surprised to see not even a single mention of Aashiqui 2 here except the opening paragraph. Frankly speaking Aashiqui 2 was just an average soundtrack which gained immense popularity just because of 2 tracks (Mithoon's Tum Hi Ho & Ankit Tiwari's Sunn Raha Hai Na Tu). Otherwise Jeet Gannguli's compositions were pretty decent & not that great. Having read this you may be infuriated & would be getting ready to type that how the hell did I missed Aashiqui 2 in the list but before you do that hold on.... & READ THE RULE mentioned in the beginning.

Like, share & comment about your Best Soundtracks of 2013 below. It would be glad to know what others think. :)

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Remembering 1952 - The Coming of Age for Hindi Music

So we will definitely talk about how 1951 was a better musical year than 1952, maybe some other day. But today we are here to appreciate 1952 for the year of musical gems, it was. India had been independent for 5 years already. And despite sounding donnish, there can't be a better year to start engulfing oneself into the magic of old Indian bollywood.

But before we get started, let me share the greatest thing on Internet first with the readers -
http://www.mohdrafi.com/

Yes, there is a complete website for Mohammad Rafi, and thats not even close to the most awesome thing this website has. It boasts of an unparallel feat of having a 24 hr Rafi channel. So if you had been searching for God all your life and didn't know which website to look at, here it is. 24 hr of Rafi and you have found God.

Period

1952 holds a special place in Indian history because of the first general elections held in India that year and how India as a country came out of shackles in many aspects. And Bollywood slowly became the pulse of the nation by then. One of the biggest happening that will change the way people had access to music would change dramatically with the beginning of Binaca geet mala on radio Ceylon. A quick trivia there: Binaca is a part of Dabur Group, and would become Cibaca later on. The show would also give India its first and the only superstar of radio - Mr Ameen Sayani. The show ran non stop on Radio Ceylon till 1988 after which it went over to Vividh Bharti and ran for 6 more years before ending in 1994. And if you aren't warmed up yet, then here is something that will start you up (like Cibaca and Binaca)

Now back to business, Hindi cinema kept buzzing with brilliance of Dev sahab, Dileep sahab and Raj Kapoor. But the year became notable for the new talent on the block, Bharat Bhushan. With Baiju Bawra and Anand Math, Bhushan had 2 brilliant inks to his name this year. Both were musical and cinematic masterpieces. Talat and Mukesh kept having a brilliant year as singers but it was slowly becoming obvious that the times were changing and Rafi, being the force of nature he was, was slowly taking over erverything by storm.

And in females, it was obvious in 1951 itself that there was nothing like Maa Saraswati but only Lata mangeshkar, who continued to have a fantastic year in 1952 as well.

It would be interesting to note the best films of the year. Aan, Baiju Bawra, Daag, Jaal, Anhonee, Sangdil and Aandhiyan. Among music composers Naushad had come into his own. With the seminal work in Dulari with Rafi - Suhani raat dhal chuki, the song which some people mistook as the national anthem of Trinidad & Tobago, it was so popular; he was back again and the duo created magic in Baiju Bawra. Each song of the film is a classic and continued to inspire generations of composers and singers. Each song from this soundtrack is a masterpiece starting from the devotional Man Tadpat Hari darshan ko and O Duniya Ke Rakhwale to the poignant Tu Ganga Ki Mauj. It is said that a Hindu from Nepal came to Mumbai afer hearing 'man tadpat hari darshan' and was dumbfounded to know that it was sung by a muslim (Rafi sahab). He literally fell onto his foot and worshipped him like Hari.

Aan was the other masterpiece of Naushad this year and is considered an epic film in its entirety with Dileep kumar and Nadira giving one of the best performances on-screen. Each song of the movie would come across as a claasic with Maan Mere Ehsaan, Lagi Tanman Mein, Tujhe Kho Diya Humne Paa Leneke Baad being the popular numbers, the stand out was Dil Mein Chhupa Ke Pyar Ka Toofan which has Rafi in his melodious best

While Rafi and Naushad were busy in their own league, Talat sahab was having his best year as well. Claimed by many as the replacement of Saigal, Talat was destined to greatness had Rafi storm not invaded the Bollywood planet. But having said that, his smooth silk voice was at its best in 1952. He had so many brilliant songs this year that its hard to figure out some of  the better ones, but Main Dil Hoon Ek Armaan Bhara (Anhonee), Tum Ko Fursat Ho (Bewafa, AR Quereshi aka Allah Rakha Khan or father of Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, the movie had Ashok Kumar and Raj Kapoor in their only screen appearance together), Aye Mere Dil Kahin ( Daag, Shankar Jaikishen), Mohabbat Mein Kashish Hogi (Khoobsurat, Madan Mohan) and the entire soundtrack of C Ramchandra's Parchhayaian with songs like Woh Zalim Pyar Kya Jaane and Kya Dil Ka Lagana Bhool Gaye

SD burman and OP Nayyar had a silent year by their general standards. But someone who did get out if shadows was Hemant da. Jaal and Anand Math turned out to be epitomes of harmonic music, bringing out the essence of Rabindro sangeet. He also got prominence for the toxicating vocals in 'Ye raat ye chandni fir kahan'. SJ also had a silent year, probably the only silent year in the 50s with their prominent creation being Daag.

And now to the singer who would be the only one to out sing Rafi sahab in the bigger scheme of things.  Lata sang more than 100 songs again as she did in 1951.Khelo Rang hamare sang with Shamshad Begum (Aan), all ongs of Nirmohi with Madan Mohan (A relationship that will not end even with the latter dying and lata coming back out of retirement to sing in Veer Zara for him). The total list of Lata songs can be found here, as it would be wrong to pick some out of these gems in 1952 - http://cineplot.com/music/lata-mangeshkars-song-list-1952/

So all in all a special year for hindi music and something that generations will keep listening to. And before we part, here's my fav song of the year.

P.S. Kishore da was active too this year but the extent was still lower, would love to hear what other hindi music fans can add here

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Remembering the Kapoor Khandan through some images

Bollywood is more than 100 years old now and the journey has been breathtaking. To look back and feel proud of this spectacle is the 'haq' of every Indian. But what hasn't been away from Bollywood is the Kapoor family or the Kapoor Khandan as we call it with love. Starting with Prithvi raj Kapoor in the first ever Bollywood talkie - Alam Ara to the latest Besharam, the bollywood is laden with imprints of this glorious family that gave so much to us

So here's to them, reflecting back through some images

The family tree of Raj Kapoor

PRITHVI RAJ KAPOOR

source: rediff

One of the old classics, Shafi Inaamdar can be seen in the background

One of the few pics where PRK was there with all his sons.

 This is a pic that defined Bollywood 

The brightest star to come out from the Khandan. The dazzling Raj Kapoor

Shashi Kapoor married English Actress Jennifer Kendal

 while both were pursuing their passion for theater

As much as he is known for his 'junglee' image, the ageing Shammi Kapoor

 looked as majestic as ever (Baratiyon ka swagat Pan Parag se hi hua)

This pic resulted in Bollywood's 2 hottest divas over the period of time

And that's what they look like

The latest star to emerge out of the galaxy of extremely talented family

One of the latest congregations in Toronto IIFA

Kapoor's remain etched in the memories of the fans and will do so for years to come. Time to sit back and admire what they brought to the plate for the whole industry, the whole country. The sound of Mera Joota hai Japani slowly fades in the background, slowly dissolving to the tunes of Balam Pichkari. Times have changed but the legacy goes on

And here is a bonus pic. A Rare pic of the Khandan where even Karan Kapoor was present (remember Loha?)

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10 most redundant dialogues in bollywood

The backstory, the bechari maa, the apathetic society, the difficult childhood of the hero, his having to steal medicine for a sick family member, the unruly bad man, the tragedy, the struggles of the hero, the entry of the heroine, the vengeance of the hero for our villain, oh there’s the heroine again, a song or two on hilltops and around the trees, a couple of fight scenes, the funny sidekick, the funny sidekick’s funny sidekick, the villain’s reign of 20 odd years being savaged by the return of the hero, the villain’s anger, another fight scene, oh the heroine again, the respected elder’s advice, the final fight scene, hero, heroine, true love. the end.

There was a lot going on in the movies back in the day. The story had everything from rib tickling comedy to some serious melodrama. And when I say serious I mean gut wrenching, heart clenching, tears-filling-up-the-oceans serious. Now there has to be some really heavy word play going on in the story to balance it all and churn out more than 800 movies a year. That's right. Over Eight friggin' hundred.

But bollywood has never disappointed in the dialogue department. There has never been a lack of serious stuff. Incredible performances by legendary actors that have inspired generations of film makers and actors. But that’s a story for another day. Today we talk about the really cheesy, typical bollywood masala dialogues that have been used over and over again. And again. And again. And yet strangely, they are always relevant, always fit the story and can be spoken by just about anyone in the movie. In fact, if you just collected all these dialogues, you wouldn't need much else to come up with a movie of your own.

So here we go:

1. Kaan khol ke sun lo

You know, as opposed to when you are listening kaan band karke. Just open your goddamn ears, well open them, OPEN THEM AND FUCKING LISTEN WILL YA?????!!! Well that is the basic sentiment behind this line.  

2. Inko dawa se zyada dua ki zaroorat hai

Now if the line doesn’t scare you already, let me take the pleasure of pointing out that it was usually the doctors who said this. Yes the damn doctors who were clearly not very good at their jobs and insisted every single time that ab sab kuchh upar wale ke haath me hai.

3. Kya isi din ke liye tumhe paal pos ke bada kiya tha

Melodrama we survived upon. Still do. But this line. God this line. It has been said by so many people in so many movies, there was clearly some miscommunication going on coz no one ever knew the answer to this question. pehle hi bata dete kyun paal pos kar bada kar rahe ho to baad me confusion nahi hoti. trial and error se thodi na pata chalega. picture after picture they tried finding out ki aakhir kyun paal pos ke bada kiya but alas…..!!

4. Bhagwan ke liye mujhe chhod do

I can’t top what Shakti Kapoor had to say in reply to this. Bhagwan ke liye tumhe chhod doon toh main kya karoon? I mean come on, what would he do?

5. Bhagwan maine aaj tak tumse kuchh nahi maanga

It is pretty clear by now that god had a significant role to play in every one of them films. He used to probably watch them with the same excitement as us and then suddenly hear his name and go, “Wait, I am supposed to do something now? Damn can’t a guy catch a break!” And then of course get to work and come up with miracles and shit.

6. Kanoon ke haath lambe hote hain

Well that should come in handy since we all know that kanoon andha hota hai. Tough times for kanoon in bollywood. It was abused by every policeman. Kanoon ko apne haath me mat lo. Apne aap ko kanoon ke hawale kar do. Man so much confusion. And after everything they would just say ye toh hamara farz tha and walk away. No credit whatsoever for kanoon.

7. Mera aashirwad tumhare saath hai beta, tumhe kuchh nahi hoga

Well given how we can’t explain the hero beating the shit out 50 oversized, trained, badass goons with any form of logic or reason, we might as well go the aashirwad route. Yep, I have made my peace with it.

8.  Main tumhara ye ehsaan zindagi bhar nahi bhoolunga

This to a person the hero is never going to meet again in his life. Oh wait. He is in the next scene. In the villain’s kabza no less. And he needs a favor. Who will return the favor? The hero of course. See movies teach us stuff. A good deed never goes unpaid. Unless you are Nirupa Roy. All your deeds will go unpaid in that case. Sorry.

9. Main tumhare bachhe ki maa banne wali hoon

This was almost always a bad news. Followed by either the girl jumping into a river or in front of a train or bumping into the hero who would then help her go back to the douchebag “jisne ek maasoom ladki ka fayda uthaya tha.” Damn that is some heavy shit.

10. Ab hum kisi ko mooh dikhane layak nahi rahe

You know the story. Girl goes to her family. Family kicks her out. She then proceeds to the river or the train, whichever involves a lot of walking in the backdrop of sad music, or bumps into the hero who then helps her go back to the douchebag who…………….

Oh redundant, you say? Welcome to Bollywood.

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14 Most Anticipated Indian Films yet to come in 2014

So first 2 months of 2014 have passed & we had some amazing films to our company like Dedh Ishqiya, Miss Lovely, Highway & Kamal Swaroop’s cult classic Om Dar-B-Dar. We even had nausea inducing & cringe worthy masala entertainers like Yaariyaan, Jai Ho & Gunday to counteract that. With Queen getting immense critical acclaim from every front, surely 2014 looks like a great year & there is more yet to come. There are many such films yet to release in coming months of 2014 that have managed to create curiosity or buzz for them with their unique theme or star cast. So here’s a list of 14 Most Anticipated Indian Films yet to come in 2014 -

14. Peddlers
Director – Vasan Bala
Cast – Gulshan Deviah, Nimrat Kaur, Siddharth Menon & Kriti Malhotra

Vasan Bala’s debut was showcased at Cannes in 2012 but struggled to get theatrical release as no distributors wanted to invest in this tale of drugs, lust & Bombay’s portrayal as a ghost city.

13. NH 10
Director – Navdeep Singh
Cast – Anushka Sharma & Neil Bhoopalam

After stellar debut in Manorama Six Feet Under (2006), Navdeep Singh faced disappointment when his most ambitious project Rock The Shaadi – A Big Fat Punjabi Wedding meets zombie apocalypse starring Abhay Deol & Genelia D’souza was shelved. Finally he is filming his next which is a horror thriller about a road trip gone wrong. Anushka has co-produced this with Anurag Kashyap.

12. Monsoon Shootout
Director – Amit Kumar
Cast – Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vijay Verma, Tanishtha Chatterjee & Neeraj Kabi

Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout too was screened at Cannes 2013 & received extremely positive reviews. It narrates a story of a cop struggling to make a decision of killing a notorious gangster in the heavy rains of Mumbai.

11. Filmistaan
Director – Nitin Kakkar
Cast – Sharib Hashmi & Kumud Mishra

After impressing critics over various International film festivals & winning National Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi (2012), Nitin Kakkar’s Filmistaan finally gets a theatrical release. It is a satirical story of bollywood buff & wannabe actor getting abducted by an Islamic terrorist group while shooting for film in desert areas of Rajasthan.

10. Finding Fanny Fernandes
Director – Homi Adajania
Cast – Deepika Padukone, Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, Arjun Kapoor & Pankaj Kapur

After his mind blowing neo-noir debut Being Cyrus (2005), Homi disappointed with his sappy romance in Cocktail (2012). But with a dysfunctional Goan family on a road trip, Homi is back in action with this quirky film. Produced by Saif Ali Khan & that’s what you call an outstanding star cast. DP is on a roll!!!

9. City Lights
Director – Hansal Mehta
Cast – Rajkumar Rao, Patralekha & Geetanjali Thapa

Official remake of Oscar nominated British film Metro Manila (2013), City Lights marks second collaboration between Hansal Mehta & Rajkumar Rao who gave one of the finest biopic in Indian cinema, Shahid (2013). Produced by Mahesh Bhatt.

8. Katiyabaaz (Powerless)
Director – Deepti Kakkar & Fahad Mustafa
Cast – Real people

After commercial success of extremely hilarious satire Supermen Of Malegaon (2012), comedy-documentaries are slowly but gradually gaining their foothold in Bollywood. Based on long power cuts in Kanpur, Katiyabaaz traces the story of a man who supplies illegal electricity while local government’s angst and search for him. Best part of this documentary is that it offers stories from both perspectives. Music by Indian Ocean.

7. Ugly

Director – Anurag Kashyap
Cast – Ronit Roy, Vineet Kumar, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Rahul Bhatt & Siddhant Kapoor

The biggest disappointment of 2013 was no release of Anurag Kashyap’s dark thriller Ugly. A simple child kidnapping gets more complex as true & ugly faces of people are revealed. Hope Censor Board understands and gets away with those anti-smoking watermarks. And boy! Ronit Roy looks like a badass!!

6. Haider

Director – Vishal Bhardwaj
Cast – Shahid Kapur, Irrfan, Kay Kay Menon, Tabu & Shraddha Kapoor

VB completes his trilogy of Shakespeare adaption by adapting his Hamlet into Haider set in ‘90s Kashmir. Hope this film brings back the hero Shahid Kapur actually was (Kaminey, Jab We Met). Also it marks VB’s collaboration with his hit Maqbool pair – Irrfan & Tabu. Gulzar’s lyrics & VB’s music. Simply waiting.

5. Tumbaad
Director – Rahi Anil Barve
Cast – Sohum Shah

Anand Gandhi after tasting critical & commercial success with Ship Of Theseus is back but this time as a producer. With almost same crew as that of SOT (Pankaj Kumar as DOP & Sohum Shah in lead) Tumbaad is a period horror thriller set in pre & post independence era of Pune. For me the genre of Period Horror Thriller itself is so luring. Plus Rahi Anil Barve made an ultra dark disturbing B&W short film Maanjha which was praised by many including Danny Boyle for its unsettling theme.

4. Detective Byomkesh Bakshy
Director – Dibakar Banerjee
Cast – Sushant Singh Rajput, Anand Tiwari & Sohum Shah

Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s famous Bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi is set to be revived in Bollywood by Dibakar Banerjee. Being filmed as a series, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy (first part in so-called series) will showcase young 20-something Byomkesh (Sushant Singh Rajput) solving crimes in 1940 Calcutta with his trusted assistant Ajit (Anand Tiwari). Very much similar to Sherlock Holmes series, movie will also have a super intelligent villain trying to wage war in British occupied India. Looks damn promising and yes it is being co-produced by YRF.

3. P.K.
Director – Rajkumar Hirani
Cast – Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani & Sanjay Dutt

A Rajkumar Hirani film is just not a film it is a subject for any budding filmmaker to understand how films are made, how characters are written, how editing is done & how humour is mixed superbly with narrative. Hirani has himself created a genre for himself with feel good yet intellectual films like Munnabhai Series & 3 Idiots. Teaming up yet again with Aamir Khan, Hirani’s P.K. is a religious satire on self styled god men in our country co-written by superbly talented Abhijat Joshi. Do you still need a reason to watch this one?

2. Bombay Velvet
Director – Anurag Kashyap
Cast – Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Karan Johar, Kay Kay Menon & Raveena Tandon

Based on Gyan Prakash’s book Mumbai Fables, Bombay Velvet is a neo-noir drama thriller set in ‘50s & ‘60s Bombay showcasing how Bombay transformed into a metropolis. The most interesting thing is that Ranbir Kapoor plays Street Boxer; Anushka & Raveena play Jazz singers while Karan Johar plays an egoistic Parsi Businessman (main antagonist). Also Kashyap reunites with his Dev.D team – Amit Trivedi (Music), Amitabh Bhattacharya (Lyrics) & Rajeev Ravi (DOP). Christmas 2014 will be exciting to wait for.

1. Qissa – The Tale of a Lonely Ghost
Director – Anup Singh
Cast – Irrfan, Tisca Chopra, Tillotama Shome & Rasika Duggal

Undoubtedly the most awaited film of the year is Anup Singh’s Qissa set in 1947 partitioned Punjab. It is a story of a man who raises his youngest daughter as a son. Irrfan’s power packed performance, dark theme of confused sexuality, partition, political turmoil & women oppression are reason enough to watch this Punjabi-hindi film. This film was awarded with Netpac Award for best Asian film at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Hope you liked the list. Feel free to comment about your most awaited/anticipated film yet to release in 2014.

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A Fan’s Five Film list!

Hello hello hello! Bwoyss and gurrlss  and all you beegees out there! (I meant busy people, but for those of you who remembered the band, you are ‘Stayin alive’.)

So this is my first article on Filmistani and after wasting some good 10 minutes on choosing the topic, I came up with this! A Fan’s Five Film List! This is a list of those 5 films that I hold most special to myself. Now before I start, there are a couple of disclaimers that I think I should give so that you can criticize this article for other things like grammar and spelling mistakes. Cool? Cool!

Disclaimer no. 1 - So this is a self-indulgent article so I might digress from the point at a lot of places and start writing random things that may not be entirely necessary for the topic here. But I will try to keep it entertaining and not make it too lengthy.

Disclaimer no. 2 - The films on this list are not the most high rated films on the IMDB and may not have huge commercial or critical value to the others. But for me they managed to win the little shaktiman posed statues of mine in the Internal Shreya Award Ceremony conducted from time to time in my heart.  See I’ve never liked to call myself a movie buff even though I have been watching thousands of films on tv since I was in class 5, because for me movie watching is an extremely personal thing. I did not have friends at that time who were that much into movies so I hardly discussed anything about them with anyone. But as I grew up, I realized people take movie watching soo seriously that they start making notes on them and competing with the other movie buffs with the quality and quantity of films that they see. So when someone comes up to me and says “Dude you haven’t seen Departed?? How can you even say you have seen English films?” or “Dude! You are lying right when you say you haven’t seen The Godfather” or “DUDE!!!! You haven’t seen The Shawshank Redemption???? Drop everything you’re doing and just watch it RIGHT NOW!!” I have a few things that I say to them in my mind. Firstly, not a Dude! Stop calling me that! Secondly, I will watch whatever the fuck I want and whenever the fuck I want and now you have already spoiled the film by pissing me off and giving me your ugly face to remember while m watching the film with an already high expectation! Also, I did see all these films and loved them, so thank you. But I still prefer watching films on tv jiska I don’t even know the name or the actors or the plot or its IMDB rating! So coming back to life/the point (not my OCD, just trying to be funny), the films, on this list, have made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside for different reasons at different points of time in my life. 

Disclaimer no. 3 – For those of you who know me or not and think that I’m not retarded enough or “too school for cool” (Pink didi ke gaane ke bol)  to talk or write like this, Yes I have been watching too much of SUPERWOMAN on youtube! Also, I do have a phobia of failing-at-things-that-I-take-up-too-seriously. And also, “I guess normalcy isn’t my style” (Juno didi ki line)

Disclaimer no. 4 – For people who might read the article and think that it was like finding a needle in the haystack, let me enlighten you by saying “itna hi hota hai” (Theseus ji ki nauv ki line. Nauv ne nahi kaha, picture mein tha)

So now that I have established that my attention span is a little more than that of a two year old, let’s move on to the list of my special films and end this list of disclaimers right here.  

Shall we? Le go!

 Spoiler Alert!

•       Paulie – Now the reason why this film is special to me has less to do with the film but the time when my level of understanding of things was on the verge of puberty. Yes this is the first English film that I remember watching as a child on tv. I had seen Titanic and the Golden Eye, 007 in the theatre with my parents and I can’t recall if I saw this film before or after them, but I remember spending an entire afternoon after school alone in the house, watching this film. Honestly before writing this article, I did not even know the name of this film and just for this article I googled “talking parrot film” and got its name, Paulie. I saw the trailer as well, just to relive that evening and try and remember what exactly makes me remember this film out of the many that I have seen when I was young. For starters I think it was the talking parrot that got my attention. Paulie is a parrot in the film that does not repeat words that he is taught but is actually able to have a proper conversation with humans. I think somewhere at the back of my mind I had started considering the possibility of the film being a documentary. But the real entertainment of the film that made it so special for me was the fact that this talking ability of his, got him in all kinds of trouble. Almost giving me a lesson that sometimes ignorance can be bliss and knowledge can be dangerous, even for a parrot with super powers! So the film went a step ahead of just entertaining a 12 year old me and overwhelmed me with the magic of storytelling. I still haven’t watched the IMDB rating of this film and would not recommend it to anyone just to avoid any criticism about it

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• .       Towel Head – Although, like I made it clear earlier, I hate recommendations, this film was recommended to me by a friend, who I kinda hold responsible for killing my big lawyer dreams and getting me interested in this film business. The film is about this teenage arab-american girl who is having puberty troubles. Her parents are divorced and exist at poles when it comes to taking care of a child, let alone a teenage arab-american girl struggling with puberty. The mother is too modern whose boyfriend is a pervert and can only see a vagina in the species called women. The father is too orthodox who does not let his daughter use tampons. The girl develops feelings for her new neighbour, a married man whose wife is pregnant I think. She tries hard to hide her feelings for him but the guy (Harvey Dent actor) comes to know and starts reciprocating after little hesitation. One day he ends up raping her. Of course he gets arrested etc. and the film reaches its climax. The special part of the film for me comes here. The girl is sitting with Harvey Dent’s wife (who is the brave lady to call the police on her husband when she finds out, actually Harvey Dent makes the phone call in his guilt….whatever watch the film) and confesses to her that she is partly responsible for the entire mishap. The beauty with which this conversation proceeds made me long for somebody to talk to me like that when I feel guilty of complaining about someone who gets a thrashing because of me, when I might also have done something which led to his unjustified reactions. Again this film may not have the same effect on everyone but for me it was beyond expectation.

      

•   .       Persepolis – Ok. So this film became special to me because it was made on the book Persepolis which was the first graphic novel that I managed to read. Now I am not much of a reader, infact after years of trying big font, thin novels and short story reading, I have officially stopped being so hard on myself and made peace with the fact that people who don’t read books are not all that dumb as propagated to be! When I picked up the novel, I knew that there was a film already made on it and you can understand my temptation to just watch the film instead of giving up on the book after the first few pages. But then it was a book with pictures. So I thought I should give it a try. I absolutely loved the book. But being a hard core movie goer I immediately sat down to watch the film as well. The film still managed to work on me brilliantly. And so my little Shaktiman posed Statue Award found itself a winner.

• .       All about eve – Now hold your horses before all you IMDB maniacs who target the top 250 list as your life time goal start accusing me of my disclaimer that the films in this list are not highly rated etc. Yes it is a brilliant famous film but it is black and white! And for an ignorant person like me black and white films automatically mean “Might be good and all but BORING” Of course after watching this film, that notion for me has considerably changed! So when I started watching this film, after watching a couple of disappointing chick flicks, it was a new world altogether. The film is about a girl called Eve who is a crazy stalker of her favourite actress. She spends days and nights standing outside the theatre where the actress performs her play. Eventually the actress notices her and invites her to live with her in her house. The journey of Eve from being the crazy stalker of this actress to eventually taking her place in her future projects is very entertaining with the brilliant dialogue writing of the film. But again the film became special to me (apart from all the black and white entertainment explanation that I gave earlier) when the film without being judgmental about this character, Eve, gives us a glimpse of the existence of that vulnerability in all of us. I mean even the best and most righteous people I know, could have done the same thing that Eve did, to that actress.  

     

Also Marilyn Monroe did a chindi cameo in the film. That makes it the only film of hers that I have seen!

Bas thak gayi yaar likhte likhte! Acha bas one more.

•      Main, meri patni aur vo -  Ab is film ke baare mein zyada kuch kya kahen? Mithlesh Babu ne dil jeet liya! And this film was special to me because I have not seen a lot of Bollywood classics. So this film made me become as respectful of Indian filmmakers as I was of Hollywood people. Mithlesh’s short-heighted insecurity resonates with all of us feeling insecure about ourselves when we have a crush on the cutest girl or boy in school or college and occasionally makes us thank our stars that that crush did not give in to our persuasion of being with them and made us get on with our lives to pursue better things after facing some disappointment. Again, this argument and interpretation of mine is debatable and not the only thing that I took away from the film.

     

Phew! I think I am done! There are a lot of other films that are special to me and could not make their place in this list because I cannot think of them right now and a list of 5 is preferable to non-readers like me to give such articles our precious time. A list of 6 is bloody lengthy!

So Thankyou for reading this and for people who found it lame …..haan to agli baar mat padhna yaar, matlab aisa bhi kya hai.

Also Don’t vote for Modi!

Cheap publicity stunt? Sowwy!

So give me some comments about the article and if you are a fan too, give me a list of your five films as well, along with the reasons why they are there! I promise to read it even if it is a list of 7 or 8! And don’t think too much, just do! Because when we think too much, we don’t do! And if you do, do ……don’t do yahan, do vahan jhaadi ke peeche.  (‘Joke’ – Kangna didi style in Queen) Also for those of you who remembered Chandler and Pheobe with the “do, do” give yourself a V. V. Good and two stars with a red pen on your friends notes copy!

        Acha chalo bye!

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