MUST SEE - WORTH WATCHING - SKIP - CLASSICS
Band Baaja Baaraat (2010) Band Baaja Baaraat is only
Anushka Sharma's third outing and she's already carrying a film on her own—a testament to her talent—with Ranveer Singh making his debut opposite her. But what starts as a promising story ends up short-changing the actors in a film important to both their careers. What's more, they make a tepid pair.
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Delhi Belly (2011) Bollywood films often include a smattering of English, but nowhere near as much as in
Delhi Belly. It's indicative of the industry increasingly catering to young, urban audiences who speak English, rather than the masses who don't. The divide is about more than language, though. The city multiplex crowd has Western sensibilities, which they want to see in their movies. There again,
Delhi Belly delivers.
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Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji (2011) Director Madhur Bhandarkar is known for dark, hard-hitting social commentaries about such subjects as imprisonment, prostitution, the underbelly of the modeling industry, and cutthroat celebrity journalism. Nearly all of his films revolve around a female protagonist. So a lighthearted look at the simple lives of three average men trying to find love is pretty far afield for Bhandarkar.
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Kyun! Ho Gaya Na (2004) Love and marriage can be a chicken-or-egg kind of thing in India—which comes first matters a great deal to some people. For Diya (
Aishwarya Rai), a serious college student, love must precede marriage. Happy-go-lucky Arjun (
Vivek Oberoi) wants his parents to pick his bride.
Kyun! Ho Gaya Na negotiates the conflict by arranging their love, so to speak, so they both unwittingly win.
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Main Hoon Na (2004) Only Bollywood could seamlessly blend a terrorist thriller and a family melodrama into one heart-wrenching, action-packed entertainer with a comic college setting—while making a strong statement about religious nationalism to boot. The hero (
Shahrukh Khan) tries to mend two broken families, which would be enough story for a film, but this was directed by Farah Khan, whose motto is "more is more."
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Mohabbatein (2000) Picasso had his Blue Period;
Shahrukh Khan had his Sweater Phase. Khan trots them all out in
Mohabbatein—cable knits and fine ribs, turtlenecks and crewnecks and v-necks, in every color (although primarily white and pastels), often a second sweater flung over his shoulders. He wears a different sweater in nearly every scene. It became one of his iconic looks and touched off a fashion craze.
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Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap (2011) Amitabh Bachchan is a legend who has loomed large over Hindi film for 40 years, but in the last decade, the 68-year-old actor has been relegated to playing patriarchs of some kind. In
Bbuddah, he's a father once again, and a loving one—but wayward, as angry young men are wont to grow up to be. Bachchan resurrects the cool, tough film persona of his youth with flamboyant, ferocious punch.
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Dum Maaro Dum (2011) Goa is India's Rio, its Miami Beach, its Cancun. Its beautiful beaches and hippie party scene attract tourists from around the world. This former Portuguese colony on the Arabian Sea—the idyll and underbelly—is the star of
Dum Maaro Dum, which means
"take a puff.
" But the city doesn't hog the show—the characters are prominently defined, with one big exception, and well-acted.
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Break Ke Baad (2010) Director Danish Aslam makes a respectable debut with
Break Ke Baad, a stylish rom-com about breaking up. At the outset, the couple is genuinely in love, but already pretty broken. The lead-up to their break-up is smartly written and completely realistic—everyone has seen or experienced this kind of thing before. But the story founders once they part and become friends.
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Kuch Naa Kaho (2003) Marriage and the lead-up to it, in which Indian families are deeply involved, is the basis of many Bollywood films, but this one has an engaging twist. The hero tries to win the hand of a woman who is already married. A family friend plays matchmaker for a content bachelor, and eventually he realizes it’s her he wants, but she’s afraid to love again since her husband abandoned her and her son.
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Goal (2007) A compelling, simple story about a community—the South Asians of Southall, an area of London known as "Little India"—a losing football club on the verge of demise, and a conflicted footballer grappling with his ethnic identity,
Goal keeps the melodrama—always a big aspect of sports films—to a minimum, for the most part, in favor of low-key realism.
John Abraham, in one of his better roles, stars.
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Parineeta (2005) It's almost unfair to criticize a film for not being as good as the book—because they almost never are. It's simply the nature of adaptation from one medium to another. But what's sacrificed in
Parineeta—the 2005 film adaptation of the 1914 Bengali novella of the same name—doesn't have to be. What's retained, which is a superb story, nearly makes up for what's lost in the characterizations.
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Housefull (2010) It's hard to take slapstick as a genre seriously—it is, after all, purposely ridiculous. But going for the easy laugh is far from easy, and doing it well is certainly an art form. Actor
Akshay Kumar is an Indian practitioner of it and a reminder of just how funny oft-dismissed low-brow comedy can be. Kumar's
Housefull is a fine example of that staple of Bollywood, the multi-star entertainer.
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Anjaana Anjaani (2010) If you knew you were going to die in 20 days, what would you absolutely have to do before the final drastic event? Now, what if you knew you were going to die because you'd scheduled your suicide—but then found something to live for? Director Siddharth Anand delivers a cool response in
Anjaana Anjaani.
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Rock On!! (2008) Movies about rock bands are old fare in the West, and they follow a predictable formula that mirrors the reality of many rock bands: struggle, success, conflict, breakup, downfall, redemption.
Rock On!! is a movie in the same vein, but it's unusual for an Indian film, and it has a freshness and innocence that comes with its rarity. The film's biggest strength is
Arjun Rampal as the band's lead guitarist.
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Dabangg (2010) If you ever wondered about the appeal of Bollywood superstar
Salman Khan—and for some, it is a matter of wonder—
Dabangg makes it loud and clear why he’s had a fanatical following for more than two decades. Khan doesn’t overplay his character here; he revels in it. And watching him pour himself into the part is a hoot. The film borders on spoof, but mostly, it’s a celebration of old-time masala.
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Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010) On the surface,
Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai is a mob fable, but at its essence, it's a story about a boy figuring out how to be a man. A court-ordered disclaimer at the beginning of the film says the story is not based on the life of the late Haji Mastan, a 1970s Mumbai smuggler, but there's no disclaimer about the other, more compelling main character.
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Lamhaa (2010) Kashmir is the most beautiful place on earth, many say, and the most dangerous. Its heaven/hell dichotomy—from snowcapped mountains and serene valley waters to barbed-wire coils and bombed-out buildings—is captured with moving effect in
Lamhaa by the cinematography of James Fowlds. In fact, the images say more than the story, and the extras more than the leads.
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Raajneeti (2010) The Hindu epic Mahabharata and the American film classic
The Godfather—both gripping stories about corrupt family dynasties and the power struggles within them—are the basis for
Raajneeti, a thriller about down-and-dirty regional Indian politics. And oh, is it cynical.
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Partner (2007) A good-looking guy is a life coach for less fortunate-looking men, discreetly helping them form lifelong relationships with the women of their dreams. While helping one ordinary guy pursue his beautiful boss, the life coach meets an irresistible woman and falls in love himself. Sounds like the 2005 Hollywood film,
Hitch, right? Right. And wrong. The director admits to the inspiration behind this fairly likeable flick.
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Asoka (2001) When monsters become monks, it’s usually the stuff of legends. But Asoka—a bloodthirsty emperor who later renounced violence—was a real person. The 2001 film
Asoka, about his early life, captures in mesmerizing fashion how such an unlikely conversion could take place.
Shahrukh Khan plays the young Asoka, a role perfectly suited to Khan, who always shines as an antihero.
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Eklavya: The Royal Guard (2007) Take a brooding hero, a meek heroine, a tyrannical father, a mad sister and an old servant, put them in a medieval castle and have them contend with a family secret and the looming threat of violence, and you’ve got a classic gothic.
Eklavya has all the hallmarks of the genre—which is not foreign to Bollywood—but it’s weak on two key gothic elements: terror and romance.
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Badmaash Company (2010) Yash Raj Films—one of India’s biggest production companies—has been criticized in recent years for the conservative cultural and family values in its films. But at the same time, it’s been intriguingly progressive in its characterization of women, and its new release
Badmaash Company is the latest example.
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Prince (2010) Prince starts out as a stylistic pastiche of great Hollywood action/sci-fi flicks—particularly
The Matrix and the James Bond series—and while blatant and slapdash, it’s not entirely objectionable. What is objectionable is the awful dialogue and overdone CGI. The film’s saving grace, though, is a tried-and-true Hollywood action-thriller plot device: the MacGuffin, as Alfred Hitchcock termed it.
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Hera Pheri (2000) What could a ransom demand, a prickly landlord, and a daydreamer who lies to his mother possibly have in common? The answer is found in Priyadarshan’s hilarious film,
Hera Pheri, which re-established the genre of comedy in Bollywood and provided
Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty fans a new way of looking at these two stars.
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Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? (2010) As all fans of foreign film know, jokes don’t always translate across cultures. But forgoing Hindi comedy—a bastion of hilarious farce and biting social satire—for any reason would be a mistake. And you can’t go wrong with anything that stars Indian actor Paresh Rawal, who transcends cultural barriers with delivery that’s so funny you almost don’t need to understand what’s going on.
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Paheli (2005) There aren’t too many places in the world more fantastic—in the truest sense of the word—than Rajasthan. The sandswept beauty, the rich culture—it’s like nowhere else. And it stands to reason that fairy-tale lands would produce wonderful fairy tales.
Paheli is a delightful story from Rajasthani folklore about a neglected wife who finds the man of her dreams in the form of an amorous ghost.
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Billu (2009) Billu is a commentary on fame, brought to you by the most famous movie star in the world,
Shahrukh Khan. The actor essentially plays himself—a mega-wattage celebrity—whose name is Sahir Khan. Sahir is supposedly the long-lost friend of a humble village barber named Billu, played by character actor par excellence
Irrfan Khan.
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Rann (2010) While American media is floundering amid the wreckage of Internet-shattered business models and lowest-common-denominator content, the media in India is thriving, and it’s confronting many of the same issues of power that the U.S. media has—namely, reconciling its public-service role and its need to make money as a business. Director Ram Gopal Varma tackles this conflict in
Rann.
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Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003) The American dream isn’t always everything it’s cracked up to be. There may be lots of opportunities in the U.S., but success and happiness are still hard to come by here.
Kal Ho Naa Ho is a story of three Indians living in exciting New York City, struggling personally, and stuck in an impossible love triangle, which gets straightened out with an emotional bulldozer.
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Salaam Namaste (2005) Nick (
Saif Ali Khan) and Ambar (
Preity Zinta)—hip, young Indians living in Melbourne, Australia—do everything out of the usual order. First, they move in together. Then, they fall into bed together. Then, they fall in love. Next thing, Ambar’s pregnant. But marriage doesn’t automatically follow.
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Jaane Tu...Ya Jaane Na (2008) There’s little physical resemblance between debut actor Imran Khan and his uncle, Bollywood superstar
Aamir Khan, but the young man has obviously inherited the same acting gene. Actress Genelia D’Souza also makes her debut here and shows promise as a spunky leading lady.
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London Dreams (2009) Rock bands in the West—and movies about them—are expected to embrace certain clichés: misunderstood artists, rifts over professional jealousy and women, self-destructive behavior, and Lenny Kravitz-style attire.
London Dreams takes the rock-band formula and runs with it.
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Kurbaan (2009) Comparisons of
Kurbaan and
New York—another recent Bollywood film about terrorism in the U.S.—are inevitable. Both are suspenseful stories about South Asians living in the idyllic American suburbs and who are involved, to varying degrees, in urban terrorist attacks. But while
New York has a message,
Kurbaan does not—nor does it mean to. It’s simply an edge-of-your-seat thriller, and a good one at that.
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Guru (2007) Actor
Abhishek Bachchan’s turn in
Guru as a business tycoon with slippery morals is one of his finest performances. The film chronicles the rags-to-riches rise of his character, Gurukant Desai, a poor Gujarti boy who goes first to Istanbul and then to Mumbai to make his fortune selling textiles. He eventually becomes the king of a polyester manufacturing empire.
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Refugee (2000) Abhishek Bachchan and
Kareena Kapoor act like old pros as the leads in their first film, which garnered them the Filmfare Best Male Debut and Best Female Debut Awards. (However, they both subsequently struggled for years to prove their merit.) Great material—filled with tense conflict, constant danger, and love against all odds—bolsters their performances.
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Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008) “Beware, O Beautiful Ones,” the title tells us—beware, indeed, because
Ranbir Kapoor is already scorching his way to the top in this, his second film, and setting hearts on fire along the way. Kapoor—the grandson of the granddaddy of Indian film, actor Raj Kapoor—has the talent to match his pedigree and it shows even in this predictable, albeit entertaining movie about a commitment-phobe.
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Dhoom (2004) Dhoom is a classic cops-and-robbers movie slicked-up for modern audiences and jam-packed with speed and flash. The action dazzles, but the characters drive the story. Workaholic police detective Jai Dixit (
Abhishek Bachchan) is after a motorcycle gang of robbers in Mumbai and he forces Ali (Uday Chopra), a mechanic who fences stolen bikes, to help him infiltrate the world of motorcycle aficionados.
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Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001) The family unit is held in sacred regard in India, and the bonds of love between parents and children are often stronger than any other—except when romantic love dares to take precedence and shatters those bonds, which is what happens to the Raichands, a rich family in Delhi.
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Kismat Konnection (2008) Actor
Shahid Kapoor followed up his acclaimed hit
Jab We Met (2007) with another romantic comedy that’s funnier but lacks the emotional zing of his preceding picture. Kapoor’s character, Raj, is plagued with bad luck—until he meets Priya (
Vidya Balan), and his fortune starts to change. Kapoor does his best to pull off the pining lover—his specialty—but there’s no magnetism between the leads.
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Veer-Zaara (2004) The film was billed as a “love legend” and it certainly does have grand, epic sweep. But the story moves at a snail’s pace, and the long, dull musical numbers weigh it down even more. However, the premise alone is compelling enough—a forbidden, cross-border affair between an Indian boy and a Pakistani girl. The way it all shakes out is wonderfully ironic, but it doesn’t entirely make up for the overwrought climax.
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Dhokha (2007) Muzammil Ibrahim shows enormous potential in his film debut as Zaid, an honest and dedicated cop who calmly endures prejudice as a Muslim. Zaid agrees to an arranged marriage to a woman he doesn’t know—the sweet and lovely Sarah (Tulip Joshi). But his happy home life is shattered when his wife is killed in a terrorist bombing—and it turns out she was the suicide bomber.
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Sarkar Raj (2008) While
Sarkar Raj is the sequel to
Sarkar, which was based on
The Godfather, this film was not based on
The Godfather Part II, but there are still many allusions to it. The characters are fascinating and the performances top-notch, but the main plot is as dry as day-old toast. The end is somewhat redeeming, though, as the director leaves his characters in a shockingly different place than Coppola did.
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Shikhar (2005) Real-estate developer G.G. (
Ajay Devgan) sets out to turn a rural area into a metropolis, but there’s an ashram smack in the middle of it, and its guru is dead-set on stopping G.G. So G.G. leads the guru’s impressionable son Jaidev (
Shahid Kapoor) down the path of decadence so he’ll sell his soul. But the guru is such a moral tyrant, one can’t blame Jaidev for wanting to have some fun.
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Saawariya (2007) Ranbir Kapoor and
Sonam Kapoor made their film debuts in the lead roles, alongside veteran actors
Rani Mukerji and
Salman Khan in supporting roles, and all four give admirable performances in this gorgeously shot picture. Despite this, the movie—based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story
White Nights—is as cold and lifeless as a Russian winter.
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Kambakkht Ishq (2009) While images of L.A. abound—and Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards make (underwhelming) appearances—the Hollywood setting has little relevance in this mildly amusing romantic comedy.
Akshay Kumar plays Viraj, a movie stuntman, and
Kareena Kapoor plays Simrita, a med student who moonlights as a model. It’s obvious the whole time where these two are headed, but it’s still entertaining to watch them get there.
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Tashan (2008) Akshay Kumar’s tough bumpkin shtick reaches its apotheosis in the character of Bachchan—a thug who is ordered to hunt down and kill a beautiful con artist named Pooja (played by
Kareena Kapoor) who has stolen the mob’s money.
Tashan means
style, and this intentionally cartoonish flick has plenty—and just enough substance to make it rewarding.
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Welcome (2007) What could be a more entertaining way to bring lovers together—and pull them apart—than through an elaborate comedy of errors? Actors Paresh Rawal, Nana Patekar, and
Anil Kapoor are at their comedic best in this elaborate farce about a respectable guy who falls in love with the sister of a mob boss, but with
Akshay Kumar playing the straight man, some of the magic is missing.
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Singh is Kinng (2008) A good-hearted Punjabi simpleton (
Akshay Kumar), who’s a fish out of water in a Western country, falls in love with a Westernized Indian girl (
Katrina Kaif) and helps her prepare for her wedding to the wrong guy while hoping she’ll realize he’s Mr. Right. Sound familiar? Re-treading the same story as
Namastey London (2007), with the same lead actors, is almost as much fun as the first go-around.
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No Smoking (2007) The story is based on Stephen King’s
Quitters, Inc., and tinged with French artiness. The premise is commonplace enough—a woman wants her husband to quit smoking—but the subtext is far more profound. It burrows deep into some heavy existential themes, and every word, action, and image drips with symbolism. The film is not for everyone, but it’s certainly an interesting departure from usual Hindi fare.
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Umrao Jaan (2006) The film is a remake of a 1981 Bollywood picture by the same title and both are based on the 1905 novel
Umrao Jaan Ada about the life of a famous courtesan in the Indian city of Lucknow in the mid-1800s. The film lacks strong conflicts to drive the story, but it’s set in an enchanting time and place in India’s history, when Lucknow’s brothels were the epicenter of culture.
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Swades (2004) Indian NASA scientist Mohan feels lost and alone in his life in the U.S., so he returns to India to find his beloved elderly nanny. The movie celebrates what’s wonderful about Indian life without ignoring its flaws and likewise shows what’s missing in America while championing its values of equality. The plodding pacing and the stiff interaction between Mohan and his love interest mar this otherwise fine film.
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Cheeni Kum (2007) This is not your typical Bollywood romance—and that’s both good and bad. Good because it’s a realistic portrayal of a flawed man and woman working to overcome their differences. Bad because the love story is too mundane. Actors
Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu give respectable performances as their very ordinary characters grapple with the predictable challenges of a May-December romance.
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Chup Chup Ke (2006) Small-town boy Jeetu (
Shahid Kapoor), a debt-ridden business failure, tries to drown himself in the ocean so his family can collect insurance money, but when he’s rescued by fishermen who try to use him to pay off their own debts, hilarity ensues. Despite a lackluster romance, the plot remains compelling as Jeetu’s problems deepen.
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