Tintin's Top Ten: The Best of The Best Bollywood films of 2013

Tintin's Top Ten

The Best of The Best Bollywood Films of 2013

 

I've mentioned how 2013 saw some really terrific Hindi films. While not even close to a great year like 2012, 2013 holds the weight of being the 100th year of Hindi cinema. As such I was prompted to make the extensive lists I did, however I finally decided to separate the top ten from the top 30 because these 10 films deserve their own space to shine in. 

Like with the previous feature, this one will have a best ranking of where the film falls on my subjective favorite list of the year. 

Of the ten best you'll notice some great romantic films. Romance in Hindi cinema before was the epitome, but it was mostly melodramatic schlock by the 90's and modern romantic films needed that contemporary rom-com vibe to work. Old world/Old school (with new school thought) romance is back with a bang this year. 

There are also some really exceptional content driven films this year, that surprise surprise were promoted by big time production houses alluding to a dawning of a new age where content might just be King. 

There are a few films I missed; 

specifically Anand Gandhi's Ship Of Theseus which was a unanimously lauded feature. I haven't yet been able to find it, so I'm missing out on that experience. 

Then there's Farooq Sheikh's last feature film Club 60. 

And of course maybe some Indie features such as the documentary Hari Got Married and more. 

For now, enjoy this top ten

Tintin's Top Thirty: Best Bollywood films of 2013

Tintin's Top Ten Thirty

Best Bollywood Films of 2013

I decided for the best films of the year, I want to do something different and expand from ten to thirty. Cause surprise! Surprise! I believe there's enough films for that. Of course the 100 years of Bollywood also demanded this.

This best of post will be divided in 3 parts, the first being the films that are Good but not Great (30-21), those that were Just so Close (20-11) and of course the Best of The Best (10-1).

Like with the worst of this year, a theme about the best has been of course some original scripts, smart direction and great acting

But more than that a surprisingly stellar return to old fashioned romance on celluloid. But not only old fashioned romance, there's been all types of romantic films this year that have just lit up the screen. So lets head on.

Also note, like with my previous top tens on Bollywood in 2013 there will be something unique included.

I review my films from an objective perspective. As such the unique feature will be the ranking of each film in terms of my favorite. Essentially the subjective ranking of the thirty films. 

This also brings me to my next point, if certain films have the same score, than the film that was my favorite among them will get the higher best film ranking, irrespective of individual score such as Performances etc. 

Now onto the feature presentation...

Best of Bollywood 2013: An Interlude

Best of Bollywood 2013

An Interlude

I decided to take an interlude regarding the best Hindi films of 2013 because my Tintin's Top Thirty Best Bollywood Films article is taking longer than usual (read I'm a lazy ass). 

So I created an interlude for my own personal awards for the Best Bollywood films this year.

Why?

Because first I haven't had the chance to watch every Hollywood film (especially the underrated and indie films that I would loved to create an award for eg. The Underdog Awards). 

Next because I am seriously fucking tiffed at the stupidity of Indian Film Awards (all of them!)

Seriously the films in contention in Indian awards, make the Oscars look fair and great in comparison (which they of course are, expect the Oscars are slowly but surely losing tons of credibility). 

Let's take a look shall we?

At the Filmfare awards; Sharukh Khan has been nominated for Best Actor for at least appearing and dancing on the Awards stage...I mean for Chennai Express. Along with him his director Rohit Shetty has also been nominated for blasting every car and messing the physics in this world...sorry, for best director. 

This is just a microcosm of the issue plaguing Indian Film awards whether it be Filmfare or IIFA. Last years awards albeit in favor of the great but not excellent Barfi!, at least had the right nominees on the list. 

This year major movies are missing whether it be the widely appreciated The Lunchbox, the poignantly powerful Shahid or the romantic ballad Lootera (especially Lootera, which is practically missing from every award show!)

So I thought I'd make my own awards.

PS: For the Hollywood hopefuls, if you don't mind waiting four-five more months I could present my Underdog Awards of 2013 to the Hollywood films that didn't get the credit they deserved. Although come to think of it, I'll be too busy by then. 

So here goes for the awards

100 Years 100 Movies: My 100 Favorite Bollywood Films, The Master List

100 Years, 100 Movie

My 100 Favorite Bollywood Films

Master List

So I've changed a few things since I was unable to complete my ten part series before the passing of the 100th Bollywood year. 

I'm not going to do ten parts, instead I will copy the data from the first part and add it to the next 90 and created a massive post on all 100 films together. I will delete my blogs 100th post since it wont be required, this I consider to by Ultimate Sacrifice (filmy melodrama :P).

Before I do that though, I felt I should first put up a master list of the 100 films that are my favorites. So that those not interested to read the extensive list, can simply see the films I liked. This also so that I don't change the final list, cause I've been going back and doing that. As well as, so that incase I don't finish this mega post, you'll at least know my 100 favorites. 

Enjoy!

(Oh and once again I've just numbered them for ease, these are not the order of ranking)

Fond Memories of a Sheikh

Fond Memories of A Sheikh

He might not have been a royal elder in Arabian tribes and cultures, but Farooq Sheikh in the sense of his world was definitely veteran acting royalty. 

A face and champion of Indian Independent Cinema. 

Sheikh recently passed away, due to a heart attack in Dubai at the age of 65 on the 28th of December 2013. 

A man who truly alongside countless others of course, too Hindi cinema by storm during its mainstream lull (the 80's) and gave meaning to the 'act' in actor. 

Most people wont know him, he wasn't your run of the mill superstar rather he was that coal among fake shining gems, who worked himself hard and turned into a bright Diamond. Shining, flawless and unbeatable in whatever it is he did. 

Farroq Sheikh will be really missed on my side. So lets take a trip through (my) memory lane to celebrate...

The Actor, The Legend and The Sheikh

Tintin's Top Ten: Bollywood Movies to Watch out for in 2014

TinTin's Top Ten

Bollywood Movies to Watch out for in 2014

I really liked doing last years top ten feature on the best of Bollywood in 2012. So I decided to expand this so called feature this year with different grouping relating to both the best, the worst and the most anticipated.

2013 is the 100th year of Bollywood, its been a good year but couldn't really live to the expectations that the movies of 2012 had generated. Lets hope that 2014 knocks it out of the park as the beginner for the next century of Hindi cinema. So on that note, here are my ten anticipated films for next year. 

100 years of Hindi Cinema, 100 best Modern Bollywood Performances

 

100 Years of Bollywood

100 Best Modern Performances

So this one's a lazy blog post...I felt like just putting out the Top 100 Bollywood performances of modern times (2000-2012) over here...this is just a list, if I do ever analyze any of these roles then I will make a link here. So for now its just a list, even then I would compel you to check out these films just because of these performances. 

It was hard to get 100 out of this list but I tried so if you find that I might have missed something out feel free to comment. Remember this list is just from 2000-2012 performances. 

100 years, 100 Movies: My favorite Bollywood films Part 1

100 Years, 100 Movies: My Favorite Bollywood Films

Part 1

With Bollywood completing its 100 years of cinema this year, I thought my blog should celebrate this milestone achievement of the second most popular cinematic industry in the world (it might even be the most popular in some cases). Of course I celebrate this as my 100th post on the first year anniversary of my blog.

So with that I decided to write up a post on my favorite Hindi films numbering to of course a hundred. Before I do that though let me lay out a few ground rules;

1) The selection process for my favorite 100 was very difficult, I may not have gotten it perfectly right for myself but still this is the 100 I ended up with. In this case I also decided not to fully rank these hundred. Meaning while they will be numbered 100-1, the films are not in ranking order and are just grouped randomly as such.

2) These are my favorite 100 films, not anybody else. This means that the selections are of my opinion and in no way should deter or disgust anyone else. These are also not the 'Best' 100 films in Bollywood, I haven't watched every Bollywood film to rank the best. While I  adore the likes of Guru Dutt's 'Pyaasa' and 'Kaggaz ke Phool', they list on best films but I don't enjoy them that much.

3) I haven't included films from the year 2013 as it is still in progress. At the end of the year the films from 2013 will have their own feature, still they will not be updated to this list. 

Once again fair warning, these films are not ranked in any order from least to most favorite or vice versa. These films are just numbered 100-1 for the sake of it. But they are my 100 favorite films.  Enjoy!

My 5 Minute Cinematic Experience in the Theater

My 5 minute cinematic experience in the theater

As I sit here writing to you, it has been a couple of minutes since I reached home to vent my fury out on this blog. My boiling rage is targeted at the general public, what now I truly believe as the not so smart film-goer. 

For those people it seems cinema is a way to have some dumb fun with the family or friends. 

Yes, yes I know films are supposed to be for the entertainment of the crowd. But cinema itself was created as an art form, it is meant to be for a Director and his team as a painting is for a painter, especially for those with true creative vision. 

Just cause a few movies don't include crass jokes, spoon feeding amounts of exposition or high profile 'actors' (in quotes for obvious reasons...they can't fucking act!).

Ok so back to the point; I went today to watch a relatively low key Bollywood film by the name of Prague. Don't bother searching for showtimes in your areas, your bound not to find them easily.

Prague a true indie film in Bollywood may not have got overtly great reviews, but it did get some good recognition this past week. Unfortunately box office numbers would say otherwise, and thats where my experience comes in.

Prague would have been great to watch. Especially with it starring one of the most under-appreciated young actors working today; Chandan Roy Sanyal (D-Day, Kaminey)


I set out to watch the film close to a nearby theater, as I reached the ticket counter I was informed that the showtime had been cancelled and I was the first in three days to come watch this film. That angered me to ungodly proportions. I get that the movies showing is a business, and if a film doesn't run it needs to be removed.

But shouldn't it be fair, that any film be given a chance to survive through the weekend? After all it was a small film with only one showtime through the day. That means in a weekend there would be only three shows, and as far as I'm concerned in three shows one customer is better than none. In the end it seems from the timings I read, there was not other show set to replace Prague through the weekend. So clearly this theatre doesn't seem to want my money.

Maybe I'm looking at this from a selfish perspective, maybe this huge rant isn't justified but I still want to write (not that you have to read it).

All I know is that today I wasted 5 minutes and 80 rupees of my life just to catch a glimpse of what could have been a great intellectual cinematic experience.

What I feel sad for is the makers who decided to go ahead and distribute something as different as Prague knowing that they might not make their money back, what I feel sad for is the people who worked in making this film because they potentially lost at least four-five customers more that could appreciate their hard work.

Instead all those mindless fucking Indians can go watch the misogynist piece of crap that is Grand Masti (currently earning money that it isn't even worthy of).

Truly in some smaller way I have just seen a part of a smaller but greater class of Indian cinema die. I might be a bit bias, Prague might not be that great; but as I said it still deserved a chance to be seen.


Aneesh Raikundalia  

Rise of The HIndies: The True Original Bollywood

Rise of The HIndies

A Look at New Age Hindi Cinema

Independent films: A film made without the use of studio money. It is made at a relatively low budget, approximately at $4 million.Known as Indie films.

Anurag Kashyap, the new face of Indie Movies in Bollywood. Director of Dev D and The Gangs of Wasseypur saga. 

This is a close definition of what an independent film generally alludes to. In Bollywood however an Indie film refers to a movie that speaks on unorthodox subjects that pertain to reality. Indie films or HIndie films as they are known in India, can be made from at most 20 crore (200 million) rupees by even the most popular production houses as long as the subject matter is relevant to society. These films do not have the general tropes of item numbers or action set pieces that come with the generic template of Bollywood movies. Even A-List actors make a claim to at least produce if not star in such enlightening, artistic and creative pieces.So let's look through the historic climb of HIndie films (or as they were known; Art house cinema and Parallel cinema).


 To full understand the rise of Parallel and subject heavy cinema it is important to look through the history of the changing Bollywood themes. When people are asked about Bollywood, most think of the generic love stories with out of the blue songs and physics defying action. Others take it in positive light and think Bollywood began with catchy tunes and mass entertainers with larger than life heroes and their gorgeous love interests. Sure Hindi cinema is all this, and has been so for quite a long time, but Hindi cinema did not necessarily begin in such fashion.

 Legendary actors Raj Kapoor and Nargis from Awara (1951), Awara means tramp/hobo alluding to Raj Kapoor's character. A movie based on social issues of the poor side of India during it's urbanization. Even the romantic story is unglamorous compared to current Bollywood norms.

Hindi cinema began in 1913 (yes Hindi Cinema has crossed a 100 years), with silent feature films including the famous Raja Harishchandra (1913) by well known auteur Dadasaheb Phalke, in those years silent films would be the norm. Talkies then came along in 1930's but a major turn for India was soon to arrive. With India's Independence Movement churning a success, the period from 1940's up to 1960's would produce a colossal amount of films and would be tagged as Hindi Cinema's Golden Period. This was the wind of change that would create Bollywood and signify the era of actors becoming stars and larger than life people.

The 1940's generally saw movies that tried to steep into social issues considerate to the populace that witnessed the rise of urban India post British rule. Legends such as Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor would be the leaders of this dominion. Mainstream Hindi cinema was also established with this, and contrary to popular belief it did not start with song and dance musicals but rather magnum opus movies based on Drama and hints of Romance. Movies included would be Mother India (1957) and Mughal-E-Azam (1960).

Mother India (1957). One of the few Indian films nominated for the Best Foreign Picture Oscar.

This is then where the Indies actually stepped in, back then considered Art-House cinema. These were in true form to the definition as the movies were made in low budgets. India is a country with multiple languages and as such there is Hindi cinema (Hindi being India's primary language) as it's stalwart, but there is also other cinema such as Tamil, Bengali, Bhojpuri. It was Bengali cinema's quality of film that brought about The Art-House Film Movement. Movies of this nature would soon gain critical and commercial success allowing the birthand growth of The Indian New Wave. During this point Indian films would be showcased at the Grand Cannes Film Festival and would vigorously compete for The Cannes Palme d'Or.

Commercial cinema then went through a boom in late 1960's through the 1970's. Cinema halls were filled with the public cheering romantic and action heroes. During this time art-house cinema struggled but survived thanks to directors like Shyam Benegal, Ketan Mehta etc. Still it was pushed under the heel of promoting commercial cinema, thus things took a turn for the worse for the Indies.In a swift moment art-house films had transitioned successfully from Bengal to Hindi cinema and in the same swift moment it had been buried underneath a sliver of politics that caused Film Financing Corporation to shed light on mass entertainer rather than though provoking films. Bollywood never looked the same and never looked back. 

In the next edition of Rise Of The HIndies, I will discuss the ongoing art house cinema and it's pillars of acting; Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Farooq Sheikh, Om Puri, Amol Parlekar and Shabana Azmi. I will also discuss it's non existence through the 90's and early 2000's Khan Era.

Naseeruddin Shah, one of India's greatest actors. He was a top choice for Parallel cinema directors during the heady days of mainstream blockbusters. Also quite a common choice for Hollywood directors in a role demanding culture and sophisticated Indian presence.

'Nuff Said

Aneesh Raikundalia