This has been a disappointing year for Bollywood with a whopping loss of 700 crores. The main reason for huge loss is the failure of most of the big budgeted movies due to lack of freshness and innovativeness in the scripts. Although, there were a few movies which are worth a watch but most of the big movies, slated as path-breaking movies turned out to be lacking in substance and were outrightly rejected by critics as well as viewers. Here, I present a list of movies worth a mention and the movies which disappointed me the most.
3 Idiots: Unarguably the best movie of this year. This movie is based On Chetan Bhagat’s novel- 5 point someone. When Aamir Khan –the perfectionist and one of the best directors in industry –Raj Kumar Hirani join hands, expectations soar and these two have lived up to the expectation of people. It is the biggest opener for Bollywood, business-wise. This movie is a take on our faulty education system without being preachy. It is one of the most entertaining movies of this decade. The chemistry between the Aamir Khan, Madhavan and Sharman Joshi is brilliant. This movie will make you laugh and cry at the same time. Read what we said about 3 Idiots in our complete review.
Stoneman Murders: One of the best thrillers made in Bollywood. It is based on real-life serial murder killings of pavement dwellers in the Mumbai of 1983. Kay Kay Menon gave a brilliant performance as a dedicated police officer and carries the movie alone on his shoulders. Although, it went mostly unnoticed, but it indeed is one of the best suspense thrillers ever made in India. We had a lot to say about this movie, when we reviewed it.
Paa: Amitabh Bachchan with his solid Performance in this movie proves that he still is the Shenshah of Bollywood. He plays a 13 year old teen suffering from Progeria –a rare genetic disorder which results in premature aging. The film deals with the relationship between a son and single mother, son and father with Progeria only as a backdrop. Abhishek Bachchan and Vidya Balan play parents to Amitabh bachchan. Vidya Balan chips in with a good performance but the performance by Amitabh Bachchan overshadows everything. Read more about Paa in our review of the movie.
Wanted: The best Bollywood masala movie to come out this year is Wanted. This movie provides Salman Khan with a much needed hit after his last hit Partner in 2007. It is a remake of Tamil and Telgu hit Pokiri and a directorial venture for Prabhudeva where Salman Khan plays an Undercover cop and Ayesha Takia his love interest. It’s a typical masala movie which has perfect dose of raw action, humour and romance but lacks a bit on emotional touch.
Dev D: This is modern day take on 1914 Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic novel- Devdas. A Low Budget movie made by Anurag Kashyap with Abhay Deol as the modern day Devdas and 2 new comers Mahi Gill and Kalki Koechlin playing Paro and Chandramukhi respectively. The film was appreciated both by Audience, as well as, critics and emerged as the first hit of 2009.
Blue: Slated as the first underwater movie for Bollywood, it boasted of great action scenes, best cinematography, Bollywood’s original action hero – Akshay Kumar, Kylie Minogue, A. R. Rahman’s music, and sexy bikni girl- Lara Dutta and all this ensured a great diwali opening for the movie but it stumbled on weekdays due to the lack of a strong script and thrills that make up a good thriller. Sanjay Dutt was looking out of place romancing Lara Dutta. It did average business but surely was the biggest disappointment as Anthony D’souza, the director, missed a golden opportunity to make Bollywood’s first underwater thriller as the most memorable movie, at least, for the year.
Chandni Chowk to China: The first major release of 2009 had everything going for it – Warner Bros’s name, Ramesh Sippy, Akshay Kumar, Gordon Lieu, good music and a huge hype, but despite all these, the movie fell flat on its face because of lack of tight script by Shriram Raghavan and senseless Direction of Nikhil advani. Masala films Like Ghajini, Wanted, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi are always loved by the Indian audience provided the maker can hold their interest for two hours or more but the script and the directionless direction brought the downfall of the biggest movie of 2009
London Dreams: The movie was about 2 friends Ajay Devgan and Salman Khan while the former works hard over his compositions and later one is care free but a naturally gifted composer. This is one of the finest performances of Salman Khan but an overstretched climax and average music resulted in one of the biggest dampener of the year.
Billu: This one is based on the friendship of mythological characters of Krishna and Sudama. Here Shahrukh Khan plays a superstar and Irfan Khan a poor barber in a village. The movie has a simple and sweet story but the Shahrukh factor, in the movie, worked against the movie as too much of Dance and songs and his over-the-top act hindered the pace of an otherwise sweet and simple story. In fact, it so appeared that Shahrukh Khan is promoting himself as a superstar amongst the public through this movie.
Whats Your Rashee: With this movie, the maker of Oscar nominated Lagaan and critically acclaimed Jodha Akbar and Swades enters into comic cinema with Harman Baweja and 12 different Priyanka Chopras each singing a song. But what the audience got to see was three and a half hours of torture and sleep-inducing pill. Priyanka Chopra does a decent job; Harman has improved with time but still is far from being a good actor. After 13 songs and three and a half hour we get to see an unconvincing and silly climax.
What were your best and worst movies of 2009 from Bollywood? What movie you liked the best, while which is the one best forgotten?
