The first of these is very special to me. It's Khoon Bhari Maang (1988), and it's special because it was the very first Bollywood movie I ever saw. I was around a friend's house and we'd just finished carrying out a detailed analysis of some of the favourite features of our local hostelries. So there we were, sitting in his living room with a takeaway curry on our laps, when the ritual cry went up - 'What's the midnight movie?' 'Oh, dearie me,' my friend said, or words to that effect, 'It's one of those Indian things - you know with the trees and the orchestra offscreen.' 'Trees?' 'Yeah, there's always some really pretty girl being chased around a tree by an ugly guy.' 'Like in Creature from the Black Lagoon?' 'Sort of.' 'Okay, pretty girl-ugly guy, can't be all bad. Let's give it a shot,' I said. And that was it, my life was transformed forever. Once I'd looked upon the golden countenance of Rekha (especially in the second half after the makeover), there was no turning back. Since that time, by my own estimates, I've seen over 3000 Bollywood movies but none remains as clear in my mind as Khoon Bhari Maang, and no heroine can come remotely as close in my heart as Rekha. The story is a simple one of revenge. Rekha is Aarti, and she is not very attractive with a disfiguring birthmark on her face. She is widowed but rich. Kabir Bedi weaves his way into her life, tricking her into marrying him. The day after they are married, he literally throws her to the crocodiles from a boat. However, she is rescued by a kindly farmer who looks after her. She then trades everything she has, her diamond earrings, for extensive plastic surgery. The upshot is that she becomes a breathtakingly beautiful femme fatale. Unrecognized, she then sets about weaving her way back into Kabir Bedi's life. To see what happens next, you must watch the movie!
Here's a secret! Anil Kapoor is older than he looks! He is lucky in having one of those rounded, happy faces that never seem to age, but it was in 1987 that he first sprang to stardom in Mr. India. This is that rare thing in Indian movies, at least until recently, a comic science-fiction superhero movie. Even before this movie, Anil had been around for a while, building his credentials with a succession of solid performances, including Meri Jung, but it was Mr. India that made him the star he is today. The plot revolves around an evil villain, Amrish Puri as Mogambo. You remember Amrish, he's the really bad guy in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom as well. Through his international terrorist organization, Mogambo is infiltrating all areas of Indian society, causing chaos and mayhem all over. His ultimate plan is to take over the country. Arun (Anil Kapoor) is an everyday good guy. Although he has no money and is homeless, he somehow succeeds in running an unofficial orphanage for street children. Could there ever be anyone any more noble than that? Arun then discovers a secret device that can make the owner invisible. He uses this ability to carry out noble deeds. Personally, I can think of other uses for such an invisibility device, mostly related to girls changing rooms, but then I'm not as noble as Arun. Eventually, he comes up against Mogambo's evil organization and the rest, as they say, is history. For some eye-popping action and great family entertainment, Mr. India is the one for you!
The recent Umrao Jaan with Aishwarya and Abhishek was a pretty good movie, but for sensitivity of performance, it doesn't come anywhere near the 1981 original which starred Rekha. The story is based on Mirza Hadi Ruswa's classic from 1905 and focuses on the life of the famous Lucknow courtesan of the same name. It's a classic heartbreaking story, the type that only Bollywood can do so well. A young girl is kidnapped from the streets and sold to a brothel. She learns all the arts of the courtesan and then falls in love with a local Nawab. However, there's no way his family is going to let him marry a prostitute and he must marry to their taste in order to keep his position and money. Guess what he does - the little spineless rat fink? But never mind, our heroine moves on and she then falls in love with a bandit chieftain, but tragically, he is killed by the police. But it's still not over because of course, bad news comes in threes in Bollywood. The British then decide to invade Lucknow and everyone in the city is forced to flee. Unknowingly, Rekha stumbles across the village where she was born as she drifts through the countryside. Slowly, she begins to recognize it and to seek out her family. Then amazingly she finds them, but will they take her back again? That's what you need to find out by watching this great movie.
Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) is a tragic romance with some very light touches that enshrines all the elements of the modern genre and stars a young and confident Aamir Khan in his first movie and the gorgeous pout of Juhi Chawla. This was a landmark of a movie and, along with Khoon Bhari Maang, is often seen as the turning point in the industry. During the late 70s and early 80s, it had allowed itself to get bogged down in increasingly violent and unimaginative scripts, as though we were watching more and more photocopies of Sholay with each one a little more faded and a little more jaded compared to the last.Then came these two great movies showing panache, élan, style, vigour and a sharpness of acting style and modern interaction between the key protagonists that revolutionized the industry. QSQT shot Aamir to stardom of course and he's never looked back since. There's more than a touch of 'Romeo and Juliet' about the script of this movie, but the style is forever Bollywood. You'll enjoy every minute of it.
With the exciting news that SRK and Kajol will be teaming up once again in My Name is Khan, it's perfect that this article now brings us to their seminal movie together Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (DDLJ)(1995). This was made in the days when Aditya Chopra could be relied upon to make great movies. It ran for an incredible 600 weeks in Mumbai cinemas and defined the term mega-hit. Of course, it's a love story, but there are great twists in the script that we'd never seen before. First of all, the two lead characters are BBIs - British-Born Indians. SRK and Kajol fall in love on a trip to Europe (by this stage dancing around trees has been replaced by running up and down mountains in clear contravention of the Mountain Safety Code) but the problem is - and wouldn't you just know it - Kajol had been betrothed by her father to a relative in Punjab. SRK follows her there and the second half of the film is a delightful milieu of unrequited love, clash of cultures, beating, hunting, comedy and heartrending scenes. But how does it all end? You know I won't tell you the answer to that! Go see it now!
Asoka (2001), based of course very loosely on the life of Ashoka The Great, was an epic of immense proportions. It starred SRK in the title role and Kareena Kapoor, who looked lovely in those days before she became too skinny and lost her body. There were 6,000 extras in the film but everyone was worth it as the movie rattled around the world making SRK a big name in dozens of countries. The film tells the tale of two brothers. SRK is one of them and Ajith Kumar plays the other. They battle each other in a number of different ways, supported by their mothers because this is India of course, in order to gain the throne of the magic kingdom, so to speak - I'm simplifying this a bit. At one stage Asoka leaves the riches of the kingdom to lead the life of a common man in order to learn about what's really important in life. It's during this period that he meets Kareena Kapoor, whom he believes at first to be a simple peasant girl, but who in fact is the princess of a nearby kingdom, on the run and with her own problems to solve. He decides to help but slowly works his way back to his own kingdom and the next series of clashes with his brother. The labyrinthine plot of Shakespearean proportions slowly begins to unfold in heroic fashion with Asoka in the end adopting Buddhism and spreading its message of peace to the four corners of the known world, only after he's slaughtered about half the kingdom of course.
And then it came to pass that Aamir Khan became a man. No one else has made such an impact in front of the cameras in Bollywood, completely rewriting the rulebook with regard to our sensitivities and understanding of what can be achieved within the medium. In a series of movies, he has breathtakingly carried us with him into territories that we never knew existed and never dreamed of exploring. Lagaan (2001) was more than just a movie - it was a challenge to the whole concept of imperialism. It was universal in its message of resistance to oppression. More than that, it was a tribute to the indefatigably of the human spirit when facing enormous odds and best of all, it contains one of the most exciting cricket matches you'll ever see! We all know the plot of course because it's a simple one. The downtrodden villagers are resisting new tax increases placed upon them by their opulent British masters. The British commander toys with them, offering to waive the tax if the village can beat his officers at cricket. The villagers have to almost start from scratch to learn the game, which is possibly one of the most complex in the world in terms of field positions and technical mastery of the key skills. They are helped a little by the daughter of the commander who believes the challenge is unfair, and she teaches them the basics of the game. But it's Aamir who steals the show, demonstrating skills of leadership interpreted through a bravura acting performance that carried hundreds of millions around the world on his side as the game enters its third and final nail-biting day of play. Who wins? You must watch the movie to see the outcome. As The Hindu newspaper put it at the time, "The movie is not just a story. It is an experience. An experience of watching something that puts life into you, that puts a cheer on your face, however depressed you might be."
I'm finding it tough now to restrict this list to just ten - because now that Bollywood has come of age, there are great new films every month. But no list could be complete without something from one of India's (well, Canada's really) greatest directors Deepa Mehta. The only thing is that it's so difficult to choose. Fire, Water, Earth - which would you choose? I'm going to go for Earth (2001) because it truly shocked me. For one thing, I'd never really understood the Partition and the tragedy that ensued for millions in its wake. The film taught me all about that and it altered me, but it wasn't that which shook me. What shocked me was the sheer inventiveness of Deepa Mehta's directorial genius and her audacity in the way that she used Aamir Khan's character. No one else would have done that. No other actor would have allowed his heroic screen persona to be manipulated in that way. It was a triumph of the cohesion of two outstanding minds who live outside of the usual frame. And then there was Nandita Das. She makes you fall in love with her through a glass screen in a crowded cinema when she's not even talking to you. How does she do that? I don't know, but I know I've worshiped that woman ever since and she's never let me down with the strength of her character, her social conscience and her creative ability. Please don't get me started on Water as well. The world is a better place with Nandita in it. The finale of this movie is one of the best I've ever seen. The movie should be compulsory viewing in every history, politics and ethics course in every university worldwide. I'm campaigning for just that.
It would be easy to turn this into the 10 Best Aamir Khan movies or the 10 Best Deepa Mehta movies. Perhaps I'll produce those articles later. But to give everyone else a chance, I'm going to walk away from this corner of Bollywood and simply indulge myself by talking about two movies I've simply enjoyed very much in the last couple of years. The first of these is Don (2006). It's a film with great style and it stars - as well as SRK as the titular character - the rather lovely Priyanka Chopra, the equally lovely Isha Koppikar and one of my favourite character actors Boman Irani. Most of the movie was shot in Malaysia, where SRK was recently awarded a Datukship for services rendered to the tourist industry. The movie is essentially about how Priyanka Chopra tries to infiltrate the gangster Don's life in order to exact her revenge for his killing her brother. The plot is absolutely electric with more twists than a corkscrew bottle opener, you really need to be alert at every moment - don't risk popping out to the toilet. The final fight scene on a bridge high in the sky is completely extraordinary - the guys really look like they don't like each other. Then there's the ending which is left cleverly ambiguous so that you can almost make up your own ending. How would you have liked it to end? Why not watch the movie and see.
My last choice is one of pure egocentric impulse. It's Jism (2003). I guess it's not truly a great movie, but my god, it has some of the sexiest scenes I have ever seen in a movie. We're not talking pornography here. It's easy enough to find slices of tired flopping flesh that degrade the spirit and make you feel sad for the future. What we're talking about in Jism is real passion between the leads John Abraham and Bipasha Basu as their subsequent romance has underlined. What this movie does is to take Bollywood down a new road, a leading road, where it's saying to the world, you can create genuine excitement from passion alone without the need for synthetic lust - that's art - when all the actors need to do sometimes is to look at each other in the right way. The story is a simple one. Bipasha is married to a rich man, and she wants him dead because she wants his money. But does she also want John? She wraps John around her little finger which isn't too hard to do when you look like Bips - just ask John - and then she persuades him to kill the husband so they can be together, or so she says. But the majesty of the plot in a film noir such as this is in the twists and turns, the intrigue and deception, the amorality of all the lead characters, except the poor husband who seems like a good guy, and the avenues and the byways that the movie leads you into and the ghost in the machine - the character who will make the whole delicate tapestry of the plot unravel, in this case John's best buddy who unfortunately happens to be a police inspector - curses! In what for Bollywood is a very tight and well-written script, Jism succeeds on every level that counts. I'd give it ten.So that's it. My ten favourite movies of the last thirty years. I hope you've enjoyed this trip through time as much as I have. Of course, your ten favourite movies will be different than mine and that's great. It's not a contest. What we all share at BollySpice, however, is a love for the art form that Bollywood has become, as distinct in its own way as ballet, tragic theatre or graphic novels - an expression of the human spirit, an indication of what it can achieve when you blend the creativity of the individual with the cooperation of the team. Bollywood - it's what makes us human. Enjoy!
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