MSD

I generally do not prefer to blog about a celebrity. Except for Christopher Nolan, I did not blog about any person, not even about my idols Dravid, Sehwag, Rahman or any of the tens of geniuses. Now I write about MSD because everyone needs to know how much I want him to leave Team India, forever. Yes, you read it right. I want him to leave because we don’t deserve him to be our captain. We insulted him, trolled him, hated him, pelted stones at his house, burnt his photos and what did he do? He just continued smiling and continued winning matches for Team India. What more does he need to do, to not be criticized by his own countrymen? Should he keep scoring runs in losing causes like Misbah does? Or should he too retire and then comeback like Afridi did? Or maybe he must play against the spirit, like Sanga did. Then will you love him?

He was the hero we needed, but not the one we deserved. So hunted him, we doubted his loyalty and we tried to bring him down. Because he could take it. Because he was not our hero. He was a silent guardian, a watchful protector.

This article is not about the Team India’s recent loss in World cup and definitely is not about convincing everyone what a great captain Dhoni is. It is just a reflection of the past 9 years of Indian cricket and how my personal views on Dhoni have been constantly changing.

DHONI, THE DESTROYER:

Our opening pair was never short of aggressive batsmen- Sachin, Ganguly and then Sehwag. Someone or the other always took that responsibility. But then came Dhoni, with a few flops in his early career and a majestic 183* against SL. I remember bunking school to watch that match and that innings was a very special one, mainly because of the sheer power displayed. We have been accustomed to see text book shots and neat cricket until that day. Many shots were played which couldn’t be named by commentators. India got a pinch hitter they needed. Just like everyone else, I too became his fan. He continued his butchering in the Pakistan series and that’s when everyone in India started admiring him. But some good things live short. Well, Dhoni is not one of those. He is the good thing that got better.

DHONI, THE WINNER:

2007 ODI World cup- an unforgettable nightmare to all the Indian players and fans. Dhoni, especially was criticized for his inability to lift up the momentum in the match against Bangladesh. When he was made the captain for the T20 wc, protests reached the peak. How can you choose a new captain for the World cup? We crossed the group stage, super four, semis and people still questioned his captaincy. We were one wicket from victory, in the finals and fans still wondered what kind of a crappy captain he was, to give the last over to Joginder Sharma. As soon as Sreesanth grabbed that catch, all the questions were answered. There still were people who called him “lucky”! He smiled.

DHONI, THE CALM AND THE COOL:

I still remember the two innings which could be considered as the start of the transformation of Dhoni’s batting. It was 2008. England toured India and we almost clean swept them in 7 match ODI series. In two of the matches, while India were chasing, Dhoni scored 29* of 51 and 50* of 61 balls. People started fearing that we lost a hitter. I was happy that we got a match winner! As I wished, those two innings were not the last of this calm composure. I lost count of his match winning performances while chasing. And his average of 109+ suggests that I am right. Not only in his batting style, he was ultra-cool, even on the field. I cannot recollect any instance in which he lost his temper and verbally attacked the opposition. People started criticizing him for having lost his technique and ability to hit out of the ground. He didn’t lose it. He chose to use it wisely. If he wanted to, he could have batted at 3^rd position every time and continue his hard hitting. Then, he would have hit a century every now and then and be successful every 1/5 innings and be loved for that. But he chose to be there for the team 5/5 times. And yeah, go ahead, abuse him for that.

DHONI, THE “KEEPER”:

If you step out of the crease and miss the shot when Dhoni is keeping, it’s better you just walk away. He is like lightning behind the wickets. We don’t usually admire that because unlike other keepers, he doesn’t dive much and show off. But then, he doesn’t need to. Because, he has an amazing ability of reading the path of the ball and adjusting his position according to that. Everyone knows the ability of Dhoni’s judgement, whether it is about taking the review or appealing at the right time. There were instances when he gave up his helmet to short leg even while keeping near the stumps. He doesn’t care, he doesn’t think about anything other than the team. So, yeah, continue abusing him!

DHONI, THE LEGEND:

28 years of waiting was at last done with that massive winning six. Yes, it was Viru who started the tournament with the crazy 175 and yes, it was Yuvi who shined throughout the tournament. Gambhir was the one who built the trembling innings in the final and Sachin was the one who was praised the most for his dedication. But when Dhoni was praised, cricket fans had problem with that too! They said that he stole the limelight with just one innings, in spite of failing throughout the tournament. But no one took time to understand how was it possible to cruise through the tournament, with an unstable middle order and a weak bowling attack? Of course, it was team work. But Dhoni was the adhesive that kept the team glued together. His tactics, bowling changes, use of part timers etc. were not noticed by many. May be because, we take the most important people and the things they do for us, granted! It is not that he did not face losses. He lost many matches, and that is a part of the game! Important thing was that, he always came back stronger. Gangluly recently stated, “Dhoni should write a book on field placement after he retires.” That is who Dhoni is! He did not see his new born baby for over two months, for the team and the result is the burnt photos and increased security for him! If this is the country he is fighting for, I wish he leaves the team and let the useless fans find someone else to blame. But, he won’t do it. No matter how many more stones you throw at him, he would smile back and continue sacrificing for our sake.

Dravid and Viru continue to be my all time favorites and Dhoni will continue being my secret idol.

THE ‘WHITE KNIGHT RISES’

“I always find myself gravitating to the analogy of a maze. Think of film noir and if you picture the story as a maze, you don’t want to be hanging above the maze watching the characters make the wrong choices because it’s frustrating. You actually want to be in the maze with them, making the turns at their side, that keeps it more exciting…I quite like to be in that maze.”

CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

 This may be one of the boring topics I choose to write, but I insist on this topic because it was he who had influenced me and my thoughts (and even my life!) to a large extent. Elegant, innovative and deep thinking – that’s Chris Nolan for u. This article is about the chronological rise of the Nolan and his masterpieces.

1. FOLLOWING (1998):
   

It is the directional debut of Nolan which showed the world how powerful the ideas of this genius can be! It is also the most underrated work of Nolan so far. With a complete runtime in black and white and a budget of mere 6,000$ (which is almost 40,000 times less than the budget of The Dark Knight Rises), it still is one of the least expensive full length feature films in the history of cinema. The shooting techniques used by Nolan were a revolution back then! Nevertheless, it turned out to be a gem! Nolan never had to look back since then.

2. MEMENTO (2000)
   

Many people think that there’s very negligible amount of humour in Nolan’s works. But the fact is that humour is present underlying, all along the movie. Very sensible and realistic sense of humour makes Nolan a unique thinker. Here’s a small example of his mastermind moments, which made me cry and smile at the same time
  Natalie: What’s the last thing that you remember?
  Shelby: My wife….

  Natalie: That’s sweet.

  Shelby: ……dying.

Memento is about the story of a short term memory loss patient, who seeks revenge for the rape and murder of his wife. It is considered to be one of the most ambiguous and unique narration in a movie, in the Hollywood history.

3. BATMAN BEGINS (2005):

Already, there were eight to nine movies based on the theme of Batman and all were below average grossers! And this time, Nolan, whose previous movie (Insomnia) gained mixed reviews, took over the responsibility of rebooting one of the darkest superheroes ever. And this time, it turned out to be legendary. Superheroes knew only one thing prior to the release of this film, which was to knock out the villains and save the world. But Nolan’s Batman Begins was different. Not only different, it was special because it was about the journey into one’s own heart- overcoming fears and defining one self.

“Its not who you are underneath, but what you do that defines you” is among one of the tens of inspirational/ philosophical dialogues from the movie.

4. THE PRESTIGE (2006)
   

What inspires me about Nolan is his way of approach, both in script selection and in the way of living. He is one such person who has confidence and courage blended in right proportions. Well, that’s the way to live the life. This time he sprnikled his magical quotes in different proportions all over the film. Right from the first dialogue “Now you’re looking for the secret. But you won’t find it because of course, you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to work it out. You want to be fooled”, the entire movie just lifts your spirit, giving goose bumps at times. Nolan once again chose a unique narration style which gave more strength to this wonderful piece of work (ART!).

5. THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)

One more feature of Nolan’s movies is that, if you watch the movie say four times, you feel like watching four different movies. That’s because you can never understand the entire concept in a single time, due to its depth- both in the dialogues and in the situations and not to forget the trademark narration style. As in the case of “The Dark Knight”, which has a million strings of concepts wounding up into a tight screenplay. The reception this movie has got, both among the audience and the critics, is huge! A sarcastic and witty dialogue for you:

 

 Joker (to Rachel): A little fight in you, I like that!

 Batman: Then you are gonna love me. 

…and a philosophical “Nolanian” dialogue:

Harvey Dent: You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

6. INCEPTION (2010)

Coming to the Nolan’s and Hollywood’s one of the best works- “Inception”, the discussion on why this movie is so special can go on for pages straight! The speciality of this movie is that you already know most of the simple facts about dreams, but our genius Nolan had embroidered the facts onto a special cloth of ‘dream sharing’ with such a perfection that whole world appreciated it. The way he use the concept to make it a nail biting thriller was just outstanding. Multiple level dreaming and incepting one’s brain left the audience shocked. A simple and interesting dialogue for you:

“Dreams, they feel real while we’re in them, right? Its only after we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question. You never remember the beginning of a dream, do you? You always end up right in the middle of what’s going on.”

7. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES:

Ending this legend’s collage with the a legendary closure- “The Dark Knight Rises.” Giving an epic ending to the epic series is never easy. But then, it is Nolan! Not much action, not many batman tricks, but what it contains is the NOLANISM. With the screen presence of Batman in the movie summing up to less than 35 minutes, Nolan made it big! The way batman describes his destiny in the dialogue is outstanding:

Catwoman: You don’t owe these people anymore! You’ve given them everything! 
Batman: Not everything. Not yet.

Simple yet, powerful!

____________________________________________________________
As for me, Nolan is the white knight of all his movies- a guardian of the moral values and creativity. He is the hero who gave the superhero (Batman), a new definition. This white knight is rising at an astonishing rate and hope he gives us many more masterpieces!
Go, watch Nolan’s next piece of brilliance, “Interstellar”, which is going to hit the screens on 7th Nov, 2014.

 

 

THE BROKEN CHARIOT

“If you want to cultivate a habit, do it without any reservation, till it is firmly established. Until it is so confirmed, until it becomes a part of your character, let there be no exception, no relaxation of effort.”

~Mahavira

In the vast grounds of Hastinapur, which witnessed the might of many warriors and the glory of many princes, entered the 105 brothers, called as Pandavas and Kauravas. Though it was everyone’s show, all the eyes were fixed on Arjun. People of the capital were excited to experience the brilliance of the greatest archer ever born, or they say. When it was time for the main act, there was a twist in the tale! A low born, or as he was called so, came up to the centre of the grounds and challenged Arjun for a one on one skills test. Arjun was ready for the challenge, but the “learned & civilized men” objected to it, saying that to participate in a royal challenge, one needs to be a Kshatriya or a king. “Evil” Duryodhana came forward to the stage and crowned the low born as the king of “Anga” kingdom. That low born never looked back or never let his well-wishers down and strived for their glory, all his life. This man, named Karna, is praised by one and all till date and this “you have to be a Kshatriya to compete” incident, which took place thousands of years ago, is still remembered as one of the low points in human history.

In the congested slums of Dohepur, which witnessed the suffering of uncountable number of people, did rise a star! Working as a janitor during day and studying under the lights of the nearby railway station during nights, an orphan scored 175 in the IIT JEE mains, 5 less than the qualifying mark! He did not feel bad then. Next day, when he went to work in one of the houses, his master gave him a sweet box and asked him to congratulate his son, Rahul for scoring a rank of 3000 (category) with a mere 90 marks. Karan did not understand all that then. Wearing the only untorn dress he has, he went to the Sarpanch’s office to ask them about it. They explained to him clearly what “Reservation” is how it is needed for the society. Without reservations, backward caste students like Rahul would get injustice! All the way while walking back home, various thoughts crossed his mind about how hard he worked for each single mark and the times when he used to survive only on water and starch for days straight to buy one book. He couldn’t understand why a born with the silver spoon guy, who scored almost half of his score was given a chance to study in the reputed college of IIT and why he is not! He quietly went back to his hut, took a blade into his hands and nothing ever shone in those slums again! This man, named Karan, was pitied by the news watchers for one day or two, until they moved on to the next important news of India winning the world cup and this “he is better than you because of his birth” incident, which happen every day, is no longer cared about!

 

Let’s take an example of a teacher job, in Government College. There were many incidents where applicants with 80% or more are rejected to give way to the category applicants who couldn’t even score 60%. Think from a student’s perspective! How a lecturer with a high command on the subject (80%) would have taught them, compared to a lecturer who would now be reckless about his job because he wouldn’t know the value of that position?! If you have given multiple chances to a candidate in the form of reservation all his life and still he is able to score only 60%, why on the earth would you want to give him another chance, ruining the life of a talented person? Where is the loophole?

 

It’s not always the case that students are fond of this opportunity given to them. There was an incident where I met a person who earned my respect for life! We were playing cricket in our street and after the match, I talked to a guy, 3 years younger to me about his JEE exam. He told me that though he belonged to a category, he did not mention it in the application form. When he said, “I am happy with what I earn, not what I am given”, I saw the pride in his eyes. He went on to score a rank of 400 and I was filled with happiness that moment, though I have no relation or friendship with him! Every person understands that by using the reservation facility (even though their financial conditions don’t need it), they spoil another student’s life who is better than them. When they do understand this fact, terms would be a lot better for everyone.

It is not even the mistakes of the politicians. Poor things, they can’t risk speaking on the anti-reservation bill and losing the votes of a certain caste. And of course, on any day, vote bank is more important than the lives of people and deaths of students. Dr. Ambedkar did what he did because the conditions were too bad back then, If life is a race, backward caste people were competing from 50 metres behind the start line. He tried to bring them to the start line so as to have a fair competition. But now, instead of equality, category students are placed in the mid-way of the track and hurdles are placed in the way of general students, making it an upstream swim for them! Just make it less unfair, if not fair! Just don’t give the talented students a broken chariot and then expect them to race of.

PS: This article is not against anyone. It is written just because I felt that it’s high time for people to lose their fear talking about this sensitive topic.

 

 

 

 

 

PICK YOUR STYLE

Story writing is an art, which has no limits for the amount of creativity that can be put into it. You can completely change the phase of the tale you choose to narrate by selecting different formats related to the chronological order. While sometimes this enables you to make a plain story interesting, sometimes it aids you in hiding the detailing and popping up with surprise elements.  This post is especially for aiding people who aspire to write and are at the beginning stages of their writing or blogging. First step to success is making right choices. In the style of Indiana Jones, “choose wisely”.

1. Chronological: The Titanic style

   

   This is the most common style which is used by almost every writer and that too regularly! In this style, you don’t disturb the chronological order of the occurrence of events. You just carry on with the flow and pen down the story as it is. Once upon a time, this this writing style created a monopoly in the field of writing. There were other styles too, but sighting those in the literature was a rarity. But over the past few decades, this style also is being used only in the apposite situations. When you want to depict the events of a part of your life (For example your college life or school life) over the time, this is a perfect style to choose.

 

2. Slo-mo chronological: The Inception style

   
   This is a very rare writing style. You can go for this style if you want to depict a short time period in a very strong and effective manner. In this style, you expand the time bubble to give a situation as much detailing as possible. This increases the importance of that situation and also gives you lot of space to write down your thoughts.

   For example, http://ahirraoakshay2020.blogspot.in/2013/08/24-seconds.html

3. Flashback chronological: Typical Bollywood style
   
   

   *Everything goes casually and in the normal pace in the first half. At the end of the first half, there crawls in an unexpected twist in the tale and suddenly readers’ minds shift to the suspense mode. As they begin storming their brains with guesses, a flashback thread arrives and disentangle the sub plots. This spreads the red carpet for the writer to write a clinching ending and finish it off in style.

   * Story opens with a brilliant, interesting opening scene and gradually fades out to a flashback episode for the entire story and the present timeline bouncing back just towards the end. There are infinite other sub-formats for this one and each one has its own specialty.

   For example, http://vivek190992.blogspot.in/2012/06/merry-go-round.html

 

4. Alternate chronological: The Memento style

   http://i.imgur.com/AK8TafY.jpg

   
   
   In some cases, timeline becomes quite unimportant when narrating two related/interwoven stories which are not of parallel chronology but are of parallel emotions. In the cases where you want to portray multiple phases of your life/story, this is a really good option to consider. In this type, your narration of a story goes in chronological order, but in the alternate paras. So basically, this is about two stories running parallel to each other.

   For example, http://vivek190992.blogspot.in/2012/08/the-vow.html

    https://euphoricwrites.wordpress.com/2014/03/28/the-salsa-divine-rhythm/

5. Reverse chronological: The Irreversible style

   

   A great ending is a writer’s favourite weapon. But sometimes the journey is more beautiful than the thrilling end and the beginning is more memorable than the ending scenario. In such cases, reverse chronological style can be used. As the name suggests, it unwraps the plot in a reverse chronological order. This is a very rarely used format. But you can try it to make the mediocre plots more interesting.

   For example, http://vivek190992.blogspot.in/2011/11/first-anniversary.html

 

6. Random chronological: The classic Nolan style
   
   Those who watch Nolan’s movies would be quite familiar with this style. There is no particular order. Its randomness is its strength. But it is a style which differentiates good writers from bad and makes the best writers stand out. Because, no matter how random the timeline is arranged, there is a particular pattern hidden inside the narrative, which when decoded makes you understand many surprises which are carefully placed in the plot. In simple words, there is coherence in that randomness.

   For example, http://vivek190992.blogspot.in/2012/06/following.html

 

THE PUPPET SHOW

“The principle that human nature, in its psychological aspects, is nothing more than a product of history and given social relations removes all barriers to coercion and manipulation by the powerful.”

Noam Chomsky

You think you’re living your lives? Well, it is not false, but a bit complicated. When you were a child, your mom fed you while showing and calling the moon. When you started learning bicycle, you dad made you think that he was holding the cycle, while he was not! You were warned not to go outside at night or a monster would eat you. You were asked not to do bad things or else you would be making it to the Santa’s naughty kids’ list. You were asked to pray to god, so that you would be successful in what you seek. These were, and there were many more, sweet manipulations which made you what you are today. Your character is built on the foundations of manipulation, may be for good or for bad. So, in the first stage of your life, you were nothing more than a petty puppet in the hands of the society, people around you and most importantly, your best friends!

Then comes the second stage- white manipulation. Here you offer yourself as a bait to the manipulators. It is you who tie the strings to get ready to be a puppet. A 20 second advertisement decides which product is suitable for you. A fellow movie watcher (also called critic) changes the opinion you have, of a film. Your HOD decides which subject is good for your career and your relatives decide which branch is better for your future. Your broker decides which a better stock investment is and the news channel you watch guides you towards the politician you hate. So, even at the stage two, you are nothing but a mere puppet.

Then comes the ultimate thing- manipulation in the hands of the people closest to you, also called as “Betrayal”. You’ll face many situations in your life where you start celebrating your situation and end up realizing that the direction and screenplay might have been yours but the screenplay was written by someone else. That is a very tricky situation where you’ll end up at the edge of a cliff, not knowing whether to throw your relationship with them away, or to bring it back into the world of manipulation. Get back your life. Take it back from the clutches of the manipulators. Your life is yours to live. When you make a decision, try not to step back from it just because someone else had a different opinion. Take your stand, make sure that the others’ opinion is selfless, before you make sure that it’s valid. You may have heard that trust is humane, but also, trust is a path to betrayal. Don’t trust a person and then try to know him. Let trust be the final stage of any relationship. Be the writer of your own story. It’s your life, don’t make it a puppet show!

Fair & Lovely

“I have no colour prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed prejudices. All I care to know is that a man is a human being, and that is enough for me; he can’t be any worse.”
~ Mark Twain

 It is easy for a man to be called as a human being, but difficult to act like one. It is said that a slave wants to be like his master. This ideology has been embedded so deep into the systems of the Indians that we are obsessed with the fairness of the masters those who did rule us for 200 years. We feel proud of our generation for waging a “war” against the untouchability, inter caste marriages, sexism and many more social evils, and even winning some of those. But what about the devil rooted deep inside our hearts, racism? Problem with racism is that if humanity is a super hero, racism is its alter ego. We just wear the masks of humanity, kindness and honor; and act like the superhero called “Human Being” at most of the times. But when no one’s looking, deep down in our hearts, we are the ultimate devils. If racism was humanity’s arch-villain, it could’ve been terminated long time ago. But being its alter ego, it can’t be ended without ending the life of the super hero too. One solution is to keep wearing the mask.

     We admire Morgan Freeman a lot, but fail to show the same compassion towards a black person we encounter, in reality. He might be our friend, but we don’t fail to crack a joke or two at his back. We are preoccupied by the idea that “Fair is beautiful”. Every time the advertisement of a fairness product is aired, stereotyping women as the replicas of fairness and promoting idea that one is beautiful and respected only if one is fair, humanity degrades a bit more.  At first, they were promoting the idea of attracting the opposite sex by looking fair. But over the time, ideologies deteriorated more and more until those advertisements even started planting the ideas of  confidence being equal to the amount of fairness a person has! That is the rock bottom of the principles of advertising. Cosmetics were shifted from the category of “luxuries” to “accessories” and now to “basic needs”, and this does apply to the gentlemen out there too. It’s not that only looks are admired in our country. But it took Dhanush a world popular song and a two hour film to be admired by the people in the North, but just a video song of five minutes from Saawariya to admire Ranbir. It’s not just about the colour, it’s not about the assaults on the students of North Eastern states and it’s definitely not about the silly jokes cracked on South Indians and addressing them as “Madraasis”. It’s all about the mentality of an Indian, which is ugly, crippled and needs immediate mending.

Why are we so repelled to the dark skin? Is this what we have learnt from THE Great British rule, to discriminate people by color? When in mythology it is clearly stated that the Lord Krishna is a dark skinned person, why is he portrayed in Hindi TV series and movies as a fair colored guy? Is it true that viewers can’t stand the sight of a dark colored god? Are our minds so degraded that the inner beauty no longer matters to us? What kind of people are we, giving importance to the darkness of the skin and neglecting the darkness in the hearts?!

      On this wonderful day of 12^th of February, on which a person who changed the face of humanity had come to earth, let’s remember his principles and ideologies. Some of his opinions may be indifferent and hurting, but everyone has their share of negativity in them! His name may be erased from the history over the time, but if we change our mentality, his positive ideologies are going to live for ever.

Top 5 Hollywood movies- 2013

NOTE: This is a list which includes only the movies I have watched. So, I may have missed many movies which are better than the movies in the list.

5. The Great Gatsby

This name may surprise many as The Great Gatsby was definitely not among the best sought out movies of the year. But I was impressed by it’s grandeur and sensitiveness of the story. I still can’t understand why didn’t Leo bag an Oscar yet.

4. The Conjuring

If you have seen this movie, you will know why it is mentioned in the list. Horror movies are difficult to make mainly because of the saturation in the field of story. Bringing a new kind of story and screenplay into action, The Conjuring is definitely most terrific horror film in many years.

3.  The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

To direct an epic movie is one thing, but to make a epic series of movies is another thing. The Lord Of the Rings series is one of the best on screen adaptions of a book. The amount of detailing Peter Jackson puts into his movies is incredible. And once again he did strike with Hobbit 2.

2. Captain Phillips

Talk about one man show and he’s always there. Though he had done outstanding performances in movies like Terminal, Da vinci Code, Cloud Atlas etc., he really hasn’t been up to mark after Cast Away almost 13 years ago.  And he is back with a bang in Captain Phillips. Outstanding performance, outstanding story and wonderful direction.

1. Gravity

DON’T LET GO. Hollywood, please don’t let go of Alfonso Cuarón. With such a thin story line, the magic he has done on screen in Gravity left all of us speechless. I always wondered how a space trip would be like. Thanks to this film, I don’t have to wonder anymore. Hats off to the team. And not to forget, impeccable performance from Sandra Bullock .

There are many more excellent movies which deserve a mention whether I have watched them or not, like Monsters University, The Hunger Games, Despicable Me 2, Star Trek 2, Prisoners, World War Z, 12 Years a slave etc.

Top 5 Hindi albums- 2013

It is a very difficult list to make because from about 150 movies, it’s very difficult to choose five because of the quality of music that Bollywood produces.  Here’s the list of top 5 albums (again, my opinion) and no reasons provided because music has no reason to be loved.

5. Ye Jawaani Hai Deewani

4. Nautanki Saala

3.  Lootera

2.  Raanjhanaa

1. Aashiqui 2

Top 5 Bollywood movies- 2013

I am a movie maniac and I generally like to see movies in a detailed way, understanding its deeper meaning. Hindi cinema has a name for its commercial inclination towards Hollywood and plagiarism as much as eve its name “Bollywood” is a direct copy. But over the past few years, we have experienced some great and original film making, sometimes even better than Hollywood movies within its budgetary limits. This is a list of top 5 Bollywood movies I’ve watched this year.  This list may be completely different from the list of someone else, but it purely is a reflection of my taste and opinion.

 

5. The Lunch box:

A movie which is deals with the delicate relationships of life and portrays the wonderfully managed “Dabbawala” system for the first time on screen. It is embraced by all and in almost everyone’s opinion is worthy to be the Oscar nomination for the year. Most of you might be wondering why this isn’t in the number 1 position. That is  because despite its finesse,  I think it could have been a lot better than what it is.

 

4.  Ranjhanaa

Over the past few years, Hindi cinema has almost been saturated in the genre love and when I say love, I mean only love, not love/crime or love/social or any other combos. But this one movie changed it all. Raanjhanaa  is a perfect balance of entertainment, innovation and emotions which made it a great love story.

3.  Vishwaroop

Kamal is undoubtedly one of the best actors Indian cinema has ever produced. But with Vishwaroop, he proved that he is utterly creative and can defy all the odds to make one gem of a movie fighting all the controversies.

 

2. Madras Cafe

A movie based on the true happenings in ex-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and that too in a completely non-commercialized way, was either a dream or a box office failure until Madras Cafe hit the screens. Shoojit Sircar who made a successful experiment with his first movie, “Vicky Donor” took it to a next level with his second one. It is definitely a master piece.

 

1. Bhag Milkha Bhag

Farhan is known to be a multi-talented guy. He has been successful as a director, singer and also as an actor. But in this movie, he just raised the bars very high with his dedication. He didn’t accept any advertising contracts for two years so that his new look wouldn’t be revealed. By the end of the shooting, he was left with as less as 5% of his body fat which is a very difficult body condition to be in. If his dedication is one pillar of the movie, the direction is another. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra is a director well known for his master piece Rang de Basanti. To explain his direction in one phrase, he brought Milkha back to life.

 

There are other movies like Ship of Thesus, Ram Leela, Shahid etc. which deserve a mention.