18. Ghajini (घाजिनी -Hindi -2008)

Director : A. R Murugadoss
Cast: Aamir Khan , Asin Thottungal , Gia Khan

Imagine the things below :
1) - You saw a Hollywood flick and you like it very much.
2)- You make a Tamil film inspired from it and it became super hit.
3)- You dub the the film in to Telugu and there also it became super hit.
4)-Now you get the chance to make - re - make to Hindi.

what would you do?
You will analyze both positive and negative aspects of your film and make sure when you do it for the third time there will wont be any thing at all to improvise.

Well that is what exactly happened with this movie.
This guy called A. R Murugadoss made something which cannot be improvised.

Today onwards there will be a new standard for other actors who want to show their physique onscreen - set by this guy called -Aamir Khan.

Asin was as great as she did in Tamil.
Lets call her Miss.SunShine.
I remember hearing claps for her funny dialogues and acting when I saw the Tamil version years back.
I heard claps for Asin exactly at those scenes - this time- from a Hindi speaking audience.
I think her job was a bit easy because her scenes and dialogues where almost same as the original.

The picturisation of songs was superb.
The picturisation of " Bhekka "song reminded me about some photographs of "Brian F Peterson"


I was scared about the song of Gia Khan. Apparently she replaces NayanThara in this hindi version.
As I mentioned earlier in Ghajini -Tamil - post - Nayan was a pain in my eyes.
[Her name means - Nayan -> Eyes. Thara- Stars.Now you find the rest]
I was wondering what Gia will do for this song as Nayan has not left any stones un turned.

By Gods Grace , the song did not last for 5 mintes as it originally intended.

I missed the final fight scene which was a major plus point in the Tamil version.

Well , the fights looked pretty ordinary compaerd to what Old veterens do there in Tamil.
Still I think it will be a different expereince for North Indian audience.

If people liked something , you can practically do anything.
:)

17. Ghajini (கஜினி - Tamil) - 2005

Director : A.R Murugad0ss
Cast: Surya , Asin Thottungal , NayanThara

This happened to the be the first film that I see in the first day of release.
You can guess how it can be if you ever tried in your college days.

And once I returned home I was sure this is going to make history.
That was almost 4 years back.

Surya was absolutely great with his character.
The dress sense was another great plus .

The fight scene at the last would be a mile stone to the grap

Today I saw the Hindi version of this movie and thought I should recall about this movie.

Well this was a movie that had re-defined the word action in Tamil movie.
You can accuse the director of taking the core concept from the English movie memento.

But apart from the core concept , all the rest is his own creation.
There is one more scene inspired from the Movie - Amelie.


But even that scene fit perfect to the story.
There was wonderful songs , great editing and great stunts.


If there is something I really hate about this movie is - the character of played by NayanThara.
There was a song where she does the equivalent of item number.

I was never been embarrassed before like I felt after watching that song.

If I should make my words polite and graceful I should say -the kind of camera angles experimented in it will be a treasure to the western cameramen who work with adult film industry.

16 . Pedar (1996)

Director:

Majid Majidi

Writers:

Majid Majidi (writer)
Mehdi Shojai (writer)

More at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117315/


This is the only Majidi film which failed to make an impression.
May be because it is little bit old.

If you look close - you can see few things that repeats in majidi Movies.
1) A wild River 2) A small stream of water 3) A return trip usually from city to village 4) Something that floats with the water in stream.

15. Baron (2001)

Director:

Majid Majidi

Writer:

Majid Majidi (writer)

More at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0233841/

A cute , soft romantic movie with an unique style of narrating.
Great acting from all the actors regardless of the length and importance of their roles.

14 . Ratatouille (2007 , IMDB 159)

Directors:

Brad Bird
Jan Pinkava (co-director)

Writers:

Brad Bird (screenplay) and
Jan Pinkava (story)

More at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382932/

When your medium is life less digital images which is essentially zeros and ones the director has to direct the movie as well as act for all the characters in the movie.


This movie has redefined my concepts about Food , The art of making Food and yes - about Rats.
:) .

If you happened to read the book - Icon - An autobiography of Steve Jobs - you will have a fair idea about animation films.
I mean how difficult it can be.

When you have a fine - end product like this - of at least around 100 greatly talented people what you can say in return?

Thank you very much.

13. അനന്തഭദ്രം (Ananthabhadram-Malyalam)

Director: Santhosh Sivan

Cast : Pridhviraj , Kaavya madhavan , Manoj K Jayan


A beautifully shot movie in which each single frame carries a signature of Santhosh Sivan.
Of course all the three lead actors have done a great job.

If you really want to point out a draw back in this movie it is the lousy climax.
May be the best in Malayalam in this category.

12 . Slum Dog Millionaire (2008, IMDB 58)

Directors:

Danny Boyle
Loveleen Tandan (co-director: India)

Writers:

Simon Beaufoy (screenplay) and
Vikas Swarup (novel)

More Info at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/


I started watching this movie with great expectation but ended it with much disappointment.
There were lot of news and reviews about this movie all over internet.

If I have to believe what Danny Boyle has to say about India , Bombay in particular - yes Ashamed.
I am extremely shamed.
This is a very improbable , eccentric , illogical bundled together .

If you are a Westerner and you like the movie it is just because you like strange things once in a while.

If you are a Bollywood freak and you love this movie , it is just because - this is another stupid bollywood movie which speaks English.