If someone ask you what are 10 best Bollwood films made after the independence, then it will be an enormous task for anyone to come out with 10 films those are liked by masses and critics as well. After browsing through archives on the internet and remembering so many films, in my personal opinion these are 10 best films which I am listing in this weekend blog.
- A Wednesday (2008)- A film directed by Neeraj Pandey. It is about a common man who is fed up with system, where terrorists taking advantage of legal system which takes long time to deliver judgement, takes matter in his own hand. A gripping thriller, fine acting by Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Jimmy Shergill and others. Film was remade in Tamil, Telugu and even in Hollywood.
- Satya (1998)- A film made by Ram Gopal Varma. It was one of thee many films made by him on underworld. It had no established star cast in the main roles. This film was written by Anurag Kashyap. It had shown Mumbai’s political and underworld life in true sense, and what a performance by Manoj Bajpayee in the role of gangster Bhiku Mhatre.
- The Lunch Box (2013)- A film directed by Ritesh Batra. Now if you are aware about the Dabbewala’s Lunch Box delivery system in Mumbai, and how a love story can be developed around that, is this film. A bored housewife who daily sends lunch box to her husband, started getting her lunch box delivered to a soon to retire executive. How he started liking her dishes and sends her thank you note in the lunch box only, and how slowly feeling starts developing between them. Till the end they never meet. Fantastic performances by Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur in the lead roles, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in supporting role of the officer who is going to succeed Irrfan.
07 Salaam Bombay (1988)- A Mira Nair film. This films showed the real slum life of Bombay. Most of the child artists in the film were picked up from slums of Bombay. Film was totally shot on the real locations. Film was critically acclaim all over the world and won many international and national awards.
06 Lagaan (2001)- A film written and directed by Aushutosh Gowarikar. Can you imagine a film having a background of late 1890s can have cricket as main theme. In a draught prone area, the villagers are unable to play lagaan, and they request the officer of British ruler to exempt the lagan. The officer who does not like villagers, and specially Bhuvan (Aamir Khan) says if they can beat British officers in a cricket match, then he will exempt the lagaan for three years. The film is about how the villager build their team and defeat British officers in a thrilling match. Fine acting by ensemble cast, and super hit music by AR Rehman.
- Guide (1966)- A film based on RK Narayan’s novel, and directed by Vijay Anand. A film very much ahead of times for Indian masses. A married woman leaves her husband and starts living with a man whom she is attracted to. The man encourages her, and she becomes top dancer. A delicate love story with wonderful acting by Dev Anand & Waheeda Rehman and fantastic music by SD Burman.
- Mughal E Azam (1960)- Directed by K Asif. The film is about a fictitious love story at the times of Emperor Akbar, where Prince Salim falls in love with Kaneez (maid). This was India’s first film made on lavish scale, when an average film could be made in Rs 10 Lakhs, this film’s cost was Rs 1.5 Crore. The ensemble cast performed brilliantly and leading the pack were Prithviraj Kapoor (Akbar) Dilip Kumar (Salim) and Madhubala (Kaneez Anarkali). Film had wonderful music by Naushad.
03 Anand (1971)- A film directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. It is a story of a person called Anand (Rajesh Khanna), who is having last stage cancer and will die in 6 months, comes to Bombay to meet his friend Dr Prakash (Ramesh Deo). Here he meets Dr Bhaskar Banerjee (Amitabh Bachchan). The balance story is about the friendship between Bhasker and Anand and how Anand sees his coming death in Bhaskar’s eyes. Fantastic performances by Rajesh Khanna, and one film old Amitabh Bachchan.
02 Mother India (1957)- Directed by Mehboob Khan. It is story of Radha (Nargis), whose farmer husband goes missing after the accident. How Radha raise her two sons against all the adversaries , and Village Zamindar’s advances and harassments. Still one of her sons goes in towards the wrong path, and when in the end he kidnaps one girl on her marriage day, Radha tries to reason with her son to leave the girl but when he refuse she shoots him. Nargis lived the role of Radha, and fine acting by Sunil Dutt as her wayward son. Fine music by Naushad.
01 Sholay (1975)- Directed by Ramesh Sippy. A film for all seasons. There will be hardly any Indian in the world who has not seen this film at least once in his/her life time. The much is written for this film. The ensemble star cast consisting of Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri and Amjad Khan, performed very well in their respective roles, and this film is part of their memorable performances ever. Even cameo roles performed by smaller artists became famous. This was and may be the only film whose dialogue became so famous that producers in the end issued records and cassettes featuring only dialogues (written by Salim Javed). Music score by RD Burman was fantastic, but more than songs it was the back ground music of this film which was highly appreciated.
The list contains at least one film from each decade starting from 1950s to 2010s, and decades of 1970s, 1960s and 2000s have two films each.
Friends, hope you must have enjoyed the above information.
Waiting for your views/comments/feed backs.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
15th May, 2020.
R. N. Mungale.
Very good information indeed.