Top 5 Bollywood Films of 2016

As we move towards the end of another year, it’s time to rate the winners of 2016. In terms of box-office performances it was an unusual year for Bollywood where stories turned out to be the ultimate hero.

Big names like Hrithik Roshan and Ajay Devgn failed to make a mark with their big-budget products like ‘Mohajo Daro’ and ‘Shivaay’. Even Shah Rukh’s stardom and improved performance in recent years in ‘Fan’ couldn’t save the loopholes in the story.

Salman Khan had another good year with ‘Sultaan’ and Akshay Kumar gave three 100cr movies too. A lot is expected from Aamir’s ‘Dangal’ but for now these are the top 5 films of the year:

1. Pink

A brave and powerful take on everything that is wrong with our society, PINK deserves the top spot of 2016. It is an honest attempt to portray the problems faced by young women in their day-to-day lives and you can relate to it.

An engaging storyline is backed by good direction, tight editing, blazing performances from the three leads: Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Andrea Tariang and at the centre of all the on-screen drama is the maestro: Amitabh Bachchan.

It’s surprising that it took Bollywood so long to make a movie like this that challenges the stereotype that a girl provokes the molester.

2. Aligarh

From being Bhiku Mahatre in Ram Gopal Varma’s classic ‘Satya’ to play a gay professor in Aligarh, Manoj Bajpayee has come a long way as an actor. Hansal Mehta picked a very sensitive topic and Manoj Bajpayee’s acting gave it the final touch.

He was supported in his quest to get his rightful place by an effortless Rajkumar Rao who is another actor growing with each film.

Sublime and Sensitive are the words that describe ‘Aligarh’ and is movie that everyone should watch.

3. Udta Punjab

It’s good to see how much Indian cinema matured in 2016 and Udta Punjab was another fine example of it. It’s not just a brilliant cinematic experience but it is a very important film for the country because of the problem it focuses on.

Drug abuse in Punjab is affecting the lives of thousands of youngsters pushing them into a hole without sunlight. It was in news for wrong reasons as it was denied a certification by Censor Board.

However, the public and makes gave them a tough fight and finally the film was released making all the right noises. Alia Bhatt, Shahid Kapoor, Diljit Dosanjh and Kareena Kapoor did justice to their roles.

4. MS Dhoni: The Untold Story

MS Dhoni was appreciated more for the performance of Sushant Singh Rajput rather than its story but it is by far one of the best biopics made in India. The reason for that is that it completely justified it’s title.

The film focused on those tales about MS Dhoni about which people had no idea. For example, the Cooch Behar Trophy match of 1999 where Dhoni and his teammates were destroyed by Yuvraj Singh.

The hard-work put in to make the film reflects on the screen.

5. Neerja

This is a little surprising but also a happy moment to feature a Sonam Kapoor film in the top 5 list. Surprising because it’s not too often that she delivers a performance like that and happy because in a way it’s good for the Indian cinema.

Some credit should be given to the debutant director Ram Madhvani who had strong grip over the film and was complimented by the writing of Saiwyn Quadras and Sanyukhta Chawla.

This movie also gave two bright prospects to Bollywood in Abrar Zahoor and Jim Sarbh who played the roles of terrorists with great conviction.

Other notable movies of the year were Akshay Kumar’s Airlift and Rustom, Shakun Batra’s family drama Kapoor and Sons and R. Madhavan’s boxing punch ‘Sala Khadoos’.

Shah Rukh Khan: The Actor Who Chose to Be a Star

A Still from Dear Zindagi

For last few years, I have been one of the biggest critics of Shah Rukh Khan and often got into arguments with his fans because of the same. With ‘Dear Zindagi’ set to release this Friday, the spotlight is once again on the ‘King of Romance’.

Now in the past one week, I came across two very interesting statements that forced me to write this piece. The first incident happened when Arjun Rampal was promoting his upcoming film ‘Kahaani 2’. He was asked by a reporter, “You have completed 15 years in Bollywood. What is it that didn’t let you become that larger-than-life superstar?”

He replied, “I don’t want to be that. I want to be an actor. I am a superstar, I was born one. There’s nothing that excites me about that.” This was a highly impressive answer and exactly where Shah Rukh went wrong.

Where Did He Lose the Path?

He emerged as one of the most versatile actors of his generation. There was no one who could match his flamboyance and charm in the 90s and he proved that in films like Dil Se, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaenge. While Darr showed that he can play negative roles as well, the grey shaded character in Baazigar still remains fresh in our memories.

Chak De India is Still One of His Best Films

His status in the industry grew with impeccable performances in Swades and Chak De India! Yes there was a Duplicate in between but those flops never had any impact on his stardom whatsoever. He seemed to be learning with every mistake that he committed.

By 2008, he looked set to finish as the most complete and versatile actors of Bollywood and since then, everything has fallen apart. In last few years he has Happy New Year, Chennai Express and Dilwale to show against his name.

Is it Too Late for Realization?

This brings me to the second incident that inspired me to come up with this post. When Karan Johar recently asked Shah Rukh about other Bollywood actors’ box-office success, he replied, “I said 25 years ago that I want to make five best films in the world. And suddenly I realise I don’t even have one of them. I just need to get my cinema right.”

Lucky to Share Frame with Him

This reminded me of everything that has happened in last 12 months. Dilwale was outperformed by Baajirao Mastaani at the box-office and Fan was a much improved yet a desperate effort to bring back the old days.

The process continues with Dear Zindagi. He gave us characters like Raj, Rahul, Ajay Sharma, Veer Pratap Singh and Kabir Khan. He lived them but the phenomenon has gone missing in last six years. And, the above statement shows that he has finally realized it.

What Can We Expect from Here?

For most years he dominated Akshay Kumar and Aamir Khan but if things stays like this, both these actors can beat him in terms of stardom when a longer career will be taken into account. Aamir certainly has a league of his own and face no competition from any other actor.

Akshay on the other hand, is the most improved actor in the industry right now and is finally getting his scripts right too. Salman Khan recently said in the Robot 2.0 launch event that, “Akshay has been growing while we all have been stagnant.”

The Rivalry will Get Interesting

This has to be the biggest concern for Shah Rukh. The problem doesn’t end here and the younger generation is also finding its foot slowly. Ranveer Singh’s stars are on a rise and he looks like an ideal candidate to replace King Khan.

This was evident after his performance in the Global Citizen Festival India. His act was placed between Jay Z and Coldplay which is a reflection of his status in the industry, the brands are growing crazy after him and he has a similar charm too.

At 51, Shah Rukh Khan is not getting any younger. Next two years will be the most important of his career. The choice is clear you can either be remembered as one of the best or the greatest.

From here he can either be remembered as the Al Pacino of Bollywood or be forgotten as the Robert De Niro. In both the cases, the status might remain the same but the greatness won’t.

 

 

Ranveer Says ‘Do the Rex’, But Do We?

In 2014, a 22-year old Indian girl revealed in an interview that she has four daughters and has already gone through two abortions. She then questioned the interviewer, “This is what women are made for after all. Isn’t it?” Well, no, they are not.

In a survey published in The Times of India, it was revealed that 72% of people across India have unprotected sex with a new partner. In fact, 40% of the Indian youth said that they had problems accessing contraceptives, while 36% said they knew a friend who had an unplanned pregnancy. It is worrying to note that after years of spreading awareness regarding HIV/AIDs and STDs, not to say the risk of unwanted pregnancies, people are still to adopt the condom in India more frequently.

Why Should Women Suffer?

On November 11, 2014, 11 Indian women died after undergoing a sterilization surgery in Chattisgarh, at a health camp organized by the government. At this camp, 83 women went through tubectomy operations in just six hours. In 2009, 48.4% married women were using contraceptive methods, but do you know how many men were using protection? Just 3%! No doubt, our population is increasing at the rate of 10,00,000 newly born every 20 days.

Who do we blame? The social upbringing of girls who are too under-confident to express their desires to their husband and believe that for the marriage to work, they need to say yes to anything her husband asks for? Or is it Ekta Kapoor’s serials for portraying the ‘Suhaag Raat’ as an event where the girl brings a glass full of milk and waits on the bed for her husband to make a move? Or is it the mentality of Indian society that believes that “real men don’t use condoms”

The choice is yours to make.

Real Men DO Use Condoms!

When an icon like Ranveer Singh tells the youth to wear a condom in India, you expect them to follow him. Yet surprisingly, 90% men make their wives pregnant within the 1^st week of their marriage.

Here are some of the ridiculous reasons men give for not using condoms:

• The pleasure meter goes down! Oh really? Now that the pleasure condoms are available in the market, don’t blame the condom, the problem is with you.

• I have mastered the timing! Oh really? Even the great master Sachin Tendulkar never said that! The only way to stay safe is using a condom.

• It is difficult to go and buy such products at a pharmacy. Everyone stares. Fortunately, it is very easy to order anything you need online. There is no question of embarrassment at all.

Using a condom is not just about protection. It also shows your respect towards the other person and seriousness towards the relationship.

Chidiya Udd! Tota Udd! Punjab Uu…OOOPS!!!

Punjab, the state that was once the pride of India, the state that gave India its top athlete Milkha Singh, the state that gave India one of its best spinners Harbhajan Singh, the state that gave India one of its best singers Sukhvinder Singh has now given India one of its biggest controversies and it’s a SHAME!

Think it from a filmmaker’s point of view. He picks up one of the most sensitive issues in the country, builds a strong script around it, the actors go through a lot of hard work to prepare for their roles, the trailer is received with great gusto, fans are loving the music, there’s a good buzz for the movie and just then the Censor Board bans it for the wrong depiction of the state. That’s sick!!

Here are some facts about Punjab’s drug problems:

1. Punjab consumes Rs. 7500 Cr net worth of drugs every year.
2. The net worth of Heroine consumed is Rs. 6500 Cr.
3. Number of addicts in Punjab is 4 times more than the global average.
4. Daily expenditure on drugs in Punjab is approximately Rs. 20 Cr.
5. An addict spends an average of Rs.1400 every day on drugs in Punjab.

These are some serious numbers and I am not making them up. These numbers were released in a report by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). It’s not just AIIMS; many NGOs also conducted surveys and came up with similar numbers. So how can this state be shown in bad light?! The only thing that can be true is that the film is presenting a true picture and the politicians don’t like it.

Now this brings me to the men in focus: Anurag Kashyap, one of the producers of the film and Pahlaj Nihalani, the head of Centre Board of Film Certification of India. Here are a few statements given by Mr. Nihalani in his interview on 8th June 2016:

1. “We have even allowed Aliya Bhatt to abuse in the film.”  Seriously! That’s your best defense for demanding 89 cuts and changes in a movie that you allowed a 23-year old fully independent adult girl to speak in a democratic country that gives its citizens freedom of speech as their fundamental right.

2. “Word Punjab should be removed from the film.” This is like the craziest thing that could have come from the Censor Board. How will removing the name of Punjab help the cause! Most of the dialogues in the film are in Punjabi, its national news now; everyone knows that it’s about Punjab so even if you remove the word ‘Punjab’ from the entire film, people won’t think that the film is about Patna.

3. ‘Mr. Kashyap is like a child being denied a toy.” I’ll tell you who Mr. Pahlaj Nihalani is:

There is this movie that came out in 1986. It’s called ‘Ek Ruka Hua Faisla’ and was a remake of Hollywood film 12 Angry Men (1957).

So in this movie, a 12 member jury is set up by court to decide if a boy charged for the murder of his father is guilty or innocent. One of the prime witness for the case was a very old man who could barely walk and claimed that he saw the boy running after murdering his father.

Anu Kapoor who was a part of the jury and portrayed an ‘old man’ himself explained his statement like this- That old man has never achieved anything in his life. There was no spotlight on him and he was never given any importance by anyone in his life. At this age, this was finally his chance to become famous, to be important for once before dying and so he gave a false statement without thinking about the consequences.

Pahlaj Nihalani is that old man!

And now I’ll tell you who Anurag Kashyap is. He is one of the few public figures of this country who talks sense and converts his words into actions. He is a guy who has faced hardships since the start of his career and kept fighting everyone alone without any personal interest. His first film Paanch was banned by the censor board only to be cleared by the revising committee. Black Friday was banned by the court because the decision was still pending. Ugly got into a feud with the health ministry but none of that stopped him from kept going and even today he came out and requested people not to get involved into any rumors and in a time when all the issues are taken politically in the country he is trying to keep this issue away from any political influence.

Read his full post here: https://www.facebook.com/anuragkashyap1972/posts/10155960419646515

Mr. Pahlaj Nihalani, I have watched Gangs of Wasseypur, I have watched Gulaal, I have watched Black Friday and none of these films had a negative impact on me or anyone that I know. I don’t think Indian parents are so stupid that they’ll take a 5-year old to watch this movie and a 15- year old will watch it anyways by downloading it. So stop deciding what is right for us and what is wrong! Let us decide for ourselves.