Ten Bollywood to look out for this year
The unanimous global audience verdict is out! The Aamir Khan starrer ‘3 Idiots’ directed by Rajkumar Hirani has emerged as ‘the most entertaining movie of 2009’, despite the caustic charges of controversy leveled from different quarters. Apart from ‘3 Idiots’, the Bollywood movies in 2009 which connected hugely with theatre audiences include ‘Love Aaj Kal’, ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’, ‘Wanted’, ‘Dev D’, ‘New York’, ‘2012-Pralay Ki Shuruaat (Dubbed) ‘Slum dog Karodpati’ (dubbed) and ‘Avataar’(dubbed) and ‘All The Best’.
As we usher in 2010, there appears to be a diverse string of amazing, awesome Hindi movies lined up for release. Check out the ‘Tantalizing Ten’ that avid cinegoers can look forward to, during the current year.
1. Kites starring Hrithik Roshan, Spanish actress Barbara Mori, Kabir Bedi and Kangna Ranaut.
According to producer Rakesh Roshan, the musical romantic movie has its share of suspense, thrills, action, intrigue and exotic foreign locales. Interestingly, the media grapevine had even romantically linked up Hrithik with co-star senorita Barbara Mori which Hrithik dismissed as “fantasy kite-flying”. For the first time in a Hindi movie, ‘Kites’ will have dialogues only in Spanish by Mexican femme fatale Barbara! But the Roshans are not worried. That ‘love has no language barrier,’ was evidently proved in the Aishwarya Rai-Ajay Devgan-Salman starrer ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’ which had ample portions of Italian language, Italian ethnic culture thrown in.
2) My Name is Khan starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol:
Producer Karan Johar has been screaming from the roof-tops that “this film is not about terrorism but deals with the impact of 9/11 on Muslims in the U.S.”. Obviously he is still smarting from the disappointing audience response to his last release ‘Kurbaan’ which had terrorism as its underlying theme. As the icing on the cinematic cake, “My Name is Khan” brings together the endearing charismatic pair of Kajol and SRK which has given a string of jubilee hits including the iconic ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge.’
3) Guzaarish directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali repeats the popular ‘Dhoom-2’ cast and the period-epic ‘Jodhaa-Akbar’ screen-sweethearts Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan.
And hopes to strike the bull’s eye at the box-office. This will be a golden opportunity for Bhansali to salvage his image, after his previous musical opus ‘Saawariya’ starring Ranbir-Sonam emerged a shocking disaster.
4) Raavan which has Southside iconic director Mani Rathnam
He brings together his mascots Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai (remember, he cast them in his previous period blockbuster ‘Guru’) besides a host of other actors including the Bihari movies regional star Ravi Kissen. The film has been shot in remote jungle locales against all odds and promises to be something different from what maverick Mani has attempted before of course with the underlying flavour of the legendary epic Raamayan.
5) Khele Hum Jee Jaan Se
With director Ashutosh Gowariker at the helm of affairs has once again plunged into a ‘period fare’ which is known to be his favorite genre ever since ‘Lagaan’ made waves at the coveted Oscars years ago. This time the adventurous Gowariker has re-visited the historic Chittagong Uprising and has Deepika Padukone paired opposite Abhishek Bachchan in a casting coup of sorts.
6) Ishqiya
Yet another shock-value movie produced by maverick film-maker-cum-composer Vishal Bharadwaj which has seasoned actor Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad “Circuit” Warsi sparring their histrionics with Vidya Balan. Defying her dainty hot-babe image, Balan plays a de-glam yet oomph-oozing rustic grey-shades girl who mouths foul abusive cuss-words with no inhibitions. It’s a no-holds-barred flick with freak-out comedy, romance and action
7) Prince –its Showtime
Produced by Kumar Taurani, the movie has Vivek Oberoi making his spectacular comeback in the desi avataar of ‘‘James Bond’ with all the voluptuous girls, romance, (including smooching scenes), action, thrills to add to the package. Will the ‘Company’ macho dude Oberoi revive his big time ‘bond-ing’ with the cinegoers, is what remains to be seen.
8) Rann
Which is a bold, bizarre media-centric movie poised to whip up controversy made by the resilient Ram Gopal Varma. Starring his mascot actor Amitabh Bachchan in a pivotal electronic media cardinal character the film has already courted controversy even before its release. Rebel director Varma was instructed by the judiciary to delete a song-situation which was allegedly a distorted version of the venerated Indian National Anthem.
9) Robot
Seems to be a highly promising sci-fi movie made by Southside ‘showman’ Shankar. The film has Southside superstar Rajnikanth in a ‘double role’ of a scientist-professor who designs ‘robots’. Originally Shah Rukh Khan was to have played the awesome dual character, but there was mutual disagreement between Shankar and him and it fizzled out. Having worked earlier with Aishwarya Rai in ‘Jeans’, Shankar has cast her again as the formidable glamour quotient in ‘Robot’
10) Dhobi Ghaat Directed by Aamir Khan’s wife Kiran Rao, (it’s her debut)
The film has its realistic feel-good yet hard-hitting flavour with Aamir (“Idiot”) Khan in the lead with co-star Pratiek Babbar (late actress Smita Patil’s son). In keeping with Aamir’s string of versatile screen-images, this one is diversely different from his other movies is what madame Kiran assures.