*Avijit Ghosh trawled over 1,000 Hindi films made in the last 10 years to pick 20 that best capture the changing times. If you haven’t seen these yet, get the popcorn out this weekend… … *
***HERA PHERI (2000) ***
*Director: Priyadarshan Cast: Akshay Kumar, Suneil Shetty, Paresh Rawal | A flop when first released, the madcap comedy’s reputation has grown with time. Now a DVD favourite and a movie you are most likely to chance upon while channel surfing, Hera Pheriushered in the riotously rib-tickling Priyadarshan school of funny flicks, best typified by the zany Malamaal Weekly. A decade later, it has the same students: Paresh Rawal, Om Puri. And the same teacher *
***JISM (2003) ***
*Director: Amit Saxena Cast: Bipasha Basu, John Abraham | Before Jism, salacious steam flicks were reserved for rundown theatres where lascivious middle-aged men watched them in loose lungis. Jism, a product of the Bhatts, gave the genre gloss, glamour and, that much-needed quality, respectability. Jismbecame a trendsetter leading to movies like Murderwhere bareback heroines dropped their minimal attire with alacrity and abandon *
***MAQBOOL (2004) ***
*Director: Vishal Bhardwaj Cast: Irrfan Khan, Tabu, Pankaj Kapoor | Grim like a funeral and intense like coitus, Maqboolwas Bollywood’s sledgehammer version of Macbeth. Part Mafiosi yarn, part love story destined for doom and part a tale of twisted minds, the movie became an immediate favourite on the festival circuit. Nobody had expected film composer Vishal Bhardwaj to make a movie of such stunning power. Maqboolheralded the arrival of a new master *
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***TAARE ZAMEEN PAR (2007) ***
*Director: Aamir Khan Cast: Aamir Khan, Darsheel Safary, Tisca Chopra, Vipin Sharma | Only Aamir Khan would have had the guts to do this: take you on a guided tour through the mind and soul of a dyslexic kid. Lyrical like a poem written by a child, the movie was preachy yet engaging. Devoid of any box office concessions and supremely confident of its self-worth , TZP was not just a movie with a message; it is a marker of what good-intentioned Bollywood can be *
**HAZAARON KHWAISHEIN AISI (2005) **
Director: Sudhir Mishra Cast: Kay Kay Menon, Shiney Ahuja, Chitrangada Singh | Every generation needs something to sell. In the 1960s, they peddled revolution. Many went to the countryside to manufacture a peasant’s insurrection. Director Sudhir Mishra’s film was a post-dated love letter to that lost generation. Sensitive acting, with the thinking man’s pin-up Chitrangada to ogle at, the film immediately struck a chord among the 40-plus audience. It remains a bookmark for intelligent cinema
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**LAGE RAHO MUNNA BHAI (2006) **
Director: Rajkumar Hirani Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi, Vidya Balan | Goons, when played by heroes, generally have a heart of gold. That’s one of the time-tested clichés of Mumbai cinema. But making Mahatma Gandhi a bhai’s conscience keeper was among Bollywood’s most inventive ideas. The movie coined the word, Gandhigiri, and brought it into the popular lexicon. The movie is gone but the word lives on
**LIFE IN A METRO (2007) **
Director: Anurag Basu Cast: Shiney Ahuja, Shilpa Shetty, Kangana Ranaut, Sharman Joshi, Irrfan Khan, Konkona Sen Sharma | Splendidly candid and boosted with a meaningful musical score, Life in a Metroredefined the urban relationship flick. The film’s characters seemed to have emerged from the bowels of the great middle-class in the post-liberalisation churn. The amoral, ambitious office girl, the wannabe executive, the groomseeking virgin, the corporate creep - don’t we know them all? The movie’s success also showed a maturing audience
**GADAR: EK PREM KATHA (2001) **
Director: Anil Sharma Cast: Sunny Deol, Amisha Patel, Amrish Puri | In civilised drawing room gatherings, it is hard to find somebody who liked Gadar. Which only underlines the schism between upper middle-class aesthetics and mass sensibilities. For the searing interreligious Indo-Pak love story broke all box-office records and set up Sunny Deol as the ultimate desi hulk. Who else could take on an entire platoon of Pakistanis and make it look credible?
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**CHAK DE! INDIA (2007) **
Director: Shimit Amin Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Shilpa Shukla, Chitrashi Rawat | Hockey is history in India today. But in the deft hands of director Shimit Amin and writer Jaideep Sahni, it became a different ball game: a drama of redemption. The movie had no love songs or item numbers, not even a conventional heroine. But the life stories of the little women and the man who inspired them made for an unmissable, uplifting movie
**GHAJINI (2008) **
Director: A R Murugadoss Cast: Aamir Khan, Asin, Pradeep Rawat | Almost pornographically violent, Ghajini(a remake of a Tamil film) is simply the biggest Bollywood blockbuster ever. And nobody really knows why. Was it the short-term memory loss gimmick that drew audiences in droves? Or was it Aamir’s topless torso etched with inscriptions that attracted them? Or was it because censors forgot to rate it an A? When a movie grosses Rs 265 crore, how does it matter?
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**DIL CHAHTA HAI (2001) **
Director: Farhan Akhtar Cast: Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Khanna | The call centre revolution had just happened when Farhan Akhtar’s debut film came calling. Fresh in style and sensibility, Dil Chahta Hai illustrated that attitude was the new cool and friends the new family. The movie fared moderately but Aamir’s goatee left a deep imprint on many young faces. A cult flick for GenNow, DCH continues to occupy gigabyte space in their mindspace
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**RANG DE BASANTI (2006) **
Director: Rakeysh Mehra Cast: Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Soha Ali Khan | What political science professors and student leaders failed to achieve in decades, Rang De Basantiaccomplished in three hours: it introduced political imagination as an idea into the heads of an apolitical generation. Dudes, too, care for their country was the uber cool message. The movie enthused a generation to carry out candlelight protests, write social blogs and acquire the spunk to face water cannons
