What is your favorite Indian movie?

LHR2LAX

Devdas is beautiful..watched Gandhi on the plane over made the trip to the cultural center even more interesting. When I was there lots of promo's for Om,Shanti Om..looks terrific.

Thoughtcrimes

I know that technically it doesn't count, as it was made by a Canadian director Deepa Mehta, but Earth-1947 (1998)remains my all-time fave, as I learned something about Indian history while watching it, and the direction and sountrack were brilliant.

I also was able to watch the 1969 documentary by French director Louis Malle Calcutta and found the film captivating in a completely different way. What I wish to know now is how much the city has changed since the filming.

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singsub

how many non-indian films have you seen to wit ??

shashank.aggarwal

enough not to remember the number...
have a small collection too...around 300 - 400 titles...

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singsub

thats small indeed.

NeeliAankhen

I saw it. It's worth seeing - Akshaye Khanna is very good in the role, and the cinematography and art direction of a story that spans years and continents is first-rate.

To me its failings have to do with a lack of nerve on the part of the script/director - the characters don't completely come across as people with inner lives. Gandhi is a bit like someone in a mythological pageant. Though this is not unusual in a bio-pic.

Nice reviews and discussions of it here:

http://www.bollywhat-forum.com/index.php?topic=20903.0

global_yatri

thanks for that reply (neeli aankhen)... will try to get a hold of the movie - actually don't mind akshay khanna as an actor - can't stand akshay kumar though!

okay - so watched just two movies during our india trip - first was "om shanti om" which we thought was so funny - and the whole experience of watching it in a theater full of people who were cracking up and also added masala with their comments was excellent!

next was "khoya khoya chand" (we wanted to get tickets to 'jab we met' but couldn't) - and all i have to say about khoya khoya is that the first two words sums up the totally non-existent storyline... i mean what total rubbish!!! and i swear at the end when the title song plays again with credits and there's a few lines sung about "usko noch loon, main sabko noch loon" most of the audience wanted to physically "noch loon" the story writer - ugh - what a waste of time and the producer's money!

NeeliAankhen

Oh I envy you seeing OSO in India with an Indian audience!! I think it's a brilliant movie, I've seen it twice in theatres and will buy it for sure. And it was just as funny for me the second time.

On Khoya Khoya Chand we differ - I agree that they did a bad job with the story, they seem not to have worked on it enough ro give it a dramatic arc -- but I found it soooo beautiful to look at, and I loved the portrayal of the Hindi film world of the 50s and 60s -- I thought they got the look and the moods just right, and the character types, even though they didn't get them going well enough in a story. I also liked the music.

I also appreciated very much being shown the kinds of interactions people had -- the greedy relatives exploiting a daughter with talent, with a failure to bother about protecting her and a readiness to fritter her earnings away and wreck her life; the kinds of romances and affairs that go on in all art/artiste/entertainment worlds; the wig-wearing self-serving superstar, who's also got some human decency in him . . . anyhow not a total loss for me... I'll buy this one too.

burbujasdeamor

Is Goal still playing anywhere in India???? I'm in Jodhpur and they think I'm a retard for asking about an "old" movie.

Waiting to get to Jaipur to see OSO at the Raj Mandir, 3 Indian experiences in one go

Namaste!

shashank.aggarwal

Goal is a pathetic movie !! I found it to be worthless crap !!

galahad

I was browsing IMDB,about Indian movies:
The top rated Indian movie seems to be Gunda.At 8.6/10 ,it is rated higher than even Gandhi(8.1) ..

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NeeliAankhen

!!!! does this movie (Gunda) really exist? thanks for calling my attention to a hilarious little imdb colony of goofball reviews, in any case. And I looove Mithun.

[Pedantry-wise - the movie Gandhi, with Ben Kingsley, is an old apparently excellent English-language movie. Gandhi My Father is a 2007 Hindi language movie with a lot to recommend it, just about the story of a black sheep son of Gandhi. I realize I ought to see the first one!]

capt_mahajan

If you want my two bits, folks need to see just the first one

shashank.aggarwal

hey Guys what about Taare Zameen Par, it has just cracked top 125 on IMDB.

and another thing, about the ratings, to rate its top 250 movies IMDB doesn't count each and every vote. They only count the votes of users who are regular contributors, and have already spent a specific time on site and have rated a specific number of movies.

NeeliAankhen

That's a good system, and necessary because otherwise people can use the boards to create false ratings for their own films etc.

Taare Zameen Par - I think it it a lovely movie, and one that could even have an audience in the west. I hope it's remembered when it's time for Oscar nominations, just because if it is India's official movie, there will be resources available for taking it to a non-Indian audience possibly.

I think it is a good candidate for a HIndi movie to show to people who have a stereotyped and negative view of "Bollywood" -- because it has little to do with any stereotype anyone holds, and it has a good script -- but it's a hard sell, a movie about a dyslexic boy, people expect a women's TV channel kind of story, which I say it is not.