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Another great year for the small film; the big films did what they are meant to do — capture as many shows in wide-spread releases across multiplexes in order to make money; it was the smaller-budget indie-spirited films which gave us real joy.
’s Dabangg, which gave the star one of his most popular roles as the Robin Hoodesque cop, was the biggest hit of the year. And much of its repeat-worthiness went to item song ‘Munni badnaam hui’, in which Malaika Arora swung her waist with as much gusto as in Dil Se’s ‘Chaiyyan Chaiyyan’.
Shah Rukh Khan played a man with Aspergers Syndrome in My Name Is Khan. The film came riding on many controversies, but the star gave way to the actor, doing a superb job with his enactment of that very specific disability. The fact of his Muslim-ness and connecting it with terrorism — My Name Is Khan and I’m Not a Terrorist- is a placard SRK’s character holds aloft in the film.
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It was a sharp rebuttal to the heavy anti-Muslim sentiments sweeping the world; and in a way, it turned out to be prophetic, for what SRK was subjected to in post 2014 India. It does go off track in the second half but that, to me, was not a deal-breaker, I admire the film, and its message : it was hard to pull off this character, and SRK does it with grace and conviction.
What’s even more interesting is that it is a Dharma film that went on to become a top grosser internationally, even if it didn’t do as well within the country : was it to do with SRK’s star power, or the film’s universal theme, or both?
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And here are smaller films, all full of flavour and verve, giving us hope for mainstream Bollywood.
ALSO READ | 25 Years of Indian Cinema | 2003 was the year Irrfan Khan broke out with Haasil amid Baghban, Munna Bhai MBBS, Koi Mil Gaya
Abhishek Chaubey’s debut Ishqiya in which a couple of crooks, Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi, vie for the attention of attractive widow Vidya Balan, give us several shades of black-blacker-blackest comedy in Gorakhpur, a small dusty UP town. Dil to sach mein bachcha hai ji.
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Dibakar Banerjee makes LSD, which conclusively deep-sixed Bollywood’s creaky way of showing physical intimacy. It was the first Bollywood film made in the most un-Bollywood like way, meta-referencing earlier hits which have seeped into popular culture. Adi Sir, aka Aditya Chopra, is an unseen-but-felt character in the movie.
Banerjee also used hand held cameras to show us, up close and personal, our hypocrisies, hatred for the other, disgusting casteism, and using violence as an end to solve all problems. Watch it today, and you will still feel each of its blows as sharply.
ALSO READ | 25 years of Indian Cinema | Small towns returned on screen in 2005 with Bunty Aur Babli; Black changed the conversation
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Vikramaditya Motwane’s Udaan is Bollywood’s first real coming-of-age film, which turned the beloved father figure on its head. Ronit Roy plays an uber-violent dad to two boys– one a teenager thrown out of a prestigious boarding school, the other much younger– giving us a searing portrayal of a man who is never at home when home. It interrogates our notions of masculinity while giving us so much to think about: why can’t boys cry, and why, indeed, do they have to stay and face a man incapable of love? Lovely, lovely film.
2010 was also the year of Maneesh Sharma's Band Baja Baraat, which gave us Ranveer Singh's electric energy, whose chemistry with leading lady Anushka Sharma made this YRF rom com instantly fresh and fun, bread pakode ki kasam. What comes after Jab We Met? Hello, BBB.
