Bollywood Top Ten
- IndiaGlitz, [Saturday,May 15 2004]
1. Masti: Direction: Indra Kumar; Music: Anand Raj Anand;
Cast: Ajay Devgan, Vivek Oberoi, Ritesh Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Lara Dutta, Tara Sharma, Amrita Rao, Genelia DÂSouza, Satish Shah, Archana Puran Singh, Rakhi Sawant
This begins as a film about extramarital affairs but becomes a murder mystery just like ÂHawas and ÂMurder in the last two weeks. Meet, Amar and Prem are college friends. Meet is a playboy, Prem is desperate to lose his virginity, and Amar is generally scared. All three, now married, meet after three years and admit they are unhappy with their wives. They decide to find some fun outside marriage but things become serious when Monica, the woman they all fall for, is killed.
2. Main Hoon Na: Producer; Gauri Khan; Director: Farah Khan;
Music: Anu Malik; Lyrics: Javed Akhtar;
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Sunil Shetty, Sushmita Sen, Zayed Khan, Amrita Rao, Bindu, Naseeruddin Shah, Kiron Kher, Boman Irani, Satish Shah, Kabir Bedi, Murli Sharma
Choreographer Farah Khan debut as director has all the ingredients of a commercial film. Shah Rukh Khan dominates but Suneil, Zayed and Amrita Rao are very good and Sushmita looks alluring in chiffon sarees. To fulfill the twin purposes of re-uniting his separated family and saving Mission Milaap, an ambitious project of the General towards Indo-Pak friendship, Major Ram Prasad joins a college in Darjeeling where General Amarjeet BakshiÂs daughter Sanjana is under threat from the terrorist Raghavan, and his own step-brother Lucky is a student there. Ram falls in love with his teacher Chandni. But he has to stop Raghavan, who has joined the college as the new professor.
3. Murder: Producer: Mukesh Bhatt; Director: Anuraag Basu;
Music: Anu Malik; Lyrics: Sayeed Quadri, Rahat Indori;
Cast: Mallika Sherawat, Ehsaan Hashmi, Ashmit Patel, Raj Zutshi, Sheeba Chaddha, Shabnam, Uday Tikekar, Krish Chawla, Dinesh Singh and (guest) Kashmira Shah
This film is better made primarily because of Mallika who manages to get deep into the character of an adulterous wife and brings it to life. Simran, bored because her husband Sudhir is too busy in his business in Bangkok, meets and has an affair with former lover Sunny whom she had to leave when she was forced to marry her brother-in-law for the sake of her sisterÂs child. Sudhir hires a detective and is shaken by the truth. But Sunny is found murdered.
4. Charas: Producer: Anjum Rizvi; Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia;
Music: Raju Singh; Lyrics: Javed Akhtar;
Cast: Jimmy Shergil, Uday Chopra, Namrata Shirodkar, Hrishitaa Bhatt, Irfan Khan, Adam Bedi, Kabir Sadanand, Anoop Soni, Kenny Desai, Jehangir Khan, Farid, Varun Badola
This film is generally well directed. Irfan is superb. Sam Higgins, a botany British student in India to study ayurveda, disappears into the hills of Himachal Pradesh. Dev Anand, a British police officer of Indian origin, is sent on his first trip to India to find the boy who has been kidnapped by Policeman, a man who is now a dangerous drug peddler, aided by a British Minister and the Indian Transport Minister. In Delhi, Dev befriends the easy-going Ashraf. It is only later that Dev learns that Ashraf is a policeman himself, and they join to expose the criminalÂs shady deals.
5. Sheen: Producer-Director: Ashok Pandit; Music: Nadeem Shravan; Lyrics: Sameer;
Cast: Sheen, Tarun Arora, Raj Babbar, Anoop Soni, Samay Pandit, Kiron Juneja
Raj Babbar has a strong role in this film based on the sensitive issue of the fate of Hindu Kashmiri Pandits in the early 1990''s who were forced to leave their home and hearth because of militancy and stay in camps. Pandit Amarnath and his daughter Sheen are forced to leave Srinagar when tbe militants come. Pandit Amarnath goes even to Geneva to address a meet on the internally displaced, leaving no stone unturned to get himself heard and to see Kashmir as it was earlier - innocent and as pure as Sheen.
6. MunnaBhai MBBS: Producer:Vidhu Vinod Chopra; Director: Rajkumar Hirani;
Music:Anu Malik;
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Dutt, Gracy Singh, Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, Rohini Hattangady, Jimmy Shergill
Munnabhai along with friend Circuit and his gang make a living by settling financial disputes through using his clout as a small-time don. But his parents who think he is a doctor running a charity hospital come from the village to meet him and he is exposed, thanks to Dr Asthana who had wanted his daughter Suman to marry Munnabhai. Munna now decides he must become a doctor.
7. Shaadi Ka Ladoo: Producer: : Director: Raj Kaushal;
Music: Vishal-Shekhar ; Lyrics: ;
Cast: Sanjay Suri, Aashish Chowdhry, Mandira Bedi, Divya Dutta, Samita Bangarji, Sameer Malhotra, Negar Khan
A hotshot ad maker, Ravi Kapoor, is in London. His buddy, Som, is from Ladhiana. Ravi is unmarried and sick of his single status. Som is married and raring to go. All this is an amusing premise for a romantic comedy, specially when handled by a director who knows the world he is entering. Raj Kaushal takes us into the seemingly sexy but supremely sad world of Ravi Kapoor (Ashish Chowdhary) who looks enviously at his pal''s seemingly perfect marriage with the nice, warm Punjabi girl (Divya Dutta) while Som (Sanjay Suri) in London looks at every skirt and sari in sight.
8. Krishna Cottage: Producer: Shobha Kapoor, Ekta Kapoor: Director: Santram Verma;
Music: Anu Malik; Lyrics: Sanjay Chhel;
Cast: Sohail Khan, Natassha, Ishaa Koppikar, Divya Pallat, Hitten Tejwani, Vrajesh Hirjee, Raj Zutshi, Rati Agnihotri, Ali Hassan
Krishna Cottage wavers between Hollywood''s campus-slasher films and Bollywood''s age-old spook yarns like Woh Kaun Thi and Kohra where a mysterious woman in white would entice the hero with a haunting melody.
9. Kal Ho Na Ho: Producer: Karan Johar; Director: Nikhil Advani;
Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy; Lyrics: Javed Akhtar;
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan, Jaya Bachchan, Sushma Seth, Sulbha Arya, Rajpal Yadav, Reema Lagoo. Lilette Dubey, Delnaz Paul, Satish Shah, Ketaki Dave, Simone Singh, Shoma Anand and Dara Singh, and (special) Sonali Bendre, Kajol, Rani Mukherjee, Sanjay Kapoor
10. Bardaasht: Producer: Pooja Galani: Director: E.Niwas;
Music: Himesh Reshammiya; Lyrics: Sameer;
Cast: Bobby Deol, Lara Dutta, Ritesh Deshmukh, Tara Sharma, Rahul Dev, Ganesh Yadav, Vishwajeet Pradhan, Virendra Saxena
Bobby and Lara show a lot of potential in their roles, but it is Tara who surprises with her competence. Aditya, an ex-army officer who was court-martialled for insubordination and deserted by his girlfriend Payal, now runs a successful travel agency. His younger brother Anuj is a reckless young man who wastes his time with his girlfriend Ramona. Aditya scolds him for stealing the examination papers from the Principal''s room and Anuj leaves home in anger. Aditya later discovers Anuj has been shot dead in an encounter on the alleged charge of being a drug peddler. Aditya is not convinced and sets out to prove his dead brother''s innocence, helped by former girlfriend Payal, who is now a practicing lawyer.