Dawdling down a decade…
10 YEARS, 10 MOVIES
DEC 27, 2009 – IF IT’S TOUGH ENOUGH trying to rack up movie memories from the year gone by, it’s near-impossible to dredge up recollections from a decade that just evaporated into the mind’s ether. Instead of a best-of list, therefore, here are ten films that resonated with me in some way or the other. Of course, I’m still beating myself up if I should have included Lost in Translation, Khakee, In the Mood for Love, Mulholland Drive, Caché, No Smoking, The Lives of Others, Subramaniyapuram, Before Sunset…
1. Hey Ram (2000): Kamal Hassan multitasked marvellously in this bristling meditation on memory, what it means to gain a purpose while losing one’s mind. The era was sumptuously recreated, but more importantly, every single authorial conceit was magnificently realised, especially in the way the film veers towards phantasmagoria as its protagonist inches closer to insanity.
2. Dil Chahta Hai (2001): 2001 was Aamir Khan’s annus mirabilis. If Lagaan was the sixer that landed on the Oscar stage, as Best Foreign Film nominee, Farhan Akhtar’s debut earned itself a worthier distinction. It birthed the über-cool multiplex cinema as we know it today. But historical distinction apart, it was also one hell of an entertaining ride.
3. Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001): This Haley Joel Osment (as a toy boy) and Jude Law (as a boy toy) starrer may not be Steven Spielberg’s most successful film (and I’m not talking in box-office terms) – but even its failures are fascinating. Rarely has mainstream cinema lunged for such a ruminative median between science and sentiment, elevated concept and enveloping emotion.
4. Talk to Her (2002): Almodóvar explored, briefly, the sympathetic side of stalking in Live Flesh, but with this shattering masterpiece, he gets completely into the mind of a man who just can’t take no for an answer. As shocking as the subject matter is, it’s even more disturbing as we begin to root for the “bad guy” to live happily ever after.
5. Devdas (2002): I’m in the minority when it comes to Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Where people express affection for the relatively naturalistic Khamoshi and claim he’s gone south subsequently, I feel his films have gotten better, and it’s with Devdas that he finally found his voice. That musical-fever-dream blend of cinema and folk theatre and performance art and the opera – it all began here.
6. Kill Bill (2003/2004): Quentin Tarantino named his production company after Godard (A Band Apart), but it’s Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black which inspired his most exhilarating ode to movie obsession. This gushing geyser of vengeance is simultaneously his most violent and most moral, filled with equal quantities blood, reflection and, needless to say, sublime conversation.
7. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004): You’d expect the combination of Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman and Jim Carrey to serve up something snarkily playful (and sneakily clever). What no one saw coming was the most profound love story of the decade – a dazzling, dizzying ride into the deepest recesses of our minds, where we store our most intimate emotional baggage.
8. The Incredibles (2004): Again, I appear to be in the minority here, what with the universal adoration for WALL-E and Up, both of which start strongly and threaten to develop into greatness before deteriorating into formula. Brad Bird’s bright amalgam of family and fantasy, however, is gold from start to finish. As bonus, the director voices the unforgettable Edna Mode, super-designer for superheroes.
9. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005): By no means a great film, or perhaps even a good one, but matchless in its significance to an entire generation of moviegoers. Towards the opera-crescendo finale, when Anakin Skywalker mutates into Darth Vader as Luke and Leia are born, I finally forgave George Lucas for The Phantom Menace.
10. There Will Be Blood (2007): With this thunderous marriage of capitalism and Christianity, Paul Thomas Anderson proved, yet again, that the heady days of the auteur weren’t a mere pipe-dream residue of the 1970s. Sensationally directed and acted, this tale of greed run amuck is the moral fable of our time, with set piece after stunning set piece of bone-rattling intensity.
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I’m with you on SLB. Don’t care about what others feel, but I have no shame in admitting that I like his films
Jesus Christ! I really have a bunch of lightning-fast readers, don’t I?
Am not so critical of SLB but including in the decade list? Really?
+1 for The Incredibles. Love it!
Well, I did expect The Incredibles on your list (after d nudge in ur Wall-E Between Reviews piece). But, it is Ratatouille that is close to my heart. There are a few minor flaws, but it is Pixar’s go for broke film till date and THE best looking. And, no Zodiac?
An interesting and refreshingly different list. That’s not something I can say about the lists I have seen recently.
I have a soft spot for self-indulgent filmmakers. I believe you’ve discussed this topic a couple of times on this blog. I have always defended self-indulgent filmmakers. I’m very fond of musicals as well. But SLB has given me little scope to defend him. He has failed to have any effect on me with most of his films. Take Devdas for instance. I had no problems with the way it was adapted (I don’t think Dévdās was the best work of Sharatchandra Chattopadhyay. He wrote many masterpieces which deserve to be adapted. But … alas!). I had no issues with the musical style or the over-the-top sets either. I felt the superb music was incorporated in the film masterfully. But what disgusted me was the abysmal dialogue. If you want to adapt a Bengali book entirely in Hindi and in a hyperstylised setting, do it! But the occasional bits of Bengali and the comical way they were used made it very annoying for me. And the acting! Let’s not even speak about it! I know that the setting was over-the-top. But can’t there be room for subtlety in acting within such a setting? (Somewhat unrelated case in point: Kill Bill, something I love as much as you do.)
His next film didn’t work for me in its entirety for the same reason. Forget the plagiarism aspect; it seemed that he was trying to make a film which would instantly be recognised as a “modern classic”. While that’s not exactly a bad thing, it didn’t seem to me a film he wanted to make.
I regard Saawariya as the best film Bhansali’s made. It did have its share of shortcomings, but the film, as a whole, was very admirable. For the first time, I found Bhansali exercising restraint. It was a bold attempt. It was deeper than any of his earlier works. I found myself liking this film, much to my surprise. I found it weird that people who had called his earlier films classics had issues with the “unreal” setting. I could write pages after pages on why I liked the film so much but I need to stop here. I think your review was the best one I’ve read on this film.
I’m a bit surprised that you didn’t include Omkara or Dev. D, two films I thought you found excellent. Then again, that’s your opinion. But I won’t get into the how-could-you-exclude-this business, since listmaking is one of the most personal (not to mention, most fun) things to do. (Ebert wrote an excellent post on this.)
Am looking forward to more lists from you.
(Sorry for the very long and, perhaps, very boring comment.)
Admiring all esp. Kill Bill, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , Dil Chahtha hai
I would add Nolan’s Prestige
I totally agree with you – I thought Khamoshi, though it had its moments, is quite clunky, and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam isn’t completely successful either. Devdas, on the other hand, is a fully and gorgeously realized vision, broad yet nuanced, with every single detail obsessively paid attention to. When I watched it again recently, I realized what a marvel of foreshadowing it was – everything seemed to loop back to everything that came before it through mazes of visual cues. It is a very “Love it or write scathing parodies of it” kind of work, but it does best represent the ouevre of an odd, original craftsman.
I didn’t know You liked Khakee that enough, to think of including it in the “decade’s best” list! :O
But really good to see Devdas up there, and I always knew You’d mention Hey Ram & Dil Chahta Hai
Kill Bill vol. 1 & 2 are movies I saw recently – and Finally I understand all this hype and hoopla about Tarantino!
With you on Incredibles, but I’ve recently realized that Dil Chahta Hai doesn’t age very well. Atleast for me. Some parts, like Aamir Khan approaching Preity Zinta the first time, now seem very cringe-worthy.
Superb sign-off Mr. Rangan. A tough one to do too… I would most surely share Hey Ram and Kill Bill.
Adithya/Suganth: As I mentioned in the intro, this is NOT a best-of list. Hence certain movies I liked/loved aren’t here. Devdas isn’t my favourite SLB film but it paved the way for Saawariya and that’s why it’s here — the starting point of a very singular VISION. That’s where I was coming from.
Upamanyu / Saleheen: Devdas is a problematic film for me. It is beautifully realised — and I’m not talking about just the photography, which is just “pretty.” (I think Ravi K Chandran, who came later, is a more significant contributor to SLB’s style. The style/content match of Black and especially Saawariya is quite astonishing. It’s like they read each other’s minds.) But yes, the acting of SRK and Aishwarya left something to be desired, even though they carried off the gestural moments very well.
And yes, I do agree that Saawariya is his finest film. When I saw it first, I had mixed reactions, and I believe I noted in my review that I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. But the film has grown on me with subsequent viewings. The only aspect that I do not care for is the Raj Kapoor references, which yank me out of that dream world and bring on some kind of contemporariness (even if only in the film world and not the “real world).
The thing I like most about his work, as Saleheen observed, is that for someone who pitches his narratives at such a decibel level, there’s so much nuance in the telling — in the way a song sequence begins, in the way the songs play out, in the way the art complements the mood of the scene, in the way the external conceits are woven in (like likening Paro to the moon and Chandramukhi to the sun), even in the way the actors “pose.” This is such a deliberate and unique vision that I’m actually flabbergasted that he’s getting the huge monies to make his movies, which are really “art” movies in a sense.
Upamanyu, if you’ve written something on Saawariya, I’d love to read it. Can you provide a link? Thanks.
No Anurag Kashyap?
I expected a pointer towards the journey from No Smoking to Dev D, how Kashyap finds a way of successfully mingling his style of narration with something accessible to his audience.
And no Vishal Bharadwaj!!!! Who brought The Bard in our backyard, showing adaptation of a classic can be done in so many different levels (even basic sound of the main characters’ names are retained), adaptations which can be so true to its source but so different at the same time…
A rare “list” post from you, BR. I could never find a way to rank Bollywood and Hollywood (or world cinema) in the same list, so here are my faves in two separate lists:
Bollywood
1. Dev D
2. Dil Chahta Hai
3. Maqbool
4. Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
5. Mr. and Mrs. Iyer
Hollywood etc
1. The Lord of the Rings
2. Mulholland Drive
3. Dogville
4. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
5. In the Mood for Love
Also, I agree about AI being Spielberg’s most fascinating film. I remember thinking that apart from the last act, the rest of the movie was an all-time classic. I’ve been meaning to watch it again after all these years to see if those flaws still stick out — I have a feeling that the movie has better-ed with age.
No place for mani ratnam ? – Kannathil Muthamittal comes closest to his calibre in this decade. Munnabhai series?
No, haven’t written anything on Saawariya yet. But this discussion has prompted me to write a longer piece on the films by Bhansali (and Kashyap). Maybe next month. But I don’t think I can write anything about Saawariya without referencing your wonderful review every other paragraph.
Hi,
My favourite Hindi, Tamil, English films of the last decade:
1. Alaipayuthe
2. Gladiator
3. Dil Chahta Hai
4. Lord of the Rings
5. Departed
6. 21 Grams
7. Jhonny Gaddar
8. Kill Bill – Vol 1
9. The Queen
10.Kaminey
A good list – but “Hey Ram” – really . I actually thought this was the film where Kamal’s “i am doing a PhD films/drudgery-films” started becoming heavier and more difficult to watch.
No – Anurag Kashyap and no Vishal Bharadwaj !!! .(+1 @Avik ). The two most important directors we have for the next decade. Unforgivable sir !!!
+1 for the Incredibles and Devdas.
From your comment:
“This is such a deliberate and unique vision that I’m actually flabbergasted that he’s getting the huge monies to make his movies, which are really “art” movies in a sense.” This is in fact the best description of SLB i have seen.
Additional comment on AK and VB .
Its not just important to have a unique vision and implementing it – its equally if not more important to actually have it succeed at the Box Office. That’s why Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bharadwaj must be on any Top 10 Indian Cinema “Vision” list.
While you put Brad Bird’s The Incredibles in the list, I root for his other film – Ratatouille. Without doubt, Pixar’s finest film to the date (in my opinion.)
Rangan, you like to be in minority ? Dont you ? Not sure if its be choice but then you keep on reminding it so many time. Or may be most of us dont see what you do. as much as i love reading your reviews, every time i start reading a new post i dread that it shouldnt turn out to be another love letter to one more contract or drona! ah, minority!
Baddy, can you also pen a list of notable performances? Just your personal preferences over the decade…
For instance, I was completely blown away by Leo’s work in Blood Diamond even if the movie resembled typical Indian masala fare in the melodrama dept. I thought Leo really got the character and lingo absolutely pat.
@baddy : vassup ! Ich bin Bruno.And Ich loves lists !
It vill be interesting to see what your Top 5 tamil movies of the decade are. Cos this decade has been the turning point for Tamil Cinema in terms of themes,format,presentation,titles,casting and more!
Mine are :
5.Kadhal Kondein (2003)
People say its Pudhupettai.But, for me KK works on so many levels one of which is the amount of layering. Each song and each is so dense that it works magically more so on repeated viewing.
4.Anbe Sivam (2003)
The ‘Jab we met’ of two men has charmed anyone who has seen it.Although in the climax, we see more of Kamal Haasan than Nallasivam.
3.Chennai 60028 (2007)
The dialog is so good it seems improvised.
2.Ayutha Exhuthu (2004)
Wanna read Stanislavski’s method of character building ? Screw that.Watch Ayutha Ezhuthu. And watch out for the ‘Breaking Bottles’ scene and the subsequent fight between Inba & Michael.
1.Kakka Kakka (2003)
Ownage of the decade.
I don’t have the mindset for lists, but this was a pretty interesting read.
Not a crib, but I’m a little surprised to see “The Incredibles” mentioned, instead of “Finding Nemo”…your mind works in intriguing ways, BR
Glad to see Hey Ram on the list and I feel it never got its due .
“magnificently realised, especially in the way the film veers towards phantasmagoria as its protagonist inches closer to insanity” . Totally agree with the above observation and ironically it was the same thing that kept the people away from the theatres
Sid: Yeah, I too would have liked to do separate lists, but there were space constraints.
Venkatesh: Hey Ram and Virumaandi are the two Kamal films of the decade where I didn’t feel the “drudgery” you mention. Yes, they are heavy films, but they come together very nicely.
Shankar: Yeah, I’ll try. Actually, more than the performances, I wanted to make a list — as I do every year — of the year’s 20 standout moments. Let me do that first.
1. Hrithik Roshan making faces in the car in Luck By Chance.
2. Abhay Deol chomping down a bus ticket in Dev.D.
3. The conversation between Rishi Kapoor and Abhishek Bahchan in Dilli-6, the one where the former speaks about a lost love.
4. Mangaattu Saami opens his eyes in Naan Kadavul, a bone-chilling moment that captures (in one instant) where the film has been heading thus far.
5. Saif Ali Khan packing off current girlfriend Jo-the-blonde on a Taj Mahal tour in order to be with his ex-girlfriend Deepika Padukone in Love Aaj Kal — a deeply disturbing moment rendered comical due to the staging within a song.
6. Priyanka Chopra conning Shahid Kapoor into marrying her in Kaminey.
7. The “heroine” tearing off strips of clothing to bandage the wounded “hero” in Quick Gun Murugan.
8. The endearing “inguttu Meenatchi… anguttu?” refrain employed by the young hero in Pasanga.
9. Sanjay Dutt magically upends a truck in Aladin.
10. Kareena Kapoor realises that her husband isn’t who he is in Kurbaan, in one of the best-directed sequences of the year.
11. Three friends discuss life and other such things while taking a dump in Vennila Kabaddi Kuzhu.
12. Soha Ali Khan breaks up with her fiance over a bottle of wine in Tum Mile.
13. Manoj Pahwa reports from the crime scene (”Aadhi khopdi, kuch ungliyan shungliyan…”) in Sankat City.
14. Ranbir Kapoor hangs out with his friends in the quasi-existential ‘Kya karoon’ song sequence in Wake Up Sid.
15. The daughter of Cheran’s Bengali landlord flirts lightly with him in Pokkisham, one of the few truly beautiful moments in an otherwise turgid film.
16. The audience discovers the real reason Auro kept running away from the girl in Paa, a potentially syrupy moment serves up with charm and delicacy.
17. Sanjay Suri walking up to a policeman and confessing he’s a Muslim in Firaaq.
18. Ranbir Kapoor has the “Shammi Kapoor shakes” in the party sequence in Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani.
19. An indulgent Prem Chopra checks if Ranbir’s “motion clear hua” while feeding him dahi in Rocket Singh.
20. Omi Vaidya brings the house down in the speech in 3 Idiots.
Your classic “20-moments of the year” post in the comments section!! Jesus, How You take ma aback at times..
Some really interesting moments Yo mention there. Esp.surprised to see the one from Love Aaj Kal -’coz despite of its comical execution, I was kinda feeling bad for the blonde.
Among the rest, ‘kya karoon’ was my moment of the film – before the film became too simple for my taste
While totally with you on the DevD and Luck By Chance moments.
But if I had to choose ONE moment from Kaminey – it had to be the maniacal encounter between Bhope Bhau & Mikhail. That really was *something*
Just out of curiosity , do you keep track of various moments all through the year and then bring it down to 20 or do you remember all these moments vividly that you just jot them down ??
B.H.Harsh: Yeah, end of the year and all, was too lazy to write out a separate post
And oh, you *do* feel bad for the blonde — just that because the moment is tucked away inside a song, it doesn’t register as much. As opposed to a Karan Johar or Aditya Chopra film, say, where this “betrayal” would have formed the crux of a dramatic scene, it was just brushed off lightly here. We’ve already registered that Saif and Deepika are fairly self-absorbed (even selfish?), so this moment plays along with our expectations.
KPV Balaji: I take a look at the list of films I reviewed (or Between Review-ed) and go with whatever moment jumps into my head. By the end of the year, if the association is so strong, then (at least for me) it’s a standout moment. Otherwise the list would run into the hundreds, in the sense that we may not make the greatest movies, but even the not-so-great ones may have a lot of good moments
So can i assume that touches like this make you admire Ali’s film-making even more?
Regarding those lightning quick responses to your article.. I suspect Google Reader has a hand in this conspiracy
Hi BR,
I am surprised Sethu didn’t make your list. Unknown hero, a new director- unknown quantity after being rejected and turned down over 100’s of Previews…and finally making it to the screen’s. Running empty for the first week and picking up significantly to become a HUGE hit….Vikram loosing the national award by a whisker!!
Phew, One hell of a fairy tale!
Anyways, Except for Dev Das, I agree with your list.
List of film people of 2000s
Sanjay Bhansali
Peter Jackson
J K Rowling
Stephanie mayer
Anil Ambani & wife
A R Rahman(although he’s really a 1990s personality)
The MAC computer & the green screen
Danush
Kari Sweets.
BR,
“Hey Ram and Virumaandi are the two Kamal films of the decade where I didn’t feel the “drudgery” you mention.” Virumaandi – yes , on Hey Ram lets agree to disagree, the ending portions of the film with SRK speaking in Tamil (when he is a muslim and a northerner in the film) just ruined the bloody thing for me. It just kept sounding too artificial for me.
I love the 20 moments – i would have changed a few but all the films are there.
And that brings me to Naan Kadavul – in terms of “vision” surely that film should be right up there in the Top 10. The whole mythological aspects combined together with some searing performances – a definite top 10 of the decade candidate, i don;t understand why it didn;t run that well though.
dude, there will be blood and no no country for old men? damn.
Baddy, thanks for the notable performances…
Venkatesh: Try watching the Hindi version of Hey Ram (if you haven’t). I saw that first, and was totally bowled over. I then caught the Tamil version, and the problems you had didn’t affect me that much (though I admit if I’d seen the latter first, I might have had a different reaction to the film, especially due to SRK’s accent and all, which was unbelievably distracting). Somehow, it was easier to accept an Iyengar family talking in accented Hindi, with Gandhi speaking Hindi, with SRK speaking Hindi, than them speaking Tamil, English and Tamil respectively. A lot of Naseer’s lines worked much better in Hindi. I wonder how the film would have turned out in Tamil with better dubbing, because some of the dialogues in this version are indeed brilliant.
Props for including AI !
I hate how underrated it is otherwise. Put aside the higher philosophical questions, and the part with Haley Joel Osment’s mother abandoning him in the woods is one of the most heartbreaking scenes i’ve ever seen.
I’d replace There Will Blood with Magnolia, but i’m probably biased by the Aimee Mann soundtrack, and that mid-movie “musical” moment.
Great list !
BR : “SRK’s accent and all, which was unbelievably distracting” – that’s exactly it – i just could not get over it, this may be simply because i grew up in Delhi and speak Hindi fluently. I am going to try and get a copy of Hey Ram in Hindi and see if that changes anything for me.
Thanks for this BR.
TWBB features in my top 10 list of all time too and DCH and Kill Bill in the top 10 this decade.
Most people find TWBB boring and slow but on the contrary I find it very entertaining. And for me Daniel Plainview is the ultimate hero(not the anti hero). I loved his dedication and belief in himself. Reminds me of the heroes of the Randian world.
Finally completed my list, though this is only Bollywood:
http://morethanfilms.blogspot.com/2010/02/multiplex-decade-best-of-bollywood-2000.html