iRohit.com

Empire Magazine has done it, Roger Ebert published his. iRohit is now doing it. Yup, following is the list of the most memorable movies of this decade. Only twist being this is exclusively a bollywood list.

This list consists of the movies that I have enjoyed over the last 10 years. These are the movies that remain with me after I have left the theatre. These have great characters, great stories, great lines, great lyrics, great music. It is complied by sheer power of recollection, and hence in essence are the movies of the decade for me.

1. Lage Raho Munnabhai [2006] This is what I would describe as a flawless movies. It was funny, serious, inspirational, all and all total paisa vasool film. In my opinion this is the best movie released in my lifetime.

2. Rang De Basanti [2006] An intense movie, great parallel narrative. One documenting the youth of the past and one echoing the youth of today, using great camera work and great casting. Superp music, great acting.

3. Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi [2003] Another intense cinema, I for one could not believe that bollywood could make such a movie. Splendid music and lyrics and truly great casting, with a screenplay that explores characters to the core. Set against the backdrop of the Naxalite movement, this is a story of passion, beliefs, spirit.

4. Dil Chahta Hai [2001] First and still one of the best movies to capture the young india and its multicultural identity, adaptability. Most thoughtful use of a foreign location so far.

5. Mr. and Mrs. Iyer [2002] This movie was a breath of fresh air in a industry that is dominated with happy, pretty people doing song and dance, falling in love and living happily ever after. Set against a backdrop of riots and curfews, this movie presents a tale of how two characters from diametrically opposite cultures come together and help and care for each other.

6. Lagaan [2001] A very rare period film, which went to Oscars. Tale of people from varied backgrounds coming together contrary to the norms of the Indian society to fight and eventually triumph against oppression. Well, that’s Lagaan for you. Amazing sets, music by A R Rahman, Aamir in the lead, directed by a new comer Ashutosh Gowariker.

7. Omkara [2006] An adaptation of Othello by an Indian. That’s something never heard of in India. Vishal Bhardwaj masterfully brought the epic Shakespearean tragedy to the Indian cinema draped in indian colors. Set up in rural northern india, splendid performance by Saif, Vivek, Kareena and Ajay managed to pull off this tale of love, jealously and deceit.

8. Wake Up Sid [2009] 2009s best movie. Careless, rich boy finds love in a friend and career in what he loves. Simple story, but portrayed in a super charming way by Ranbir and his most unlikely belle Konkana Sen. Movie was all about the characters and how the Ranbir and Konkana played them.

9. Jhankar Beats [2003] A very diverse cast comes together to make a movie which centers around a music competition. Great story, good laughs, good music, great performances. A very enjoyable film.

10. Taare Zameen Par [2007] 4th Aamir starrer movie in my top 10. But so unlike all the others he has done. This is a story of a dreamy boy and his life around his family, friends, teachers. Sensitive, warm movie with great music, one of the best hindi song ever written, maa,

So there you have it folks. My top ten bollywood movies of the decade. Though I loved many more, since Top 10 just means just 10, not all could be a part of it. Nonetheless, these 10 are the undisputed movies of the decade. I have to mention a few others that could not be a part of this but were very close. Swades, surprisingly the only SRK movie I liked. Rock On, a more trendy movie about friends and music. Khosla ka Ghosla, movie that captured the soul of Delhi. No Amitabh movie in my top 10 which i realised after making the list. And the very recent 3 idiots.

So there it is. Tell me what you think I missed, or overrated.

Ciao!

Sachin’s 20 year long glorious career. One way to look at it… [got this some a friends status msg on GTalk]

When Sachin Tendulkar travelled to Pakistan to face one of the finest bowling attacks ever assembled in cricket, Michael Schumacher was yet to race a F1 car, Lance Armstrong had never been to the Tour de France, Diego Maradona was still the captain of a world champion Argentina team, Pete Sampras had never won a Grand Slam.

When Tendulkar embarked on a glorious career taming Imran and company, Roger Federer was a name unheard of; Lionel Messi was in his nappies, Usain Bolt was an unknown kid in the Jamaican, Tiger Woods was 13 years old

Rakhi chose her groom on live TV. Not sure how this will play out over the next few days. So is this path breaking or a really wrong turn. I come from the days when ‘Choli ke peeche’ was ostracized. Today, getting ones genitals smacked for a wrong answer is totally acceptable. How the views have changed. I wonder what the actual TRP numbers are for these shows. But if Indians find shows like MTV Roadies/MTV Splitsvilla entertaining or even slightly funny than that’s pretty alarming. There is already an undercurrent of disgust at these shows, which leads to the obvious question… should they be banned? I have always been opposed to the idea bans. And if one goes by the popularities that these shows suggest, then surely there are people who enjoy watching these shows. So what’s to be done…
What I want is that these shows be explicitly marked as suitable for mature audiences only [you know that red circle with 18 written in it]. I am not sure if I would want any school going kid to watch these overly dramatized shows drawing on explicit voyeurism and take that to be how majority of the people in this world behave, think. And yes, I don’t believe these reality shows represent the psyche of the common man. These individuals are chosen precisely for their eccentricity and emotional quotient that assures of aggravated responses in ludicrous and disgusting situations. I would want these shows to be moved to a late night slot, with adequate warnings mature content and advising viewer discretions and not just the bleeps and the blurs.

Indian Television has stopped being meaningful. Balika Vaadu, is a serial that in my opinion makes child marriage seems routine. And its acceptability by the masses is shocking. How can you educate the society that child marriage is a crime when the society loves Anandi.

And it’s not that we can’t create entertaining television. We had Antakshari, Filmi Chakkar, Dekh Bhai Dekh, Hum Paanch, Sarabhai v/s Sarabhai. So surely there are writers and directors out there that can create quality. But there has to be someone willing to take a pause, re-evaluate what entertainment should be and then deliver.

There are two kinds of losses that I know. One where someone loses, the other, where someone had to lose. Yesterday, Andy’s loss was the latter. To lose a championship, Wimbledon, on just two points is cruel. The guy held is serve for 5 odd hours, and then within a span of two serves, it was all over. Gutted would be an understatement, to describe how Andy must have felt. I think he should have won. Its commendable though how he didn’t burst into tears and held is calm all throughout the presentation.

Andy… Well he take some spirit from Goran, who too had lost 3 finals, but then bounced back to win one of the most memorable and popular final.

Wonder if Rafa was watching the final. Wonder what he must have felt…

So Nadal’s not playing. That was very disappointing news to many of his fans, including me. We are not going to see another classic. It was totally shocking to see him losing to Soderling. I for one think, it was a combination of the worst performance by Nadal on clay and Soderling playing his best tennis. Roger though, made the best of it, and that’s exactly what a champion does. He did deserve the career grand slam. It would have been a lot sweeter if he had won it against Nadal, but I guess he would more than glad to win it against Soderling. He spared the world his tears.

So with no Nadal, this Wimbledon is Rogers to win. And that will take him past Pete. And being a Sampras fan, it’s really sad to see his record being broken, but since it will be Roger, I guess it’s not that bad.

Also, this Wimbledon and the French Open make us realize what a privilege it was to see the two of them go at it for 4 years back to back on the clay of Roland Garros and the grass of Wimbledon.

So will they be there next year to slug it out? I hope so. I still think there are few more twist in that rivalry.

Incase you are a globe trotting blogoholic, and also have fair interest in the movies and the oscar and were wondering who is this guy A R Rahman, you have stumbled upon the right place. He is a Indian genius who composes music for the indian film industry. Most of us just go total fida over his compositons. I have put together a list of my favourites by the movie names, which proved to be quite a task. The list includes only his work for the Bollywood. There is a general notion that his work for the south indian film industry is even better.

1. Rangeela

2. Roja

3. Rang De Basanti

4. Swades

5. Slumdog Millionaire

6. Yuva

8. Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

9. Saathiya

10. Lagaan

11. Bombay

12. Dil Se

If you are ‘resourceful’ types, you will find his music on the web courtesy the rippers.

Recently at a meeting at Googleplex

Google worker 1: Googlers. How do we make more money in this economic downturn?

Google worker 2: How about we target mobile users with ads?

Google worker 1: Don’t we do that already?

Google worker 2: Do we? I was thinking… pushing ads based on their location…

Google worker 1: Hmm, tell me more…

Google worker 2: We can tempt them into installing an app so that we can know their location

Google worker 1: Isn’t that invasion of privacy

Google worker 2: Not unless marketing puts a positive spin on it.

Google worker 3: We could say it will help then to track their loved ones… we could start with children. Every parent would love that. Next we will have jealous, suspicious spouses… and finally everybody

Google worker 1: Genius… and we will fit into our ‘Don’t be evil’ culture and make it free!

Google worker 1: Let’s christen this Google Latitude!

Google worker 1,2,3: $$$

So America and the world gets a new leader tomorrow. It will be historic day no doubt.

To me, it’s also frightening how high profile Obama has become. He has achieved iconic status, and he is yet to step into the office. People seem to believe that he has come kind of magic wand… akin to Harry Potter, that he will swing, whisper a spell and make all the troubles of the American people go away the moment he steps foot into the White House. I find it surprising how humans can rally around a person or how a single person can rally such masses of people and be their only ray of hope in these gloomy times. Truly, the human emotion of hope can reach inexplicable heights.

I wonder how it will be when Obama, who promised so much, will actually get down to work, and be no different than his predecessor. Obama is not super man, super intelligent; he is just a beautiful orator. His policies will come from his team, who my guess is, no smarter than Bush’s. Infact he probably would not have even penned his speech on the day of inauguration.

Tomorrow, for me is going to be just another media hyped spectacle, which will probably bring a cheer to the people all around the world, after which they will get back to the life of economic hardships, hunger, conflicts.

As the world draws it curtain on the most wretched year in terms of economy, lets look back at some of the people, event that defined new directions for many. This is a sort of continuation of a series of post that I had last year.

Let me begin with the most recent one, Barrack Obama, the man who is a symbol that humans have finally begun to recognize the individual beneath the color of the skin. I must confess that I didn’t think it was possible, deep down I anticipated that the Bradley effect would come into play. But it didn’t. I think my fear is more because of me being an Indian, where race, religion, caste are a major segregators in the society. The individual comes later. In India, the politicians draw overt advantages by playing these cards.

Anyways, so Obama is the man of the moment. The media ran the images of Jesse Jackson in tears, but I guess many more blacks, especially who have lived to segregation upto the mid 1900’s we shed a few more tears when Obama will take up the podium and deliver his State of the Union. A black defining the path the US will take, now that will be epic!

Obama is a good communicator, he speeches have that feel good factor, the punch lines, but whether he will surpass Bill Clinton as the best orator remains to be seen. After the euphoria, Barrack inherits the presidency at the worst possible time, the war in the middle east, the relations with Iran-N Korea are ‘bad’. Russians are trying to asserts themselves more coupled with the fact that the US dominance on the geo-political world is on the decline. And ofcourse, the economy is, well, dead!

2008 may have been his year… the next four are what will define him…