Here are my favourite films and performances of the year. If you want to read my full review of the film, click on its name. Two movies which I think would have been on this list but aren’t because I haven’t had the opportunity to watch them are Parzania and Loins of Punjab Presents. Please let me know if I’ve missed anything else worthwhile.
Favourite films

1. Black Friday: My pick to send to the Oscars for its amazing narrative structure, a stunning ensemble of perfect actors, lessons about the politics of hatred and above all, for being one of the most engrossing movies ever. Black Friday was originally supposed to be a 6 episode TV series or a documentary. It got stuck for no good reason in the courts; there’s nothing in it that can be called inflammatory. It shows facts in a dramatized manner, but without resorting to typical Hindi film simplification. I was always a fan of Anurag Kashyap’s writing. Black Friday, No Smoking and Return of Hanuman have made me a lifelong fan of him as a director as well. I hope I get to work with him someday.

2. Chak De India: I went to watch Chak De India more for Shimit Amin than for Shah Rukh Khan. I ended up not only falling in love with everything about the movie, but also had a renewal of faith in SRK, whom I have tremendous respect for as an actor because of his non-Rahul non-Raj roles, but perhaps even more because of the depth of his knowledge and his wit. The dialogue was brilliant, and I became a fan of Shilpa Shukla.

 
3. Jab We Met: I would’ve missed Jab We Met if it weren’t for the ultra-strong recommendation of one of my friends. I can’t remember when I’ve been so stirred up by a love story. I’m not a fan of Kareena Kapoor, but she blew me away in this.

4. Taare Zameen Par: I feel so, so small in front of the genius of Darsheel Safary. This is a film that compares to Titanic in terms of getting the audience to cry. And look at Aamir Khan’s guts in keeping himself out of the story till the interval. My salutations to him and Amole Gupte.


5. Gandhi, My Father: A great insight into the thoughts of the father of the nation and the personal price he had to pay to free us. Akshaye Khanna’s best role, definitely, but it’s Darshan Jariwala’s and Shefali Shah’s performances that leave me at a loss for words.

6. Cheeni Kum: A couple of people have said this film is over-written. I don’t really understand what that term means. I loved it for its splendid repartee and because Tabu’s character is the kind of girl I’d like to spend my life with.

7. Return of Hanuman: Of all the films this year, I think I may have laughed the hardest while watching Return of Hanuman. If you still haven’t seen it, I highly recommend that you do. It’s the best Indian animation film I’ve seen so far. Also, don’t compare it with Pixar & Disney material, because they have boatloads of dollars and we don’t yet. Let Sony or someone give Anurag Kashyap a couple of million bucks, and then sit back and watch the magic.

8. Namastey London: I guess the romantic idiot in me loves these stories where the devoted guy wins his over girl from some other nitwit. Eg Jab We Met.

9. Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd: A very sweet, funny film with a whole bunch of very memorable moments and characters.

10. Chain Kulii Ki Main Kuli: I guess not many people will have watched this film, which even Ashutosh Gowarikar has called a ‘little gem of a movie.’ This is how a children’s movie should be. Fast and a lot of fun. Ok, so it may have been a transposition of Like Mike. But it was still entertaining.

11. Metro: Many things were great about Metro – Konkona, Irrfan Khan, Sharman Joshi, Shilpa Shetty, Kay Kay Menon – but what’s stayed with me the most has been the songs. A whole Hindi film album of soft rock songs! I’d never have thought anyone would have had the guts to do such a thing. Thanks a lot to Pritam and Anurag Basu.

12. No Smoking: Let me be very clear that I don’t pretend to have understood No Smoking. I didn’t. But that didn’t stop me from enjoying it. It was like watching a fun excercise in imagination and creativity. Only when I read Anurag Kashyap’s reasons for making it did I understand his underlying allegory.



Favourite performances by an actor in a leading role

1. Darsheel Safary (Taare Zameen Par): Range, ex-pression, subtlety – in short, genius at age 9! I’m not saying that Darsheel’s performance was good for a 9 nine year old, that’s ridiculous! It was magnificient by ANY standards. Many adult heroes wouldn’t be able to perform as effortlessly and naturally as Darsheel did.
 
2. Pawan Malhotra (Black Friday): Perhaps the only reason I’ve put Pawan Malhotra at #2 is that Darsheel had a wider range of emotions to play. Otherwise Mr Malhotra’s portrayal of Tiger Memon was of such excellence that I could just gape with an open mouth and try to learn. Intense is too overused a word, but I can’t find a better one. Mr Malhotra deserves a ton of awards, but will anyone award him for playing a real-life villain?

3. Darshan Jariwala (Gandhi, My Father): Ben Kingsley, Naseeruddin Shah, Dilip Prabhavalkar. Darshan Jariwala now joins the elite list of people with stupendous portrayals of the Mahatma. I nearly cried in the scene with the communal riots.

4. Vinay Pathak (Bheja Fry): The two ex-VJ’s Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey are among my favourite actors. They just go from strength to strength, creating new characters each time. I wonder how many other people would have been able to carry Bheja Fry on their shoulders.

5. Pankaj Kapoor (The Blue Umbrella): It would be a sin to say anything about the great Pankaj Kapoor without adding ‘in my very humble opinion.’ I didn’t really like the film that much, but Mr Kapoor was INSPIRING.

6. Shah Rukh Khan (Chak De India): I’ve always loved the King of Bollywood, but I was getting really tired of Rahul and Raj. While I can’t deny that I always like watching him in whatever he does, I feel that after DDLJ, Swades and Chak De India have been the only films where he’s really shown how great and intelligent an actor he is. Watching SRK in Chak De India was like having an old friend return at last.

7. Govinda (Salaam-e-Ishq): Govinda is proof of my personal theory that those who can do comedy can do anything. I was most skeptical about this story in Salaam-e-Ishq, but Govinda made his character so lovable and believable, that if I had to pick one story out of the six to make a full film on, it would be this.

8. Abhishek Bachchan (Guru): A great job by Abhishek Bachchan. I feel he aged very well in the movie.


Best Actress in a Leading Role

1. Shefali Shah (Gandhi, My Father): It’s been a long time now, but some of Shefali Shah’s scenes, like the one where she’s horrified that her son’s converted, are still in my mind. After a performance like this, the young mothers-in-law of saas-badboo serials should…

2. Tabu (Cheeni Kum): Being quiet and interesting is much tougher than being loud and attention grabbing. I loved Tabu’s chemistry with the Big B, and the way she brought to life the girl of my dreams.


3. Kareena Kapoor (Jab We Met): This one I very grudgingly admit, because as I said, I’m not a fan of Kareena Kapoor. I loved several of her moments in Jab We Met, though. Hotel Decent and Oho, possessive!

4. Katrina Kaif (Namastey London): I’m a little surprised at this one too. I don’t know how much of Katrina’s dialogue was dubbed, but I found her surprisingly good.


I wish I could put in individual commentary for the performances below as well, but my schedule at Actor Prepares is so tight I barely have time to clear my bowels in to full satisfaction. I’m finishing this article on a Sunday, and I have so many things to catch up on that I’ll just leave it to the respected readers to comment on their favourites.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
1. Mithun Chakrabarty (Guru)
2. Aditya Shrivastav (Black Friday)
3. Rishi Kapoor (Namaste London)
4. Zakir Hussain (Johnny Gaddaar)
5. Paresh Rawal (Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota)
6. Irrfan Khan (Metro)
7. Manoj Joshi (Guru)


Best Actress in a Supporting Role
1. Shilpa Shukla (Chak De India)
2. Amrita Singh (Shootout At Lokhandwala)
3. Ratna Pathak Shah (Yun Hota Toh Kya Hota)
4. Shannon Esrechowitz (Salaam-e-Ishq)
5. Bhumika Chawla (Gandhi, My Father)
6. Ashwini Kalsekar (Johnny Gaddaar)
7. Tisca Chopra (Taare Zameen Par)
 

Best Comic Performance
1. Nana Patekar (Welcome)
2. Javed Jaffrey (Dhamaal)
3. Ranvir Shorey (Bheja Fry)
4. Govinda (Partner)
5. Salman Khan (Partner)
6. Akshay Kumar (Return of Khiladi (in Om Shanti Om))




The What’s She Doing Here award – Juhi Chawla for appearing in Khamosh – Khauff Ki Raat

The Fake Big O award – Rakhi Sawant for Buddha Mar Gaya

The Best Dead Body award – Anupam Kher for Buddha Mar Gaya

The Best Accent award – Ranvir Shorey for the Gujurati accent in Honeymoon Travels

The You Totally Ruined this Character award – Ajay Devgun for drowning the Soosaaid scene in RGV Ki Aag in the kuwa.

The Smudged-into-Goo Xerox award – Fool ‘n’ Final for being a very irritating copy of Snatch

The Neat ‘n’ Clean Xerox award – Chain Kulii Ki Main Kuli for being a fun copy of Like Mike (which was about Michael Jordan’s shoes instead of Kapil Dev’s bat), & Bheja Fry for being a funny remake of a French film.

The Beysura Dhol award – Dhol for being thoroughly predictable and irritating and giving me a mild headache.

The Run Out of The Theatre Before I Go Crazy award – Dhol again

The Funniest Non-veg Line award – Dil Dosti Etc. “Safed paani ki jheel samajh rakha hai kya?”

The Pyaasa Shaitaan Ridiculous Bhoot award - The accented Bengali bhoot in Bhool Bhoolaiyya

The Dinosaur Can Walk Through Loopholes award - Bhool Bhoolaiyya for stretching my abandonment of logic too far