Legends Of Cinema

Have you ever wondered how incredibly addictive is making up scenarios in head. It is such a sweet waste of time, a totally harmless indulgence and if you were wondering that it can be qualified as ‘planning’ then let me add that it has nothing to do with the probability of the event. I fear if ever mind reading becomes a reality I may be classified as a clinical schizophrenic 

The beauty of staying at home and looking after kids is that you can completely shut your brain and go about tending kids and daily chores in an almost brain dead sort of a way. This is when you can totally revel in building scenarios.

One such mind exercise that I presented myself, was, 'What if I were to pick three movies from 100 years of Bollywood’s history’ which are truly legendary. Of course there are hundreds of them but if I have to cut them down to three who will they be.

I agree that it is presumptuous to call it a 'mind’ exercise; at best it may qualify as faffing, and that it has no merit, and nothing in the world will change, and no good will emerge out of these insights, but I would like to comfort myself by believing that it is harmless and (though am a bit ashamed to admit) its fun!

So in my opinion the three most outstanding movies from the 100 years of  Bollywood’s song and  dance musicals are:

1. Mughal-e-Azam: the movie was such a treat to ears, the dialogues were sheer poetry, the actors so brilliantly did their work that it surpassed our imagination of perfection.  Every bit of the movie was fulfilling.

2.Guide: there are very few movies which have done justice to the book that they were adapted from and guide is one of those. It is a masterpiece and a movie totally ahead of its time; a very unconventional story delivered in a conventional Bollywood manner and yet standing out without the message being lost.

Every time I watch this movie it gives me a new perspective, it lifts me from the immediate and forces me to look at the big picture; to ponder about life, its relevance and not to be lost in the trivial details.

3.Gangs of Wasseypur: I like this movie for its sheer audacity. It experimented with almost everything, from actors to music to story and ultimately a good and a crisp story line makes all these experiments look perfect.

Disclaimer: The title is misleading, the author suffers from sensationalism; cinema to her means Bollywood. Also this list does not include the works of Satyajit Ray and other veterans of parallel cinema.