I realize it's the middle of 2006 and the purpose of this thread is long overdue, but I've still wanted to list and discuss some of the films I feel that shouldn't otherwise be disregarded. It was just recently that I managed to watch "10" of last year's release, whereby the dignity of these film's range from being insipid to compelling motion picture. Additionaly, I have also added a selection of films belonging to last year's complete eradication to cinema.


BEST OF '05
1. Water (dir: Deepa Mehta)
2. Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi (dir: Sudhir Mishra)
3. Black (dir: Sanjay Bhansali)
4. Page 3 (dir: Madhur Bhandarkar)
5. Socha Na Tha (dir: Imtiaz Ali)
6. Main, Meri Patni Aur Woh (dir: Chandan Arora)
7. Mangal Pandey (dir: Ketan Mehta)
8. Paheli (dir: Amol Palekar)
9. Maine Gandhi Ko Nahie Mara (dir: Janhu Barua)
10. Sarkar (dir: Ram Gopal Verma)

WORST OF '05
1. Lucky No Time For Love (dir: Radhika Rao & Vinay Sapru)
2. Yahaan (dir: Shoojit Sircar)
3. Shabd (dir: Leena Yadav)
4. Salaam Namaste (dir: Siddarth Anand)
5. Parineeta (Pradeep Sarkar)
6. Kalyug (dir: Mohit Suri)

I've only seen three of those films, Water, Black, and Paheli.

Water- I thought it was just okay. The theme of the treatment of widows is worthy of attention, but the treatment had its problems. Some things were lifted straight from Satyajit Ray (Chuya giving the old woman a laddoo, for one), and I pinning the entire hope on Gandhi towards the end felt like a very narrow focus. I did like the parallel story of the budding freedom movement, though. Worth watching once, but doesn't have any repeat value for me.

Black- I liked the stylized storytelling, but was disappointed in the Miracle Worker scenes. I wish SLB had used his talents for something more original. Not exactly a remake, but the Miracle Worker scenes are so iconic to that play that I immediately thought of it when I saw them in the film. Even Family Guy parodied the "water" scene, that's how well-known it is.

Paheli- No real conflict, which is the driving force of any narrative. Rani hardly has any dilemma at all in choosing the fake SRK. Rani never struggles with the idea of accepting a fake husband, and illusion vs. reality isn't explored. The puppets were there to feed the audience information that anyone who was paying attention to the film already knew.

DragunR2- I urge you to check out Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi & Socha Na Tha(if any). These are perhaps some of the smallest releases from last year, the latter went virtually unnoticed.

Paheli was utterly boring! music..I liked!

Mangal was utterly atrocious imho!

I am glad Main meri patni and gandhi being miniscule films are getting good viewrs approvals/appreciation.

Interesting topic!

May I ask, DVD-Collector-ji, why Parineeta is in your list of worst movies? Why Sarkar and Black are in your list of best movies? And why Iqbal is not mentioned in your list of best movies?

Parineeta: Besides the fine performances from both Saif & Vidya, the central plot of this film was extenuatingly painful to watch. It linears with the standardize plot structure that has been used by many hindi films for decades and decades. It blows me away that many considered this as one of 2005s most beautiful films, if so, we might as well blacklist the term "innovation".

Sarkar: Without a good script-writer, Ramu is almost stripped naked of giving us another Satya, Kaun, or Company. That said, I've always (and still do) feel that he's an actor's director, he knows how to utilize his actors to an extent that most other directors in Bollywood can't imagine, some even producing the best performances from their overall oeuvre.

Black: This was certainly one of the most passionate films I've seen in a while, it's the kind of film that makes me believe in "movie magic". It sounds kind a sissy doesn't it? So be it. Much like Ramu, Bhansali is also an actor's director and the latter half of Black might just be Amitabh best performance ever witnessed onscreen(and that's saying alot ).

Iqbal: I still have to see this, will surely do when I find the time.

I found Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi intolerable, so much so that I turned it off after half-an-hour.

Glad to see some mention of the underappreciated Paheli (not great, but certainly better than the majority of films released last year), and some well-warranted hatred for the hideous Salaam Namaste.