When action speaks more than words... Review on Five Best Bollywood Action Movies

Action movies?.. a phrase that brings to our mind movies made for the front benchers and for the people whose sole priority in life is seeing blood?. It brings to our mind cars burning, people being chopped and blood everywhere.

Probably this is the meaning given to action by the C grade directors and producers who thrived on this concept in the mid seventies to mid nineties. Can?t blame them?. The audience became more and more blood thirsty and the movie makers were all fo it. After all, they could use the same footing again and again in various movies.

Also, action movies bring to our mind a concept called sex? soon sex and violence became inseparable.

We saw numerous movies made with the aging Dharmendra, Mithun Chakraverty and even Jackie Shroff, along with a bunch of unknown stars. Even today we see such movies being made and people watching them eagerly.

With time. Action has become quite high tech. The stars became more violent and the villains more subtle and merciless. Who can forget the gory scenes from Dum?

But action is not always about bloodshed and footings where audience has to close the eyes. There have been numerous action movies, which have passed the message, but also touched the heart. The following is such a list.

Action movies can be clubbed into various categories. I have made 5 such classifications (based on my convenience of course and have tried to list movies there.

Historic Action

These are the movies, where action was based on the historic era. From the times of Ramayana to the Britishers. We had Suraj as a popular movie with decent action scenes and we also had movies like Mard, Pukar, Kranti etc that depicted the freedom struggle. One movie that stands tall is definitely The Legend of Bhagat Singh, which in my opinion is the best movie so far (lets wait for Mangal Pandey)

But the movie that walks away with th cake is definitely Moghul-e-Aazam.A movie that redfined Indian cinema. It was definitely easy to capture such extravagant action with the resources available during that time. But K Asif did it. The use of horses, elephants and the armoured soldiers was captured in priceless perfection by the cameraman.

War Movies

War movies of post independence India is an area where our movie makers have not shown much of innovation. We have seen some stupid movies like Tehelka passing in the name of war and we have seen glimpses of greatness in movies like Lakshya. LOC was decent, but definitely not the best. Border is acclaimed to be the best by many. I also loved the movie, but somewhere I found the action to be lot more unrealistic than what you?ll expect.

My vote goes to Haqeeqat.Anyone who has seen this movie, can never forget its impact. It did not have the weapons as we see in Border, but it also did not have leaders going and standing in front of the enemy with chest exposed. The fight scenes were not many, but wherever they were shown, they were captured with utmost sincerity and perfection. Taking pride from a lost battle seemed to be the theme. Hats off to the star cast, with special mention of Balraj Sahani.

Gundaraj

By Gundaraj, I am talking about all kinds of Gundas. From the dacoits of Chambal as seen in movies from the fifties, to the street dadas of Eighties and Nineties. Movies like Hero, Shiva etc fall to this category and so does most of Mithun Da?s films. Also, I would like to include movies like Tezaab, Rakhwala and Chinagate under this category.

But there is no competition for Sholay here. Another movie that redefined how the movies were made in India. The stunts, even though limited, were superb and they fitted to the story line without a hitch.

Mafia

Mafia is different from Gundaraj by a single fact that it is organized crime. This seems to be the favourite topic for action films today. There have been numerous innovations or rather attempts to glamourise the Dons through these movies. The first movie made with perfection in this regard was Parinda, which was followed by series of gems (yes, true gems) like Satya, Vaastav etc. Another movie was Angaar, that had strong characterization.

But the harsh realities of the mafia world were put forth by non other than the Big B in the lead?Agneepath.Made in the Godfather style, this movie touched every heart. There was plenty of action (enough to give headache), but the action scenes were not stray incidents? they were nicely weaven to the story. I think that?s what makes it different.

Action with a cause

A series of revenge drama? may be for self, one?s community or country. This idea has sold from the times of classics writers (remember Count of Montecristo) to modern day movies (Main Hoon Na may be the latest). We had a man making an army of prisoners to fight the enemies of the country (Karma) and we have seen trying to clear the society of its evils (Mohraa). We have seen a police officer fighting for jaustice (Zanjeer) and we have seen a common man in the middle of political turmoil (Nayak).

But the movie that is closest to my heart is Raakh.An Aamir Khan starrer, that could not make it to the top of box office. but never the less, till date remains as one of the finest movies in action drama. It was a movie, that braught forward action through innocence.

So that?s about it from me. Pl post your comments.