Jan 12, 2003 05:19 PM
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(Updated Jan 12, 2003 05:25 PM)
A look at The Times of India FilmFare Award nomination shows us that over 140 movies were released last year .Most of them bombed at the box office. Only a fortunate few were able to recover their production costs.The first half of the year was dominated by period films.
This was the result of the two main blockbusters of last year namely ''Gadar'' & ''Lagaan'';, both period films .Bhagat Singh found himself the center of attraction this year .Three films on a single subject “The Legend Of Bhagat Singh “, “Shaheed-E-Azam” & “23 March 1931- Shaheed”.
The result was expected .All the films failed at the box office. “The Legend of Bhagat Singh “was the most promising of the three with stellar performances from the cast and good work by Raj Kumar Santoshi. Then there was “Agnivarsha”, another addition the group of period films. This too failed to impress the viewers. The only movie that succeeded in this category was the extravagant “Devdas”.
The sets and terrific performances from the lead members Shahrukh Khan (in a role which seemed tailor-made for him), Aishwarya Rai and Madhuri Dixit were the highlights of this movie which cost about 50 crores to make .But Sanjay Leela Bhansalis labour of love had its effect of the audience and has even managed to be India’s nominee this year at the Oscars.
Another feature that was prominent this year was the willingness of actors to divert from the stereotype heroes and perform roles which had shades of gray or even to portray a completely negative role. “Ankheen“ had Amitabh Bachan doing such a role. Then there was “Humraaz” which had Akshay Khanna doing an out and out negative role. “Dewangee” had Ajay Devgan in a similar role .These movies did well at the box office and will perhaps set a trend with more actors willing to do similar challenging roles.
Then there were multi-starrers like “Aawara Paagal Deewana” , “Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin” , ”Jaani Dushman” , ”Om Jai Jagdish” and finally “Kaante”.All of these except “Kaante” & “Aawara Paagal Deewana” bombed at the box office .Add “Aankheen” to that list and it becomes a 50-50 year for the multi-starrers.
Now talking of debutants, there were quite a few this year. Arya Babbar in “Ab Ke Baras”, Sonu Nigam in“Jaani Dushman”, Isha Deol in “Na Tum Janoo Na Hum”, Miss World Yukta Mookhey in “Pyaasa” .The fate of these movies indicated a poor start for all of them .The one debutant who stood out was Vivek Oberoi .He was the unusual hero with terrific performances in “Company”, ”Road” and finally “Saathiya”. And who can forget the cameo by south superstar Mohanlal as the wily cop in the same movie. Sohail Khan's debut as an actor was a disaster .But then there was a nice performance by another debutant Prashant Narain (who was seen in lots of TV serials earlier ) in “Chhal”.
Finally the top five of this year can be put down as
1)DEVDAS – Huge sets, good performances and an Oscar nomination from our jury. That says all about this one which many complained was not the exact adaptation of Sarat Chandra’s classic.
2)COMPANY – The big bad underworld always commands interest .Earlier it was ''Satya'' and then ''Vaastav''.Ram Gopal Verma succeeded in attracting viewers to the movie halls with this well made movie.
3)AANKHEEN – The movie may not have done very well but deserves a place in the top five for sheer originality. To add to it there were superb performances from the Big B and Paresh Rawal. What’s more there is even talk of this one being adapted into a Hollywood movie called “The Three Blind Mice”.
4)RAAZ – This spooky remake of “What Lies Beneath” made by Vikram Bhatt was one of the biggest grosser last year .The movie marked the arrival to Bipasha Basu as a force to reckon with in Bollywood rather than just another pretty face.
5)DEEWANGEE – This one had two actors who had a very good 2002 .Ajay Devgan and Akshay Khanna. Along with Vivek Oberoi they would be the only actors who would want to remember 2002 fondly.
