Whims published... It's not an expert's opinion, It's not an online diary, It's not a web journal... It is just my whims published

In 2009, I have watched 20 movies in theater (to be precise 13 Hindi, 4 Kannada and 3 English). That's more than 1.5 movie per month on an average. That is really a huge amount of time and money I have spent for movies in theater compared to any other year in the past. Though I usually post the reco/review of a movie I have watched, I could not do it for all the good/bad/worse movies I watched in 2009. As the year 2009 has ended, here is my pick of some best and worst movies of the year. I have rated them purely on the basis of how much I liked or hated sitting through those movies, not bothering about their Box Office collections.

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Dir: Zoya Akthar

* cast: Farhaan Akthar, Konkana Sen Sharma, Rishi Kapoor and a whole bunch of cameos

A classic cover drive to the fence off the first ball by Zoya!

This is a story very very well told about a struggling actor becoming successful in his career. His talent combined with his street-smartness and also luck playing a major role in his success, but in the bargain he loses his girlfriend who had supported him in his tough times. The movie seriously makes us ponder over some of the important questions like, 'what is success?', 'Is is OK to compromise on some values to achieve it?', 'What role does luck play in our lives?', 'Does always a street smart opportunistic guy outsmarts the hardworking guys in the race of life?' etc etc. All this with a mockery of the stereotypes in Bollywood to make you LOL, the movie is a great watch. Though Farhan Akthar gets pretty much predictable with his expressions, but suits best for the role of Vikram (This role landed in Farhan's kitty after most of the Bollywood biggies declined it). Konkana Sen Sharma is just brilliant and I have no second thoughts to say she is the best actress we have in Bollywood today.

Check out the scene where Isha Shervani tries to seduce Farhan in his hotel room. I call this a sheer act of brilliance by Zoya to think of such a scene where Isha had to be shown with a childish charm but at the same time she had to be portrayed that she is not as dumb as she looks.

Dir: Anurag Kashyap

* cast: Abhay Deol, Mahi Gill, Kalki Koechlin

What initially was a storyline proposed by Abhay Deol to Anurag Kashyap about a boy falling in love with a stripper in LA was later groomed into a totally different and very bold version of Devdas, compared to all the other adaptations of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's novel. Shifting the locale of a Bengali Brahmin, Devdas Mukherjee of 1900s to a spoilt Punjabi brat, Devender Singh Dhillon of the modern times is really commendable. Comprehending to the complex relationship Dev shares with Parminder and Chanda, movie is quite dark and layered and also abstract in many places.

No... not emosanal atyaachaar, Im tired of it. Listen to 'Payaliya..' sung by one named Shruthi Pathak. I liked her husky voice as much as the song.

Dir: Vishal Bharadwaj

* cast: Shahid, Priyanka

I am not really sure if Vishal Bharadwaj has consciously adapated Guy Ritchie or Torantino's style of movie making in Kaminey. But what I am really sure about is, Vishal Bharadwaj is one of the best directors in the industry today.

The story is about twin brothers Guddu, a stutterer and Charlie, a lisp, who would be living their own happy lives in Mumbai with former working in an NGO which fights against AIDS and latter working as a horse race bookie until one day when fate decides to intertwine their lives with a regionalist politician, two police cops, two African drug peddlers, an Indian drug lord and 3 Bengali brothers! Shahid, for me was good in playing both the roles, but was not excellent. Priyanka Chopra was superb as Sweetie. Tenzing Nima as Tashi and Amol Gupte as Bhope Bhau are surprisingly brilliant. The movie has a great music score composed by Vishal Bharadwaj himself.

In the song Raat ke dhaayi baje, check out Priyanka in typical Maratha bridal green saree doing 'that particular step'. U know what I mean.. :)

Dir: Ayan Mukerji

* cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Konkana Sen Sharma

Another promising director forays into Bollywood! The story of a slacker was never told so well before. Yes, we had Lakshya, but I felt Wake Up Sid is way better. A perfect casting of Ranbir as a slacker, Konkana as a strong headed career oriented girl living with her own petty insecurities, Supriya Pathak as a doting mother who tries hard to bond with her son by speaking in faulty English, Anupam Kher as a caring but concerned father - the casting could not have been better. With many of the nuances of human behaviour and relationships well depicted, I liked this movie a lot. A last word on Ranbir, I was surprised to see him slipping into the skin of Sid so well and with such an ease.

No doubt 'Iktara..' sung by Kavita Seth is brilliant, but the Punjabi male version of the same song sung by Tochi Raina is utterly soulful.

Dir: Rajkumar Hirani

* cast: Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Boman Irani

I rate this movie the best of 2009 not because movie is flawless, not because there are no unquestionable scenes but for entertaining me and indulging me into the movie for every minute of it. I think Raju Hirani has mastered the art of preparing a heady concoction for any screenplay - with great concept and a message to convey, with enough twists, some great lump in throat moments, superb humour, some special 'Hirani Tadka' and last but not the least, a consistent 'flow' of the story. 40+ year old Aamir has adapted some mannerisms to slip into the body of an engineering student, but according to me Boman Irani beats Aamir in this area. Boman was exceptional as Dr Asthana in Munnabhai and he matches that performance here as Viru Sahastrabuddhe!

Accent to check out for:

Every word Chatur Ramalingam utters in his Uganda born, Pondicherry brought up accent is hilarious.

The movies that deserve a special mention are: Paa, Gulaal, Love Aaj Kal

The movie that I missed watching: Rocket Singh

After the best, now comes the turn of the worst. Wherein the above movies were the best of 2009, the below are the worst among the 13 Hindi movies I saw. There were many other worst movies that were made to torture the audience, but these are the tortures I went through.

Dir: Rohit Shetty

* cast: Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt, Fardeen Khan

First of all stop calling Rohit Shetty a new master of comedy. Only Golmal was his best (that too was a remake of a Malayalam movie), Golmal Returns was miserable and then All the best is a classic torture. Making a comedy movie is the most difficult thing, watch this movie to see how director and actors fail to make you laugh.

Dir: Prabhudeva

* cast: Salman Khan and Ayesha Takia

I have said enough about this movie here.

Dir: Vipul Shah

* cast: Ajay Devgan, Salman Khan, Asin

Why the hell this movie is so silly!?! Not a single sequence made any sense to me. The so called friendship between Salman and Ajay looks so synthetic, the so called ego clash between them looks funny!, Ajay introducing Salman to drugs and Salman coming out of the habit is hilarious!!, the gem of all this is Asin as a 'dancer' in a Rockband!!!