My Personal Bests

Vishal Bharadwaj’s Omkara: Strong performances, good script, great visuals. Dark, brooding and intense! My personal favorite!
Rakeysh Mehra’s Rang De Basanti: Well made, well acted movie with a strong message against apathy and resignation to social injustices. Climax was a big let-down, but overall, an extremely powerful film! 
Raj Kumar Hirani’s Lage Raho Munna Bhai: Interesting concept of resurrecting Gandhi and promoting the power of "Gandhigiri". A tad unrealistic, but a heartwarming and feel good film that will leave a smile on your face long after!
Nagesh Kukunoor’s Dor: Sensitive, simple story about human relationships. Extremely well shot! 
Dibakar Banerjee’s Khosla ka Ghosla: A simple, but highly entertaining film on real estate with excellent performances by Anupam Kher and Boman Irani. 
Aparna Sen’s 15 Park Avenue: Chilling portrayal of the inner and outer world of the schizoid. Outstanding performances by Shabana Azmi and Konkona Sen Sharma.
Anurag Basu’s Gangster: A well directed and acted film about the complexities of love, obsession, passion, sacrifice, jealousy, trust and betrayal in human relationships.
Farhan Akhtar’s Don: Slick, fast paced and entertaining. Surprisingly good performance by SRK
Rakesh Roshan’s Krrish. Spectacular special effects. The emergence of Hrithik as the Desi Superhero who can do it all!

Some other interesting movies: Homi Adjania’s Being Cyrus, Onir’s Bas Ek Pal, Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal, Saket Chaudhury’s Pyar ke Side Effects, Junaid Memon’s The Film, Jahnu Barua’s Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara, Madhur Bandarkar’s Corporate.

Biggest Disappointments

J.P. Dutta’s Umrao Jaan. Bad acting, outrageous diction, mediocre music, slow pace, lackluster sets! Shabana Azmi’s performance is the only classy part of this very poor remake!

Karan Johar’s Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna: Johar was quite out of his depth dealing with the complexities of marital relationships, albeit a stellar star cast. He should stick to frothy romances like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai! 

Sanjay Gadhvi’s Dhoom 2: Dull! A complete waste of time despite some great special effects and stunts and a stylish performance by Hrithik Roshan.

Kunal Kohli’s Fanaa. Stereotypical characters and a hackneyed plot ruined what could have been an interesting film. Good cinematography and a strong performance by Kajol, though!

Ravi Chopra’s Baabul: Supposedly a socially progressive film that is actually a celebration of the patriarchal family and the woman’s subservient role as wife and daughter/daughter-in-law. Mediocre performances by all except Amitabh Bachchan.

Sooraj Barjatya’s Vivah: Cloying sweet and sickeningly regressive in its portrayal of the ‘traditional’ Indian family!

Priyadarshan’s Maalamaal Weekly: Priyadarshan may like to go back to serious movies again. He is not funny any more, as evident in Bhagam Bhaag and Chup Chup ke!

Raj Kumar Santoshi’s Family: Ties of Blood: Despite a strong premise and decent performances by Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar, the film ended up an unmitigated disaster with a bad script and hackneyed treatment!

Shirish Kunder’s Jaan-E-Man: Soapy and melodramatic story replete with clichéd situations and stupid gags.

Kabir Khan’s Kabul Express: Khan makes a mess of this unique venture by attempting to combine political drama and hard hitting realism with action thriller, road adventure, buddy comedy, and ends up trivializing its subject. Well crafted and interesting, but ultimately disappointing because of the superficiality of its treatment.

Ram Gopal Varma’s Darna Zaroori Hai: Seven top directors, the best of stars, diverse styles, different stories, cannot raise this experimental portmanteau film above a Ramsay style mediocre horror flick!

* Disclaimer: These are my personal thoughts on films I saw in 2006, regardless of box office returns or critical acclaim! There may be other movies that I did not get the opportunity to view, or did not want to do so -- so at best, this is a ‘biased partial list of the Hindi film fare in 2006!’