Bollywood 2008 My 10

It’s kind of a ritual for critics in the West to pick their favourite 10 films of the year gone by and even here in Bollywood newspapers and news channels are pouncing on the habit. But sadly, most of the papers and channels pick the Top 10 based on box office collections. While that to me is a great barometer to judge the quality of the film, it is not necessarily the best one. The paper I write for, they too, are going by the box office profits as a basis for zeroing on the best films of the year 2007. Which gives me complete liberty to pick my favourite 10 Bollywood films of this year. Here they are in no particular order with 5 keywords for each on why I have put them on the list. There’s a disclaimer in the end - the films I haven’t watched.

1. …

Sinbad The Sailor

iView Author: Jehan Handa (New Delhi, India)

Email: jehanhanda580 [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] in

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Sinbad The Sailor
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As Paul Coelho rightly said

But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you’re fighting for.”

β€œ(8) Sinbad the Sailor Ek Jahaaz Mein Jab Chala, Mere Yaaro Sunlo Sunlo
Dhoond Raha Tha Ek Nayee Duniya Ka Pata, Mere Yaaro Sunlo Sunlo (8) β€œ

Abhishek Kapoor a.k.a Gattu entered Bollywood with starry eyed dreams like any other actor, had the same desires as any other new entrant. Not every body has success stamped on their feet, neither did he, but who knew almost 14 years …

Exclusive: Interview with Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Last Saturday, after some relentless follow up, Sourav Bhuyan calls me up saying, “Dude we finally got the appointment with SEL!!” After that there was some hectic emailing of questions back n forth, with Honhaar Goonda doubling up as a moderator for the questions, and giving us some valuable interview tips. Most of the questions were formed by many of the PFC authors.
Finally, the day arrived and we found ourselves outside the Purple Haze studio for the interview. Shankar Mahadevan was busy in another interview that had been already scheduled. While waiting for his interview to get over, we chatted up with Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa.
Ehsaan Noorani talked about some of their upcoming projects like My Name is Khan, 13B (tamil), Wake Up Sid, …

Rock On is My Story and Yours

Every morning I would double click the Vanish icon on my desktop. It’s a Final Draft file, a script I am writing, hoping to turn it into a film. If I look at the script five times, I look at the clock on the wall seven times. It’s time, I have to go to office and hunt for an interview, dig out a story and make the newspaper page on Quark Express software. I save the file and while doing so I realise I have hardly added two lines to the script.
Once in office, I would do my job with all sincerity or so I would like to believe. But what is the job? Writing about films, writing about film-makers making their first film, interviewing someone who gave up a 9-to-5 job to wield the megaphone. And as I hear them speak trying to think of the next question to …