Films Seen in 2010: Top Ten - and more

As the year 2010 comes to a close, here's looking back at all the films seen, be it on television, on home video, or in theaters, and, as per tradition, I offer my readers a selection of the very BEST from amongst them.
The Top Ten films are as follows, ordered according to personal preference:
1) Mr Nobody (2009)

2) A Single Man (2009)

3) Wonder Boys (2000)

4) Udaan (2010)

5) Peepli Live (2010)

6) The Kids Are All Right (2010)

7) The Social Network (2010)

8) Les Roseaux Sauvages / Wild Reeds (1994)

9) The Hurt Locker (2008)

10) The Wings of the Dove (1997)


As I have seen 300 films the whole year, the above listing required some deliberation and some re-appraisals. However, there were so many exceptional and interesting films that comprised my movie viewing experience this year that it would be sinful not to doff my hat to some of those films. Hence, I would love to have them randomly culled from memory. I am sure some of my readers would settle for many of them in their own listings, and I would be more than happy if they do. I thoroughly enjoyed watching them. And, here, they all get a special mention:
Inception,
Normal,
Bolt,
Love Sex Aur Dhokha,
Arekti Premer Galpo/ Just Another Love Story,
Little Children,
Crazy Heart,
Up,
All the King's Men,
An Education,
Good Dick,
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,
Assassination of a High School President,
Final Destination,
Clerk,
The Freshman,
The Wendell Baker Story,
Abohoman,
Ishqiya,
Havoc,
Dorian Gray,
Breaking the Waves,
The Men Who Stare at Goats,
Alice,
Confessions of a Shopaholic,
My Beautiful Laundrette,
The Time Traveller's Wife,
The Lovely Bones,
Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge,
The Other Boleyn Girl,
Were the World Mine,
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day,
Alice in Wonderland,
Precious,
Deception,
Elegy,
Well Done Abba,
Can't Think Straight,
The World Unseen,
Little Ashes,
Pankh,
The Japanese Wife,
Romance and Cigarettes,
The Imagination of Doctor Parnassus,
Twelve and Holding,
Mumford,
Creation,
Becoming Jane,
Control,
Bombay Talkie,
the Open Road,
Ambulancen,
G. I. Jane,
Up in the Air,
Last Life in the Universe,
Shutter Island,
Brothers,
Gone Baby Gone,
2046,
Me & Orson Welles,
Blindness,
Room to Rent,
Never Been Kissed,
Shrek Forever After,
The Draughtsman's Contract,
Step Up,
Half Nelson,
The Indian Runner,
Hotel Rwanda,
Exam,
Gerry,
You Can Count on Me,
Rumble Fish,
Penelope,
I Love You Phillip Morris,
It's Complicated,
Rails and Ties,
Grey Gardens,
Newcastle,
Killers,
Tere Bin Laden,
Incendiary,
I've Loved You So Long,
Shukno Lanka,
Pineapple Express,
Athadu,
Coraline,
Greenberg,
My One and Only,
The Brothers Bloom,
Paris, je t'aime/ Paris,
The Informant,
Hollywoodland,
The Boy in Striped Pajamas,
Y Tu Mama Tambien,
Los Abrazos Rotos,
Peacock,
Aashayein,
Lafangey Parindey,
Nowhere Boy,
Bin Jip/ 3 Iron,
Smart People,
The Witches of Eastwick,
Big Bang Love - Juvenile A,
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,
Frozen,
Knight & Day,
Get Him to the Greek,
Bully,
The Dreamers,
The Boys Are Back,
Autograph,
Zwartboek / Black Book,
Eat Pray Love,
Do Dooni Chaar,
Despicable Me,
Mahanagar@Kolkata,
Chatroom,
Angus, Thongs & Perfect Snogging,
The Boat That Rocked,
Fifty Dead Men Walking,
Band Baaja Baaraat,
The Town,
Moner Manush,
Phas Gaye Re Obama,
Marley and Me,
Mirch,
Head-On/ Gegen Die Wand,
District 9
and
Donnie Darko.

'Donnie Darko'

Happy movie viewing in the coming years, friends. Long live cinema, and the magic of cinema!
Wishing all a Happy New Year in advance!

an LSD-esque grandeur

New age cinema, world cinema, experimental cinema, parallel cinema, offbeat cinema - call it what you may, but we haven't had it this good since last year's "Dev. D".
With as provocative a title as "Love, Sex Aur Dhokha", a movie-goer can well expect to be shocked. It is clearly an 'adults only' film, most would reason from the posters or the promotional stills, but what one would not easily understand is the fact that it is anything but a sleaze-fest!
It is a film that screams out loud to be included in the contemporary classics hall-of-fame. It is absolutely magical as a journey; a journey through the modern, easy to grab, free for all, technology aided back-alleys of voyeurism that makes its presence felt in our daily lives through umpteen scandalous 'breaking news' headlines that are assimilated by the entire household along with our daily dose of tea/coffee, desensitizing coverages of murder and mayhem, and the television-serials. Yet, we take nothing from them. We do not learn the much-needed lessons in sanity and sensitivity, we are the de-classed voyeurs who do not give a damn about our fellow human-being's privacy. "LSD", as a film doesn't get us high on the titillation, instead its success lies in its hitting base with the powerful reality check, without any attempt at sermonizing or moralizing.

There are three stories, incidental for the all-important concept that holds the key to the experimental narrative structure, and three couples therein who are intricately connected to one another. Without giving away much of the clever intermingling of the narratives, it can be said that each of the stories has at its centre a realistic conflict and/or turmoil involving secret recording through hidden camera. The hidden cameras are thus the dynamic protagonists, alive in their own way, revelatory and sensational. The edge film stars no known (or lesser known) actors and is entirely filmed with the digital camera. The quirky, unconventional camera angles, the jerky movements and the documentation-style 'footage' can be unnerving and unsettling for the first five-ten minutes - especially for the normal cine-goer. But the flow of events has an easy grip on our attention thereafter, and the tantalizing tales readily blend with the style or manner of storytelling.
The cast includes Arya Banerjee, Neha Chauhan, Anshuman Jha, Atul Mongia, Amit Sial, Herry Tangdi, Raj Kumar Yadav, and Shruti. The cinematography is by Nikos Andritsakis. Namrata Rao is the film-editor, Mustafa Stationwala is the production designer, and Atul Mongia the casting-director - all of whom deserve a praise. The original music of the film has been composed by Sneha Khanwalkar and Dibakar Banerjee.

Dibakar Banerjee, the creator of the movie "LSD" is a film-director par excellence.
He is the one who has been thumb-nosing at the diktats of Bollywood,
and has been conquering new vistas by daring to go beyond the "what-works-and-what-doesn't" stereotypes.
He has been the real game changer in the world of new-age Indian cinema, with his first two features, "Khosla Ka Ghosla" (it was not only a sleeper hit, but was also a true contemporary classic) and "Oye Lucky Lucky Oye", having been toasted for sheer sheer energy and raw exuberance. With "LSD", he has extended his horizons. I am thrilled beyond delight to have my faith in this new-age film-maker being vindicated. He knows his Delhi (especially the city's underbelly), he knows his craft, he knows how capable he is in executing what he believes in (the confidence makes him unapologetic in his use of cinematic idiom borrowed from world cinema, but very much moulded in his own way!) and my good wishes to him for breaking more barriers and giving us substantial films which enthrall, and thus entertain.