best movies

The movies I am writing below are very special to me. For some I couldn't sleep in the night after watching them. Some I couldn't understand it when I first saw it. Others were hard to digest because of the treatment the director gave to the movie. Some were so simple yet so beautiful.

Indain Movies
A small thought about Indian movies. I have not really seen many movies. All the movies I have seen are from the popular cinema. I am trying to watch the real stuff but am unable to find them. I read somewhere on the net that it is easier to find good Indian movies in foreign than India. I hope it is not true.

Black Friday(Anurag Kashyap)
Black Friday directly goes into a classic status. The reason being the treatment given by the director Anurag Kashyap.
As wiki puts it , this kind of cinema is
"There are a number of traits that make neorealism distinct. Neorealist films are generally filmed with nonprofessional actors (though, in a number of cases, well known actors were cast in leading roles, playing strongly against their normal character types in front of a background populated by local people rather than extras brought in for the film). They are shot almost exclusively on location, mostly in poor neighborhoods and in the countryside. The subject matter involves life among the impoverished and the working class. Realism is always emphasized, and performances are mostly constructed from scenes of people performing fairly mundane and quotidian activities, completely devoid of the self-consciousness that amateur acting usually entails. Neorealist films generally feature children in major roles, though their roles are frequently more observational than participatory."
If you have seen Black Friday you can relate with each and every sentence written above

Bandit Queen(Shekhar Kapur)
Bandit Queen is special. Before this movie I used to see happy go lucky movies of 70s-80s-90s. In these type where there is hero-heroine-villan. I used to like those movies a lot. Its pity that if you are used to these kind of movies then you would never see let alone appreciate good movies. Bandit Queen shattered all my beliefs. Into the world where no one is good or bad. Only the circumstances make people. It is not that I didn't know this. A movie has the power to take you a ride in the wonderland(like the previous movies) or show you the wonder land itself.

Ardh-Satya(Govind Nilahani)
Considered to be the finest Hindi movies of all time. People say that this movie gave birth to many such movies in coming decades. But no movie could match the intensity of Ardh-Satya.
A gruesome movie for the people who are used to watching regular cinema.

Guide(Vijay Anand)
Dev Anand's only classic. Disregarding its length and all the songs(which are beautiful for a lonely afternoon) it was my entry into the kind of movie which are philosophical. Its climax is the best I have seen in years. Other most important point is that this movie is base on book and rarely have I seen Hindi movies based on books.

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro(Kundan Shah)
A comedy is hard to make people say. And a comedy of this kind is even harder. A black comedy by Kundan Shah has already achieved classic status due to its climax.

Recent Good Movies
Hazaaron Khwaishen Aisi(Sudhir Mishra)
A part of our history which is neglected is the last 50 years. Infact we tend to neglect everything which we think was bad. This is our history which the director saw and wanted to make. The movie goes along but what is important thing are the clues the director scatters about our history. A full fledged movie would have been even better.

Moksha:Salvation (Ashok Mehta)
Moksha is venturing into a kind of surreal world. The director played with my mind in this movie. I continued the movie because I could sense something is not right about this movie. How wrong I was. The amazing part of the movie is its climax. It has a real classy climax.

Raincoat (Rituparno Ghosh)
To end with a love story inspired by "Gift of Magi" by O Henry. Real love story should say what love is. And if you want to see what really love is you have to see Raincoat. A pure form of love in which both the boy and the girl cannot see each other in pain but are not able to do anything.

Now lets movie on the foreign movies now.
I must confess that I have seen very few Foreign movies.

Foreign Movies
Ladri di biciclette
aka Bicycle Thieves(Vittorio De Sica)
Some movies don't look to be great when you see them the first. While watching the movie I didnt find it to be so great. But when you think about the movie afterwards you will find that there are not many movie which can match the raw power and simplicity of this movie. A neorealistic approach which I have mentioned above is used to make the movie which makes it different.

Battaglia di Algeri, La
aka The Battle of Algiers(Gillo Pontecorvo)
Some movies have so much emotions that they swept you away. Some dont have any. This is one such movie. With series of event unfolding emotions take a backseat. In such a environment even simple dialogues make huge meanings. I can remember such dialogues from the movie which would otherwise would be just a passing scene in other movies. But due to the raw power of the movie, those simple scene make a huge impact. See it to love a different kind of a cinema.

Nuovo Cinema Paradiso(Giuseppe Tornatore)
Some movies comes from the heart of the director. This is a must see for those who think from heart. So many beautiful quotes are there in the movie. It will remain will me for the rest of my life.

Krotk Film o Milosci
aka A Short Film About Love(Krzysztof Kieslowski)
If you have not seen any of the Kieslowski work then you are definitely missing something. A Short Film about Love is one of his beautiful work. If you are truely in love see this movie to confirm it.

M(Fritz Lang)
This classic comes from Hitler torn Germany in 1931. The movie is about a child-murdered who is on a killing spree in a town in Germany. The movie doesn't show the murdered himself in detail but the consequences of his killings in the soceity. Such are the cosequences of his act that other criminals take up the role of catching him and criminals infact catch him in the end. And this is where the movie takes an amazing turn. They set up a pseudo court with criminals as judge and a pseudo lawyer for the child murdered. This is the climax of the movie by far the most thought provoking climax I have seen.

Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le
aka Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
Again a movie which is made from the heart. Its so simple yet so effective. The story is so simple that I can write it in one line. But how beautifully the director has presented his story. Watch it to love it.

Mulholland Drive(David Lynch)
Watch this if you are really crazy. And if you think thats not enough watch the other David Lynch movies. I was one of those crazy people to get informed about this new type of direction which I have not seen. Nothing is obvious in the movies. Not even a single scene. Watch it at your own risk.

Recent Good Movies
Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind(Michel Gondry)
In my book this will go as one of the classics. With so much originality in script and screenplay this is the movie to cherish. A movie which tells us at least something about what love is.

Syriana(Stephen Gaghan)
If you thought that Crash and Babel are good, then Syriana has to be the best of such kind of hyperlink movies. It shows us various kinds of character which are affected by event in a different way. It shows simple characters, the wicked ones and those who are on the both sides of the coins. A superb movie with one of the best background scores. It would be hard for you to follow the movie, so I suggest to read something about it before actually seeing it.