10 Milestone Films

The challenge to cull out ten milestone films from a century of film making is a critical challenge. As is wont with such lists, it raises more debate than agreement and finally ends with the author signing off that it is his perception. With this preface, lets take a look at the milestones:
1. Devdas 1935: This first version in Hindi of the Bengali classic of Sarat Chandra could be as different as chalk is from cheese when compared to Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s designer version of feudalism and love. The central character played by KL Saigal ensured an image that Devdas without song is Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark and who better to sing the pangs of an alcoholic than the unquestioned Saigal!
2. Mother India 1957: Away from Indian mythology this was the highest note of celebration of women power on celluloid and after half a century and more still remains so. It not only gave a mega view of feudalism and story of the suffering agrarian but showed women empowerment in not a bra burning perspective but in the context of Indian motherhood. Nargis wrote herself to immortality with the role.
3. Kagaz Ke Phool 1959: A Guru Dutt film was bound to be a milestone. While the story of a film maker falling in love with his pupil, may not be new or innovative, the treatment was. If anything it was a decisively morbid take on a Pygmalion scenario and Guru Dutt with cinematographer VK Murthy changed the face of our cinema. May be Dutt’s Sahib… was more substantial in taking on the decaying system, this film was to the heart and a milestone in melancholy.
4. Mughal e Azam 1960: This K. Asif magnum opus was what drama is all about. The likes of Prithviaraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Madhubala breathed a kind of life to the film owed much of its baroque elegance to the stars and the texture of the launch. Naushad, exhibited how music is central to our cinema. The film took eternity in the making but was indeed made for iternity.
5. Paakezaah 1971: Yet another muslim social, launched in a huge scale and with huge investment of time and passion, the film showed how death of a star could metamorphose the fate of a film at the box office. Meena Kumari’s swan song also will be remembered for Ghulam Mohammad’s music, the amazing drama baazi of Raj Kumar and the lure of palace life.
6. Garam Hawa 1973: A film can never find a place in the hall of fame if not in sync with its times. MS Sathyu gave us this heart wrenching film that probably also essayed Balraj Sahani at his sombre best. The film is not just a milestone for being avant garde and dealing with the tragic sentiment of partition which came to be reiterated in our drawing rooms when Govind Nihlani revisited it with Tamas. But unlike a social statement, Garam Hawa dealt with human emotions. This is a film which is cult by definition.
7. Zanjeer 1973: The biggest star of Indian cinema was born. His nightmare was watched with glee and since then Vijay the angry cop is the script of countless films. The Amit-Jaya combine was a consequence of many heroes and heroines refusing to the film till Saleem Javed zeroed on the couple. The rest as they say is history. Since then generations have gone ga-ga on the One Man Industry, the Big B….
8. Sholay 1978: Again Saleem Javed scripted a tale to leave an indelible mark on our cinema. It is arguably not even Ramesh Sippy’s best. I think his Shakti was a far better film. This however was a real wild West film. The success of the film lies in every character being pencilled to a nicety even the old man (Hangal), the Jailor (Asrani), the dying young boy (Sachin), Bhoopali (Jagdeep) and Sambha (Mac). The top heavy cast headed by Sanjeev strangely had Amjad making the grandest ever debut as a villain by default, when Danny walked out of the film.
9. Hum Aapke Hai Kaun 1994: Here cinema did not require the usual requisites of a film. A video of a marriage was good enough for the people towatch and keep watching- only the coy Salman and the radiant Madhuri were required. The family drama came to occupy central space and it pointed to the fact that a film did not require villains and goons, or the grey of RGV. A feel good factor was enough to make the audience return in hordes and the director to believe Hai Raam Kudiyon Ko Dale Daana.
10. Lagaan 2001: Can you believe that it is over a decade since Aamir Khan gave us a cricket match instead of a movie? For the first time the common man was not required to choose among his twin passions: Cricket , cinema. With a whole team of unknown faces, this film had just as much chances of making it at the box office as Kapils Devils had of winning the World Cup. However destiny had its hidden plans. Lucky Singh or Lucy Gray who cares!! The film still invokes passions beyond the script and the screen.