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2008 saw the rise of the independent film maker and the awakening of Hollywood
to Bollywood, and vice-versa, says Mehra. Most
film people live and die on a Friday but 2008 has been that kind of a year. Seismic
crashes and sudden upturns have been the order of the day worldwide. Big names
have fallen by the wayside some of them never to return again. 2008 was the year
that saw Indian cinema try and rise beyond itself with a record number of debutant
directors presenting their offerings hoping to win the audience's favour. 2008
was the year that the small film, the director with the idea, the good script
had a semblance of a chance at the box office.
One of the most critical
things that happened was that Hollywood woke up to the Indian film industry. Mergers,
buyouts, collaborations, India offices. It all happened in 2008. An Indian studio
did what was hitherto considered unthinkable, it made an assault on Hollywood.
Reliance Big Entertainment began the process of inking a deal with the Steven
Spielberg-led Dreamworks. Whenever this culminates and comes into force it will
be something far bigger than anything that has ever been done before by Indian
cinema. Disney
solidified its alliance with UTV and it now owns almost 83 per cent in the company
and UTV has the right to distribute all their India releases. Fox Studios in India
has made its first set of acquisitions and signed some of the biggest Indian producer
directors like Vipul Shah and Karan Johar and has set the base for 2009.
Warner
released its first production Saas Bahu aur Sensex
and followed it up with Chandni Chowk to China in
early 2009. Sajid Nadiadwala got Sylvester Stallone to act
in his film Kambakht Ishq. Sony BMG signed up with
Mukesh Bhatt's Vishesh Films to produce four films in a deal
reportedly worth Rs 1 billion.
Animation features made a fairly aggressive run to get noticed
but tasted little success. Ghatotkach, Dashavatar, Cheenti
Cheenti Bang Bang, Roadside Romeo and the dubbed Jumbo
all failed to impress the Indian moviegoers.
Roadside
Romeo and Jumbo had serious star power running for them with Saif
Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Akshay Kumar lending their voices but the box office
failed to jingle. The big plus was that Tata Elxsi has shown with the production
of Roadside Romeo that they are the only Indian animation production
house that has lived upto the potential of delivering a quality 3D Animation feature
in India. Foreign studios please take notice this is one place that you can look
at seriously as a partner for your animation production.
More importantly
this was the year of the debutant and the small film in Indian cinema. Farhan
Akhtar for his superlative acting and singing debut in Rock On! Added
to his directing and producing talent this is a huge plus.
Tarun
Mansukhani made a huge impression with Dostana showing he has imbibed
all the lessons from Dharma Productions. Abbas Tyrewala made every Pappu put
on his dancing shoes with Jaane Tu ...Ya Jaane Na. The hugely talented
Nishikant Kamath who had earlier wowed audiences with his Marathi feature Dombivli
Fast made his first Hindi film Mumbai Meri Jaan. Rajkumar Gupta
made the searing Aamir which was marred slightly with plagiarism issues.
Kunal Deshmukh with Jannat was probably the bravest of
the lot as he released his film in the middle of the IPL, the tsunami of cricket
that hit in the peak of the summer season. The only major disappointment in the
list of debutant directors was Victor Acharya whose first effort at helming was
with the forgettable Tashan. Coming from somebody whose writing credits
include Dhoom 1 & 2 and Guru maybe the pressure of expectations
was too much but surely he will be back with more. The
last but not the least is Neeraj Pandey who made the title of this piece possible
with the stunning A Wednesday, a tight songless thriller that made audiences
throng the theatres to watch one of the best screenplays to have hit the Hindi
screens in a long time. Superb performances and a simple story well told make
Pandey the number one debutant talent of the year for this writer .
The
legendary master Shyam Benegal worked his magic with a simple village story sans
big stars, item songs, glitzy sets in Welcome to Sajjanpur. It showed
all and sundry that it is the story that maketh the film and not just the actors.
The Indian film sector had a fairly dismal performance at the box office for a
large part of the year but it ended it with a bang. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
and Ghajini blowing out the lights in a terrific T20 like performance.
The disappointments are too numerous to quote and need an article
of their own. But the successes have made the industry and the fans keep the faith.
Jodha Akbar made a huge impact on the audience. Singh is King
with its title taken from the back of a truck, its audacious soundtrack and the
use of Snoop Doggy Dog made the box office register jingle.
1920
and Phoonk for telling us that a well made horror film has more than
enough takers. Golmaal Returns and Fashion for being the commercial
vehicles that they promised to be for their producer. And finally AR Rahman for
showing the world the full brilliance and versatility of his talent with four
scintillating pieces of work Jodha Akbar, Jaane Tu ... Ya Jaane NA,
Ghajini and Slumdog Millionaire. Rahman is the first Indian to win a Golden
Globe award and be in the running for the Oscars. I am sticking my neck out and
saying Rahman will also pocket an Oscar. 2009 will be India's year. Have a great
one. Disclaimer:
The views and the opinions expressed are those of the writer. CCVF or Indiantelevision.com
may not necessarily subscribe to them wholly or partly. | 
