Five Worth-Mentioning Movies that missed out places in Top 50

For every poll that happens some contenders loose out who very well may have made it had it not been for a few votes. So it is with Uttkrisht also. We would like to make special mention of the films who were either too iconic or trend setters in their own right.

Guide-1965 (@52 position)
Starting with my personal favorites in the list, Guide, is probably one of the gems of yesteryears that are relatively unknown to current generation.  Starring Waheeda Rehman and Dev Anand, it was superb adaptation of the novel ‘The Guide’ by R.K.Laxman. Guide is such a heart breaking story about a man transformation from a smooth talking tourist guide who falls for Rosie and takes her away to pursue her dream as a dancer, to shrewd promoter of Rosie who in wealth loses sight of what is important, to a defamed man who runs away from his town to save face, to a reluctant spiritual guide.

The climactic scene in which he has hallucination in of two of his egos(guide that he used to be, and guru he has become now) arguing with each other is in my opinion one of the finest single scenes in Hindi Cinema. Songs of the movie are till date considered classic like ‘Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai’ and ‘Wahaan kaun hai tera’.  Indeed a classic that is not to be missed.

Masoom-1983 (@58 position)
Shekhar Kapoor’s directorial debut is a classic for its simplicity. It had a difficult subject of premarital affair and child born out of it. Success of masoom lies in the way it was handled. It was a far cry from all the melodramatic films being made in that era.

Exceptionally subtle performances by Naseeruddin Shah, and   Songs for Masoom were also classics, like ‘Tujhse naraaz Nahin Zindagi’ and ‘lakdi ki kaathi’. Latter is still loved for its children’s rhyme like quality.( By the way did you notice that a similar track involving Naseeruddin Shah and Shahrukh Khan was there in ‘Main Hoon Na’, maybe it was Farah Khan’s tribute to ‘Masoom’.)

Vaastav – 1999 (@60 position)
Just when everybody thought Sanjay Dutt’s career would never take off, came Vaastav. In a way, it was just another movie with Sanjay Dutt playing character with grey shades. What set it apart was the gritty storyline and career best performance of Sanjay Dutt. Sanjay went off to win his first Filmfare for Vaastav. His performance in climactic scene “Pachaas Tola” will probably be most remembered scene of the movie. It also had a sequel which failed, many similar movies were made all of which failed. Sanjay’s career is still kicking thanks to Vaastav but Mahesh Manjrekar is yet to direct a film more successful than Vaastav.

Black – 2005 (@70 position)
Black was Sanjay Leela bhansali’s come back of sorts which had no songs and Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee in the lead. Rani Mukherjee portrayed deaf-dumb girl with mastery. Amitabh B considered his own performance in the film as his best at that time.

I confess that movies make me cry and Black made me cry like anything :-O. On first viewing that is. On subsequent viewing I found the movie emotionally manipulative. Yes it is melodramatic, but nevertheless it did many things differently for which it deserves a mention.

Hum Aapke Hai Kaun-1994 (@73 position)
Hum Aapke might not be a very great film but trend setter it was. Hum Aapke Hain Kaun came in early 90s when order of the day were run-of-the-mill, boy-meets-girl-in-college kind of love stories. It started the trend of family sagas that went on for a decade. It started trend of movie characters all decked up living in houses like palaces. It started trend of long movie names, especially with four words. (It also resulted in us being tortured with Kabhir khushie Kabhi Gham and bore-fests like ‘Hum Saath Saath Hain.)

So what do you think is missing in the list. Who do you personally feel should have been here. Let us know via your comments.

written by 'Ali Naqvi'