2007 MEETS 2008 | PART 3: Bollywood 2007

So much for dividing things into parts so as to avoid writing long posts ;-P

I've compiled my lists mainly on the basis of this article. Another interesting article to look at is this one in which they asked a few Indian directors what they thought were the best films of the year.
The release dates given are the Indian ones. The only film amongst these that was released in Poland is The Namesake (and it's one of very few films listed in this post that I've seen).

MOST SUCCESSFUL STARS OF 2007
The two biggest hits of 2007 (Om Shanti Om and Chak De! India) were both delivered by Shah Rukh Khan. Om Shanti Om has now broken all records and become the highest grossing Indian film ever (Shahrukh was also the producer of the film). Chak De! India on the other hand is the first time Shahrukh has been commercially successful in a subdued and restrained role.
However, it is Akshay Kumar who delivered the most hit films this year (Namastey London, Heyy Babyy, Bhool Bhulaiya and Welcome). While it's difficult to determine how much Bollywood stars earn for a film, the Indian media likes to publish who was the highest tax payer in Bollywood in a given year and in 2007 it was Akshay Kumar. It's reported that he had to pay the equivalent of about $6.5mln in taxes and the gossip is that his asking price for a film is now over $5mln, perhaps the highest in Bollywood. Surprisingly enough, Akshay is still not seen as a threat to Shahrukh's dominance in Bollywood.

THE BIGGEST BOX OFFICE SPINNERS OF 2007
So this is the list of the biggest commercial successes of 2007. I tried to keep it shorter than this, but as you see it didn't work out ;-P

Guru
Release Date: 12 January 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQRZHHY2oJM
Director: Mani Ratnam
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai, Vidya Balan, Mallika Sherawat, Madhavan, Mithun Chakraborty
The story of a villager who rises to become one of the leading businessmen in the country. Not only was it a huge commercial success, but received great reviews from Indian critics (even the more artsy ones).

Namastey London
Release Date: 23 March 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYjLLmuEiqA
Director: Vipul Amrutlal Shah
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif
A guy from Punjab marries a girl from London and for some reason the film's promotion featured a very bizarre song where the guy is dressed as Father Christmas...

Chak De! India
Release Date: 10 August 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvSpW2ZaYxU
Director: Shimit Amin
Cast: Shahrukh Khan
One of the strangest hits of the year... The story of a female field hockey team coached by a guy who has been discriminated against because he's Muslim. There are no song and dance numbers in the film (though some were recorded for promotional purposes).
Chak De! India was the only 2007 film made under the Yash Chopra banner (the biggest production house in Bollywood) that was a hit. The other (more formulaic) films they released underperformed in the box office.

Heyy Babyy
Release Date: 24 August 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AF-IQAMmnI
Director: Sajid Khan
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Fardeen Khan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Boman Irani, Anupam Kher, Amrita Arora, Malaika Arora
A couple of guys have to take care of a baby.

Bhool Bhulaiya
Release Date: 12 October 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPRK-ZGDhnk
Director: Priyadarshan
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan, Shiney Ahuja, Amisha Patel
Er... well there's definitely a ghost in the story...

Jab We Met
Release Date: 26 October 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSlkJfCozwA
Director: Imtiaz Ali
Cast: Shahid Kapur, Kareena Kapoor
Its success was a surprise. It seems to be one of those films that gets a large audience thanks to word of mouth. Basically, it's a romance, but it's said to put the DDLJ formula totally upside down.

Om Shanti Om
Release Date: 9 November 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_ostdGo6vc
Director: Farah Khan
Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Arjun Rampal, Kiron Kher, Deepika Padukone
This is a totally unapologetic masala movie, which involves reincarnation and makes fun of 70s and contemporary Bollywood.

Taare Zameen Par
Release Date: 21 December 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQwtyc82AX8
Director: Aamir Khan
Cast: Aamir Khan
About a little boy, who is very unhappy at school and then one day a new art teacher comes along... It's getting great reviews and is said to look at children in a very interesting way. Apparently, there is only one song and dance number in the film.

Welcome
Release Date: 21 December 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gz2orY0IK8
Director: Anees Bazmee
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Mallika Sherawat, Anil Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Malaika Arora
Romance in the mafia with lots of comedy.


2007 INDIE FILMS OF NOTE
One of the oddest things I've discovered about the way the film industry works in India is that to watch an art house film you have to go to a multiplex ;) The big, single hall cinemas tend to go for the most commercial stuff.
So this is a list of the films released in 2007 that ran in Indian multiplexes. There were loads of films like this, these are just the ones that caught my attention (and this is therefore probably the most subjective list in this post). Four out of the seven films on my list faced problems in India because of controversial subject matters.

Parzania
Release Date: 26 January 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epy4hqEI4Ng
Director: Rahul Dholakia
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah
Based on a true story of a Parsi boy, who went missing during the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat. The threats made by Hindu extremists in Gujarat resulted in theatre owners refusing to screen the film. When a man filed a complaint against this he was kidnapped.

Black Friday
Release Date: 9 February 2007
Trailer: http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/trailer/7410.html
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Kay Kay Menon
The film deals with the 1993 Bombay blasts. Its release was delayed by over 2 years because the Indian court ruled that it could not be released before the verdict on the Bombay blasts case was passed.

Water
Release Date: 9 March 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RewNn2r2P3g
Director: Deepa Mehta
Cast: John Abraham, Lisa Ray
The film was actually made with Canadian money, so it's not even close to being Bollywood, but I'm including it on this list anyway ;-P
It's the story of a little girl, who is married off to a much older man (child marriages still happen in India). When she's 8 her husband dies and she has to go through all the customs of being a widow. Deepa Mehta intended to make this film in 2000. They started shooting in India, but Hindu extremists destroyed the sets and production was halted. She finally shot the film 4 years later in Sri Lanka.

The Namesake
Indian Release Date: 23 March 2007
Polish Release Date: 19 October 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sOaA-4Y8tI
Director: Mira Nair
Cast: Irfan Khan, Tabu, Kal Penn
This definitely should not be classified as Bollywood as it's really a US produced film, but it was an important film for Indian audiences this year, so... Basically, it's a serious exploration of emigration and national identity.

Gandhi My Father
Release Date: 3 August 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3yZDHwRRb4
Director: Feroze Khan
Cast: Akshaye Khanna
This is a film that shows Gandhi as a grey figure rather than the white figure he is usually portrayed as. It is based on a play which explores Gandhi's troubled relationship with his eldest son, Harilal. Many of Harilal's decisions (like his marriage and dream of becoming a barrister) were opposed by his father. Harilal was eventually disowned and died an alcoholic.
Naturally, the release of the film in India faced protests.

The Blue Umbrella
Release Date: 10 August 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ-w495xNIU
Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Cast: Pankaj Kapur, Shriya
It's set in a small village. A little girl gets a beautiful blue umbrella and this creates all sorts of discord.

No Smoking
Release Date: 26 October 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53D_Qs1C6k4
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Cast: John Abraham
It's a little bit as if Anurag Kashyap decided he wanted to mix the Bollywood formula with a David Lynch style film and at the same time play around with the controversial ban of smoking in Indian films (Indian films can now show actors smoking only if the film very obviously states that smoking is wrong). It's the story of a character called K, who is trying to stop smoking and seeks help from people who turn out to be completely insane.

OTHER BIG RELEASES OF 2007
So this is a list of big films that flopped or didn't do as well as anticipated (at least not well enough to put them alongside the biggest hits of 2007).
I decided to have a list like this because many of the films on it sound just as interesting to me as the films I've already listed :) Also 2007 was a year of surprises in terms of what did and didn't do well. A lot of very hyped films performed worse than expected.

Salaam-e-Ishq
Release Date: 25 January 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQYOIalqP-I
Director: Nikhil Advani
Cast: John Abraham, Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Anil Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Akshaye Khanna, Vidya Balan, Govinda, Isha Koppikar, Ayesha Takia
From what I understand it's lots of love stories with a really huge cast of stars and the director of Kal Ho Naa Ho. Nobody really knows why it flopped, but it did...

Eklavya
Release Date: 16 February 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFEc48n5oRE
Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan, Sanjay Dutt, Vidya Balan, Jackie Shroff, Boman Irani
It's about a majestic fort in contemporary India. The royal family living in it are modern people, but the guard lives as if nothing has changed.
The only thing that was praised in this film was Amitabh Bachchan's performance as the guard. Otherwise the film was panned by both critics and audiences.
This is India's official Academy Award candidate albeit a very controversial one. Personally, I don't understand why they didn't go with Chak De! India - the Academy have already honoured its script, so surely that's a fairly straightforward indication of their tastes?

Nishabd
Release Date: 2 March 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_6VccYqC4g
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Jiah Khan
This is a love story between an 18 year old and a 60 year old.
Some say Indian audiences aren't mature enough to deal with such topics and some say it just wasn't a good enough film to pull in the crowds.

Tara Rum Pum
Release Date: 27 April 200
Trailer: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9081324916291040803
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherji
A guy becomes the best formula one racer in the world - he has a loving family, lots of money and success. Then one day he has a serious accident and things go downhill from there.
It's the first Indian film to use animation for part of a song & dance sequence.
The poor performance of the film has been blamed on mainstream Indian audiences not being able to deal with the scenes in the New York slums. Whether that's true or not, its flop was unexpected. It had very big stars and was produced under the Yash Chopra banner (the leading production house in Bollywood).

Cheeni Kum
Release Date: 25 May 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqBjoZD58Ls
Director: R. Balki
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu
This is a romance between a 34 year old and 64 year old with lots of cooking in the background.
It did better than expected, but not well enough to make the hits list.

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom
Release Date: 15 June 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VqEom35TFQ
Director: Shaad Ali
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Bobby Deol, Lara Dutta
A guy and a girl fall in love, but they're both engaged to other people.
Yet another film made under the Yash Chopra banner that didn't do as well as expected.

RGV Ki Aag
Release Date: 31 August 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z32UIP2LsX0
Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Abhishek Bachchan, Urmila Matondkar, Mohanlal
This film is on this list not to try to encourage anybody to watch it (the trailer speaks for itself, right?), but because it's made history. It's the biggest flop ever in Indian cinema. It ran for only a week (and to empty cinemas)!
Even more ironically, it's a remake of Sholay (1975) - one of the biggest hits ever (it ran in Indian cinemas for 5 years!).

Laaga Chunari Mein Daag
Release Date: 12 October 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLddw_8hHIg
Director: Pradeep Sarkar
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukherji, Jaya Bachchan, Konkona Sen Sharma, Anupam Kher, Hema Malini
A girl from a small village ends up earning money by prostitution.
Another film made under the Yash Chopra banner that flopped despite big expectations for it. Some try to explain it away with the topic matter (who wants to see a nice, family girl get into the flesh trade?).

Saawariya
Release Date: 9 November 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLt4C8dZr5U
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Salman Khan, Rani Mukherji, Zohra Segal
It's the first Hollywood-Bollywood co-production ever and although Sony Entertainment say they're happy because they did earn money on it, it performed much worse than expected (the expectations were very high and the press have called it the year's biggest flop barring RGV Ki Aag).
Pretty much everybody who's seen it says it's one of the most aesthetic films ever made, but that it has almost no plot and has an agonisingly slow pace (and for a Bollywood film it's actually quite short - just 142min.).

Aaja Nachle
Release Date: 30 November 2007
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBGG9e0NCeA
Director: Anil Mehta
Cast: Madhuri Dixit, Irfan Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Konkona Sen Sharma
A New York dance instructor goes back to her home village in India to save the local theatre from being demolished.
Yet another 2007 Yash Chopra production that didn't do well.
It's Madhuri Dixit's comeback film. From what's been said Madhuri is great in it, but the story sucks. Some of the press have suggested that Bollywood just doesn't know how to write a story with a 40 year old female lead.
One thing the promos of the film have sold me on is Madhuri's dancing. I never really understood why she's considered the best ever dancer in Bollywood. But of course with the exception of Devdas I've only seen her in the films she made in the 90s with rather boring choreography and cinematography. In Devdas she did seem more impressive to me, but she was wearing costumes that weighed over 10kg, so one could hardly expect her to show her skills to the fullest extent. Fortunately, modern choreo and cinematography has finally opened my eyes ;) Check this out.

THE BIGGEST TABLOID EVENTS
Bollywood would not be Bollywood without the tabloids ;) Naturally there was lots of amusing (and usually totally stupid and untrue) gossip in 2007, but there were two events that seemed to get written about for weeks.
By far the biggest one was the wedding of Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai. The press naturally managed to find a huge amount of angles on this, but one of the most amusing ones was that the Bachchan family made Aishwarya marry a tree for astrological reasons before she could marry Abhishek. This caused outrage amongst Indian feminists totally unnecessarily as Amitabh Bachchan later rubbished the reports.
The other much talked about event was the split up of Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapoor. Most people were expecting them to tie the knot soon (they'd been going steady for 3 years or something like that). The timing of it was also very strange as it came right before the release of Jab We Met (with everyone expecting it to effect the film negatively, but on the contrary - the film has done much better than expected). Soon after the split up Saif Ali Khan confirmed that he is now dating Kareena.