Urgh… I have watched the remastered version, but the sound is all echoey and shit on it! I actually managed to track down the original and bought it for relatively cheap though. Thank you, ebay!

El Cid, you should definitely check these out too if you want to get a flavour of the best “recent” Indian films:

“Maqbool” and “Omkara”, based on Macbeth and Othello respectively.

***********************

By the way, “Mughal-e-Azam” is available both in its original (mostly) black & white form and also in a recently digitally re-colourised version. Take your pick. Personally I recommend the latter.

British Asian films are reasonably good, even if they are not Asian enough for some people, but Indian Indian films are shit. Discuss.

I don’t think that British Asian films are very good. I think they are formulaic. I understand why some of them are popular though. Trying too hard to be liked, cinema as sociology. Boring, boring, boring!

Deepa Mehta’s films, Fire and more recently Water were excellent.

Mr and Mrs Iyer, another really good film. Indians are great story tellers, not so good with CGI or sword fighting

The Sun are saying Colin Salmon, and they do seem to have a better track record of reliability about Doctor Who stuff than the real world…

Tell me ONE film on your list that will move me, that will enchant me, that will make me go ‘wow’, and make me reconsider, and I will try to get it on lovefilm.

Okay, Mughal-e-Azam. Based (more or less) on real Indian historical figures and events, incidentally.

will stick with more modern releases for now to get a flavour of the current state of the genre:

You should probably see Sarkar too, in that case. Although be advised that the similarity to The Godfather (Parts 1 & 2) is not a coincidence.

Dil Chahta Hai as well (cheesy nightclub dancing scene early on notwithstanding).

Jai, which of these movies you enjoyed the most?

I enjoyed all of them in different ways, although if I had to pick an all-time favourite, it would be Mughal-e-Azam.

Sholay is obviously another option, if somewhat masalafied. But it’s sufficiently well-made in all aspects — and the acting by the major players (especially Amitabh and Amjad Khan, the latter unbelievably in his first-ever film role) is sufficiently excellent and charismatic — to raise it above the masala masses.

Lekin also has one of the classiest Hindi soundtracks of all time, in my view. (The movie’s okay and quite unconventional, but the accompanying music album’s a masterpiece).

Out of the modern bunch, Dil Chahta Hai seemed to strike a chord with myself and younger/2nd-gen Indians everywhere, both in relation to the urban crowd in India and the rest of us overseas.

“Being Cyrus” seems interesting.

“Black humour” is probably the most accurate term to describe it; in some ways it reminded me of all those offbeat films that came out of the US in the mid/late 90s. Also, it has Dimple Kapadia in it as you’ve never seen her before…..

Coincidentally, if you get B4U at home, the channel’s showing the movie at 8pm next Sunday.

Jai’s list is pretty comprehensive, allow me to elaborate on it!

Pyaasa
Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (effing BRILLIANT, one of the best things I have seen in a long time, albeit rather sad)
Amar Akbar Anthony (for a laugh, Amitabh camps it up like never before…)
Cheeni Kum (modern love story made by an advertising exec and featuring a more in-depth look at love than most Bollywood films)
Naseeb
Shaheed
Rang De Basanti (this needs to be given more kudos as a fairly mainstream Bollywood film that DIDN’T shy away from reality for once!).

If I really had to whittle that down to only 3 that you MUST watch, I’d say: Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, Rang De Basanti and Amar Akbar Anthony. Ticking the shocking/sad, rousing/informative and amusing/heartwarming boxes respectively .

Talking of Bollywood, has India ever made a genuinely good film? No really, a proper movie. No Thriller-type dance routine and escapist clap-trap, but a non-English language masterpiece, like Seven Samurai, or Amores Perros, or Z, or Life is Beautiful, or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Mughal-e-Azam.
Pakeezah.
Devdas (the version with Dilip Kumar).
Sholay (ref: Seven Samurai).
Mother India.
The original Umrao Jaan.
Numerous black & white films starring Dilip Kumar, Guru Dutt, Dharmendra etc which I can’t name but the parents’ generation are very familiar with.
Arty 80s films starring the usual suspects, ie. Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi etc: Mirch Masala, Ek Pal, Arth etc etc.
Lekin (especially for the music).
Abhimaan.
Deewar is superb if you want to see Amitabh Bachchan in his prime and in “full force” charisma, even if it is a bit of a masala movie.
Agneepath.
Maachis.
Virasat (okay not a masterpiece, but good anyway due to the non-escapist subject matter and several of the lead actors/actresses in what were for them unusual roles).
Sarkar.
Dil Chahta Hai (which, admittedly, does have 2 song-and-dance segments).

I thought Jodhaa Akbar was really good too.

There are also plenty of excellent, more “Americanised” Hindi flicks around, eg. Ek Haseena Thi, Being Cyrus (hilariously sardonic voiceover by Saif Ali Khan, and the whole film is in English), Company, Gangster.

Phir Milenge was good in terms of Shilpa Shetty’s acting in a deadly serious role and its handling of the sensitive main topic, ie. HIV/AIDS. Similarly, My Brother Nikhil.

Talking of Bollywood, has India ever made a genuinely good film? No really, a proper movie. No Thriller-type dance routine and escapist clap-trap, but a non-English language masterpiece, like Seven Samurai, or Amores Perros, or Z, or Life is Beautiful, or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

To me, it is amazing that an industry that produces more movies than Hollywood is reduced to a genre. There is really a resistance for creativity in Bollywood, a lot of the plots are just borrowed from other non-Indian movies, and they seem to be afraid of letting go the same “singing+dancing” formula that has been proved popular over decades among Indian audiences. Rather than spending so much money filming in exotic places, why not spend more money on creative writing? Indians are pretty good at story-telling.

By the way, you didn’t include any Almodóvar film in your list… A friend of mine of Spanish persuation (ok, Catalan) told me that Spaniards don’t really appreciate him as the West does.

I know it’s not Hollywood but Ray has made some masterpieces. What about Shayam Benegal? When there was an Indian cinema at Balham Hill just down from Clapham Commen tube I used to go with a friend of mine who lived in the road opposite.

Even she thought some of the antics were hilarious and she is from Bombay. Sholay is still one of my favourites though.