The Nayakan Controversy

(Picture source: www.vikatan.com)

Time magazine listed Nayakan and Satyajit Ray's Apu trilogy in its top 100 movies list - the response from Bollywood? They are protesting!!!! This really drives me crazy. Instead of taking pride in the recognition of one of the best Indian movies of all time (Nayakan), the age old north-Vs-south indian divide has set in, with Bollywood questioning why their "great" movies were not included.

When someone compiles a list of good movies, they just include the ones they have seen. There are thousands of good movies made all around the world - you can only rate the handful that you watch. For example, rediff interviewed Subhash Ghai (!!does he really know what good cinema is?) and Vipul Shah and published their favorites. Both their lists are called "INDIA's best films" - and neither has a single non-hindi film. Do both the directors think that the best Indian movies are all hindi? Are there no good movies in Malayalam, Tamil or Bengali? When hindi directors cannot even list one indian movie outside hindi cinema, how can bollywood criticize Time magazine's list for not being comprehensive enough, and for not including hindi movies?

Also, I cannot digest the fact that Bollywood is actually trying to talk about good cinema. In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, some great movies were made. And Richard Corliss should watch the Guide - not including Dev Anand's masterpiece is really a glaring omission. However, after the great promise in the mid nineties with movies like Hum apke hain koun and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Bollywood has never risen above mediocre fare (no, Lagaan was NOT a classic).
And Mr.Subhash Ghai, do you really think Taal is one of the top 10 movies of indian cinema?????!!!! Perhaps you could learn about both movie making and modesty from Manirathnam?