The results of poll #1, on the most influential Desi musician of the 2000s, are pretty clear — with about 200 votes cast, A.R. Rahman wins by a significant margin, with M.I.A. as the second most influential Desi musician of the 2000s.
The topic of the next poll was strongly suggested by the comments following the first one — sports. I tried to use what the commenters were suggesting to guide my choices.
While I am at it, however, I am also doing a poll for the best Desi film of the 2000s. Here, it seemed wrong to put artsy “diaspora” films up against commercial South Asian cinema (Bollywood, Tollywood, etc.), so I created a poll #3 — for commercial cinema — and a poll #3A — for specifically South Asian diaspora cinema.
Choosing the films for the commercial cinema category was challenging, and I kept finding that certain films had a natural pairing (for instance, Lagaan, by Ashutosh Gowariker, goes with Swades). I also realized that some of the most influential commercial films were known not for their directors, but for writers and producers; Vidhu Vinod Chopra, whose name was associated with both Munnabhai films, only wrote the first one. Similarly, Karan Johar’s name is associated with several important films he produced rather than directed. And the directors for many Yash Raj Films are unknowns, but the films have a certain “stamp” to them. So I used the idea of the “filmmaker,” which could be the writer, director, or producer.
I’m sure my approach will seem a little unusual to some folks, but hopefully it’s coherent enough, and you see something there you want to vote for. (At the very least, my approach solved the problem of how to pick just 10 commercial films from over the entire decade.) Finally, people who really know regional cinema might want to create your own “Best Of 2000s” lists in the comments — I simply haven’t seen very much Telugu cinema, for example, so I don’t have any Telugu filmmakers listed here.
All three polls after the fold.
#2. Sports:
3. Cinema: Commercial Cinema
3A Diaspora Cinema:
am at a bit of a loss. the dilemma has me in a cummerbund old jalebi. does one vote for what one has enjoyed the most or does one vote for that has the most influence on the hoi pulao? ferinstance i think mirza is a mediocre player elevated to a lofty status in desh only becos there’s so few like her. ergo she has a HUGE influence. but her abilities are modest. in contrast, brother khan from the vilayti pind is quite at the top of the game. this momo is vexatiously knotty forsooth. ve are wery waxed.
Khoofi, well, it’s up to you.
Personally, I think it makes for the most interesting results when people vote for personal favorites, rather than the person who has had the biggest impact on the largest number of people.
“American Desi”?? “Where’s the party, Yaar”??
so true rudie_c…. so true. American Desi should’ve been up there.
if anyone is starting a tollywood poll in the comments, i’d love to join!
Voted for “Harold and Kumar” in diaspora category. I thought it did a good job of shattering some stereotypes of the model minority, and I especially liked that Kumar was conflicted about his “decision” to become a doctor.
Also, anything with NPH wins as far as I’m concerned.
Which stereotypes? That we don’t smoke weed before going on to become a doctor?
Can one vote twice in a poll (for example sports poll, pick two different choices?) Or does it lock you out once you vote? Torn between Vijay Singh and the Fab Five. Also Murali. Tough choices.
Aamir khan as the filmaker for 00s..Dil Chahta hai, Lagaan, Taare Zameen par, Rang De Basanti and seriously Munnabhai is known for Raju Hirani and Sanjay Dutt and VVC Tendulkar should be by himself in that poll, it is just not fair to have a him jumbled with others.
I meant not VVC
“Tendulkar should be by himself in that poll, it is just not fair to have a him jumbled with others.”
Tendulkar was the clear stand-out of the 1990s. The 2000s have been more up and down for him, although he’s still brilliant/genius by any standards, any decade. But India’s successes in the 2000s and improvement as a team would not have happened without the other four. For example, Laxman and Dravid’s awesome partnership in the 2001 Eden Gardens Test against Australia after being asked to follow on. India won the match and broke Australia’s win streak. Ganguly forged a tougher team and Kumble was a rock as well on many occasions.
Desi film makers that were influential for me:
Parvati Balagopalan (Straight)
Anurag Kashyap (Dev D)
Sagar Ballary (Bheja Fry)
Sachin Kamlakar Khot (Ugli aur Pagli)
All of them either challenged the norm of Hindi film making or turned normal Bollywood stories and the generalized depictions of women/men/romance on their heads.
Jeet, hm, you may be right about Munnabhai — maybe it’s just my circle of friends where VVC was talked about a lot, especially after the first Munnabhai.
Aamir khan as the filmaker for 00s..Dil Chahta hai, Lagaan, Taare Zameen par, Rang De Basanti
But here I think my approach is better. Aamir Khan didn’t make any of those films, as far as I know — he was just the lead actor. Farhan Akhtar’s approach in Dil Chahta Hai was really quite different from Ashutosh Gowariker’s approach in Lagaan or Ram Mehra’s approach in Rang De Basanti.
Maybe the real question is why didn’t I put Farhan Akhtar (Dil Chahta Hai, Lakshya) down as one of the ten most influential director/producers? (The honest answer is that I thought Dil Chahta Hai came out in 1999; I only just checked it.)
Which stereotypes? That we don’t smoke weed before going on to become a doctor?
Er, I think the relevant term is “model minority”.
I just cant see any of those movies made without Aamir at the helm. Lagaan is known more for Aamir Khan as actor/producer of the movie. Taare Zameen par is another movie he produced/directed/acted in. He was even voted in Forbes as the 7th most powerful
One more for Harold & Kumar. Double joy if you watch it with an Asian brother as I did. Multiple-threat Vishal Bhardwaj should get some love for his music as well. And put my unmarked bills on Sacred Games in lit polls.
Nonfiction and translations, are they getting a spot?
yeah the little master is a class of his own
That was my rationale too, @chicagodesidiva. Still, for some reason I expected to see Sita Sings the Blues on the diaspora list, given her involvement in SM and the number of articles here about it and Nina Paley. Personally, I’ve tried to get everyone I know, whether they know the Ramayana or not, to watch the movie, and then talk it through with me. Therefore, for me, it’s certainly been the most important film of the decade, even if the filmmaker isn’t brown on the outside.
Nonfiction and translations, are they getting a spot?
Mr. X, got any titles in mind? I have been going back and forth on how to approach the lit. poll. On the one hand, it would be a shame not to have a place for a highly influential book like “Maximum City” (which I think probably inspired the scriptwriting for “Slumdog” more than has been publicly noted).
But I think there are also many, many interesting non-fiction titles out there — from Fareed Zakaria to Sudhir Venkatesh to Rajiv Chandrasekharan to Pankaj Mishra. Not to mention economists (conservative Gurcharan Das) and all those people who wrote “New India” type books (i.e., Mira Kamdar’s “Planet India”). And of course Ram Guha’s monumental “India After Gandhi,” which I devoted some nine separate posts to, back in the fall of 2007. In short, it will certainly be better to have a separate non-fiction list.
And maybe even a third list — best first novel. This might give us a chance to revisit some of the books that have been reviewed by SM bloggers over the past 2-3 years (Samarasan, Viswanathan, Amam… even our own VV Ganeshananthan).
As for translations, for political reasons I would love to have such a list (Angrezi hegemony, etc.), or at least be sure and include a few titles on a centralized fiction list. But again I’ll need some help.
2- Definitely the the “fab five”- the unofficial national sport and India’s the no. 1 team for the first time. Thanks to these gentlemen who delivered us from the mediocrity and sleaze of the ’80s and early ’90s.
3 Definitely Vishal Bharadwaj- Director, singer, music director, screenwriter- Is there anything that this man can’t do? probably dance like Hritik Roshan- Though I wish that you had included Anurag Kashyap on the list. He would get my vote for sure.
4 Monsoon wedding- I was at a holiday recently, a couple of us desis and a few Americans who had no other desi connection. One night , we decided to play an Indian film. I was surprised to know that our American fellow travelers had seen the movie a couple of times each, and voted for it to be played very enthusiastically, keenly questioning us about the finer nuances of the movie (“is it common to eat marigolds?”). It apparently is also similarly popular with the BBCDs- Definitely a cut above the rest of the movies on the list. Also such a fab soundtrack.
Gotta agree with that, @chicagodesidiva. I voted based on that same rationale. But I have to admit that I sort of expected to see “Sita Sings the Blues” here, given SM’s past coverage of the movie and filmmaker Nina Paley. Personally, I’ve tried to get everyone I know to watch the movie and talk it through with me afterwards, whether they “know” the Ramayana beforehand or not. To me, then, it’s been the most important film of the decade, even if the filmmaker isn’t totally brown on the outside.
Seriously? no place for Anurag Kashyap (Dev D, No Smoking, Gulaal) in the top 5? D Banerjee and V Bhardawaj made good movies but from concept to execution they were no where close to Dev D or Gulaal
Amardeep, All the titles in your post plus: Nonfiction Red Sun: Sudeep Chakravarti The Ugliness of the Indian Male and other propositions: Mukul Kesavan (I don’t think this should be on the list, but a couple of essays are brilliant) A Writer’s People: Ways of Looking and Feeling: V.S. Naipaul (only if you’re a die-hard fan)
Translation Black Margins: Saadat Hasan Manto (already on your list?) Glimpses of Indian Literature in English Translation was published last year I think, but seems to have the usual suspects.
City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi: William Dalrymple. I haven’t read his other two from this period. Thus opening another category (and hate-post fodder) for honorary desis like Donninger, Nussbaum etc. In conclusion, not helping at all.
lol . thanks for the tip. i looked up the trailer on gulaal. this line just cracked me up. 🙂 totally didnt see that coming.
I do have to second Anurag Kashyap, esp. since he not only directed, but also wrote for several films. And Sudhir Mishra – if not for any of his other work, simply for Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi
Considering all these films listed were Hindi, I would change the term ‘desi’ in the filmmaker category, since it excludes a hughe portion of the desi film industry.
bheja fry is the umpteenth remake of the dinner game. it didn’t even have the level of originality that sanjay gupta brings to his “inspired by”s and definitely does not deserve any kudos for being either genre breaking or exceptional.
people responsible aren’t the fab five in the long run. ganguly, and the best bat under him, who had a purple patch for the first 5-6 years this decade, dravid. dhoni. kumble. the rest were important but don’t deserve to be “players of the decade”. tendulkar’s standout decade was the 90s, and while he is still great now, he stands much more with the pack. if sehwag continues his rich vein of form for the next 2-3 years, he could be for dhoni and match-winning what dravid was to ganguly and match-saving. .
further, if you want to talk about “influential” and not best (whatever that means) desi player, at least in cricket, i’d have to say dhoni. his leadership of a rookie team to t20 world cup victory is singlehandedly responsible for the explosive popularity of t20 in india, and lalit modi’s decision to forge ahead with the ipl (also as competition to icl, although that is likely a lesser factor) which has completely changed the face of cricket globablly, and introduced the notion of club based cricket at the international level. the amount of money and change ipl has brought and will bring to the game is truly dramatic, whether you agree that it is for the good or not.
Does Slumdog Millionaire not count as a Desi Diaspora film?
No Farhan/Zoya Akhtar (Dil Chahta Hai, Rock On, Luck By Chance, Don remake)?
My opinion on the “American Desi”-type films (e.g American Desi, American Chai, ABCD, Where’s the Party Yaar) was that people’s excitement about our generation getting voice and representation in film overshadowed the fact that the screenwriting/direction were amateurish and full of one-dimensional stereotypes. (I actually found WTPY borderline offensive.) But hopefully that will change in the next decade.
i am surprised that anurag kashyap (black friday, no smoking, dev d, gulaal) was not in the list of the most important/influential film-makers of the 00s. arguably he is the best desi film-maker out there (or as naseeruddin shah put it, in an interview with mtv iggy that was linked from this site: the only one with the balls to make a new kind of cinema).
the last decade has seen a huge shift in hindi cinema – from the aspirational weak sauce diaspora shite into the maderchode verite of the urban hinterland. in my memory there hasnt been this much bluntness or intensity to the moviemaking. the stars arent paragons of virtue and virginality. if movies were a channel out of daily misery for the everyman in the nineties, it sure isnt so now. rather than soothe or numb, the plots seem to drag nails through old scabs. i remember naseeruddin shah’s monologue from wednesday when he says i dont know whether to grow a beard or not, or i have to think twice before naming my store because i dont know who the fuck is going to plug my ass the next day and he’s tired of this same old shite. powerful stuff man. and i think back… the movies that seem to indicate the generational shift have originated with a core group of people most of whom have been indentified above. i would add ronnie screwvala and utv films to the list above though. they seem to be playing behind the scenes in a lot of this new wave.
1.The 100th year of the 20th Century and last year of the 2nd Millennium was definitely and indisputably 2000.
2.The 1st year of the first decade of the 21st Century and of the 3rd Millennium was definitely and indisputably 2001 – obviously. The clue is in the number ‘1’.
3.The 10th and last year of the first decade of the 21st century will be 2010 – obviously. The clue is in the number ’10’.
4.The last day of the first decade of the 21st century and 3rd millennium will definitely and indisputably be December 31st 2010.
There is a concerted effort by the BBC and other major media players (oh…and Sepia Mutiny?) to deny these facts for cynical commercial and branding and packaging purposes.
Clear non-murky thinkers will, of course, ignore them and respect and express true and honest chronological facts and conventions.
Rage Against The Machine!
You forgot the third category: People with basic math skills and an ability to enjoy harmless lists.
Relax man. have a jalebi.
marathi cinema has been undergoing a renaissance of sorts in the last decade with lots of indie-style new cinema:
valu tingya gabhricha paus evdhasa abhal nital, vaastupurush harishchandrachi factory (india’s oscar entry in ’10, apparently)
any others?
Not even a single non-bollywood movie in the Commercial Cinema group? Biased poll!
sea @ 33 – maybe add shwas to your list?
I 5th (6th) the confusion over not including Anurag Kashyap. Dev D was brilliant. In his absence I had to go with Bhardwaj. Sooni Taraporevala’s “Little Zizou” was really great, sad it wasn’t included on the diaspora list.
Hi folks,
I think it’s safe to say that it was probably just an oversight not to include Anurag Kashyap… I really liked Dev D too — I think I tweeted that it was, in my view, the first really watchable remake of “Devdas” I’d ever seen…
Unfortunately, there’s no way with Blogpoll to go back in and change the poll after it’s been created.
” 24 · unlist on December 22, 2009 5:09 PM · Direct link
bheja fry is the umpteenth remake of the dinner game. it didn’t even have the level of originality that sanjay gupta brings to his “inspired by”s and definitely does not deserve any kudos for being either genre breaking or exceptional.”
Honestly, I have no idea what the dinner game is. But when I saw Bheja Fry I felt it was something new and original to Indian film– it’s approach, it’s storyline, etc. It was all very different from the Indian-film norms and that is why I saw is influential. If it is a remake or not of another film doesn’t really matter in that regard to me. The point is it broke out of the same-old and kind of made an opening for more different kinds of film in mainstream cinema.
Also I thought of sanother that stuck in my mind… more influential regarding the topic…
Shonali Bose (Amu)
bheja fry was neither first of its kind in the way you describe, nor original, nor particularly distinguished as a movie, despite some good individual performances (vinay pathak, as always).
I have to add– I think the film poll really doesn’t do Indian cinema(s) justice— Some of the films on the list are good and were very popular–, but a lot of them are the sort of mainstream Bollywood popular movies with out much depth, character or storylines….
Fanaa, New York, Delhi 6, Jodhaa Akbar, Chak De! India, Veer-Zaara are all extremely typical and pretty uncreative Bollywood films, in my own (humble) opinion.
A lot more can be and was done by a lot of other Indian film makes during this time– though not all were big budget and as well advertised.
Amu is one example. Mr. and Mrs. Iyer by Aparna Sen
There were also some big budget films that brought something new to Bollywood, like Taare Zameen Par, Life.. in a Metro, Das Kahaniyan (though I really thought while some of the das were great, others were awful!) as well as the ones I mentioned above.
I’m sure there are lots more I’m missing, but of course, I also understand how difficult it is to pick out movies/directors for a poll! 🙂
unlist, can you name some other earlier films like Bheja Fry? I’d love to check them out.
for one, khosla ka ghosla. there’s many more, for example kukunoor films like iqbal. therse are examples of lighthearted (comedy/feel-good) indies. there’s many more if you take more serious movies – maqbool, omkara, hazaaron khwaishein aisi, for example. all of these were released prior to bheja fry, iirc. and if you take movies released the same year as bheja fry (dont know which came earlier), there were such gems as johnny gaddaar and manorama six feet under.
i am sure there’s many more i am missing.
S. R. “Macaca” Sidharth.
hmm, unlist, I think we may have different ways of categorizing movies.. 🙂
I haven’t see khosla ka ghosla, but I don’t think I would categorize Iqbal or Omkara as a similar movie to Bheja Fry. (that’s just my opinion, of course). (I have not seen the rest (yet!) so I can’t say about those)
I don’t particularly love Bheja Fry personally. But when thinking of ‘influential’ films it came to mind because it was so small budget, and pretty simple, yet it became a very popular film in India, something that didn’t often happen with the non-mainstream style films.
i specifically said omkara was a diff genre of movie. and i said iqbal was a feel-good movie. which it is – the standard underdog/mentor story arc.
while my previous comment clarified that i understand your categorization, i am not sure why it is that categorization which is important when evaluating bheja fry as an influential film. i gave you examples of light films as well as more serious ones – which share the common aspect of being low budget and without big names playing lead roles. heck, going far enough back, there was even jhankaar beats in the earlier part of the decade which was also a light film without big names.
(the dinner game tried to explore the class ramifications and implications of the behaviors of the rich snots while still being a farce, and often succeeded in its goal. bheja fry, on the other hand, was a remake which just played the situation for laughs with very little by way of greater depth, save for pathak’s empathetic acting)
many of the movies i mentioned fit that criterion. the ones that don’t don’t mainly because they aren’t simple 🙂
i dont think it was any more popular than many of the others i mentioned. you might have sampling bias based on the anecdotes about people you know. not saying it was unpopular, just that it didnt break any barriers.
Bheja Fry Total Collections (Till Date): 6,15,03,389
Iqbal Total Collections (Till Date): 2,83,79,058
Khosla ka Ghosla Total Collections (Till Date): 3,02,26,901
Omkara Total Collections (Till Date): 13,18,04,190
(above from Box Office India,INR)
hazaaron khwaishein aisi INR 2,778,000 (India) (29 April 2005)
Maqbool INR 7,001,000 (India) (6 February 2004)
(above 2 from imdb.com)
Personally I would count Maqbool and Omkara among the bigger budget more well known actor type films… but anyways, where is a general idea of the film gross of the different films mentioned
where= there.