2006 ended with much gusto and while welcoming ‘07 with open arms, you can’t help but think about how dynamic last year was…

Jessica Lall finally got her justice, the domestic violence bill was passed, Natwar Singh lost his job in the oil-for-food scam, Lalu Prasad Yadav taught IIM, Wharton and Harvard students a thing or two in management!


But the topic to rule the charts of 2006 was ‘Bollywood’. One of the most successful years for the film industry, it gave movies like ‘Rang De Basanti’, ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’, which helped the nation wake up from its sleep and fight against injustice. If Munnabhai inculcated ‘Gandhigiri’ in youth, the ‘candle walk’ of Rang De Basanti was used as a silent weapon by the ‘aam janta’ to speak up against any form of injustice! Such was the impact of movies.
Where some movies raked in huge amounts at the box office but failed to meet the audience’s expectations, few other flicks may not have been a commercial success but proved hard hitting and successful!

So for a change, we rate the movies from an audiences’ point of view, overlooking the money they churned out…

Inspirational Hits

‘Krrish’, ‘Rang De Basanti’ and ‘Lage Raho Munnabhai’ proved to be the three ultimate blockbusters of 2006. The high flying Krrish sky rocketed Hrithik’s career as an actor, while Rang De Basanti’s DJ (Aamir Khan) became a youth icon. And how can we forget our very adorable Munna bhai (Sanju baba), who taught us how to practice Gandhigiri? These movies captured the hearts of millions…


Semi-empty vessels made more noise?

These movies can be aptly termed as the ‘big guns’ of Bollywood, all thanks to its amazing star power and the pre-release hype and hoopla. They even went on to become one of the most ‘commercially successful’ films of 2006 but somehow lacked that bit, which the audiences had expected from them. ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’, ‘Fanaa’, ‘Dhoom 2’, ‘Don’, ‘Phir Hera Pheri’, ‘Vivah’ and ‘Baabul’ being the major contenders for this title.

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna

Karan Johar’s ‘stylized infidelity’ tale failed to click. Not one or two but five superstars (Rani Mukherjee, Preity Zinta, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan) were roped in, top designers were hired, beautiful locations and last but not the least, hunky Arjun Rampal to add to the oomph factor but in vain…As Bollywood enthusiast Dr Rachael Dwyer said about KANK in an interview with a newspaper… “Not my kind of a movie. The characters didn’t have any depth and the lead couple seemed to hook up with each other not out of passion but out of boredom.”

Fanaa

Kajol’s comeback vehicle with Aamir Khan, didn’t break down completely but the director/captain of the vehicle Kunal Kohli somehow seemed to have forgotten to fix an accelerator to it as this extremely slow movie left audiences fuming for some fuel!

Dhoom 2

Ash’s bronzed avatar, Hrithik’s sleek new look and a sequel of a blockbuster that established John Abraham as the ultimate style icon in Bollywood, Dhoom 2 may have created Dhoom at the box office (not to forget the much talked about ‘kiss’ between Ash and Hrithik) but made ‘thinking’ audiences sing Crazy Kiya Re…for ‘funny man’, director Sanjay Gadhvi who made Mr A (Hrithik Roshan) an international sexy thief indulge in all sorts of illogical thefts!

Don

This Don (Shahrukh Khan) wore a polka dotted shirt and went on to say “Bohot hi khatarnak hoon main”! I guess this says it all about this high tech remake. Again it served as a great crowd puller, all thanks to the king khan’s super stardom but didn’t live up to the mark of a ‘Farhan Akhtar-Shahrukh Khan’ film.