Vi segnalo l'articolo Numero Unos - A survey of the top hit films: 2000s, di Rajiv Vijayakar, pubblicato da Bollywood Hungama il 6 agosto 2012. Parliamo degli anni che vanno dal 2000 al 2009. Difficile decretare il numero uno del decennio, dal momento che 3 idiots (2009) è sì il primo e unico - ad oggi - membro del favoloso 200 crore club (1 crore = 10.000.000), ma, sulla base di alcuni fattori (inflazione, differenza nel prezzo del biglietto, eccetera), sembra che Gadar (2001), distribuito oggi, ne avrebbe incassati 350! Comunque sia, nel 2008 Ghajini apre le danze inaugurando il 100 crore club. Anche solo dall'analisi dei titoli campioni d'incassi si ricava la caratteristica tipica della filmografia del decennio, soprattutto della seconda parte: un notevole balzo in avanti nei budget, nelle strategie, nelle ambizioni crossover e nella qualità tecnica, ma anche l'affermazione di una nuova cinematografia indipendente e d'autore che riesce persino ad influenzare molti prodotti e registi di intrattenimento. Le distinzioni si sgretolano. Le aziende si sostituiscono ai produttori singoli limitando (almeno si spera) il campo d'azione degli investimenti mafiosi. Il pubblico apprezza generi vari e non solo il tradizionale masala: l'horror Raaz è il campione d'incassi nel 2002, la pellicola fantascientifica Koi... Mil Gaya lo è nel 2003 (ex aequo con Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.), il thriller erotico Murder sbaraglia tutti nel 2004. Sono gli anni del fascinoso Hrithik Roshan (Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, 2000; Koi... Mil Gaya, 2003; Dhoom:2 - Back in Action, 2006). Ma anche Aamir Khan non scherza con Ghajini (2008) e 3 idiots (2009).
'The Top Guns
In terms of footfalls, it was a clear-cut triumph for Anil Sharma's Gadar - Ek Prem Katha (2001), a Sikh-Muslim love story set against the backdrop of Partition - its 75 crore-plus collections, inflation adjusted, would probably reach around Rs 350 crore today. It started the trend of round-the-clock shows to meet demands in Punjab! However, in terms of actual collections (as ticket rates had been hiked by multiples) Rajkumar Hirani's 3 Idiots (2009), a comedy with a message leads at Rs 220 crore. The millennium also saw the first-ever 100 crore film, A.R. Murugadoss' 2008 vendetta thriller Ghajini.
Corporate companies entered the film world and gradually replaced more personalized financing, including that of the underworld. What was interesting, with big prestige involved, is the way the smaller films that had greater ROI (return on investment) ratios were sidelined due to the huge overall business of the biggies. So though Murder, an erotic thriller directed by Anurag Basu, was rightly called the biggest hit of 2004 despite Main Hoon Na and Dhoom, a year later in 2005, Kyaa Kool Hai Hum lost to No Entry (both were interestingly sex comedies, though of contrasting kinds), while in 2008, Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na (a rom-com) made way for Ghajini (interestingly both connected with Aamir Khan as co-producer of the first and hero of the second!) as the latter collected over 110 crore - the first-ever Hindi film to cross the 100 crore mark.
The remaining years saw the following Numero Unos:
2000: Rakesh Roshan's Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai (KNPH), a crime drama
[2001: Gadar]
2002: Vikram Bhatt's Raaz, a supernatural thriller
2003: Rakesh Roshan's Koi... Mil Gaya (KMG) a sci-fi story on an alien and Rajkumar Hirani's Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., a 'medical' comedy (in a tie)
[2004: Murder
2005: No Entry]
2006: Sanjay Gadhvi's Dhoom:2 - Back in Action, an action caper
2007: Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om (OSO), a reincarnation drama
[2008: Ghajini
2009: 3 idiots]
A diverse spectrum
The kind of films that topped in individual years saw a complete spectrum from original to remakes - at one end was Koi... Mil Gaya, Hindi cinema's first tryst with the sci-fi genre with aliens. Though Rakesh Roshan was clearly inspired by E.T., he adapted and Indianized it wonderfully and made the film's alien, Jadoo, a lovable creature no one would ever forget. Also a film with a pinch of inspiration and everything otherwise original and rooted was Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., India's first comedy on the medical profession - a common genre abroad. Both films jointly topped 2003 and were among the most refreshing entertainers of the millennium. Such was the excellence of the later (Rajkumar Hirani easily is the finest director to come in the entire decade) that the film was not only remade in multiple Indian languages but also the first Indian film officially licensed for a Hollywood remake, which however has yet to take off.
At the other end was Roshan's own Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, which made Hrithik Roshan a mega-star with the best launch any actor's son has got since Rishi Kapoor in Bobby. The plot was, however, smartly reworked from the 1984 flop Jhutha Sach starring Dharmendra. (...) OSO was an open tribute to Subhash Ghai's Karz and its climax was recycled from Madhumati. No Entry and Ghajini were official South remakes, which have now become endemic. Murder 'adapted' a Hollywood thriller, and if Raaz, Murder, Koi... Mil Gaya, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S. and No Entry set off a train of sequels, Dhoom:2 - Back in Action was itself the second in its franchise.
Starry ascent
Hrithik Roshan remained the superstar discovery of the millennium, though most his super-hits were made by his father. In a dream debut, the actor played a dual role in KNPH and was cast as a physically-challenged man in Koi... Mil Gaya. But in his third film in this list, he did a 180-degree flip as the razor sharp crook of Dhoom:2, the arch criminal who is always that one step ahead of the cops.
Amisha Patel scored a unique feat by being the heroine of the biggest hits in two consecutive years, Kaho Naa... and Gadar, also her first two films. After his, thanks to a variety of factors, her career nosedived. Arshad Warsi got a new lease of life and Sanjay Dutt consolidated his comic image with Munna Bhai M.B.B.S.. The Bhatts made new talent their special forte - Dino Morea got his first hit in Raaz, which also consolidated the career of Bipasha Basu, while Emraan Hashmi and Mallika Sherawat got career-defining roles in Murder. Deepika Padukone, like Hrithik, made her debut in a dual role in OSO, where Shah Rukh was also in a double role. (...) Asin made her Hindi debut in Ghajini, the first of her now four films in the "100-crore club." Incidentally, Bipasha Basu played twin sisters in Dhoom:2. Aamir Khan was the only actor apart from Hrithik to have more than one film in the Numero Uno list. Among the heroines, Bipasha Basu scored the highest (Raaz, No Entry, Dhoom:2).
Rakesh Roshan (Kaho Naa..., Koi... Mil Gaya) narrowly missed a Numero Uno hat-trick in Krrish, which lost to Dhoom:2 that had higher global collections vis-à-vis a lesser budget. Like him, Raju Hirani also had two films in this list (Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., 3 Idiots), both produced by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and so did the Bhatts - Mukesh Bhatt produced and Mahesh Bhatt wrote both Raaz (...) and Murder. Reliance Entertainment was the first corporate entity to strike big - Ghajini and 3 Idiots. Eros came in with OSO. (...) It is interesting to know that except for Gadar, Raaz, Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., Ghajini and 3 Idiots, the other six films were home productions of at least one of the actors in their casts - Murder coming from Emraan's uncles, the Bhatts! Rajesh Roshan, by association, came into both the Roshan films, but the lead was taken by Anu Malik with Munna Bhai M.B.B.S., Murder and No Entry in three consecutive years. (...)
Technically, Hindi films forged ahead by leaps and bounds. Shooting abroad became common, and whether the film was a romantic film, action-based or message-oriented, up market humour became a compulsory ingredient. Music went down in importance, but we still had good scores in most of the films. The music and lyrics of 3 Idiots stood out for their thematic perfection while KNPH and OSO had well-rounded scores.
Films suffered an identity crisis in the millennium, and three diverse schools emerged, of the dark, noir kind of European-inspired films like Dev. D and Omkara, realistic high-concept films like A Wednesday! or Taare Zameen Par and the classic Hindi film kind. But the latter clearly kept ahead in the race. As always, it was all about entertainment'.
Vedi anche:
- Numero Unos - A survey of the top hit films: 1950s. Il testo raccoglie i link a tutti gli articoli della serie.
