Great Bollywood Movie of the Year 2008

All ye' Bollywood fans and Bollywood lovers are interested in knowing which indeed was the most successful Bollywood movie of 2008. Is it Ghajini or Golmaal Returns? Or is there other clear winner? What do trade guides show? Which Bollywood movie truly rocked 2008? Is the most successful Bollywood movie of 2008, also your favorite movie?
Presenting here are the hits, superhits and blockbusters Bollywood movies of 2008, including a brief review. The movies are arranged according to their time of release.

1. Jodhaa Akbar : Released on February 15' 2008, Jodhaa Akbar, directed by Bollywood most prolific director Ashutosh Gowariker, was a semi hit. It went on to do a business of Rs. 62 crores . Hrithik Roshan was the USP of the film, he played Akbar so well that the historic figure is now synonymous with the actor. 2. Race: Released on March 21' 2008, Race was the first big hit of 2008. An edge of the seat thriller, the movie directed by Abbas-Mustan was full of twists and turns. As of May 30, it grossed Rs.63,67,00,000 ($14,886,600) in India, and $9,505,321 in other parts bringing a worldwide total of $24,391,921. Race is actually the fifth biggest hit of 2008. 3. Jannat: Jannat, directed by Kunal Deshmukh, was a Mukesh Bhatt film, released on May 16. Based on cricket betting, the movie extracted the career best performance of Emran Hashmi. Debutante Sonal Chauhan made a pretty picture in the movie. Jannat grossed 32,47,00,000 in 5 weeks, quite higher than its cost of production. 4. Aamir: One of the dark horse hits of 2008, Aamir directed by Raj Kumar Gupta released on June 6. The movie starring Rajeev Khandelwal was a story about how an innocent man gets trapped in the hands of religious extremists who want to bomb the city. An interesting premise, the movie did good business. 5. Sarkar Raj: Sarkar Raj, directed by Ram Gopal Verma released on June 6 2008. The movie was a semi-hit; people compared Sarkar Raj to its prequel Sarkar, and found that the sequel was not as effective as the first one. Nevertheless, it grossed 34 crores in India in its first two weeks and over $1 million in the USA. 6. Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, released on July 4 2008; directed by Abbas Tyrewala and produced by Aamir Khan, was the iconic movie of 2008. The movie was a blazing hit and it is still the favorites of the youth segment, which forms a major part of the movie going audience. The youthful movie had a cliched but entertaining story with fantastic music by A.R.Rahman. in 5 weeks, it earned approximately 52.96 crores. 7. Singh is Kinng: Singh is Kinng was a movie, all Akshay Kumar fans were waiting for. Released on August 8, 2008; the movie recorded the biggest advance booking in the history of Bollywood, second only to Ghajini. With a fantastic figure of Rs.44 crores in the first week, Singh is Kinng was the fourth biggest hit of Bollywood 2008. By September, it had already earned Rs.73 crores. 8. Bachna Ae Haseeno: Released on August 15, 2008, Bachna Ae Haseeno proved to be a solace for Yash Raj films which had only given flops before this, in 2008 like Tashan and Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic. Made on a budget of Rs.18 crores, this Ranbir Kapoor earned Rs.31.20 crores in its second week, and was declared a semi hit. 9. Phoonk: Phoonk directed by Ram Gopal Verma was probably the least expensive movie, which did good business. The movie based on black magic was a success because of the subject. 10. Mumbai Meri Jaan: Mumbai Meri Jaan, released on August 22' 2008 was a movie based on 7/11 bomb blasts. A slightly documentary style film, it focussed on the repercussions of the bomb blasts. The movie was an an above average hit. The USP of the film was a power packed performance by Paresh Rawal and Irrfan Khan. 11. Rock On!!: Rock On(released August 29' 2008), directed by Abhishek Kapoor and produced by Farhan Akhtar, was another youth favorite, like Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. Based on friendship and rock music, Rock On was treated like a sequel to the cult movie Dil Chahta Hai. It made singer-actor-producer-director(phew!) Farhan Akhtar, a household name. 12. A Wednesday: A Wednesday, released on September 5 2008, is the dark horse success of 2008. A powerful script, impeccable dialogues and a unique treatment by director Neeraj Pandey, made this probably the most watchable movie of 2008. Naseerudin Shah proved that he is inimitable when it comes to stellar performance. 13. 1920: A spooky movie directed by Vikram Bhatt(released Sep 12' 08) was high on horror around a haunted palatial house. Newbies Rajneesh Duggal and Adah Sharma gave a spirited(no pun intended!) performance. The fantastic English locales and visual effects proved to be the USP of the film. 14. Welcome to Sajjanpur: Welcome to Sajjanpur, released on September 19 2008 was director Shyam Benegal's entry to commercial cinema. The movie shot in rural set-up brought back memories of Malgudy Days and fared well at the box office. 15. Fashion: Fashion directed by Madhur Bhandarkar, gave a push to Priyanka Chopra who went down-slide with four back to back flops in 2008. It appealed to the youth and the upper crust and did good business. 16. Golmaal Returns: Released on the same date as Fashion(October 29' 2008), Golmaal Returns was a run-away super hit. Though marred by critics, it was declared a huge success by the masses. It surpassed the first day totals of Om Shanti Om, last year, by collecting 22.03 lakhs on day one. This Rohit Shetty venture earned Rs.48 crores in the first week, making it the third biggest hit of 2008. 17. Dostana: Dostana directed by Tarun Mansukhani for Karan Johar released on November 14' 2008. The story of two men Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham, who pretend to be gays, and fall in love with eye-candy Priyanka Chopra made the box office smile. By December 12, it had already earned Rs.80 crores. 18. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi: One of the much awaited movies, the Shahrukh Khan starrer Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, released on December 12'08. Made on a modest budget of Rs.22 crores by Yash Raj standards, Aditya Chopra directed this movie to success. The movie also featured debutante Anushka Sharma. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi earned 7.5 crore net all over India and by day 1, and earned Rs.44.5 crores by week 1. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is the second biggest hit of 2008. 19. Ghajini: The most awaited movie Ghajini, proved to be a record breaking success. The most successful movie of the year and perhaps one of the all time big hits, this Aamir Khan movie directed by A.Murgadoss proved recession cannot beat quality. Released on December 25, 2008, this remake of the Southern movie of the same name is running quite strong, thanks to the Aamir Khan brand power. On Day 1, Ghajini earned Rs.33 crores,(compared to Rs.18 crore of Rab Ne) worldwide, something which is unheard off. Ghajini is all set to pass Rs.100 crores in three weeks, overtaking the lines of previous two years biggies Om Shanti Om(Rs.80 crores) and Dhoom 2(Rs.85 crores).

Conclusion 2008: Ghajini has proved to be a big money spinner for Bollywood. The year 2008 has pooled in 15 percent or Rs.900 crore more than last year. Call it the Pareto Principal, if you will but Rab Ne and Ghajini have added another 20 percent more to the box office collection of movies preceding them. Masala films and movies based on 'terror issues' dominated 2008.

So, here is the countdown of the top 5 films of Bollywood 2008: 5. Race 4. Singh is Kinng 3.Golmaal Returns 2. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi 1. Ghajini

Inidan Commercial Cinema

The Indian commercial cinema, while drawing heavily from Hollywood musicals, adopted a different tack in that the plot was not employed in the service of healing the narrative/spectacle split. Instead song and dance sequences were and are used as natural expressions of everyday emotions and situations. The Hollywood musical sought to maintain the facade of reality with a view to legitimatise the spectacle. They not only displayed singing and dancing, but were, in fact, about singing and dancing. The Indian filmmakers, on the other hand, while seeking to intensify the element of fantasy through music and spectacle, also reinforced the impression that songs and dances are the natural and logical expression of emotion in the given situation in the filmic performance. Music contributes a vital ingredient in the cultural construction of emotion. In this way, we see both similarities and differences between Hollywood musicals and Indian mainline films.

The two basic ingredients of the "invisible" style are mise-èn-scène and continuity editing. It means that technique should be used in such a way that it will not be noticed, making itself 'invisible' in that sense. The 'invisible' style led to the principle of "centering". Camera angles, lighting, focus, framing, costumes, set designs, all worked unitedly to keep the primary object of the narrative at the center of the frame. The discontinuity effected by editing, on the other hand, were concealed by practices aimed to keep intact spatial and temporal continuity from shot to shot. Continuing action, connecting looks, common sounds, matching successive shots by visual similarities, the 180 degree system, etc ensured the continuity of editing. Indian filmmakers, with their inordinate love for dramatic camera movements, extravagant use of colour, flashy editing and self-conscious use of sound depart sometimes from the "invisible" style of Hollywood. In the case of Hollywood filmmakers, the narrative closure, unobtrusive and non-reflexive camera, continuity of image, voyeuristic objectification, shot centering, frame balance, sequential editing sought to create in the minds of the spectator the impression that what is being displayed on the screen is an objective reporting of real events rather than a contrived and wilfully created sequence of events. In this regard, it is pertinent to remind ourselves of the concept of verisimilitude (an Aristotelian term, referring to the resemblance to life that a work of art claims) to the effect that it should not be equated with reality but interpreted as what a culture takes for reality. Hence, reality can plausibly be argued as a cultural construct.

In recent years, Hollywood has become the main hunting ground for plots, stories and characters for films to such an extent that a large number of films are Hindi remakes of Hollywood successes. This phenoemon, enabled by shot-by-shot remake through easily available DVDs, has deepened the influence of Hollywood. Importantly, European or Latin American successes are rarely, if ever, replicated by 'Bollywood' films.

American Cinema

"The American cinema's apparently natural subjection of style to narrative in fact depended on a historical accident: the movies' origins lay in late nineteenth century whose predominant popular arts were the novel and the theatre. Had cinema appeared in the Enlightenment or the Romantic period, it might have assumed the shape of the essay or lyric poem. Instead, it adopted the basic tactic and goal of the realistic novel. Conscious 'style' would be effaced both to establish the cinema's illusion of reality and to encourage audience identification with the characters on the screen."

Indian film producers were also greatly fascinated by, and attracted to, Hollywood musicals in that they related in some interesting ways to the defining characteristics of traditional Indian theatre and performance. The heyday of Hollywood musicals stretched from the 1930s to the 1950s, and many of the musicals produced during these two decades had as their plot the world of entertainment itself. The narratives of these films were, by and large, conventional, while the songs and spectacle offered the opportunity both to the characters in the drama and the audience to indulge in flights of fantasy. It was through the working out of the plot that the apparent disparity between narrative and spectacle was reconciled. This, however, is not a feature commonly seen in Indian films.

Proscenium Theatre

Most importantly, the Parsi theatre introduced the concept of the proscenium theatre in India where traditional theatre performances were held with a central stage and audiences were seated all around it. Even the actors would enter into the stage through the audience. Parsi theatre (or Company Nataka, as it was known in Eastern India for its association with the East India Company), while incorporating the themes and stories of traditional Indian theatre, started using the Western concept of the stage with actors frontally addressing the audiences from a stage which was closed on all three sides, ushering us into the now-prevalent format of the theatre stage. This paved the way for the camera to record the scenes from the point of the view of the audience in the front row. With a central stage and audiences on all sides, the camera - which was so heavy in those days that it had to be stationary - could not have captured the performance on-stage. Thus, the Parsi theatre helped make the transition from traditional Indian theatre to cinema, not only in terms of thematics but also in formal terms.

Indian Parsi Theatrical Companies

There were a number of Parsi theatrical companies touring the country and performing before crowded audiences.. These dramatists had a practical cast of mind and were more interested in commercial success than artistic achievement. The Parsi theatre excelled in both social and historical plays. Stylistically, they displayed a curious amalgam of realism and fantasy, music and dance, narrative and spectacle, lively dialogues and stage ingenuity, all welded within the framework of melodrama. These plays with their melodious songs, crude humour, sensationalism, dazzling stage craft were designed to appeal to the broad mass of people, and they did. The Parsi theatre which drew on both western and Indian modalities of entertainment represented an attempt to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Thus, we notice that these plays bear an uncanny resemblance to the generality of popular Indian films. If the folk-dramas were based on rural areas and presented the vocabulary of traditionally inherited theatrical expression, the Parsi plays signified an urban theatre exposed to western styles and sensibilities.

Inidan Folk Theatre

Owing to a number of causes, Sanskrit drama began to decline after the tenth century. Concurrently, numerous dramatic forms sprang up or matured in the various provinces which, preserved and embodied the essence of the classical tradition. The Yatra of Bengal, Ram Lila and Krishna Lila of Uttar Pradesh, Tamasha of Maharashtra, Nautanki of Rajasthan, Bhavai of Gujarat, Bhagavata Mela of Tanjore, Terukkuttu of Tamilnadu, Vithinatakam of Andhra and Yakshagana of Karnataka are the most prominent among them. These various regional dramas, which are essentially creations of untutored folk-artists, have one central feature in common, namely that in varying degrees of competence and reliability they embody in a living form, the distinguishing traits of the classical Sanskrit theatre. When, after the tenth century, the classical Sanskrit language splintered into vernaculars and took root in the form of regional languages, the Sanskrit drama -- petrified for many centuries -- was replaced by the growing folk theatre. In this way, the tradition flowed not from the folk to the classical, but from the classical to the folk. The folk-theatre inherits many of the classical conventions. This is, of course, not to suggest that all folk- dramas of India have been derived from the classical tradition. However, what is important to observe is that in all those rural dramas which have survived up to the present day, the influence of the classical tradition is clearly perceptible. In the use of humour, music and dance, the structure of the narratives, the informing melodramatic imagination, the folk-theatre of India has no doubt exercised a profound influence on the makers of popular cinema. iv) PARSI THEATRE:The Parsi theatre is the most vital cultural antecedent of the Indian popular cinema as much as the vaudeville was a cultural forerunner to the early American cinema. The Parsi theatre, which came into existence in the nineteenth century is a crucial link between India's traditional narratives, performative traditions and its incorporation within the format of the technologically-driven medium of the cinema.

Inidan Classical Theatre

Sanskrit theatre constitutes one of the richest and most sophisticated legacies of classical lndian culture. The Natya Shastra, the classical treatise on Indian dramaturgy, defines drama as a "mimicry of the exploits of the gods, the Asuras (demons), kings as well as the householder in this world." According to another important treatise, the Dasharupa, drama is the imitation of situations. Hence, the idea of mimicry or imitation is fundamental to the concept of Sanskrit drama.

The Sanskrit theatre was highly stylized; it's mode of presentation was episodic laying the utmost emphasis on spectacle. In it, music and dance coalesced magnificently to create a wholly satisfying artistic unity. Sanskrit theatre was guided by strong injunctions related to the selection of plots, heroes and heroines, use of language, and the structure of the narrative. Poetry constituted a very important element in Sanskrit drama. Indeed, from the very earliest times, drama was considered a branch of poetry. Poetry served to offer moral comments, intensify emotion, and conjure up vividly in the minds of the audience, the background of the action of the drama. Mime and dance form an integral part of the classical Indian theatrical experience. The Sanskrit word natya, meaning "drama" is derived from the root nritto, dance. We can identify a number of features of classical Indian drama which have an interesting bearing on the structure of popular Indian cinema. Sanskrit plays were spectacular dance-dramas in contrast to the tightly organized plays of the West. They were non-naturalistic and stylized and demanded the imaginative response from the audience. As much of the force and vigour of the Sanskrit theatre was derived from conventional and traditional vocabulary of theatrical expression, the more one was acquainted with the tradition, the better equipped one was to participate in the experience. Sanskrit dramas were heroic romantic-tragic comedies with a strong lyrical flavour. The ultimate aim of the classical Indian dramatist was the creation of a dominant aesthetic emotion (rasa) in the spectators. Though popular cinema has a more direct link with folk theatre rather than classical theatre, the Sanskrit theatre's importance remains crucial as it is the source of the folk theatre forms.