18th Annual Colors Screen Awards 2012 took place amidst much glamour and glitter with whos who of Bollywood attending the event and with some very exciting performances by Bollywood stars. SRK was the witty host for the event along with Madhuri Dixit, Vidya Balan and Katrina Kaif. The show witnessed some memorable performances by Katrina Kaif, Priyanka Chopra, Shahid Kapoor and Anushka Sharma. The celebrity who stole everyone’s glances was Deepika Padukone who made a statement in a stunning green, backless dress.

The Best Film Award was shared by ‘The Dirty Picture’ and ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ – both of which bagged several awards as well. Ranbir Kapoor and Vidya Balan won Best Actor and Best Actress for their films ‘Rockstar’ and ‘The Dirty Picture’ respectively. AR Rahman bagged the Best Music Director’s Award while Asha Bhosale received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Priyanka Chopra got the best actress award for her negative role in ‘Saat Khoon Maaf’ and Prashant Narayan won the award in male category for ‘Murder 2′.

Every year, the Bollywood mill churns out movies after movies. Where the small banners and small stars sometimes create magic at the box-office, big budgeted, big-banner and big stars often fail to rake moolah at the counter. Be it weak story plot, bad acting, or pure bad luck, when a big budget movie flops it surprises all. With 2011 drawing to an end, let us have a look at 5 most anticipated movies of 2011 which bombed at the box office:

Mausam:
An ambitious love story by Pankaj Kapoor, Mausam can be touted as the biggest flop of 2011 till now. Released on 16 September 2011, Mausam featured an impressive cast of Shahid Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Anupam Kher, Supriya Pathak, and Aditi Sharma. Though the romance depicted in the flick was impressive, the film bombed because of its boring length, repetition of scenes and weak plot.

Mausam

7 Khoon Maaf:
This thriller and Black comedy released on 18 February 2011, was an ambitious project for Priyanka Chopra. This big budgeted movie directed by ace director Vishal Bhardwaj had a strong storyline and impressive cast comprising of John Abraham, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Naseeruddin Shah, Irrfan Khan, Anu Kapoor, and Vivaan Shah along with Priyanka Chopra, of course. However, the movie failed to make it big.

7 khoon maaf

Patiala House:
Again a February release, this family drama was made under the direction of Nikhil Advani and starred Akshay Kumar and Anushka Sharma. The plot was not a new one with the son Akshay Kumar wanting to make a career in cricket but his father does not want that his son play for England. This was a big budget movie with impressive performances from the actors and yet it failed to impress in the audience in general.

Patiala house

Aarakshan:
The highlight of the film was its cast comprising of Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone. This film, based on political and social issues, was directed by Prakash Jha and was released on12 August 2011. The movie was based on the burning issue of reservation for SC/ST.

Aarakshan

Rascals:
With the strong cast of Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Rampal and Kangna Ranaut, this comedy made under the banner of Sanjay Dutt Productions surprised everyone when it failed at the box office. Directed by the master of comic genre, David Dhawan, the film had a massive budget and seemed impressive when the promos were released. However, it was a major flop of 2011.

Rascals

2010 has been mixed year for Bollywood box office with some very ambitious projects turning out to be disasters at the ticket window and small efforts going on to receive big appreciation. This year has also seen many films released worldwide. These include some of the year’s highest-grossing films, such as Dabangg, Golmaal 3, Raajneeti, My Name is Khan, Housefull, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, I Hate Luv Storys and moderately successful films, such as Anjaana Anjaani, Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?, Badmaash Company, Ishqiya, Khatta Meetha and Peepli Live. Though we have tried out to pick out the best 5 movies of the year, the list is not all inclusive and all exactly based on the box  office collections. Here is our list of top 5 Bollywood movies of 2010:

Dabangg

Directed by Abhinav Singh Kashyap and starring Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Arbaaz Khan, Vinod Khanna, and Dimple Kapadia, Dabangg is definitely the biggest hit of 2010, breaking ‘3 Idiots’ record of highest collection in the first week. It got the highest opening on the first day and the highest weekend gross as well. Dabangg was Kashyap’s directorial debut, Arbaaz’s first production and actress Sonakshi Sinha’s first film. ‘Munni Badnaam Hui’ shot on Malaika Arora Khan had been a rage on all the music channels and stage shows. An out and out masala film, Dabangg stood out to be highest grosser of 2010.

Ishqiya

The film had an impressive cast of Naseeuddin Shah, Arshad Warsi, and Vidya Balan and was directed by Abhishek Chaubey. The key point of the film was its tight script, perfect screenplay and power packed performances by all the three lead characters. The song Dil Toh Bachcha hai Ji was such a huge hit that Madhur Bhandarkar’s forthcoming movie is titled the same.

Once Upon a Time In Mumbai

Making a slow start at the box office, the film took off to being a big hit and also received critical appreciation. Ajay Devgan and Emraan Hashmi stood out with their acting performances. Directed by Milan Lutharia, the film had Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi, Kangna Ranaut, Prachi Desai, and Randeep Hooda in the lead roles.

Rajneeti

After ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’, Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif managed yet another hit with ‘Rajneeti’. Directed by Prakash Jha, the film had a host of stars including Ranbir Kapoor, Ajay Devgn, Katrina Kaif, Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai, Arjun Rampal, and Naseeruddin Shah. Raajneeti got mixed reviews. Yet, it did very well at the box office, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Peepli [Live]

This was another different, yet a prized delivery from Aamir Khan Productions. Directed by Anusha Rizvi, the film had talented artists like Raghubir Yadav, Omkar Das, Malaika Shenoy, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead. Peepli [Live] went to many international festivals, and even competed at the Sundance Film Festival. It also went on to become India’s Oscar entry.

The much-hyped and perhaps the most awaited summer release ‘Kites’ opened in theatres yesterday and evoked mixed response from the viewers. The major drawback of the movie was its failure to live up to the promises and hype which had been built up with the much hullaboo about sizzling chemistry and passionate romance between Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori.

The storyline of the film is sheer romance but lacks the smoldering and passionate sexual chemistry between the two stars which was what the fans expected. The story of the film is simple and predictable with no new twists. Jai aka J (Hrithik) is a street-smart Las Vegas guy who romances with a rich girl Gina (Kangna Ranaut) for her wealth. When he meets Gina’s brother Tony’s (Nick Brown) fiancee Natasha (Barbara), he falls in love with her. Natasha too falls for him and the lovers elope and then the chase begins.

Set aside the negative aspects of the movie and you have two great looking sexy people with some interesting moments, gripping action sequences in the second half of the film, international look and appeal and best of all, melodious scores by Rajesh Roshan.

The international version seems to be more impressive than the Hindi version considering the global appeal. To sum it all, a one time watch and an average turnout for an over hyped movie!!!

The year 2009 had been a great year for the music lovers as the industry churned out various hits each with a different style ranging from soft romantic numbers to rustic numbers, youthful songs to fun-filled light music. Let us have a look at the songs which topped the music charts in the year which is dying off.

Emotional Atyaachar

This song from ‘Dev D’ was an unexpected hit and was liked by younger generations because of its uniqueness and difference. The song has been sung by Bony Chakravarthy. Composed by Amit Trivedi, it echoes the music and energy of marriage bands. It is by far the greatest hit of 2009 and stands out among other songs released during that period.

Masakalli

Oozing freshness in every way, this expressive number from A.R.Rehman swept the music lovers off their feet. This fun-filled light number from the film ‘Delhi-6′ sung by Mohit Chauhan is still a hot favorite of music channels.

Dhan Te Nan

This edgy, energetic, and rustic number from ‘Kaminey’ has a touch of rock to it. Composed by Vishal Bhardwaj, the song has been sung by Sukhwinder Singh and Vishal Dadlani. This rocking number has topped the music charts of 2009.

Tera Hone Laga Hoon

This is by far the most romantic and soothing number of 2009. Pakistani Singer Atif Aslam has sung this song with Alsiha Chinoi. Pritam has composed a beautiful love ballad for the recently released film ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’.

All Izz Well

This youthful, campus number from ‘3 Idiots’ has given a perfect ending to the year. This fun track has raw energy and is filled with whistles in the background. Sung by Sonu Niigaam, Swanand Kirkire and Shaan and composed by Shantanu Moitra, it is a hot favorite among all music channels.

The year 2009 was great for the box-office and our desi films fared quite well despite competition from some very good Hollywood blockbusters like ‘2012’ and ‘Avataar’. Barring ‘3 Idiots’ which will release today and considering other releases of 2009, the movies which gained biggest collection at the ticket window can be listed down as:

Wanted

Starring Salman Khan and Ayesha Takia this film has been the highest grosser of the year with a collection of Rs. 75 crores. This film is a directorial debut of Prabhudeva and has Salman Khan play the character of a sharp shooter and Ayesha Takia his lady love. The film is a remake of the Tamil and Telugu hit ‘Pokiri’ and is a brilliant combo of humor, action and romance.

Love Aaj Kal

The movie is a debut of Chhote Nawab Saif Ali Khan as a producer and ranked as the second highest grosser of the year with a collection of over 66.5 crores. Starring Saif, Deepika Padukone and Brazilian model Gisele Montero, the movie has been made under the direction of Imtiaz Ali and deals with the love story of two generations and how the concept of love changed through the years.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani

This Rajkumar Santoshi’s directorial venture is an easy combination of light hearted comedy and hush-hush romance. Ranbir Kapoor makes an excellent pair with Katrina Kaif. Being the third highest grosser of the year, the movie’s box office collections were Rs. 63 crores and deals with the story of Prem (Ranbir), an easy-going character, who understands his responsibilities when he falls in love with Jenny (Katrina).

New York

This Kabir Khan’s project deals with the sensitive subject of terrorism and how it affects innocent people’s lives. Based on the plight of Muslims in the US after 9/11, the film tells the tale of Samir Shaikh (John Abraham) who is wrongly imprisoned and tortured for nine months, post 9/11. When he’s released, he decides to take revenge. His college friend Omar (Neil Nitin Mukesh) is forced to become a police informant and keep an eye on Sam’s activities. He gets some help from Sam’s wife Maya (Katrina Kaif). The film had cash registers ringing at the box office with a collection of Rs 55.5 crores.

All the Best

Based on comedy, the maker of Golmaal series, Rohit Shetty, comes up with yet another hit in ‘All the Best’. The film stars Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu and Mugdha Godse. This multi-starrer light hearted comedy scored a collection of over 45 crores at the box office.

Besides the above mentioned flicks, there have been many other projects which rained gold at the box-office- De Dana Dan, Paa, Kaminey, and Kambakkht Ishq to name a few.

Bachna Ae Haseeno

Produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Siddhartha Raj Anand, this had all the magic like other Yashraj films. Ranbir Kapoor played the lead role against three co-stars Bipasha Basu, Deepika Padukone and Minissha Lamba in this film.

Jodhaa Akbar

Produced and directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar and excellent scores from A.R.Rehman, this film did not fare very well at the box-office but does receive a mention here because of the superb chemistry between Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan. Jodhaa Akbar is a love story, it portrays beautifully, the defiance of Jodhaa, the Rajput girl who is asked to marry Akbar, a Muslim Emperor.

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi

Yet another one from Yash Raj Filsm, this one marks the debut of Anushka Sharma with the superstar SRK who plays two different shades in the film as Surinder Sahni, a simple, clean hearted, honest man working for Punjab Power, and Raj, who is what one calls a flimi ‘macho’ man

Singh Is King

Produced by Vipul Shah and directed by Anees Bazmee, this is by far the biggest hit of 2008. This is a by and by masala entertainment film with Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif in the lead roles.

Fashion

Directed by Madhur Bhandarkar, the film shows the darker aspect of World of Fashion, glamour and ramp shows. The film revolves around the life of three models played by Priyanka Chopra, Mugdha Godse and Kangana Ranaut.

Golmaal Returns

A sequel to ‘Golmaal’, this Rohit Shetty directed film is no match to its original but has some hilarious situations and commendable performances from Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, Shreyas Talpade and Celina Jailtey enough to set the cash registers ringing at the box office.

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na

Directed by Abbas Tyrewala, this film has been produced by Aamir Khan to launch his nephew Imraan Khan who delivers promising performance alongwith newcomer Genelia D’souza. The film has a simple story about a group of friends and focuses on the couple that is in love.

Race

Abbas Mastaan are masters when it comes to thrillers. This thrillers of theirs was a superhit at the box office with Saif Ali Khan, Akshaye Khanna, Anil Kapoor, Bipasha Basu and Katrina Kaif in the main roles.

Rock On

Once again the team of Dil Chahta Hai, Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar is back with director Abhishek Kpoor for a suberb delivery. The film marks the debut of director Farhan Akhtar as an actor and rock star. This film is about friends and friendship and deals with the love for music in the band called ‘Magik’. As a band, Adi (Farhan), Rob (Luke Kenny), KD (Purab Kohli) and Joe (Arjun) were a treat.

Ghajini

The movie is yet to be released but the list would be incomplete without inclusion of Aamir Khan’s much awaited ‘Ghajini’ which marks the Bollywood debut of Asin and also stars Jiah Khan and Mohit Ahlawat

Govinda is one of the best dancers our industry has known so far. So, when this veteran dancer praises some new comer, there must be definitely something worth praising. Talking about praises, both Govinda and choreographer Ganesh Acharya were impressed by Hansikaa’s graceful dancing steps during a dance sequence being shot for ‘Money Hai To Honey Hai’. Govinda even told director Ganesh that Hansikaa’s fervor and enthusiasm reminded him of himself from his old days and it feels like she is from his school itself, when it comes to dance!!

If sources are to be believed this particular dance number exudes amazing brilliance owing to the dancing skills of Govinda and Hansikaa and their chemistry has taken the number to even greater heights.

With ‘Halla Bol’ Rajkumar Santoshi has tried to re-create the magic of 1990s when a single-man war against the entire corrupt political system was there in every third movie, and sure enough Santoshi was successful in giving memorable films like ‘Ghatak’, ‘Ghayal’ and ‘Damini’. ‘Halla Bol’ seems to be the next in the sequence of Santoshi’s hard-hitting films, but nevertheless, it lacks the energy and compactness of his past films. The storyline goes as:

Ashfaque (Ajay Devgan), a small town boy aspiring to make it big in Bollywood works in a street theatre group run by a reformed dacoit Sidhu (Pankaj Kapur) which holds plays raising social and political issues to bring about an awakening in the masses. Ashfaque finally makes it to Bollywood with a new screen name – Sameer Khan. Once in Bollywood, he sheds his middle-class bearings and changes everything — values, ethics, attitude — along with his name. However, his wife (Vidya Balan) refuses to change and sadly and silently watches her husband’s deteriorating values. It takes the murder of a young girl in a party to provoke his conscience and ferret out the old activist, Ashfaqe-ullah. Soon, Sameer is the one-man army against the battery of evil politicians, businessmen and cops who are hellbent on covering up the crime. His support in this battle is his old Guruji’s: a firm, powerful and mesmerising Pankaj Kapoor.

‘Halla Bol‘ tries to deal with too many subjects and sequences at one time- rape, violence, power, crime, fraud, the darker side of Bollywood, things behind Page 3, media and abuse. Due to this the film seems to lose its grip and track every now and then. Two incidents which the film instantly brings to our memory is the old but not-so-old Jessica Lal murder case and the murder of the noted street theatre activist Safdar Hashmi during a performance.

The films gains momentum when Ajay Devgan steps ahead for justices aided with Pankaj Kapoor. We have some powerhouse performances by Pankaj Kapoor. Ajay Devagn has done justice to his role. Vidya Balan has not much to do except one scene when she hits the media when it raises questions on her marriage. Darshan Jariwala comes as a surprise package.

The dialogues are hard-hitting. Many of them receive a loud clapping. The musical scores are average, in fact quite forgettable. ‘Na Guzre Huwe Pal’ turns out to be the best number. The director could have done some trimming of the sequences in the second half. Also the climax is not so powerful and lacks the last impact factor.

The memorable and paisa vasool sequences are the one when Ajay relieves himself on the Persian rug at the minister’s palatial residence, when Vidya Balan shoots back at the media which is grilling Ajay if his wife has walked out on him, when Abhay Bhargava is trying to bribe Pankaj Kapur and Pankaj replies. The murder of the girl at the night club with stone faced spectators is also hair-raising.

On the whole, Santoshi has tried to bring back what seemed to have disappeared from Hindi cinema in recent times. The fight of common man against the system. Comedy, thrillers and love-story, for a change has taken a back seat and ‘Halla Bol’ has come up with hard hitting defects of our system. An applaudable try from Santoshi but lacking in a tight script and expert handling of too many issues in a short span of 2-3 hours.

2007 was a great year for Bollywood at box office with big banners taking most of the cream. If we look at the hits of 2007, OSO definitely is quite a few leaps ahead of all others. Let us brief it out along with the others:

Om Shanti Om

This was a mega hit of 2007 both within India and abroad. It’s perfect marketing strategy, the hype of reviving the golden past, the magic of SRK, the perfection of Farah Khan and the surprise package of Deepika Padukone oozing freshness and diva like appeal- all added up to make the film a huge hit.

Chak De India

This was another hit from SRK. The film is unique in itself owing to the fact that it has no female lead to add glamour and also dealt with a sport (hockey) which is not a big craze among an average Indian. Nevertheless, the perfect handling of the subject made it a surprise hit of 2007.

Partner

The magical combination of Govinda and Salman Khan worked wonders and this unofficial comeback of Govinda set the cash registers ringing for the producers. The film had foot tapping musical scores and gorgeous Katrina Kaif to add up to the factors contributing to it’s success.

Heyy Babyy

2007 was definitely an year of Akshay Kumar who emerged as the king of comedies in the year. Though Vidya Balan’s makeover look aroused negative critisicms, the film managed to come across as a majot hit of the year.

Namaste London

Talking about Akshay Kumar, this again was an average hit which dealt with the subject of romantic comedy. Along with Partner and Welcome, this added to make a hattrick of hits for Katrina Kaif in 2007.

Bhool Bhulaiyan

The magic of Akshay Kumar and Vidya Balan worked yet again in ‘Bhool Bhulaiyan’ which was an experiment in the sense that it successfully managed to balance thriller with comedy.

Guru

This was undoubtedly the best movie of 2007 which gave a lifetime performance from Abhishek Bachchan blending well with a mature delivery from Aishwarya Rai (Bachchan). The year also saw this on-screen couple tying knots in real life too amidst much hype making them the most talked about couple of the year.

Jab We Met

Last but not the least, making it’s way to the top 10 was this love story from Imtiaz Ali. How much and in what way, the breakup of Shahid- Kareena affected the movie, is still to be worked out, but the movie managed to carved it’s niche at the box-office owing to the freshness and a superb performance from Kareena and Shahid.

Anees Bazmee, who gave us the rib-tickiling ‘No Entry’ has once again shown his expertise in dealing with comedy. Fun filled absurd incidents and lot of commotion, the film has funny sequences and promises loads and loads of fun.

The storyline deals with Uday Shetty [Nana Patekar], Majnu [Anil Kapoor] and their boss, Sikander [Feroz Khan], who are comical gangsters based in Hong Kong. They want to get Uday’s sister Sanjana [Katrina Kaif] married into a respectable family.

Rajiv [Akshay Kumar] accidentally meets Uday who in turn is quite impressed by Rajiv’s merit as Sanjana’s grrom. Meanwhile, Sanjana also happens to fall in love with Rajiv but is unaware of her brothers’ plans. Then there is Dr. Ghunghroo [Paresh Rawal], Rajiv’s uncle who supports the couple but decides to go against the marriage when he comes to know of Sanjana’s background. The commotion and confusion reaches it’s climax with the entry of a sexy bombshell [Mallika Sherawat] who claims to be Rajiv’s wedded wife.

The entry of the three gangsters sets the pace of the film and the film is definitely better in the first half which is packed with tickling intelligent one-liners. Mallika’s performance with Nana and Anil are really funny. The film successfully does justice to the beautiful locations of Dubai and South Africa.

However, the film seems to be losing it’s grip in the second half which has some repetitive jokes. Also, the music fails to come up to the mark.

2207 has undoubtedly established Akshay Kumar as the king of comedies, but for the first time this veteran actor seems to be overshadowed by other co-stars: Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor and last by not the least Paresh Rawal who are superb and brilliant in their roles. Though the female actors do not get much scope, Katrina Kaif manages to ooze freshness and appeal. In fact, in some places she seems to steal the show from Bollywood’s sex kitten Mallika Sherawat.

To sum up, the film’s well-planned advertisement strategy has created enough hype and also the festive mood of Christmas, has resulted in a remarkable and brilliant start at the ticket office, but the question is: Will ‘Welcome’ be able to reach up to the expectations of the ‘Junta Janaardhan’ and sustain it’s collections at the box-office? The ‘Welcome’ the film has got in the first week surely predicts that the film may be the last hit of the year 2007.

Jhoom Barabar Jhoom manages to do just that with its ensemble star cast exuding charisma and doing justice to its role. As usual the father-son jodi rocks and Akki Narula’s costumes do a great job in defining the personas of the characters. Amitabh appears part rakish and part funny in his knee-length boots and feathered hat. He carries off the costume with panache and delivers another cool performance… he carried off the dock worker’s uniform with panache as well in Deewar… all those years back.

The characters are well-etched and loud and they respond to some very different-sounding names; sample these Rikki Thukral, Steven Singh, Alvira Khan, etc. The film is based on those flimsiest of premises – boy meet girl but slick production values, good humor, and fantastic locales make this a must watch.