by Subhash K Jha

2005 was the year of careless whispers, cool capers, tragic ends and febrile starts, of MMS clippings catching Ashmit (who?) Patel and Riya (what!) Sen in come-promising positions. Kama-Sutra, here we come...

Big B Rules
If it was the year when Hindi cinema came of age, it was also the year when the nation held its collective breath for the recovery of the country's biggest mega-star Amitabh Bachchan when he was felled by ill health.

Profesionally this was an enormously rewarding year for Amitabh Bachchan. Both solo (Black, Waqt) and with his son (Bunty Aur Babli and Sarkar) the senior Bachchan rocked the box-office. Ironically when he fell ill in December trade pundits predicted a replay of the Coolie scenario in 1983 when after his near-fatal accident AB Sr's fans queued up to watch Manmohan Desai's potboiler.

This time they cold-shouldered Ek Ajnabee eventhough the man behind the myth was in the hospital.

What went wrong?
I think that's the question which the avalanche of avant-garde filmmakers must ask themselves...From Ruchi Narain's Kal and Hriday Shetty's Pyar Mein Twist, to Rohan Sippy's Bluff Master and Suparn Verma's Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena...the audiences thumbed down the weird and wacky....

Not that they favoured the conventional. The extravagantly formulistic Subhash Ghai period drama Kisna suffered the same fate as the ultra-cool flicks.

Drool, Baby, Drool
And what about the sleaze fests? Happily audiences reacted without violent repulsion to the tongue-lashing that Sonu Sood gave Neha Dhupia in Sheesha. Most of the cheesy moaning-shows-the-daze craze died down.

Viva La Classique
2005 was the year of vivacious variety at the boxoffice. It was the year of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black, Madhur Bhandarkar's Page 3 , Pradeep Sarkar's Parineeta and to a lesser extent Nagesh Kukunoor's Iqbal and Onirban's My Brother Nikhil.

Though Kukunoor's and Onirban's films weren't hits, they succeeded in breaking barriers between Bollywood's massy and arthouse genres. But it was Bhansali and Bhandarkar's films that spread a carpet of compelling emotions across the nation. These films made 2005 one of the most productive years in the history of Indian cinema.

The Potboiler Rules...Or Do They?
Comedies about a group of over-sexed men pining for female company had a l-o-n-g innings. Anees Bazmi's No Entry cracked the jolly genre as far as possible.... But by year-end the Garam Masala has begun to go cold.

Scandal Street
The Salman Khan tapes were used to kick off a newspaper in Mumbai. It kicked off a furore that involved more than just Salman or Aishwarya. Issues about the right to privacy kept raring their heads throughout the year.

Thanks to the rampancy and growing aggressiveness of the print and electronic medium cameras were planted at Leelavati hospital when Amitabh Bachchan fell ill...They stayed put when John Abraham joined the Bachchan in the hospital.

Cameras were planted to catch Shakti Kapoor trying to get a young journalist on the casting couch....Cameras again to the fore when an old video tape of Govinda hobnobbing with a gangster was thrown into public view. During the year of MMS and Operation Sting privacy became a dinosaur.

Karisma's troubled marriage made so much tv news you wondered if the media enjoyed the misery or the film footage of Karisma Kapoor that they got to air round the clock.

Other Scandals
Vijay Raaz was arrested in Dubai for drug possession. Producer Feroz Nadiadwala pulled strings to get him out.

Starlet Pretti Jaiin was accused of hiring gangsters to get rid of Madhur Bhandarkar....The industry decided to get rid of her.

Having systemtically committed professional hara-kiri she resurfaced at year-end in the real-life story of the bar-girl Tarannum where she co-stars with Aamir Khan's youngest brother...Moral Of This Murky Story : Get On The Dreaded Couch At Your Own Risk.

Protestors planted bombs in theatres showing the unfunny comedy Jo Bole So Nihal...didn't prevent the flick from bombing at the boxoffice.

Flop Flops & More Flops
Big banners floundered....Subhash Ghai brought Vivek Oberoi down with Kisna(which everyone thought was a mythological). Yashraj Films lost valuable face with Neal N' Nikki (which everyone thought was a clean candyfloss romance).

Aamir Khan's moustache twirled, Rani Mukherjee swirled, and the audience baulked in Ketan Mehta's Mangal Pandey: The Rising.

But The Bright Spots...
Vipul Shah delivered one of the first slammers of 2005. Waqt proved to be a far bigger moneyspinner than most predicted. Ram Gopal Varma gave his banner a much-need boost when the father-son Bachchan combined for Sarkar.

The Hot New Brigade
Abhishek, Saif and Priyanka Chopra emerged as the trio of new hope in 2005. They are flooded with offers. But none of the three is in a hurry. Picky and choosy, they'll outlast all the Fridays that fate has in store for them in 2005.

Newcomers
Vidya Balan in Parineeta, Randeep Hooda in D and Mohit Ahlawat in James made some impact. But the rest of the newcomers including the much-hyped Sneha Ullal in Lucky made no impact.... compelling producers to scurry back to the old reliables.

Honoured
Amol Palekar's Paheli was invited to the Oscars...Sandesh Shandilya's title song from Uuf ...Kya Jadoo Mohabbat Hai featured in international pianist Richard Clayderman's new album...

Asha Bhosle was nominated for a Grammy for her tribute to R.D. Burman with the US jazz band Kronos Quartet....And Mumtaz's daughter married Feroz Khan's son. Don't know who should feel more honoured.

Shaadi No.1
A month after cousins Zayed and Fardeen did David Dhawan's wed-and-soggy comedy about Shaadi and other shindigs they tied the knot in separate ceremonies. Vinta Nanda had a runaway marriage in Goa....Maddy became a daddy, Raveena became a mom, and so did Karisma.

And finally....The End
The industry lost a series of stalwarts... veteran filmmakers Subodh Mukherjee, Mohan Segal and Ramanand Sagar left us...So did Amrish Puri...Mogambi bilkul khush nahin hua! Our international ambassador Ismail Merchant passed away too..

But the saddest death was that of Parveen Babi. Lonely, desolate ill...she died friend-less. Now ex-lover Mahesh Bhatt plans to make film on her life with him. Every Mumtaz finally finds her Taj Mahal in Bollywood.