Top 20 Essential Bollywood Films

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This is a definitive list of the top Hindi / Bollywood films that occur in ALL three of these recent books about Bollywood films:

1) Bollywood: A Guidebook to Popular Hindi Cinema (Routledge Film Guidebooks), Tejaswini Ganti, 2004 ("amazon":http://www.amazon.com/Bollywood-Guidebook-Popular-Routledge-Guidebooks/dp/0415288541/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200172166&sr=8-1)

2) 100 Bollywood Films (Bfi Screen Guides), Rachel Dwyer, 2006 ("amazon":http://www.amazon.com/100-Bollywood-Films-Screen-Guides/dp/1844570991/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1200172337&sr=1-7)

3) The Essential Guide to Bollywood, Subhash K Jha, 2005 ("amazon":http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Guide-Bollywood-Subhash-Jha/dp/8174363785/ref=pd_sim_b_njs_title_1)

Each book has a different total list based on different criteria ("key", "essential") but the 20 films on this list are the ones that each writer has included. The list is in chronological order (as are two of the book lists.)

  1. 1.
    Awara - starring Raj Kapoor Nargis
    by Anyat Ullah Khan

    Drag me to re-order


  2. 2.
    Mother India
    by Mehboob Khan

    Drag me to re-order


  3. 3.
    Pyaasa

    Drag me to re-order


  4. 4.
    Mughal-E-Azam (2 Disc Set)
    by K. Asif

    Drag me to re-order


  5. 5.
    Gunga Jumna

    Drag me to re-order


  6. 6.
    ?
    The Guide
    by Vijay Anand

    Drag me to re-order


  7. 7.
    Aradhana

    Drag me to re-order


  8. 8.
    Pakeezah

    Drag me to re-order


  9. 9.
    Anand

    Drag me to re-order


  10. 10.
    Bobby (Rishi Kapoor)

    Drag me to re-order


  11. 11.
    Deewaar
    by Yash Chopra

    Drag me to re-order


  12. 12.
    Sholay

    Drag me to re-order


  13. 13.
    Amar Akbar Anthony

    Drag me to re-order


  14. 14.
    Arth

    Drag me to re-order


  15. 15.
    Parinda

    Drag me to re-order


  16. 16.
    Roja

    Drag me to re-order


  17. 17.
    Hum Aapke Hain Koun...!
    by Sooraj R. Barjatya

    Drag me to re-order


  18. 18.
    Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (Sub Dol)
    by Aditya Chopra

    Drag me to re-order


  19. 19.
    Satya
    by John Mathew Matthan

    Drag me to re-order


  20. 20.
    Lagaan - Once Upon a Time in India
    by Ashutosh Gowariker

    Drag me to re-order


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Created by wmrandth on Jan 12, 2008.
 

Comments

Untitled — 1 year ago

Of these i would recommend Pakeezah, Mughal-e-Azam, Pyaasa and Guide. I would also have included older classics Paper Flowers, Baiju Bawra and Sant Tukaram and Umrao Jaan (1981 version)