The Best Bollywood Action Films

Disclaimer- I admit to being inspired by the ‘Time Out List Of 100 Best Action Movies’ which was all about the cream of crop of action films from  Hollywood as well as the Japanese and Hong Kong film worlds. I have taken inspiration in terms of the format but everything else- the words and the opinion- are completely mine.

20- Tashan (2008)

Director- Vijay Krishna Acharya

The plot- Lots Of The Pharmoola, Served In The Ishtyle

Dishum-dishum moment- Akshay Kumar’s macho-cool yet meltingly warm Bachchan Pandey, transforming from Neo of ‘The Matrix’ to a raging chimp with machine guns in each hand, inside the battlements of an old Rajasthani fort.

It got virulent hatred at the time of its release- from both critics and the audiences- but somehow, all these years, this showy debut vehicle for Vijay Krishna Acharya, who had previously written the formula-happy ‘Dhoom’ movies, has enjoyed a sort of exclusive cult status among the moviegoers. The reason is pretty simple enough- despite its obvious flaws- the meandering storyline, the self-conscious seriousness and the self-indulgence- there is quite nothing like it when it comes to mainstream entertainment. 

The threadbare plot- of a femme fatale (Kareena Kapoor in sizzling, sensuous form) flying the coop with wads of cash and egging colorful and linguistically challenged gangster Bhaiyyaji (Anil Kapoor, part fun part frustratingly incoherent) to hire two unlikely bounty hunters (Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan) on her trail- has all the profundity of a Robert Rodriguez formula film but Acharya also seems to have the same’s visual chutzpah and the result is an evocatively shot, if eccentrically written and enacted, yarn that spans across immersive landscapes, blends 90’s style Bollywood hokum and Tarantino-style cheek with obvious relish and the quirky, silly yet always enjoyably comic book-like action delights in its own deliciously trashy way. The end result is not exactly the cream of crop of entertainment- parts stretch too much, especially a sentimentalized latter hour- and the jokes take a time to tickle but Akshay has never been better and there is plenty of whimsical eye-candy in offer in terms of action- from a cycle rickshaw chase in Varanasi’s streets set to an infectious qawwali to a car crashing over the cliff due to a tiff over the right music to play right down to a blowout finale where Acharya and action-director Peter Hein make Subhash-Ghai cheesiness and Rodriguez’s Western-genre parody look like kitschy art.

19- Agent Vinod (2012)

Director- Sriram Raghavan

The plot- Saif Ali Khan as a slick Indian 007 trotting the world’s hotspots, in hunt for, as a character from the film puts it, ‘both Ruby and Rubaiyat’

Dishum-dishum moment- The RAW Agent With No Name suddenly recognizes a former Lankan militant amidst a grand auction and fists of fury, in both present and flashbacks, ensue, set to the killer-tune of a Tamil dance number.

Yet another misunderstood action classic. Sriram Raghavan is clearly a master of firecracker caper action punctuated by references to his favorite movies and a killer background score as well and all of them come together in delicious servings in this breezy, brilliantly paced spy outing that never ever feels the need to be serious. The plot- of our own Indian James Bond, here as a cool-as-ice Saif Ali Khan, trying to find a nuclear bomb trigger hidden in a poetry book (yikes!) (and finding enough time to look into fellow-spook Ruby’s (Kareena Kapoor) troubled, exquisite eyes)- has all the logic and rationale of that of an early Bond film- think ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ or ‘You Only Live Twice’ and thankfully, Raghavan makes the entire thing equally tongue-in-cheek, sexy, smart and self-assured never to digress into weightier complexities, as well as crammed with deliciously nasty baddies (Aadil Hussain, Prem Chopra and Ram Kapoor make a mark). 

Nearly every setpiece in every single location is awesome- a drop-dead gorgeous prelude in Afghanistan, a botched assassination in Tangiers, a furious car-chase in Riga and a beautifully scored single-take shootout inside a hotel. Curiously, it is only when the film returns to the subcontinent- an underfleshed escape in Karachi and an underwhelming climax in Delhi- that it falls a bit flat. But till then, turn off your mind and enjoy.

18- Shootout At Lokhandwala (2007)

Director- Apoorva Lakhia

Plot- The name says it all- a little-known piece of historical cops and criminals standoff recast as a typical Bollywood saga

Dishum-dishum moment- The grand climactic eponymous confrontation- an action sequence so gloriously, unashamedly unhinged that it is like an adolescent’s blood-splattered wet dream come true.

Yes, it is full of flaws- the style overtakes any complexity or substance, the actors are all well-chosen but often stuffed with one-dimensional characters, the historical detail is dodgy and often fudged, which is a shame, in face of such meticulous, factual realism in another movie the same year (check my number 4) and the clichés and stereotypes begin to crowd the frames, diminishing the film’s honest attempts at grittiness. 

But this is all the scene until the grilled finale- when the cops come home with an arsenal of guns and the more brazen of them (essayed here by the action heroes of the nineties themselves- Suniel Shetty, Arbaaz Khan and Sanjay Dutt) enter the eponymous building to take on a really wild bunch of ruffians and all hell breaks loose. Recreating the little-publicized shootout between gangster Maya Dolas (played here with chilling supremacy by a never-better Viveik Oberoi) and clean-cut, though controversial, cop Aftab Khan (Dutt’s aging, crusty yet shifty inspector) in the early 90s Bombay, Lakhia’s usually ham-handed style pays off in spades when it comes to the frenetic bursts of action along with the slick, sepia-tinted cinematography. The street chases and the gory gangster brutality are compelling, as much as they are unsubtle, but it is the finale, erupting into flames and fists of fury that lends the flawed film its emotional weight. Plus, there is an inanely catchy song about someone named ‘Ganpat’ as well. Call it the ‘Braveheart’ of the Bombay gangster genre.

17- Ghulam (1998)

Director- Vikram Bhatt

Plot- ‘On The Waterfront’……recut as a saga of boxing, Bombay mafia and teary-eyed bimbettes.

Dishum-dishum moment- Aamir Khan runs in the face of a Bombay fast local train and then, a splitsecond before collision, leaps away- a stunt that will shame the likes of Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar

Looking back at it now, Vikram Bhatt’s only good outing, a compellingly gritty remake of Elia Kazan’s stately ‘On The Waterfront’, has a lot more to it than just Aamir Khan’s lurid choice of jeans and his first-ever playback song in which he asks a girl if she will accompany him to, of all places, Khandala. The Bombay flavor is also captured pretty authentically in a mainstream film like this (which has Khan and Rani Mukerji getting hot and bothered in a muscular bike)- with the action relocated from the waterfront to the grimy ghettoes, while the boxing scenes and the brother-as-manager angle are transplanted rather slickly into the screen. Also, the casting is pretty solid and strategic- Sharat Saxena might not be the most effective actor around but he is a riot as the beefed-up and nasty Ronnie Singh, running a vicious racket of match-fixing and hammering the people around him, armed with a devilish smile. 

Most of all, the film is incredibly memorable for Khan himself- in a fiercely passionate performance, after the scene-stealing turn in RGV’s ‘Rangeela’. As the plucky and furious Siddhu, who bludgeons his way through the law as well as the domineering force of Ronnie, Khan’s free-wheeling drifter is a mix of Nicholson-style edginess with the masculine charm that Brando brought in the original and his fury in the frenetic ‘local train scene’ as well as the final bloody fistfight indicated that this actor was now game for bigger things in future.

16- Mission Kashmir (2000)

Director- Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Plot- The penultimate story of good versus evil- symbolized here by a young wannabe terrorist and the idealistic cop who once raised him- against the backdrop of Paradise on Earth.

Dishum-dishum moment- The dashing entry of Altaf (Hrithik Roshan) landing like a wild angel through the roof- the official arrival of hi-tech action choreography in Bollywood

It is actually a pity how little do we see of Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the angry young director of the 80s in today’s times. His directorial outings are too distanced from each other; his latest- a rerun of a past masterpiece (see number 3)- was a Hollywood project that bombed and his last Hindi outing- the elaborate but emotionally unengaging ‘Eklavya’ boasted only technical prowess (and even almost made the list). But this 2000 slick Bollywood drama sits somewhere between the greatness of the heyday and the slackness of the present. 

It is unashamedly mainstream and unsubtle in its values- it often nails its head villain (played by Jackie Shroff with typical ham-handed recklessness) and his cronies as stereotypes, Roshan’s torn rookie terrorist Altaf merely screams when asked to essay pain and agony and the elaborately-staged song and melodrama scenes often undermine the pace. But ‘Mission Kashmir’ also does what it has to do- absolutely rock as an action film, clear and simple. It is superbly shot (by Chopra regular Binod Pradhan), makes the spectacular explosions and gun-fights of the hell-fire climax look particularly sobering and thrilling and it also brought the whole art of slow-motion takes, thundering background score and expertly executed wire-stunts into Bollywood, which would then be abused a lot.

15- Nayak- The Real Hero (2001)

Director- Shankar

The plot- A simple, honest and lovelorn (!) reporter becomes the CM of Maharashtra for one day and all hell breaks loose- for good.

Dishum-dishum moment- The normally meek Anil Kapoor jumps into a pool of muck and transforms, within moments, into an avenging creature of the night.

Granted, there is much to bash about in Shankar’s Hindi version of his Tamil hit ‘Gentleman’. The entire premise- of dedicated reporter Shivaji (Kapoor, self-assured and subtle) challenged by the alleged corrupt Chief Minister of Maharashtra (a devilish Amrish Puri in top, campy villain form) to wear his sandals and homespun for 24 hours, who goes on changing the status quo by a shockingly simple solution (‘Sabko suspend karne ke liye!’)- is one that is ripe for political satire and not full-blown Bollywood masala but the film starts taking itself too seriously- further stretching the gag into a total plot- and suddenly, all pretensions of satire are chucked out. 

But, hey, this was one of those gloriously silly and inexhaustibly entertaining films- a celebration of daftness of the highest order and there is no better evidence of it than in its super-charged and overblown action scenes- including the above-mentioned knockout scene with a pair of chains and derelict cars- and the fact that it all looks and sounds (firecracker dialogue by Anurag Kashyap, no less) too tongue-in-cheek to resist. AIB even made a spoof of Arvind Kejriwal, using this film as the source for its barbed mockery.

14- Ghajini (2008)

Director- A R Murugadoss

Plot- Christopher Nolan’s ‘Memento’….recycled into a typical Bollywood action film.

Dishum-dishum moment- Aamir Khan’s perennially angry avenging lover stabs a goon with….a bathroom tap….and forgets everything about it….

Suppose that Christopher Nolan had made ‘Memento’ not as a spare and spine-chilling psycho-thriller but as a hardcore action film like his work on the ‘Batman’ series. Suppose Leonard Shelby was not Guy Pierce playing a lean, shifty and enigmatic man but rather Arnold Schwarzenegger’s beefcake given an insane bald haircut (that became so popular!) as well as a pair of excited, flappy and distinct ears. And suppose that the film proceeded on the straightforward track instead of going back and fro as it originally did. You might still not be able to get right the amount of Bollywood schmaltz that Murugadoss packed in his Bollywood remake of his Tamil remake of Nolan’s greatest film. Also thrown in are Asin’s screechy and self-sympathetic heroine, a bunch of great but misplaced songs by the great A.R Rahman and an overlong running time (cue needless supporting characters and overlong, nonsensical flashbacks). 

But despite it all, there is no denying the film’s thrust of action- furious, a tad gritty, a touch of emotionally wrenching and delivered with panache. For once more, action director Peter Hein orchestrates incredible fists of fury soaked in both adrenalin and blood-thirsty anger while Resul Pookutty’s edgy sound and Ravi K Chandran’s visuals lend both immediacy and emotional wallop. And Aamir Khan, lending both demented brawn and a delicious subtlety to his character, proved that here was a mainstream action hero with brains as well.

13- Mr. India (1987)

Director- Shekhar Kapur

Plot- ‘The Invisible Man’ versus the supervillain who always needs to be ‘satisfied’. End of story.

Dishum-dishum moment- The final standoff between Mr. India and Mogambo- a pulse-pounding climax bathed in red light, lots of smoke and missiles poised to destroy dear India. Whoa!

There are some cast-iron reasons as to why Amrish Puri was so, so terrific when given both black and grey shades to sport. To begin with, those famous devilish eyes with their majestically curled brows and that booming voice was enough to send shivers down the spine, even when he was not completely evil. And more crucially, he always embodied a sort of twisted father figure to the very heroes he fought and to someone or the other in the film. So, from the maniacal Mola Ram in Spielberg’s ‘Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom’ to the warm yet strict patriarch in the classic ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge’ , his presence was always overwhelmingly large and awesome- it was never just villainy- it also elicited awe and respect. And he never really killed it better than as Mogambo- the gold-wig sporting, Sgt. Peppers jacket clad kingpin whose ethnic origins could either be British or Nordic Aryan (his henchmen even salute him by raising their right hands) and who should always be made ‘happy’. 

Pitted against him is the very definition of an everyguy in the movies- Anil Kapoor’s effortlessly charming Arun, who is given both a clutch of cute orphans and a wonderful armband to handle and it is the latter that turns him visible and a sort of vigilante against Mogambo’s minions who do all sorts of rough stuff. It’s classic hero vs villain stuff, a touch unspectacular by today’s standards but its grand finale- of the two men confronting each other, of the everyguy standing up to his father-like nemesis who demands total obeisance- was best summed up by Salman Rushdie in his compelling ‘The Moor’s Last Sigh’ as the ‘life-and-death oppositions of many movie fathers and sons’. Kapur nailed the scene with suitably grand fireworks and imaginative effects that would still shame the likes of Rakesh Roshan.

12- Aks (2001)

Director- Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Plot- Cop kills terrorist….the latter’s spirit enters the former and the stage is set for a maniacal Amitabh Bachchan enjoying the spoils.

Dishum-dishum moment- The explosive jungle fever chase ending with a perfectly executed waterfall jump

If one was to point the most obvious weakness in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s directorial style, it would be the obvious way in which he resorts to facile metaphors and personifications to make his arguments- it is all strewn over his disastrous ‘Delhi 6’- a film which soaks its political and social commentary in all sorts of illogical and far-fetched metaphors- including, of all things, a fabled black monkey and even a pigeon (!) and it is also present a bit in his superior urban patriot yarn ‘Rang De Basanti’- notably in the scene where a flaming Raavan effigy falls over a team of English cops rounding on Aamir Khan’s Chandrashekhar Azad. But it is only in his little-seen yet highly effective and well-crafted debut that the metaphors actually add the zing- with Manoj Bajpai’s slithery, psychotic terrorist quoting a line from the Bhagwad Gita as he commits a spree of spine-chilling murders- imagine ‘The Joker’ quoting The Holy Bible. 

The metaphor part aside- ‘Aks’ is nevertheless a great example of Bollywood formula given a very unconventional touch. It is also the finest example of psycho-thriller action in Bollywood and its thundering, bizarre set-pieces do pack a punch- the frenetic chase in the jungle ending with a stunner of a free-fall in a waterfall gushing from a cave as well as the gripping interlude in Budapest deliver both thrills and spills. And yes, Bajpai’s wavy locks and Bachchan’s furious French-beard still look slick today.

11- Ab Tak Chappan (2004)

Director- Shimit Amin

Plot- A world-weary encounter specialist has to figure out who is hell-bent on bumping him off.

Dishum-dishum moment- Nana Patekar’s worn-out yet combustible Sadhu Agashe hides a shard of broken glass up his sleeve and uses it to get his revenge.

It is rather incredible how, like Michael Mann, Shimit Amin can squeeze crackling, sudorific tension out of the most unlikely situations. So, be it a finale in which everything rests completely on how quick your reflexes are in defending a hockey goal (‘Chak De! India’) or in a particularly uncomfortable moment when you stand up to the boss who always thought you to be a loser (‘Rocket Singh- Salesman Of The Year), the mood for Amin will always be terse, brisk and it is only when it ends that you actually feel the relief of release. This kind of taut style fits a textbook cop and criminal thriller like ‘Ab Tak Chappan’ by default but there is also something emotionally sobering about how the film handles its cold, clinical brutality. 

As Agashe (a fiery and charismatic Patekar in top form) and his crack-team of fellow encounter killers take down targets in the gullies and chawls of a messy, blood-splattered Bombay in the first half, the mood never lets up but it is in the second half- with a grittily executed surprise cold-blooded murder and the subsequent dark-edged blood-spurts- where the film finds its true sober rhythm and strikes darkly at the vein. It is in every sense a compelling action thriller- the kind of gritty potboiler that would later, possibly, inspire the likes of Anurag Kashyap and Rajkumar Gupta.

10- Mughal-E-Azam (1960- Original and 2004- Colored re-release)

Director- K. Asif

Dishum-dishum moment- The just emperor yet autocratic father faces his belligerent son in the midst of the raging battlefield.

You can name almost any amount of reasons as to why Bollywood’s only perfect effort at the historical epic genre is considered so much in high praise even as it might look dated to some. To begin with, like some of the films to pop up in the list ahead, it influenced a whole culture of moviegoers and it would be forever that rivalry of father and son would be identified as the clash between Salim and Akbar and forbidden love would always be fondly, candidly described as one involving an ‘Anarkali’ who would be inevitably chained behind a layer of masonry. 

Regardless of the gimmickry (even today entire dialogues are lampooned), Asif’s (and arguably Bollywood’s)only magnum opus has plenty of narrative weight (by blending mythical romance with a cast of real-life characters from textbooks), towering acting (Dilip Kumar as a self-assured, determined Salim and Prithiviraj Kapoor as the mercurial yet surprisingly affectionate Akbar are historical portrayals that still need to be bettered), truly monumental sequences (love set to the tune of Tansen’s insistent melodies, the court sculptor cheering Salim’s courage moments before the latter’s execution, the final coup de grace and the still-stunning ‘Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya’ ballad set inside an eye-scorching palace made of mirrors) and truly impressive battle sequences with sand and dust  literally flung at the viewers. With its Technicolor glory rightfully restored in its colored re-release in 2004, this will always be the epic to beat (take that, Ashutosh Gowariker)

9- Aamir (2008)

Director- Rajkumar Gupta

Plot- A man lands at an airport, is handed a phone and told to do terrible things, lest his family faces the same fate.

Dishum-dishum moment- A cop looks suspiciously at Aamir (Rajeev Khandelwal) after the latter finishes a not-too-innocent call and a chase of nerve-racking paranoia follows through the gullies of a hot and hostile Dongri.

After the initial fanfare for this low-budget and supremely effective debut outing from Gupta, some viewers and critics pointed out how the film, beneath all its authentically gritty street flavor, is little else than a vigilante formula given a typically slick presentation. And then, there were the similarities with the Filipino thriller ‘Cavite’. 

But on its own, ‘Aamir’ is pretty solid as a thriller- its thrillingly-captured Muslim ghettoes of Maximum City serve as a stirring, spectacular backdrop to a simple plot that deals with a fine day gone wrong and then tackles themes of communalism in the simplest way possible. Aamir, an otherwise cultivated doctor, is robbed of his luggage and handed a phone and called up periodically by a menacing operator, seen only in shadows, and told to shuttle from here and there and carry a red bag to a destination. In the way, the city’s traffic is a hindrance and pretty much everyone is spying on the unlikely puppet trying to figure out the strings. Even as it turns obvious by the end, you will be more than hooked by the frenetic street chases and unrelenting paranoia (shot terrifically by Alfonse Roy and set to Amit Trivedi’s breakout score) and Khandelwal’s searingly honest debut.

8- Deewar (1975)

Director- Yash Chopra

Plot- Do you really need to know about it? Of course, you are not confusing it with a film of the same name starring the same famous man.

Dishum-dishum moment- The ‘Daddy-Long-Legs’ of an action hero gives a nasty little surprise to the goons who are looking out exclusively for him inside a grimy warehouse.

Can there be a more genre-defining film like ‘Deewar’(excepting the top three of the list, that is)? Even today, we find faint echoes of Chopra’s well-entrenched soap-operatic tropes and the blazing quotability and power of Salim-Javed’s writing in every single attempt at the retro-masala potboiler. And can there be a more efficient and overwhelmingly heroic action hero than Amitabh Bachchan himself? The answer to the question will always remain a firm and resolute ‘No’. 

Like ‘Shree 420’, the lovers of ‘Deewar’ would go beyond the formula on the top and perceive it as a prophetic picture of capitalism in India’s sole big-minded metropolis but that is in many ways detracting from the basic pleasures of the film- this is Chopra at his sensational- crafting entire sequences of raw emotional power and melodrama without a hiccup, letting the famous one-liners explode between the warring brothers- the determined and ruthless yet torn Vijay (Bachchan) and the righteous cop Ravi (Shashi Kapoor) who may not have anything but has a mother in the suitably teary-eyed Nirupa Roy and letting up a storm of truly iconic action scenes- including of course the scene in the warehouse and a bloody climax at the temple. To quote Vijay, ‘Khush toh bahut hoge tum’ after watching it all over again.

7- Johnny Gaddar (2007)

Director- Sriram Raghavan

Plot- A rookie member of a crooked gang decides to fly the coop with some cash and earns a nickname inspired by a famous Bollywood caper.

Dishum-dishum moment- A near-botched murder attempt on a train in the night- with a napkin of chloroform and lust for money.

It is pleasantly surprising that a caper that boldly and cockily doffs its hat to almost every classic caper in the past should emerge itself as such a rollicking ride, driven as a sleek vehicle geared up by a cool, cool retro soundtrack (Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy having a blast) and sly performances and saucy murders to match the overall seventies feel to a modern story. 

Once the film gets rolling and wheeling, with five crooks (played by the likes of veteran action hero Dharmendra and character actors Vinay Pathak and Zakir Hussain) deciding to raise some illegal cash to buy some contraband, the film turns into a crackling whodunit- even as the traitor, an effete Vikram (Neil Nitin Mukesh), is revealed pretty early on. As he goes around, pocketing the cash in a split-second, stealthy standoff in the train and then bumping everyone else who does not even suspect him, the film emerges as a deliciously morbid picture of part-funny, part-mercurial men driven not by loyalty but by self-centered interest. It is Raghavan’s deliberate streak of pitch-black comedy and frequent Bollywood and James Hadley Chase referencing that makes the sudden, shocking and suspenseful scenes of murder and treachery so much terrific fun.

6- Sarfarosh (1999)

Director- John Matthew Matthan

Plot- Bollywood’s first decent attempt at a serious spy thriller- about cross-border gun smuggling, pulpy patriotism and a cop who can even quote poetry and fall in love.

Dishum-dishum moment- A slow-burn stakeout at a roadside dhaba in the middle of the night and a white-knuckle foot-chase in crowded Colaba.

The likes of ‘Baazi’, ‘Rangeela’ and ‘Ghulaam’ might have rescued Aamir Khan from the ridiculous roles handed out to a talent like him (though there was still the occasional disaster- ‘Mann’ and ‘Mela’). But it is mainly Matthan’s slick and fast entertainer that really put him up in the crew of great actors who would then go on to chew up the frames with every subsequent outing. 

Our big-eared chocolate boy hero plays Ajay, a hot-shot cop who landed the job thanks to a bunch of over-sympathetic superiors who felt bad for little sonny when his righteous dad (Akash Khurana) is left paralyzed by a nasty gang of terrorists. Somewhere between commanding a crack team of diligent enforcers and leading them to a gun-smuggling racket spanning India and Pakistan, he also finds time to think of waterfall kisses with a simpering Sonali Bendre and vociferously laud the poetry of the mysterious yet charming Gulfam (Naseeruddin Shah, in top form). 

The obvious mainstream clichés not withstanding, this is a little triumph of entertainment- devoting arduous plot time to the clean-cut thrust of Ajay and his men investigating clues, nabbing suspects in a series of deftly executed combat scenes and it all culminates edgily inside an embattled stronghold with terrific panache. It is then a pity how little we saw of Matthan in the subsequent times- don’t even ask about his 2005 dampener ‘Shikhar’- which was ‘Wall Street’ given a formulaic treatment.

5- Kaminey (2009)

Director- Vishal Bhardwaj

Plot- Two twins- one lisps, the other slips-totally crazy goons, a guitar with powder and a conch with diamonds and literal chaos.

Dishum-dishum moment- The messy, dirty mayhem of the climax with guns raging in the ghettoes and the blood diamonds earning their name well.

Composer-cum-filmmaker-extraordinaire Vishal Bhardwaj has always lifted mere violence to new levels of sophisticated artistry- be it Langda Tyagi’s rusty carabine or the Kalashnikov-toting grave diggers taking down an army in a snow-buried cemetery. But with his 2009 blistering Bollywood drama fitted like a ‘City Of God’-meets-‘Pulp Fiction’ gangster thriller, he got a full-fledged chance to experiment with the very pulpy ingredient of action and the results are nothing less of breathtakingly breakneck and dazzlingly bold. Armed with Tassaduq Hussain (the man who shot ‘Omkara’), the wily director decided to leave the leisurely, Sergio-Leone-style idyll behind and went all fast and furious for the film’s visual canvas- the end result is a rain-soaked, bloody, muddy and grimy backdrop against which the fast and relentless violence is played out ruthlessly and expertly. 

So, when the determined ruffian Charlie (Shahid Kapoor in one of his twin turbulent performances) chases a traitor down the slippery and glistening nooks and crannies of Bombay’s Cotton Green station or when a simple drug-deal turns from funnily bloody to frenetic within moments inside a hotel and all the while the background score races along with the staccato images, you can’t help but feel that you are riding a fast Bombay local without brakes and headed for obvious collision. The terrifically twisted storyline- uniting enstranged twins Charlie and Guddu against a seemingly whole army of delicious baddies (Amole Gupte as the cocky nativist politician Bhope Bhau steals the show as does Chandan Roy Sanyal as the demented Mikhail)- the totally unpredictable verbal fireworks and the emotional undertow and graphic deaths add to the menace. Now that is what one would call darn dangerous. And a hell of a time, too. ‘Dhan Te Nan’!

4- Black Friday (2007)

Director- Anurag Kashyap

Plot- The true story of the Bombay 1993 bomb blasts and a lot, lot more than just that….

Dishum-dishum moment- A sweaty, exhausting, exhilarating foot chase down the filthy alleys of Bombay’s sordid slums, with the somber background music giving way to a classic Bollywood one-liner from the yesteryears.

Most of Bollywood’s attempts to shine a light into the dark crevices of recent history are fraught with faked names, changed identities, glorified parts and a timid sort of hesitation to make a scandalous statement. None of that is the case with Kashyap’s loaded bomb of a film- an early triumph that made viewers and critics sit up and take view of the man who would then release a whole assortment of incendiary devices, all lit to go boom. Not only does ‘Black Friday’ stick admirably well to its equally provocative source- S. Hussain Zaidi’s page-turning, compelling non-fiction book- by depicting, in stark honesty, first the senseless destruction by the blasts and then the shocking inquest and the political and criminal background to the tumultuous events. 

It also goes a stretch further, amping up the horror of the blasts, the grim brutality of the arrests and the tortures, the sweaty dread of the interrogations and the ultimate gut-wrenching impact of the distorted, sprawling truth that is eventually wriggled out. Armed with cinematographer N. Natraja Subramanium’s gritty, neon, blood and mud soaked visuals of a Bombay reeling under a maelstrom of communal riots, devastating terrorism and police brutality, this is nothing less than a conspiracy thriller of the highest order- as Kashyap beautifully and brashly mixes sound and image to stun, to shock, to force into submission and mostly to show the messy, bloody truth at the heart of it all. 

The acting, too, is fantastic- Kay Kay Menon as an upright yet tough Rakesh Maria is matched and surpassed only by Pavan Malhotra as the vicious Tiger Memon and the clean-cut, urgent and crackling action- the afore-mentioned street-chase which would beat even the opening pursuit of ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ for sheer, blistering energy and the truly horrific and tense blast scenes themselves- tug you into the heart of the chaos but it is when Kashyap navigates the intimately personal strands in the expertly paced latter half that the film achieves utmost perfection.

3- Parinda (1989)

Director- Vidhu Vinod Chopra

Plot- To avenge the loss of innocence, Anil Kapoor’s Karan joins his brother’s gang to take them down all.

Dishum-dishum moment- A peaceful, friendly rendezvous near Gateway of India turns, gruesomely, into a spurt of blood and a furious flight of pigeons, setting the unforgettably brutal tenor of the film to follow.

In many cases in this list (‘Ghulam’, ‘Ghajini’, ‘Mission Kashmir’, ‘Sarfarosh’), the brutal thrust of action has been seriously, and distractingly, undermined by the more formulaic proceedings in the plots. This is clearly not the case with Chopra’s greatest, grittiest film- ‘Parinda’ is that rare example of a grown-up, intelligent and well-crafted Bollywood drama in which the mainstream elements- the lovely, lovely ‘Tumse Milke Aisa Laga’ ballad or the oh-so-sweet bromance in the beginning- come as the perfect foil to the blistering darkness elsewhere in the film. Storywise, this is too Bollywood revenge- pure and simple- as Karan (Anil Kapoor) decides to avenge the cold-blooded (and undoubtedly iconic) murder of cop-friend Prakash (Anupam Kher) by joining alongside his henchman brother Kishen (Jackie Shroff) in the gang of the seemingly invincible kingpin Anna ( a stunning Nana Patekar) and them bumping everyone off. 

But Chopra also proved that smaller and more minute detailing mattered as much as the dramatic thrust of the main storyline- so this is also about Anna’s secret, hideous fear- of fire- which erupts at the most unexpected places in the film and lends the already growingly dark film its spine-chilling aspect. Let’s not forget of course the stellar supporting cast- Suresh Oberoi’s flute-playing suavely dressed killer Abdul, screenwriter Shiv Subramanium as the oily and sinister Francis and some other great turns- and the continuous streak of vengeful anger and brutality that marks every single stunning frame shot by Binod Pradhan and edited by Renu Saluja with razor-sharp precision. 

But the ultimate hero of it all is Chopra- crafting a Bombay gangster drama like a livewire Hitchcock thriller- blending menacing visuals with an assortment of thumping sounds and effects to create an atmosphere of unrelenting dread. Like all great films, the smaller stunning bits- the aforementioned shootout in broad daylight, a dinner rendezvous turning unbearably tense and then bloody (in a nice twist on the scene from ‘The Godfather’) and more- are all used along with the remarkable tension for the film’s final upsurge of violence and insanity- an epilogue that needs to be seen to be believed.

2- Sholay (1975)

Director- Ramesh Sippy

Plot- ‘The Magnificent Seven’ meets ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’ meets Salim-Javed and instant history is created.

Dishum-dishum moment- Many iconic moments to choose from, but the opening howler of a setpiece- with a coal train and horsemen on the horizon- beats nearly everything that Bollywood has manufactured in full-blown action.

Its 40 years since it first wowed the audiences and accordingly set a whole new fervor among the cinegoers and went on to be an indispensable part of Hindi movie culture but Ramesh Sippy’s sole, rugged magnum opus (and not surprisingly India’s only true Western yarn) is still the action-packed blockbuster that it was back in the seventies. In many ways, it is representative of the ubiquitous clash between the growing arthouse scene of Gulzar, Benegal and Sathyu and the mainstream masala of Chopra, Sippy and Prakash Mehra. 

But ‘Sholay’ is more than just Bollywood masala superbly executed- it is more than just a retread of ‘The Magnificent Seven’ in its story of bandits raiding a village and defeated by mercenary heroes, it also borrows a crucial massacre scene from ‘Once Upon A Time In The West’ and rips pretty much the entire style of the Western genre. In its own way, it is still a film of towering, fiery achievement- delivering solidly on unforgettable characterizations- a winning combination of heroic (Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra striking up a fine rapport), dramatic (Sanjeev Kumar’s amputated cop-turned-vengeful Thakur may be gimmicky but also raw and powerful), hilarious (Asrani doing a fabulous charade on Charlie Chaplin in ‘The Great Dictator’ as jailer from British times) and most memorably villainous (do we even need to talk of the most famous dacoit in Bollywood history?). 

It also talks quite a bit about the plight of the forlorn villagers, it gave us a whole horde of narrative treasure which could be both quoted verbatim and even joked about and it also gave us a series of finest action scenes ever filmed- those gun-shots, explosions and marvelous rugged images (by Dwarka Diwecha) still pack a punch.

1    

 1                    

1        1- Gangs Of Wasseypur- Parts 1 and 2 (2012)

          Director- Anurag Kashyap

Plot- Revenge begets revenge begets revenge, all served with style, substance and (tortured) soul in a hinterland that would become the coolest destination in rural India.

Dishum-dishum moment- A stealthy, slinky stabbing in the gullies and a fiery, guns blazing raid on a citadel-like house.

So, finally, we arrive at Numero Uno- the finest action film that Bollywood has produced- the film that really made bloodshed, bullets, brawn and brains a form of art and carried with it to new levels of sophistication. But then Anurag Kashyap’s double-bill film did not have any high-stakes stunts, fancy locations, or even brawny heroes. Nor does it have bimbettes and nor does it have gadgets or vehicles or even luxury.

It doesn’t matter. For Kashyap’s film- wrap the two together and you get a solid chunk of cinema- did not just pack in guns, gore and glory but it also rooted it wonderfully into its dirty, filthy, coarse, profane yet vivid world- so much that the punches are authentically primitive and crude and cruel, the punchlines cruder, crueler and even more deadly than them are the thuggish men who wield them.

Also, this is a cinematic triumph that embraced action and violence in all its different forms, as captured so effectively by Bollywood and Hollywood alike- it could be grotesque and gruesome (people are chopped up, diced, sliced, beheaded, stabbed, exploded and blood splashes across the frames like it is an element of this world itself, along with dusty earth and muddy water), it could also be lethally, infectiously hilarious (both daring gunslingers and cocky wannabes could find themselves in a soup with misfiring guns and petty squabbles), emotionally draining (a mother collapses at the sight of her son’s decapitated head, while an angry man, soiled with coal and clay, stones a fellow mine worker to death as to exact revenge ), supremely epic (improvised bombs rained during the chaotic and bloody Moharram rites and a blood-spurting finale that matches Brian De Palma’s shootout in his ‘Scarface’) and much, much more.

Kashyap seems to be born to make a film like this. It reflects so much of his taste in movies- it is relentlessly nihilistic like Peckinpah, unashamedly indulgent like Prakash Mehra, it borrows a gruesome murder from ‘The Godfather’ and gives its own snazzy twist and like Scorsese, it makes violence and violent people stylish and glorifies them without a shred of guilt. And there is also his voice- strident, ambitious and aggressive, yet mesmeric, elegiac and yet never dull- blending both reference and his own cocky, fast and frenetic and visually spectacular and spicy directorial style into full-flow, while not compromising admirably on emotion and substance. And even the actors pack their parts with the right amount of dynamite- Manoj Bajpai, Nawazzudin Siddiqui, Huma Qureshi, Tigmanshu Dhulia and, most importantly, the brilliant, brilliant Richa Chadha as the biggest bomb in the crew. It is done then- this is the action movie and even the Bollywood movie to beat. ‘Bata dijiyega sab ko’.