As always, my choices are in perfect sync with the ppl’s verdicts.  those who wanna know if i plan it that way, well no, its natural! most of the films in the countdown are blockbusters and biggest hits of the year with top 4 being atbbs. only at the bottom end are some superhits.

 

10. phool aur kaante – it was an action film that was desingned as a romance but action was so overpowering that the only image that comes to mind is ajay devgan riding two bikes, 21 years after the release of the film. if you straint your brain a lot the other image that surfaces  is a fight in the college bathroom.

9. wanted/zanjeer  these two films have something in common. not not the cop hero dumbo. but the fact that the emotional content in the films is at par with the action and that makes the audience feel for the characters. technology wise both films are seprated by 36 years of progress but the emotional core makes them really like kaante ki takkar.

8. hukumat/ghayal – both had very raw action but sometimes it begins to grate on your nerves. however a section of the audiences lapped up this mindless kind of action too as was later seen in jeet, ziddi and many other films.

7. karan arjun/rowdy rathore- karan aarjun was essentially a reincarnation saga but the action overwhelmed like phhol aur kaante. rowdy rathore is out and out action film and looks like akshay finally got it right after years of martial arts practice and dozens of action films.

6. tezaab – anil kapoor is the most unlikely action hero but then thats the victory of this film. not only he does action but manages to look convincingly angry, perhaps the biggest requirement in any action film that many ‘tae kwon do’  experts fail to understand.

5. bodyguard – there was hardly 3 action scenes in bodyguard. it was a poignant tale of love, sacrifice, separation and reunion. but the 3 action scenes that it had were so impactful that ppl call it an action film, whether to  run it down or to praise it to the skies. again when salman gets angry, he gets really angry and you can see it in his blazing eyes. so blazing that many forgot the longing for love and tears they just saw in the previous scene.

4. don- amitabh bachchan’s was the original hero whose anger used to be in the eyes, not the fists. in this film he was helped by a slick camera work and taut direction.

3. ghajini/gadar- both have what is the the biggest requirement of a great action film  an emotional core. no wonder both went on to become atbbs when they released and shook the nation into punching and kicking in the sofa seat of the multiplex as well as the foyer of the rat infested singlex. .

2. dabangg – content wins again. with just 4 action scenes dabangg achieved those heights becoz of the strong characterization, a taut script, an emotional core and a comic interpretation of the suppressed feelings of the teeming zillions. natija – second biggest action hit in bollywood history.

1 sholay – no film will ever be able to come to the level of sholay wen it comes to action. imagine the real action hero – dharmendra coupled with the angry young man – amitabh, the most imaginatively written villain in the history of bollywood – gabbar (amjad khan) and a superlative actor like sanjeev kumar who did not have to move a limb to convey anger. sholay was, is and will always be the greatest action film india has ever seen.