BackTen Indian anthology films
'X- Past Is Present' joined the short list of anthologies made in India. A list of 10 other anthology films
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New Delhi: Last week’s extremely experimental, collaborative feature film X- Past Is Present joined the short list of anthologies made in India. An anthology film is one feature film made up of several short films with an underlying theme running across all of them. Rarely watched and barely acknowledged, this is a genre that needs serious attention. Here are 10 other Indian anthology films.
1. Bombay Talkies (2013): A tribute to the 100th year of Indian cinema, Bombay Talkies was a highly-acclaimed anthology consisting of four short films directed by Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap. Despite the big names and some stellar performances, the film barely made ₹ 9 crore at the box office.
2. Love Sex Aur Dhokha (2010): Dibakar Banerjee came up with this path-breaking anthology film shot entirely with a hand-held camera. Incorporating lurid details on how the media sensationalizes content and feeds voyeuristic minds, the three-part movie was widely appreciated and made nearly ₹ 7 crore at the box office.
3. Mumbai Cutting (2010): The Sahara One and Whitecloud production comprised 11 different short films based on life in Mumbai, each helmed by different people. The list included Anurag Kashyap, Rahul Dholakia, Rituporno Ghosh and Revathy. Despite festival screenings, it remains commercially unreleased in India.
4. I Am (2010): Onir directed the very sensitive anthology film, each of whose four stories dealt with some thread of fear and subjugation. Crowdsourced through social platforms like Facebook, apart from Hindi, the film was released with subtitles in English, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali and Kashmiri but since it managed very few screens, it remained restricted in its reach.
5. Dus Kahaniyaan (2007): As the name suggests, the film was a collection of 10 short stories produced by Sanjay Gupta. Helmed by six different filmmakers, the plots dealt with everything from murder to religious bias. The film made about ₹ 4 crore at the box office.
6. Darna Mana Hai (2003): The Prawal Raman-directed film was a collection of six horror stories and was produced by Ram Gopal Varma. Boasting of names popular for the time such as Vivek Oberoi, Saif Ali Khan and Shilpa Shetty, it made about ₹ 2 crore at the box office.
7. Darna Zaroori Hai (2006): The sequel to Darna Mana Hai was co-produced by Satish Kaushik and Ram Gopal Varma and directed by six filmmakers apart from Varma. Despite featuring names like Amitabh Bachchan, Anil Kapoor and Bipasha Basu, the film barely made ₹ 3 crore at the box office.
8. Yuva (2004): The political drama directed by Mani Ratnam dealt with three entirely different stories but ultimately brought them together in a hyperlink format. A remake of Ratnam’s own Tamil film Aaytha Ezhuthu, the movie starred Ajay Devgn, Abhishek Bachchan, Vivek Oberoi, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor and Esha Deol and made ₹ 5 crore at the box office.
9. Kerala Café (2009): The Malayalam anthology film was directed by a team of 10 filmmakers, including Lal Jose, Shaji Kailas, Anwar Rasheed, Shyamaprasad and B. Unnikrishnan and was the first of its kind for the language. The movie revolving around various travellers’ impressions of Kerala as they pass by the café was an average grosser at the box office.
10. Vedam (2010): The Telugu language drama was directed by Krish and featured Allu Arjun, Manoj Kumar Manchu and Anushka Shetty. Falling into the hyperlink category, it received much acclaim and earned ₹ 25 crore at the box office, becoming one of rare Indian anthology films to have done well commercially.
All figures have been sourced from movie website Bollywood Hungama.
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