37 great shots from Indian cinema

Lists — because we have a complicated relationship with them and we made them back in 2015. This is a list of 37 shots that have stolen our entire souls — in fact swallowed them whole. Compiled by myself, Jenson Joseph and Nithin Manayath. To be noted without Nithin we had a well-balanced list of both men and women, and then it was all about women.

These are singular shots, sometimes in brilliant and sometimes in terrible movies, mostly beautiful sometimes funny and cheeky.

1. A man lost in love is a man floating in a sea of femininity… From Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji song sequence in Ishqiya.

2. Jaanbaz. Super smoky Sridevi on the beach or she is the beach or the beach is sliding over her or no.. the clouds are sliding over and around her, just like Feroze Khan wishes he was doing. And a lovely song — Har Kissi Ko Nahi Milta Yahaan Pyar..

3. The poet wins all. From the song Ye Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaaye Tho Kya Hei in Guru Dutt’s Pyasa.

4. From Thalapathi. Subbulakshmi (Shobhana), sitting in a bus, sees Surya (Rajinikanth) beating up the corrupt cop in full public view. The star as a fascinating yet frightening figure for the middle class viewer was negotiated, among other things in the film, through Subbulakshmi’s romantic love for Surya.

5. Aadu Thoma — Mohanlal’s character in Sphadikam — waiting outside a small town theatre playing Thalapathi. Thoma is an affable rogue in town, who has taken a liking to bashing up corrupt policemen ruthlessly; here, he is waiting for the circle inspector, who has harassed his sister to intimidate him. As the policeman arrives in the uniform, Thoma pushes him inside the theatre and beats him up, while the scene of Surya/Rajinikanth beating up the policeman plays in the backdrop on the screen. Sphadikam was a turning point in Mohanlal’s stardom, with many critics holding the actor responsible for the advent of Rajini-style mass cinema in Malayalam.

6. Two shots from Haider — a film replete with long wide shots and high angle shots. It has Tabu looking like that, this list could actually just be about her but trying not to be monomaniacal here. And the mournful wail-song of the old Kashmiri men in the graveyard — aaaaayoo na.

7. It is entirely blasphemous to take a spectacular Rajnikanth film (its too hard — maybe the one with the cigar or his shirtless action sequence but he’s a gif man maybe not a man to be caught in a singular shot) but here is Ramya Krishnan with a machine gun from Padayappa.

8. The Mexican standoff in Aurangazeb:

Everyone take out a gun .. NOW!

9. From Sins (2005)

Shiny Ahuja as a priest prone to lust was perfect casting and this shot through a curiously placed lamp is too.

10. From Lucia:

Lucia is a film that raised its funds by crowdsourcing and comes from our very own Bangalore, Karnataka. And very proudly we ask is this our only hallucinogenic film? Here is a great shot of the hero collapsed somewhere between his confusing and spinning multiple realities.

11. From the unbeatable John Abraham’s film Amma Ariyan: A man, his mother and an incomplete journey or a journey that ended up somewhere different from where it began.

12. Cloud Door, Mani Kaul

Packed with many shots, like all Mani Kaul’s films, but this is one of the most memorable and it even mirrors a similar moment when Anu Agarwal’s belly enters the screen first followed by the rest of her in the song Chandralekha in Thiruda Thiruda (Tamil)

13. Fandry, directed by Nagaraj Manjule : a tale of defiance and coming of age of a Dalit boy in Ahmednagar in Maharashtra. There is this moment when he is looking longingly at his object of love and he is framed paternally by Savitribai Phule and Ambedkar. The most spectacular shot in Fandry is the last shot but that would be a spoiler.

14. An Indian washing a baby — made in 1906 is misnamed. It is actually also a massage and not just washing, just as the 1899 film of the ghats of Benares is misnamed Panorama of Calcutta.

15. Chameli ki Shaadi

Young love has never looked so young. This is the moment when Anil Kapoor and Amrita Singh in Chameli ki Shaadi are running away from their families to get married — in their own fantasies it is on a galloping horse through pristine and bright greenery and they are both dressed in wedding finery. But its night and its just a cycle and its most ordinary .. yet the sweet elopement is so memorable that you imagine all of the rest along with them.

16. Insaaf ka Tarazu: this shot is an academic’s dream. The defiant woman-victim in a chaste sari standing in a witness stand while a soft focus judge and an off-balance policeman look on.

17. Sathyan, Sheela, Prem Nazir — three super stars of Malayalam cinema — in the climax of the 1971 film Anubhavangal Palichakal , as Sathyan’s martyr character is being taken in a police van to the gallows. (Incidentally, the film was released just after Sathyan passed away)

18. Charlie chasing his dream in Kaminey

Briefly his stretched belly button raised concern but still.. as shots of dream sequences go, it couldn’t get any better. Also note his mane. Today we would replace him with Ranveer Singh in a heartbeat, even Randeep Hooda but its okay — let it be.

19. A still from Bhargavinilayam (1964) — a popular ghost film from Malayalam starring Madhu and Vijaya Nirmala (seen in the shot) — the protagonist’s first encounter with the ghost.

20. K in No Smoking

Well, there are those abs. Enough said.

21. The yawning comrade in Mukhamukham

22. From the Tamil film Aranyakandam

23. Two memorable and beautiful shots from Elipathayam (Rat trap)

24. Aadukalam (Tamil) in 2011 directed by Vetrimaran is a film replete with cock fights and jealousy, ageing men and rival gangs. A beautiful plot driven by spiralling male psychosis but its best shot is the director’s list of paying homage to other films he has seen. What other film has a filmography over the last shot of a retreating truck with silent lovers fleeing in it …

25. Anubhav is a 1971 film shot in black and white about a couple who are middle class and have to negotiate intimacy and possible betrayal. The title of the film appears on Tanuja’s beautiful face in repose and is repeated endlessly across the screen making the word itself meaningless.

26. Dev.d

There are too many moments in this film. The trips, the pain, the horror, the hope.

And then there is Paro, hopefully pedaling into the fields with a mattress rolled up so that she and Dev can have sex in comfort.

27. If you notice these fleeting and occasionally lusty looks a minute into the film from Ganga (Lakshmi) in the film Sila Nerangalil Sila Manidargal (in some moments, some people) then it can completely change your experience of the film.

28. Namak Halal: This is the best rain sequence, so hot and smouldering that Smita Patil almost sets fire to the screen each time she looks at Amitabh Bacchan. Inspite-of-the-pouring-sheets-of-studio-rain

29. Maqbool: All of Bharadwaj’s films probably have more than their fair share of beautiful shots. But this — the grey clouds, the slightly manic Tabu, the red kurta and bangles. And the gun. Could anyone ask for more? (we have lots of guns here, no?)

30. Ankhon Dekhi (spoiler alert)

A quixotic man who believes only what he can see. And then takes a massive leap of faith.

31. Mahanagar

Our very own middle class working girl in the city. From Satyajit Ray. Yes the black and white master is not forgotten, and he works so much better in black and white.

Her new colleagues and work buddies..

And the classic moment when she contemplates wearing lipstick to her office..

32. Pakeezah

The emblematic moment from the film but also the pretty feet resting. This is the moment when Raj Kumar tells Meena Kumari that her feet should not touch the ground because they are so beautiful. The irony that she is a dancer and entertainer not accepted by society is what we find out. Repeatedly in the film another shot is of a long train passing through. The whistle of the train is like the hope of escape in a blue moonlight night.

33. Iruvar

A star is born. The moment when the star realises the huge numbers waiting to just catch a glimpse of him.

34. Another woman in Rajnigandha. Her flawlessly made up eyes. This is the maybe the first woman who manages to move seamlessly between two men in a song sequence, romancing and loving and rejecting and longing for both.

35. Its true. Women are the best thing in cinema, hence how they dominate this list. And the drippy hot sexualness of this song is best captured in the close ups of the stricken lovers in Juli.

Na kuch tere bas me juli, na kuch mere bus mein (yes, we’ve heard the bad joke about buses but still love this shot)

36. Mirch Masala

The last shot, when red chilli powder is flung at the rapist played by Naseeruddin Shah. There is the stinging chilli powder still hanging in the air and there she is — Smita Patil, gorgeous and vengeful and sated

37. From Maryan, this far away look is what Dhanush’s star power is all about — you never quite have him even when you do, even when he loves you, even if you’re as beautiful as Parvathi, even if he appears like a desperate wish. Apparently not a great movie, I didn’t even watch it — for me it was this song (Yenge Pona Rasaa) and this look.

Honourable mentions would include Luck by Chance and the shot of the Mumbai skyline from the rooftop and a wistful moon hanging over Konkana Sen Sharma and Farhan Akhtar. There are infact too many shots of Mumbai so maybe that should be left to a true blue Mumbaikar to choose the absolute best. My personal favourite of all Mumbai shots would be from Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro when the boys who live in the mean streets of the city shout at those who live in the skyscrapers.

And another mention would be the shot of the two balloons rising hopefully in Masaan. And this precise gallery of ngo jholawallas and hamare pseudos in the audience in a courtroom in the film Court.

Also there is a spoiler scene which involves an X ray in Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum (not saying more). But here is Fahad Fazil going for a shit with police officers. Enough said.

So what are some of yours? Add to the list …