Let me start off with the WORST movies of 2008.

1) Drona – Terrible, Horrible, Pathetic. Even 3 negative words is an understatement. Enough said.

2) Ghajini – If Mangal Pandey was worse, Ghajini topples it. With a horrible rip-off of ‘Memento’, customized for Indian audiences by placing songs where none were required, the movie drags on and on. When Aamir starts fighting 20 villians at a time, you do know to say ‘nee Rajnikanth ya Ghajinikanth ya’ (Are you Rajnikanth or Ghajinikanth?). Ohh yeah, that bad!

3) Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi - When Shahrukh says ‘Punjab power, lighting up your life’, I loved him. When he started being himself by saying some mindless dialogues like ‘Phir milenge, chalte chalte…blah blah blah’, the movie became a bore. So boring that even Rab (God) dozed off by intermission.

4) Karzzzz – Whether it is one ‘z’ or ten, Himesh will go down in history of Bollywood as one of the worst actors ever. Yes, even Tushaar kapoor will rank higher than him. With a weak plot and a disgruntled Himesh, it easily ranks as one of the worst.

5) Bombay to Bangkok/Dostana/EMI – Three movies vying for the joint 5^th spot as one of the worst movies in 2008. Each movie had some laugh-aloud moments but none even came close to being a wholesome entertainer. While Nagesh Kukunoor disappoints in B2B, and EMI ran empty theaters by the noon show on the first day of release,  Dostana’s only bright spot was the ‘hot’ Priyanka Chopra. Forgettable performances by Abhishek and John trying to make a mockery of themselves.

I avoided watching certain movies like ‘Chamku’, ‘Jimmy’ and ‘Love Story 2050′ to save my health. I am sure these movies would topple the 5 movies listed above atleast 10 times over.

Onto the BEST movies of 2008….

1) Mithya – Easily the best movie of 2008. With powerful performances by Ranvir and Neha Dhupia (oh boy, she can act!) and a very different storyline, this movie is bound to become a cult classic in times to come.

2) A Wednesday – Can Anupam Kher act this good? Really? With a strong storyline, in line with the current times of terrorist activity and mind-blowing performances by both Naseerudin Shah and Anupam Kher, ‘A Wednesday’ is definitely a thriller not to miss.

3) Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye! – A very refreshing movie. More so for Delhiites. Abhay Deol easily slips into the role of the slippery thief ‘Lucky’ in this fun-filled, weirdly romantic movie along with Neetu Chandra. If you can deafen yourself for the weird music at some points in the movie, its totally worth a watch.

4) Sarkar Raj – Abhishek’s best performance till date. Period. He excels at serious roles, and for once Ram Gopal Verma gets it right this year. With able support from Aishwarya Rai, this movie was intense and gripping from start-to-end.

5) Welcome to Sajjanpur/Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na/Dasvidaniya – Again, tying for 5th spot are three movies I immensely enjoyed. Shreyas Talpade in ‘Welcome to Sajjanpur’ is so natural, you wouldn’t even feel that the same guy played Iqbal. Immensely hilarious. ‘Jaane Tu…’ was good and the only reason it didn’t make it into the top four was its story – the same old bland friends-become-lovers-get-married story of the yore. Dasvidaniya is an out and out Vinay Pathak’s movie and as with all his movies, his performance is spectacular. With death at his doorstep, the protagonist sets out to fulfill a list of items he always wanted to do, but never could. Poignant and Fabulous.

Other honorable releases which couldn’t make it to the Top 5 were

a) Rock On (same old, same old) b) Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam (out and out comedy, totally enjoyed it – don’t look for logic in this movie pls!), c) Jodha Akbar (impressive Hrithik and Aishwarya but too long a duration for my taste) d) Fashion (decent attempt by Madhur Bhandarkar, but he is getting predictable, superior performance by Priyanka though) and e) Aamir (gripping story, brilliant screenplay)

Hollywood movies (Only the Top 3 BEST movies mentioned)

1) Slumdog Millionaire – Easily the best movie of 2008. It’s about a protagonist who is from a slum background and goes on to win a millionaire quiz contest. I would easily rate this as the best movie I watched in all of 2008 across all xyz-wood.

2) The Dark Knight – Heath Ledger, hopefully, is going to get a posthumous Oscar for his role as the Joker. Christian Bale as the Batman can only look on in horror as the Joker dismantles every belief of Batman. Immensely watchable. Movies definitely don’t get better than this.

3) Wall-E - Show me one person who is not in love with the Wall-E character after watching this movie and I will give him the DVD of ‘Karzzzz’    Pixar is brilliant – actually, brilliance is an understatement. Awesomely awesome.