An year of new faces, new twists, new tricks...

It is around this time of the year that film critics start filing their mandatory assessment for the year, in this case 2000. Briefly: it was the year when life did to Bollywood what Bollywood had been doing to it ``Chori Chori Chupke Chupke''. It belonged not to the ones that hit the screen but to a film that could not be released although starring Salman Khan and Preity Zinta, the hottest pair of the year, and financed by that jewel in Bollywood's crown -- Bharat Shah. It would seem the Mumbai police finally caught up with the shadows that lurked in the scenes behind the scenes when they zeroed in on Nazim Hassan Rizvi.

But not so ``Chori Chori Chupke Chupke'' was the manner in which a film critic covered in one clean sweep the long distance between Godard and Govinda. Khalid Mohamed took time off shredding films in his columns to putting one together as a director, proving that give a fire-spewing critic half a chance and he will show you how, as a director, to eat ice-cream at the box office. Anyway, his Fiza put into focus currently the principal preoccupation of the nation: terrorism. Fiza, a Karisma Kapoor-oriented film, also proved that the Best Actress Award won by her a few years back was no flash in the pan.

Hrithik Roshan (Fiza) and Abhishek Bachchan (Refugee), the two new finds, provided the most presentable faces of a terrorist. Both delivered the same ``rethink'' message: You cannot wish the terrorist away by hatred but kill him by kindness. Abhishek was only an inadvertent collaborator. However, Hrithik was to reaffirm it in Mission Kashmir made by Kashmir-born Vidhu Vinod Chopra. Both films gave ``unthinking'' patriotism a well -deserved holiday, something which Gulzar did in Maachis , to look into the eye of the ``ogre'' that haunts Kashmir, stressing that we have come a long distance since Manoj Kumar, alias Bharat, soulfully sang Mere desh ki dharti....''

Cinema was clearly discovering new areas for our traditional humanism. The Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, was to declare a cease-fire for considerations of ``insaniyat'' (humanitarian reasons) much later. Refugee, the tragic story of a Bangladeshi Muslim family trying to go to Pakistan through India, had already provided us new insights into the human situation on the sub-continent. Mission Kashmir tells everyone, including us, that borders cannot be drawn with blood any more. It is time for the combatants to reach each other through new channels and settle things through words not bullets. The film was still running in Indian theatres when Abdul Gani Lone of Hurriyat Conference crossed over to the so-called ``Azad Kashmir'' for his son's marriage. How contemporary can cinema get? Three cheers for Vidhu Vinod Chopra's ``Kashmiriyat''.

In a totally different theatre, Astitva sought more social and moral spaces for women. Here again cinema as an agent for modernisation engages the traditional mindset. The Hindu Undivided Family grew in agrarian economy which was man-oriented. Women had to play second fiddle. The atomic family has already arrived in India and globalisation of economy provides new social spaces for women who can now make their own living. But the Indian man is reluctant to accept this fact of life. Writer- director Mahesh Manjrekar gives a stunning blow to every single tried and tested Hindu norm for conjugal relationship, asserting that things are heavily loaded in favour of man. That, the sheer excellence of technique and Tabu's enchanting performance make Astitva the film of the year. On a similar theme -- travails of a rape victim -- Hamara Dil Aap Ke Paas Hai, starring Anil Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai, had far better luck at the box office.

But what made this a woman's year was Kya Kehna, a runaway hit, challenging the traditional attitude towards unwed mothers. Not too long ago the film would have found little support from orthodox Hindu society. That it ran to full houses for weeks and weeks is a measure of the changing times.

As usual more films sank this year than sailed through the turbulent waters of public preference. The New Year had brought super-duper in a hit, Kaho Na Pyaar Hai, giving the nation a new heart-throb, Hrithik Roshan, directed by father Rakesh Roshan. Equally spectacular by the same director in another way was Karobar which sank without a trace, probably the biggest flop of the year.

Hrithik was followed by Abhishek Bachchan, the star-son, and Kareena Kapoor, star-daughter, providing Refugee a tremendous initial draw. When Abhishek could not make much dent into the box office in Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya or Dhai Akshar Prem Ke, he was defended by none other than Hrithik who thought that the poor guy was expected to perform like ``Uncle Amitabh and that is a tall order''. Well, almost literally.

One thing was certain, however: the year did not belong to Aamir Khan (Mela) and Nana Patekar (Tarkeib). They came and went. So did Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla (Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani). The Shah Rukh-Aishwarya team did better in Josh, but only slightly. If one does not mention Hey! Ram here it is only to avoid an unnecessary embarrassment to Shah Rukh Khan. Salman Khan could have really lost his face along with his shirt but for Dulhan Hum Le Jayenge. Both Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega and Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaye did not make the cash registers sing. On the contrary, the two Shettys -- Sunil and Shilpa -- along with Akshay Lumar and Mahima did well for themselves in Dhadkan. There was also Sunil and Akshay's Hera Pheri with Tabu, but not in the same box office class.

Director Mahesh Manjrekar performed a hat-trick -- three flops in a row: Astitva, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar and Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai. Only Kurukshetra reclaimed his marketability to some extent, all in one year. It is one of the unexplained ironies of life that an unknown cast should make Lady Dacoit a super-hit in Uttar Pradesh and the all star Hey! Ram made by Kamal Hassan should gasp for breath at the box office.

Hum To Mohabbat Karega was not as determined as it sounded once it hit the silver screen. Was love dead then? Perish the thought. Before the year closed, there was a thundering affirmation by Mohabbatein, the long, turgid tale of a loveless headmaster that first ran and ran for hours -- then for weeks and weeks and weeks. It made money for Yash Chopra, reinvented Amitabh Bachchan, rescued Shah Rukh Khan's beleaguered image and made Aishwarya Rai the heroine of the year whose name the promos did not mention initially. It was her "ghost" that lent life to the film.

But the crowning glory of the year for the medium itself came from a painter, Maqbool Fida Husain, who in the frenzy of a definitive moment in Gaja Gamini, the ideal woman, told us that some themes are forever.

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