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It was the year that the Hindi film industry wanted to write off as a bad aberration. Yet when the reckoning comes up on January 16 at the A...

It was the year that the Hindi film industry wanted to write off as a bad aberration. Yet when the reckoning comes up on January 16 at the Asian Paints 9th Annual Star Screen Awards-2002 ceremony, Bollywood will have reason to smile. Box office success may have eluded most nominees for Best Film and Best Direction this year, but they did win at the quality stakes. Fortunately, there’s a night to celebrate just that.

There was much excitement when Ram Gopal Varma’s second film on the underworld Company was underway. Company (nominated for Best Film and Best Director) did average business in Mumbai but, as trade analyst Amod Mehra puts it, it was ‘‘a disaster in the rest of the country’’. Yet Company was a slicker, a more mature product than Satya and had sparkling performances from all its actors — especially debutant Vivek Oberoi.

The other film on the seamier side of life, Encounter (Best Film), too was in the same bracket. It tackled encounter killings by the police head-on, with stellar performances by Naseeruddin Shah and Dilip Prabhavalkar and met with more critical than commercial success. Aankhen (Best Film) involved ‘‘something very exciting’’, as its star Amitabh Bachchan calls it.

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Director duo Abbas-Mustan always hit the high point with their suspense dramas. Despite Humraaz (Best Director) being obviously inspired by A Perfect Murder, the directors gave the plot enough twists, turns and their own distinctive stamp.

Suspense also ruled the roost in Mani Shanker’s 16th December (Best Direction). Yet both films did only average business all over India.

When The Legend Of Bhagat Singh (Best Film and Best Director) began its journey to the screens, it had to contend with four other body doubles. The Legend… stoked patriotic fires and shone among all the other Bhagat Singhs, even though it was a box office disaster.

Only one film in all these nominations triumphed both in Mumbai and the overseas market. Sanjay Leela Bhansali paid an opulent tribute to Sarat Chandra Chatterjee in Devdas (Best Film, Best Director and a general swoop in the nominations).

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