T20 List - 20 All Time Great Indian films

Twenty20 is the catchphrase now. In an attempt to give boost to International Film Festival of India (IFFI) at Goa, a group of top directors in India and several critics selected 20 all time great Indian films. The festival is ended on Dec 3rd and the list was anounced a day before the closing day. Sadly, no Telugu film was featured in it despite a Telugu film critic (KNT Shastry) and an Hyderabad filmmaker (Nagesh Kukunoor) was among the jury. Although the list is debatable, it can not be denied the greatness of any of the films featured in the final list.

One of the greatest Indian filmmakers Ritwik Ghatak’s Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960) topped the list sidelining Satyajit Ray’s famous films like Pather Panchali and Charulatha. Incidentally, Meghe Dhaka Tara was also copied in Telugu and Tamil by another great filmmaker K Balachander as Aval Oru Thodarkathai (1974) in Tamil and as Anthuleni Katha (1976) in Telugu.

T20 Great Indian Films

1. Meghe Dhaka Tara – Ritwik Ghatak (Bengali, 1960)

2. Charulata – Satyajit Ray (Bengali, 1964)

3. Pather Panchali – Satyajit Ray (Bengali, 1955)

4. Sholay – Ramesh Sippy (Hindi, 1975)

5. Do Bigha Zameen – Bimal Roy (Hindi, 1953)

6. Pyaasa – Guru Dutt (Hindi, 1957)

7. Bhuvan Shome – Mrinal Sen (Hindi, 1969)

8. Garam Hawa – M S Sathyu (Hindi, 1973)

9. Mother India – Mehboob Khan (Hindi, 1957)

10. Ghattashradha – Girish Kasaravalli (Kannada, 1977)

11. Elippathayam – Adoor Gopalakrishnan (Malayalam, 1981)

12. Mughal-e-Azam – K Asif (Hindi, 1960)

13. Nayagan – Mani Ratnam (Tamil, 1987)

14. Kaghaz Ke Phool – Guru Dutt (Hindi, 1959)

15. Apu Trilogy (Pather Panchali 1955, Aparajito 1956, Apur Sansar 1959) -Satyajit Ray (Bengali)

16. Sant Tukaram – Vishnupant Govind Damle, Sheikh Fattelal (Marathi, 1936)

17. Jaane Bhi Do Yaro – Kundan Shah (Hindi, 1983)

18. Guide – Vijay Anand (Hindi, 1965)

19. Madhumati – Bimal Roy (Hindi, 1958)

20. Anand – Hrishikesh Mukherjee (Hindi, 1971)