I had the pleasure of watching Anupama Chopra (noted author, journalist and film critic) interact with Anurag Kashyap about cult cinema at the Jameson Empire event, so I figured I’d ask her to do a guest blog for MissMalini.com about her favorite 10 cult films, which she was super sweet about so here you go! xoxo

1. Blade Runner (1982, director Ridley Scott)

Scott’s adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep got mixed reviews and lost money when it first released. Today, it’s considered one of the greatest science fiction movies ever made.

2. Aguirre  – Wrath of God (1972, Werner Herzog)

A hallucinatory masterpiece, it influenced seminal films such as Apocalypse Now and The New World.

3. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (1983, director Kundan Shah)

An achingly funny satire on the state of the nation. Nothing to date, has matched the inspired lunacy of the climactic Mahabharat scene (in which, if you look closely, you can see my husband Vidhu Vinod Chopra as Dushashan!)

4. Parinda (1989, director Vidhu Vinod Chopra, note: conflict of interest here)

A hard-hitting look at brotherhood, of both the filial and crime variety.

5. Guide (1965, Vijay Anand)

A supremely ahead-of-its-times movie about an adulterous affair and the tragedy of two selfish people in love.

So-bad-they-are-good cult movies:

1. Honey (1982, director Sheetal)

Those who mock yesteryear starlet Sheetal probably don’t know that she not only wrote and directed this gem but also did art direction, costumes, lyrics, music, fights and editing. Not to mention the lead role, which has her playing a comely teenager. Honey is an achievement in incompetence that has no rivals.

2. Clerk (1989, director Manoj Kumar)

The gold standard of good-bad movies.

3. Rudraksh (2004, director Mani Shankar)

A man with special powers, a scientist in shorts (Bipasha Basu) and dialogue like: Bhagwan ko bhi ek divine Internet samjho. Need I say more?

4. Dunno Y…Na Jaane Kyun (2010, director Sanjay Sharma)

In which, the writer Kapil Sharma also plays the lead and gives himself dialogue such as: ‘Bro, may your wish comes true this Christmas’ and ‘I have always fulfilled my duties of an husband.’

5. Jimmy (2008, director Raj Sippy)

The launch of Mimoh, in which the heroine’s father tells a nasty suitor that his daughter cannot marry him by screaming, ‘You are a rejected person!”