Devdas, Monsoon Wedding in Time top list

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal">NEW YORK: Sanjay Leela Bhansali''s blockbuster <i>Devdas</i> and Meera Nair''s much-hailed comedy <i>Monsoon Wedding</i> are among the movies which won the top honours in the ranking for the current year by the <i>Time</i> magazine.<br /><i>Devdas</i>, described as the "all-singing, all-dancing, all-fired spectacle," ranks fourth in the grading done for international films and is ahead of Steven Spielberg''s <i>Minority Report</i>, Laurent Cantet''s <i>Time Out</i> (French), Michael Moore''s <i>Bowling for Columbine</i> (US), Hayao Miyazaki''s <i>Spirited Away</i>, (Japan), Peter Jackson''s <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> (New Zealand) and Pillip Noyce''s <i>The Quiet American</i> (Australia-Vietnam).<br /><i>Monsoon Wedding</i> is placed fifth among the movies produced in the West and is ahead of <i>About a Boy</i>, <i>Italian for Beginners</i>, <i>The Pianist</i>, <i>8 Mile</i> and <i>Safe Conduct</i>.<br />It is only in the recent years that Indian movies have started attracting attention of mainstream media in the United States and several theatres now have sold out regular shows.<br />With high-quality subtitles, they have started attracting international audiences. <br /><i>Kaante</i>, which ran to packed houses in the United States has won rave reviews in several newspapers and specialised journals including <i>Variety</i>. NRI filmmakers have been producing movies to which the audiences in Western countries can relate and the subtitles use language which is understood by them.<br /><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Time</span> describes <i>Monsoon Wedding</i> as "smart, funny and ultimately poignant" comedy in which "a vast and fractious Indian family succeeds - after many hilarious difficulties - in marrying off a reluctant daughter." The film is still running on pay per view cable channels in the US. <br /><i>Time</i> noted that the plot of <i>Devdas</i> is based on 1917 novel and is good-old family-values propaganda - rich boy, ("all-world charmer" Shahrukh Khan), leaves home, abandons girl friend (former Miss World Aishwarya Rai), dallies with prostitute ("worldly-wise" Madhuri Dixit), suffers nobly.<br />"It is played with such commitment that the tritest plot twists seem worth believing - and singing about, in nine production numbers. <br />"Beyond that, <i>Devdas</i> is visual ravishment, with huge sets, fabulous frocks and beautiful people to fill them: It is a grandeur the old Hollywood moguls would have loved," it added. <br />Topping both the lists is Pedro Almodovar''s <i>Talk to Her</i>. It is a movie about two young women, each in a coma, and two men who love them. <br />In the international ranking, it is followed by Martin Scoresese''s <i>Gangs of New York</i>, and Alexander Sorkurov''s <i>Russian Age</i>.<br />For the movies produced in the West, <i>Talk to Her</i> is followed by <i>About Schmidt</i>, <i>Far From Heaven</i>, <i>Road to Perdition</i> and <i>Monsoon Wedding</i>. </div> </div>