Mughal-e-Azam's dialogues had balance and perfection

Mughal-e-Azam
The dialogue-writing process in any film begins with a good thought first. If the thought isn't there, and you're writing out of compulsion, chances are the results won't be great. The second thing is to make sure the word play is such that the dialogue sounds beautiful. Mughal-e-Azam had both these qualities. Never have I seen a film where thought and words are in so much harmony. They are small sentences, not really long dialogues, but beautifully constructed. When prince Salim returns from battle, his confidante Durjan is worried about the injuries on his body. "Yeh zakhm nahi phool hai Durjan. Aur phoolon ka murjhana bahar ki ruswayi hoti hai." The richness of thought comes through in the dialogue.
The thing about Urdu is that every word needs to be in the right order, you replace one right word with another and it could mess up the entire dialogue. Mughal-e-Azam's dialogues were flawless. In another scene, Prince Salim throws a dagger at a woman, missing her by inches. "Kaneez ko khanjar ki nafarmani par hairat hai. Aur apni badnaseeb zindagi se shikayat hai," she says. The dialogue had balance and perfection. I salute the dialogue writing team of Aman, Ehsaan Rizvi, Kamal Amrohi and Vajahat Mirza.

Inglourious Basterds
As a dialogue writer, I often have one problem with my producer and director: they don't want scenes to be too long. There's a saying in the film industry that goes, "What you can say in four lines, say in one. What you can say in one line, say in a word." My point is: why have dialogues at all then?
Quentin Tarantino has broken the myth that verbose films are boring. He blew people's minds away with Pulp Fiction, where even a simple discussion about a foot massage was amusing to the audience. But Inglourious Basterds is my favourite Tarantino film. The first scene, long and dialogue-filled, was a delight. Colonel Landa, a Nazi, is psychologically messing with a peasant family with nothing but words. Again, the scene had thought, which like I said before is a must for good dialogue writing.

Ab Tak Chhappan
Ab Tak Chhappan, Shimit Amin's first film, is also his best so far, although I liked Chak De India and Rocket Singh too. Writer Sandeep Shrivastava's construction of the sentences was spot-on. The dialogue was mainly conversational, most of it between a senior encounter specialist, played by Nana Patekar and a rookie cop, played by Nakul Vaid. I must say this: a lot of lines sounded as good as they did because they were delivered by Nana Patekar; he improvises a lot and takes just the right pauses, making the dialogue sound better than it actually is. As an actor, he's a dialogue writer's dream come true. There's a scene where Nakul tells Nana, "Aapko maloom hai Imtiaz aapke khilaf ulta seedha bol sakta hai?" And Nana replies, "ulta hi bolega". It's a small dialogue, but Nana's delivery and timing takes it to another level.
Another aspect of Ab Tak Chhappan's dialogues is that there's no frivolousness. Every dialogue is there because it should be there. Dil Chahta Hai was another such film. Dimple Kapadia's character is glad Aamir, Saif and Akshaye's character are there to celebrate her birthday. To which Saif replies, "Cake ke liye hum kahin bhi jaa sakte hain." That dialogue nailed it.