The
most fun one has had with corpses at the movies in a long time, Sriram
Raghavan’s thriller turned out as gratifying in its craft and
creativity. A riveting, capricious treatise on human fallibility,
immorality and wickedness; and a fabulous homage to pulp cinema to boot.
Shoojit
Sircar’s mellow and melancholic meditation on love and loss, on the
fragility and resilience of life and on finding a rare bond in the face
of mortality was the most achingly written film of the year that reached
straight to the heart. It’s still lodged there despite the needless
plagiarism controversy that left one in pain as deceptions in love
always do. A pity, because a small nod to Sunny Pawar’s story from the
makers would have only made this film more profound than it already is.
Dipesh
Jain’s intense psychological story was a journey into a troubled,
tortured mind. It was also about geographical anxieties, about dredging
out the inherent claustrophobia of a place. A rare Hindi film where the
character and the locale became one.
Anurag
Kashyap moved away from the jingoistic claptrap of a typical sports
film to talk caste and corruption—in sports management, UP and the
country at large. The film also lobbed a few creative grenades at cow
vigilantism
Nandita
Das’ biographical film was as much about the mercurial sub-continental
icon as about his love for ‘Bombay’ and the continued relevance of his
thoughts in today’s fractious times—whether he was talking about
Hindu-Muslim unity or freedom of expression.
Remarkable in its moodiness, atmosphere and landscape and a lingering eerieness and dread,
Tumbbad, by
Rahi Anil Barve, Anand Gandhi and Adesh Prasad, married elements of
genre films with mythology, folklore, fantasy and history to become a
compelling allegory on bottomless greed.
Amar
Kaushik’s funny horror show had more going for it than just the laughs
and the chills—a feminist core. With a mock-ironic touch it made men go
through the physical and mental trauma that women face in day-to-day
life. If only the item number had been done away with and the woman at
the centre was given more to do.
About a radical idea—older parents-to-be--Amit Sharma’s
Badhaai Hocaptured
a slice of middle class lives—their conflicts, eccentricities and
hypocrisies--with warmth and a sense of fun. The irreverence, however,
gave way to sentimentality in the end.
A
rare woman-centric film (directed by a woman—Meghna Gulzar) to join the
much haloed ₹100 crore club. Based on Harinder Sikka’s novel
Calling Sehmat, the
Indo-Pak espionage thriller might have been weighed down with
implausibilities but made an impact with its essential humanism and
sincere emotions. The film reached out by eschewing shrill nationalism
and obliquely questioning the divides engendered by borders.
Anubhav
Sinha played to the gallery with the heightened drama and
dialogue-baazi but his laudable attempt to give a voice to Muslim
anxieties managed to go beyond the liberal echo-chambers to the masses.
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