End of another year, which some have called very average. But not for me. And why would it be, if I have 6 movies in my top10 list that are all near to perfect!
Bad films and disappointments are always there (more on them here), 2016 gave us many films that we will remember after 5 or more years.
Personally, I saw 47 movies in theatres, and the 1st half of the year was easily better than the 2nd. Wasn't easy to choose no.1 and no.2 movies, Aamir has a habit of coming up with a terrific movie in the last month of year always. Also, choosing between Neerja and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil was tough, the latter worked more for me in terms of connecting to the characters.
So, here's my list of TOP 10 HINDI FILMS OF 2016 :
1. Kapoor and Sons
Its my no.1 movie of the year, and irony is that I totally dismissed it off when trailer came as I felt its another 2 brothers falling for same girl based story. Rather it turned out to be fully on how a typical indian dysfunctional family looks like, make it middle class rather than the rich class of Dil Dhadakne Do. I could totally feel like its a part of my story that was told when intial arguements happens in 1st half or when lots of twists get revealed in the end. Shakun makes the proceedings very subtle rather than melodramatic and this movie offers many places where he could had gone for a higher emotion which he doesn't. Even during the Nolan-istic scene (I always feel it that way) where he runs 3 twists parallely with a beautiful background score, the next scene that is demise of one character is shown with minimal rona-dhona. Also, he makes 'Bolna' song used as instrumental in the movie, which I really liked as it went well with the Conoor locales. The tension in the pre climax of movie is so high, that the scene where Rishi Kapoor asks for a 'mari huyi photo' which was hilarious in trailer, it didn't make me laugh one bit with the film. Entire ensemble cast did great work, though personally I loved Rajat Kapoor and Fawad Khan performances the most. The screenplay doesn't give a single moment of dullness and keeps you engaged for the entirety of the movie. Special mention to the hilarious plumber scene! And Rajat's lovely rendition of 'Chaand si mehbooba ho meri kab aisa maine socha tha, haan tum more or less waisi ho, jaisa maine socha tha', gives a feel of happy family reunion until Shakun brings the mayhem in the next morning scene. 'Kapoor and Sons' will always be very close to me, and also at same time its very uneasy to watch because of various real life connects I have with it.
Phir se khush nahi ho sakte?
We can try.
2. Dangal
Not a biopic with all the changes made including the change in final Common Wealth Games gold match scores which Geeta won easily. But Dangal worked for me perfectly as a sports drama inspired from real life events of Phogats, mostly how Mahavir Phogat (played by Aamir Khan) transforms his daughters Geeta (played by Zaira Wasim and Fatima Sana Shaikh) and Babita (played by Suhani Bhatnagar and Sanya Malhotra) into wrestlers with hard training who would then go on to make India proud. Think of the training scene without 'Haanikarak bapu' song, it wont had worked, we would have felt that Mahavir is exploiting them badly, rather now we enjoy watching him train them. Love how the inspirational Daler Mehndi title track is used thrice at right places of the movie. Sakshi Tanwar (playing wife of Mahavir Phogat) has very few dialogues in the movie, yet she impresses with the way she uses her expressions while watching her daughters suffer in training or when she sees a certain rift between Geeta and Mahavir. I love the innocence of Suhani when she says 'papa teekha kam hai'. Of the elder roles, Fatima was easily the better but then the story is fully based on her. The wrestle scene between Geeta and Mahavir is easily among best of the year, on one side you have Geeta who has the anger since childhood for not having lived the life she probably would had wanted, and on other side Mahavir thinks Geeta has gone wrong way and will result in her downfall. The only weak link in movie was Girish Kulkarni (who plays Geeta's coach at the academy), he was way too one-dimensional and I would had preferred a coach who had different point of views but atleast worked like a proper coach instead of coming as a filmy villain. But then, how would we have got that epic lock up scene, and all the amazing emotions Aamir portrays after listening to anthem that tells him Geeta has won gold. A rare case of national anthem worth standing up for. And even with all the predictability that the gold match will go to the 3rd round involving Geeta going for a 5 point daav in final 10 secs, doesn't it give you goosebumps with the slo-mo reactions of everyone as Geeta successfully does it along with the good use of background score. Aamir goes through amazing physical transformation, and his performance is flawless and pitch-perfect including the haryanvi accent that looks much more authentic than it did when Salman played such character in Sultan. And its good to see Phogat Sisters own the movie as much as Aamir did. I may still have Chak de India as my fav sports based movie, but Dangal comes very close to it. And the good common thing in both films is, they have no romantic angle in them. You can't ask for a better commercial movie than Dangal that not only makes you feel proud but also lets you see someone do so well at a sport which is poorly supported by our own country's federation.
Agar silver jeeti toh aaj ni toh kal log tanne bhool jaavenge..
Gold jeeti toh misaal ban jaavegi
Aur misaale di jaati hai beta, bhooli nahi jaati.
3. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil has Karan go into the territory that Imtiaz films explores, i.e when the characters go through vulnerability and do/say things you may not wanna see or hear. Its easily Karan's best work till date, a story that talks about unrequited love and also friend-zoning. Leaving aside the final 15 mins of movie where Karan goes to the cancer angle and one too many other films references, the movie works perfectly for me. Whats really good though is that even the cancer angle is played very subtly, unlike say Kal Ho Na Ho when similar scenario was done in a hammy melodramatic manner (which worked for that film). Reason why Ae Dil works so much for me, is firstly the deep connect I had with characters of Ayan (played by Ranbir), Saba (played by Aishwarya Rai) and Alizeh (played by Anushka Sharma). Anushka herself said she couldn't identify with Alizeh character and found it fake, though I don't see it like that and find it very real. Ranbir has been playing man-child character a lot, still its hard to not love his performance, for me the pre Channa Mereya song scene where he looks in mirror and says 'Alizeh weds Ayan' and then looks at Alizeh coming out in wedding outfit admiring how beautiful she is looking until he realizes she isnt marrying him, that entire scene followed by post Channa Mereya scene where he admits he loves Alizeh and how much its hurting him to see he won't get her, Ranbir just plays this so perfectly that its impossible for me to not call it another of his performance that I totally loved (not in league of Rockstar and Barfi though). Anushka also gives one of her best performance after Band Baaja Baraat and NH10, and has amazing chemistry with Ranbir, easily second best after Ranbir-Deepika. And how good was it to see Aishwarya in a sexy avatar and act very well specially after that total hammy act of Jazbaa and not so convincing performance in Sarbjit, this was a very welcome change, watch out the scene where she tells Ayan 'mohabbat karna hamare bas mein nahi hai, par uss mohabbat se dur chale jaana woh hamare bas mein hai'. Was disappointed to see less of Fawad in film, assuming Karan edited it due to the ongoing political issue. Special mention to the dining table scene, the silence all characters share and yet their eyes say a lot what they are feeling at that moment was incredible. I would love to see how 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' ages with time for me, got a feeling that my love for film won't change.
Aasaan hai kya, aisi mohabbat karna.. jiske badle mohabbat na mile...
4. Neerja
I didn't see this coming, to love a Sonam kapoor movie so much including her performance too which is based on real life character of 'Neerja Bhanot' courageous attempt at saving life of passengers when Pan Am flight got hijacked in Karachi in 1986. Sonam actually plays the role so well, that now you wonder if there was any other actress who would had appealed more as Neerja? I doubt so even if Sonam at places still wasn't perfect. Kudos to director Ram Madhvani, who doesn't waste a single second and starts the movie with how the terrorists are planning their mission of hijacking plane intercut with Neerja having a party at home dancing on her favourite Rajesh Khanna songs. Ram doesn't take time to reach the flight sequence either with few scenes between Neerja and her parents, and Neerja-Jaideep (played by Shekhar Ravjiani). Also, very good use of flashback to tell story of Neerja's early abusive marriage, and a superb scene where Neerja is trying to find something to motivate her in time of crisis when she locks herself up in washroom, and we see flashback of her father telling 'bahadur bacha kaun'. Jim Sarbh is exceptional who plays one of the terrorist. Shabana Azmi is terrific in a supporting role, and her climax speech is very emotional to watch. Special mention to Yogendra Tikku who played Neerja's father role, I loved that scene where he calls to Shabana telling about the hijack and how worried he is when he tries to play the 'sab theek hoga' card. Gripping screenplay, super direction and performances by everyone to match it, makes Neerja such a good watch and not to forget the special feeling you get to see a brave act that had happened in real!
Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahi...
5. Pink
It was a movie of two very different and powerful halves. 1st one dealt with the plight of a single girl living in India specially if its a modern independent working women with all the kind of prejudices and behavior of society towards them, and director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury turns it into a very tense thrilling drama where we are always worried for the girls. And then 2nd half becomes a solid courtroom drama with Amitabh (playing Deepak Sehgal), and has occasional lecturing but it comes off so right that you don't get any manipulative feeling. Out of the girls, Kriti Kulhari (playing Falak) gives a splendid performance, a character that is willing to say sorry to the guys and sort out matter, but loses temper easily when they abuse Meenal (played by Tapsee Pannu), and similarly losing her temper in court when prosecuting lawyer Prashant (played by Piyush Mishra) accuses her and other girls for taking money from boys. You expect Amitabh to deliver a great performance, not award worthy (like many of our awards are doing) but praiseworthy nonetheless. What I really liked about his character was, that there was no reason given to why he takes case of those girls, whether it was a personal decision or something from his past, and director never lets us know which really works. Also, the idea to show the real event at end-credits was good one as it plants just a small doubt that maybe these girls aren't actually totally true, until Deepak slowly brings out everything that happened that night on resort. Deepak calling female cop super-woman, and telling one of the accused guy 'he is over-acting' were some of hillarious moments in 2nd half. Also, loved Deepak cross-questioning Rajveer (played by Angad Bedi). Angad also delivers a very good performance. My only complaint from movie was, that it was very un-necessary to give Rajveer backdrop of belonging to a political person, could easily had stayed out from it and still shown how he has influence to let police do what he wants. But thats a minor issue, Pink is a movie that should work for majority people, as it depicts the way girls are seen in India accurately, and also kudos to the writing team. Special mention to 'Tu chal' recited by Amitabh in the end-credits, very powerful motivating poem.
No ka matlab no hota hai, usse bolne wali ladki koi parichit ho, friend ho, girlfriend ho, koi sex-worker ho ya aapki apni biwi hi kyun na ho. No means No. And when someone says so, you stop.
6. Aligarh
Based on true incidents that happened in Aligarh University where Marathi professor Siras (played by Manoj Bajpayee) was accused for homosexual acts, Aligarh presents a strong case that doesn't just deals with the 'gay' angle but also tells a tale of how lonely life is for aging people if you have no companion and how your privacy at your own home can be invaded sometimes. And other issues like being a outsider how people treat you. Aligarh is one of those rare films where slow narrative doesn't bore you, as it just allows you to slip in and feel the life Siras was living even more. For instance, the emotions he portrays while sitting alone in his room at night having glass of whisky listening to 'aap ki nazron ne samjha pyar ke kaabil mujhe' on radio. Very much like 'Kapoor & Sons', director of Aligarh, Hansal Mehta makes sure gay angle is in no way stereotyped, like the gay party sequence where all people present are drinking, singing and enjoying spending time together like normal people do. Manoj Bajpayee is brilliant as Siras, showing the character as laidback, not seeking attention or even justice and quite introvert. He does show occasional anger but then goes back to his own life where no one else belongs. Wish Hansal had played out the climax well too, his death didn't really bring the kind of emotions I was expecting. Rajkumar Rao is superb in supporting role, his scenes with Manoj are such a pleasure to watch specially the boat and restaurant ones.
Tum log yeh shabd ke peeche kyun padh jaate ho, kabhi love ko samajne ki bhi koshish kiya karo. Its a beautiful word.
7. Raman Raghav 2.0
Movie began with a note telling that its not based on life of serial killer Raman Raghav, to my utmost surprise. Kashyap rather presents a modern day psycho killer Raman (played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who goes on the lines of the famous killer and enjoys killing people for no actual reasons. Until he finds Raghvan (played by Vicky Kaushal) as his soul-mate, a cop who is a drug addict and in a very abusive relationship with girlfriend Simmy (played by Sobhita Dhulipala). As the names suggest, Kashyap offers a very unlike love angle where Raman catches Raghav killing a person for no-reason and develops instant liking for him. There's a breathtaking sequence involving Raman and his sister, where her sister and her family life is in danger at every minute Raman is present there. Anurag Kashyap has always been at his best when presenting crime stories in a hardhitting and dark manner. Here, you don't get to see the murders mostly, yet the feeling to imagine the way it must have happened gives you chills. Nawazuddin is terrific as always, and so is Sobhita whose character I felt required a back-story. Meanwhile, Vicky despite amazing screen-presence couldn't really pull off the character and make it as interesting as Raman was. Whats good in the end is that Anurag Kashyap hasn't lost his touch at all, and maybe very close to be back to his best.
Apun ko lagta hai, apun aapko aapse jyada pehchaanta hai.
8. Airlift
A very well made film by director Raja Menon about a real life incident that involved evacuation of nearly 1,70,000 Indians stuck in Kuwait when Iraq invades. Its always good to see Akshay Kumar in a non-comic role, time and again it has shown how good he can be in such roles especially the patriot ones. Also, the patriot angle doesn't come out forced, is a major reason why Airlift works. Songs however are still not required in narrative, except for 'Dil cheez tujhe' and to some extent 'Tu bhoola jise'. Nimrat Kaur gets a good 2nd movie after getting recognition in Lunchbox. She has a long monologue scene in 2nd half, and the last line instantly reminds of Geet from Jab We Met. Also, Kumud Mishra is as always reliable in a supporting role. Purab Kohli also gives a fine performance. Airlift does falter in the final act, with a predictable ending. Raja fails to bring in a nail biting climax, something like Hollywood's Argo did. Yet, Airlift is a movie that you enjoy watching and knowing how so many Indians were successfully brought back to India.
Hamari koi aukaat nahi hai, agar hamari pehchan hai toh sirf ek
ki hum kuwaiti nahi Hindustani hai.
Saath hai, toh kuch hai.. .warna, nothing.
9. MS Dhoni - The Untold Story
A biopic is supposed to not only tell about good and bad incidents, but also what happened behind the scenes that no one knows. Sadly, MS Dhoni movie does very little of that. Director Neeraj Pandey rather presents us a entertaining movie based on Dhoni to feel proud of a person who was responsible for 2nd World Cup win after 28 yrs and also his contributions towards other formats like T20 and the down under series win. Personally, I never liked his captaincy, but I still very much enjoyed watching Sushant play the role to pitch perfect that at times felt like it was Dhoni, he got all the mannerisms so right (some might call it mimicking but I wont). And that expression after hitting the six in final, was simply epic. And I liked the idea of using effects and let Sushant be there in every frame of cricket matches, made the film look more real which wasn't case in Azhar. Supporting actors like Rajesh Sharma, Anupam Kher, Bhumika Chawla, Kumud Mishra are all in great form. Also, special mention to the sports shopkeeper friend of Dhoni, young child actor playing Dhoni, the local commentators who has a fixed dialogue 'match ke baad pata chal na jayega'. Disha Patani in her debut performance is really sweet and lovable, if only she wasn't saddened with irritating 'time hai na hamare paas' dialogue. How can a character know she is about to die? Kiara Advani does well too. And Herry Tangri is terrific in a cameo, resembling Yuvraj Singh completely. Neeraj uses 1st half to show Dhoni's school and teenager life, before his struggle to get into the team begins. Also, how he had to manage playing cricket and do a ticket collector job at Kharagpur station. Sadly, 2nd half is just year by year graph of Dhoni's cricketing life along with his love angles. He suddenly becomes captain, without any scene on it and then there's nothing behind the scenes of how the captain cool (that he gets labelled as) happened, his conversations with fellow team-mates ain't there either. In the end, MS Dhoni ends up entertaining, making you proud and letting Sushant Singh Rajput showcase his tremendous acting talent in a award winning performance, but Neeraj Pandey lets slip off making a memorable biopic. My fav scene from movie is interval one, when an empty train comes at platform with the background music and cheer of 'dhoni, dhoni' as Sushant takes the train deciding to focus just on cricket.
Dhoni koi tendulkar hai
Nahi paaji, dhoni dhoni hai.. ek baar uss ladke ko mauka mil gaya na, toh bahut aage tak jaayega.
10. Phobia
Very rare you get a spooky hindi movie, which is not just the routine cliches but has a story and that too a psychological one (Talaash indirectly last one that fulfilled that criteria). Here, we see leading lady Radhika Apte (playing Mehek) go through a bad incident while in taxi at late night. As a result, she develops a phobia where she is afraid of interacting with people and moving out of her house to such extent that she doesn't even open door when her own family is ringing door-bell. Even thinking about such a phobia gives me shivers, how could you live such a life where you are so refined to one place and can't talk with people. One of my fav scene is when Mehek tries to throw trashbag outside her house but is afraid to put that 1st step out of it. Or the one where her friend/wannabe boyfriend Shaan (played by Satyadeep Mishra) while dancing with her tries to take her outside the house but fails. There's very good use of current Mehak's mental condition, by bringing new plot where Mehek is curious to find whereabouts of the girl that lived in that apartment before she moved on. Special mention to lovely debut of Yashaswani Dayama (playing Nikki) who tries to help Mehak in the secret investigation, bringing some good humor in narrative, at one point you see her wearing tshirt with 'bhoot raja bahaar aaja' written on it. With no songs spoiling the story, Phobia keeps you engaged, and a super performance from Radhika Apte, makes it a great watch. Also, you will find it hard to guess the ending, atleast I couldn't.
Wahan ghar se bahar jaane se darr lagta tha,
Yahan ghar ke andar darr lag raha hai..
Kaha jaayun main..
Other Films that I liked a lot but couldn't make my top10 list were :
Sultan, Dhanak and Nil Battey Sannata
Bad films and disappointments are always there (more on them here), 2016 gave us many films that we will remember after 5 or more years.
Personally, I saw 47 movies in theatres, and the 1st half of the year was easily better than the 2nd. Wasn't easy to choose no.1 and no.2 movies, Aamir has a habit of coming up with a terrific movie in the last month of year always. Also, choosing between Neerja and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil was tough, the latter worked more for me in terms of connecting to the characters.
So, here's my list of TOP 10 HINDI FILMS OF 2016 :
1. Kapoor and Sons
Its my no.1 movie of the year, and irony is that I totally dismissed it off when trailer came as I felt its another 2 brothers falling for same girl based story. Rather it turned out to be fully on how a typical indian dysfunctional family looks like, make it middle class rather than the rich class of Dil Dhadakne Do. I could totally feel like its a part of my story that was told when intial arguements happens in 1st half or when lots of twists get revealed in the end. Shakun makes the proceedings very subtle rather than melodramatic and this movie offers many places where he could had gone for a higher emotion which he doesn't. Even during the Nolan-istic scene (I always feel it that way) where he runs 3 twists parallely with a beautiful background score, the next scene that is demise of one character is shown with minimal rona-dhona. Also, he makes 'Bolna' song used as instrumental in the movie, which I really liked as it went well with the Conoor locales. The tension in the pre climax of movie is so high, that the scene where Rishi Kapoor asks for a 'mari huyi photo' which was hilarious in trailer, it didn't make me laugh one bit with the film. Entire ensemble cast did great work, though personally I loved Rajat Kapoor and Fawad Khan performances the most. The screenplay doesn't give a single moment of dullness and keeps you engaged for the entirety of the movie. Special mention to the hilarious plumber scene! And Rajat's lovely rendition of 'Chaand si mehbooba ho meri kab aisa maine socha tha, haan tum more or less waisi ho, jaisa maine socha tha', gives a feel of happy family reunion until Shakun brings the mayhem in the next morning scene. 'Kapoor and Sons' will always be very close to me, and also at same time its very uneasy to watch because of various real life connects I have with it.
Phir se khush nahi ho sakte?
We can try.
2. Dangal
Not a biopic with all the changes made including the change in final Common Wealth Games gold match scores which Geeta won easily. But Dangal worked for me perfectly as a sports drama inspired from real life events of Phogats, mostly how Mahavir Phogat (played by Aamir Khan) transforms his daughters Geeta (played by Zaira Wasim and Fatima Sana Shaikh) and Babita (played by Suhani Bhatnagar and Sanya Malhotra) into wrestlers with hard training who would then go on to make India proud. Think of the training scene without 'Haanikarak bapu' song, it wont had worked, we would have felt that Mahavir is exploiting them badly, rather now we enjoy watching him train them. Love how the inspirational Daler Mehndi title track is used thrice at right places of the movie. Sakshi Tanwar (playing wife of Mahavir Phogat) has very few dialogues in the movie, yet she impresses with the way she uses her expressions while watching her daughters suffer in training or when she sees a certain rift between Geeta and Mahavir. I love the innocence of Suhani when she says 'papa teekha kam hai'. Of the elder roles, Fatima was easily the better but then the story is fully based on her. The wrestle scene between Geeta and Mahavir is easily among best of the year, on one side you have Geeta who has the anger since childhood for not having lived the life she probably would had wanted, and on other side Mahavir thinks Geeta has gone wrong way and will result in her downfall. The only weak link in movie was Girish Kulkarni (who plays Geeta's coach at the academy), he was way too one-dimensional and I would had preferred a coach who had different point of views but atleast worked like a proper coach instead of coming as a filmy villain. But then, how would we have got that epic lock up scene, and all the amazing emotions Aamir portrays after listening to anthem that tells him Geeta has won gold. A rare case of national anthem worth standing up for. And even with all the predictability that the gold match will go to the 3rd round involving Geeta going for a 5 point daav in final 10 secs, doesn't it give you goosebumps with the slo-mo reactions of everyone as Geeta successfully does it along with the good use of background score. Aamir goes through amazing physical transformation, and his performance is flawless and pitch-perfect including the haryanvi accent that looks much more authentic than it did when Salman played such character in Sultan. And its good to see Phogat Sisters own the movie as much as Aamir did. I may still have Chak de India as my fav sports based movie, but Dangal comes very close to it. And the good common thing in both films is, they have no romantic angle in them. You can't ask for a better commercial movie than Dangal that not only makes you feel proud but also lets you see someone do so well at a sport which is poorly supported by our own country's federation.
Agar silver jeeti toh aaj ni toh kal log tanne bhool jaavenge..
Gold jeeti toh misaal ban jaavegi
Aur misaale di jaati hai beta, bhooli nahi jaati.
3. Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil has Karan go into the territory that Imtiaz films explores, i.e when the characters go through vulnerability and do/say things you may not wanna see or hear. Its easily Karan's best work till date, a story that talks about unrequited love and also friend-zoning. Leaving aside the final 15 mins of movie where Karan goes to the cancer angle and one too many other films references, the movie works perfectly for me. Whats really good though is that even the cancer angle is played very subtly, unlike say Kal Ho Na Ho when similar scenario was done in a hammy melodramatic manner (which worked for that film). Reason why Ae Dil works so much for me, is firstly the deep connect I had with characters of Ayan (played by Ranbir), Saba (played by Aishwarya Rai) and Alizeh (played by Anushka Sharma). Anushka herself said she couldn't identify with Alizeh character and found it fake, though I don't see it like that and find it very real. Ranbir has been playing man-child character a lot, still its hard to not love his performance, for me the pre Channa Mereya song scene where he looks in mirror and says 'Alizeh weds Ayan' and then looks at Alizeh coming out in wedding outfit admiring how beautiful she is looking until he realizes she isnt marrying him, that entire scene followed by post Channa Mereya scene where he admits he loves Alizeh and how much its hurting him to see he won't get her, Ranbir just plays this so perfectly that its impossible for me to not call it another of his performance that I totally loved (not in league of Rockstar and Barfi though). Anushka also gives one of her best performance after Band Baaja Baraat and NH10, and has amazing chemistry with Ranbir, easily second best after Ranbir-Deepika. And how good was it to see Aishwarya in a sexy avatar and act very well specially after that total hammy act of Jazbaa and not so convincing performance in Sarbjit, this was a very welcome change, watch out the scene where she tells Ayan 'mohabbat karna hamare bas mein nahi hai, par uss mohabbat se dur chale jaana woh hamare bas mein hai'. Was disappointed to see less of Fawad in film, assuming Karan edited it due to the ongoing political issue. Special mention to the dining table scene, the silence all characters share and yet their eyes say a lot what they are feeling at that moment was incredible. I would love to see how 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' ages with time for me, got a feeling that my love for film won't change.
Aasaan hai kya, aisi mohabbat karna.. jiske badle mohabbat na mile...
4. Neerja
I didn't see this coming, to love a Sonam kapoor movie so much including her performance too which is based on real life character of 'Neerja Bhanot' courageous attempt at saving life of passengers when Pan Am flight got hijacked in Karachi in 1986. Sonam actually plays the role so well, that now you wonder if there was any other actress who would had appealed more as Neerja? I doubt so even if Sonam at places still wasn't perfect. Kudos to director Ram Madhvani, who doesn't waste a single second and starts the movie with how the terrorists are planning their mission of hijacking plane intercut with Neerja having a party at home dancing on her favourite Rajesh Khanna songs. Ram doesn't take time to reach the flight sequence either with few scenes between Neerja and her parents, and Neerja-Jaideep (played by Shekhar Ravjiani). Also, very good use of flashback to tell story of Neerja's early abusive marriage, and a superb scene where Neerja is trying to find something to motivate her in time of crisis when she locks herself up in washroom, and we see flashback of her father telling 'bahadur bacha kaun'. Jim Sarbh is exceptional who plays one of the terrorist. Shabana Azmi is terrific in a supporting role, and her climax speech is very emotional to watch. Special mention to Yogendra Tikku who played Neerja's father role, I loved that scene where he calls to Shabana telling about the hijack and how worried he is when he tries to play the 'sab theek hoga' card. Gripping screenplay, super direction and performances by everyone to match it, makes Neerja such a good watch and not to forget the special feeling you get to see a brave act that had happened in real!
Zindagi badi honi chahiye, lambi nahi...
5. Pink
It was a movie of two very different and powerful halves. 1st one dealt with the plight of a single girl living in India specially if its a modern independent working women with all the kind of prejudices and behavior of society towards them, and director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury turns it into a very tense thrilling drama where we are always worried for the girls. And then 2nd half becomes a solid courtroom drama with Amitabh (playing Deepak Sehgal), and has occasional lecturing but it comes off so right that you don't get any manipulative feeling. Out of the girls, Kriti Kulhari (playing Falak) gives a splendid performance, a character that is willing to say sorry to the guys and sort out matter, but loses temper easily when they abuse Meenal (played by Tapsee Pannu), and similarly losing her temper in court when prosecuting lawyer Prashant (played by Piyush Mishra) accuses her and other girls for taking money from boys. You expect Amitabh to deliver a great performance, not award worthy (like many of our awards are doing) but praiseworthy nonetheless. What I really liked about his character was, that there was no reason given to why he takes case of those girls, whether it was a personal decision or something from his past, and director never lets us know which really works. Also, the idea to show the real event at end-credits was good one as it plants just a small doubt that maybe these girls aren't actually totally true, until Deepak slowly brings out everything that happened that night on resort. Deepak calling female cop super-woman, and telling one of the accused guy 'he is over-acting' were some of hillarious moments in 2nd half. Also, loved Deepak cross-questioning Rajveer (played by Angad Bedi). Angad also delivers a very good performance. My only complaint from movie was, that it was very un-necessary to give Rajveer backdrop of belonging to a political person, could easily had stayed out from it and still shown how he has influence to let police do what he wants. But thats a minor issue, Pink is a movie that should work for majority people, as it depicts the way girls are seen in India accurately, and also kudos to the writing team. Special mention to 'Tu chal' recited by Amitabh in the end-credits, very powerful motivating poem.
No ka matlab no hota hai, usse bolne wali ladki koi parichit ho, friend ho, girlfriend ho, koi sex-worker ho ya aapki apni biwi hi kyun na ho. No means No. And when someone says so, you stop.
6. Aligarh
Based on true incidents that happened in Aligarh University where Marathi professor Siras (played by Manoj Bajpayee) was accused for homosexual acts, Aligarh presents a strong case that doesn't just deals with the 'gay' angle but also tells a tale of how lonely life is for aging people if you have no companion and how your privacy at your own home can be invaded sometimes. And other issues like being a outsider how people treat you. Aligarh is one of those rare films where slow narrative doesn't bore you, as it just allows you to slip in and feel the life Siras was living even more. For instance, the emotions he portrays while sitting alone in his room at night having glass of whisky listening to 'aap ki nazron ne samjha pyar ke kaabil mujhe' on radio. Very much like 'Kapoor & Sons', director of Aligarh, Hansal Mehta makes sure gay angle is in no way stereotyped, like the gay party sequence where all people present are drinking, singing and enjoying spending time together like normal people do. Manoj Bajpayee is brilliant as Siras, showing the character as laidback, not seeking attention or even justice and quite introvert. He does show occasional anger but then goes back to his own life where no one else belongs. Wish Hansal had played out the climax well too, his death didn't really bring the kind of emotions I was expecting. Rajkumar Rao is superb in supporting role, his scenes with Manoj are such a pleasure to watch specially the boat and restaurant ones.
Tum log yeh shabd ke peeche kyun padh jaate ho, kabhi love ko samajne ki bhi koshish kiya karo. Its a beautiful word.
7. Raman Raghav 2.0
Movie began with a note telling that its not based on life of serial killer Raman Raghav, to my utmost surprise. Kashyap rather presents a modern day psycho killer Raman (played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who goes on the lines of the famous killer and enjoys killing people for no actual reasons. Until he finds Raghvan (played by Vicky Kaushal) as his soul-mate, a cop who is a drug addict and in a very abusive relationship with girlfriend Simmy (played by Sobhita Dhulipala). As the names suggest, Kashyap offers a very unlike love angle where Raman catches Raghav killing a person for no-reason and develops instant liking for him. There's a breathtaking sequence involving Raman and his sister, where her sister and her family life is in danger at every minute Raman is present there. Anurag Kashyap has always been at his best when presenting crime stories in a hardhitting and dark manner. Here, you don't get to see the murders mostly, yet the feeling to imagine the way it must have happened gives you chills. Nawazuddin is terrific as always, and so is Sobhita whose character I felt required a back-story. Meanwhile, Vicky despite amazing screen-presence couldn't really pull off the character and make it as interesting as Raman was. Whats good in the end is that Anurag Kashyap hasn't lost his touch at all, and maybe very close to be back to his best.
Apun ko lagta hai, apun aapko aapse jyada pehchaanta hai.
8. Airlift
A very well made film by director Raja Menon about a real life incident that involved evacuation of nearly 1,70,000 Indians stuck in Kuwait when Iraq invades. Its always good to see Akshay Kumar in a non-comic role, time and again it has shown how good he can be in such roles especially the patriot ones. Also, the patriot angle doesn't come out forced, is a major reason why Airlift works. Songs however are still not required in narrative, except for 'Dil cheez tujhe' and to some extent 'Tu bhoola jise'. Nimrat Kaur gets a good 2nd movie after getting recognition in Lunchbox. She has a long monologue scene in 2nd half, and the last line instantly reminds of Geet from Jab We Met. Also, Kumud Mishra is as always reliable in a supporting role. Purab Kohli also gives a fine performance. Airlift does falter in the final act, with a predictable ending. Raja fails to bring in a nail biting climax, something like Hollywood's Argo did. Yet, Airlift is a movie that you enjoy watching and knowing how so many Indians were successfully brought back to India.
Hamari koi aukaat nahi hai, agar hamari pehchan hai toh sirf ek
ki hum kuwaiti nahi Hindustani hai.
Saath hai, toh kuch hai.. .warna, nothing.
9. MS Dhoni - The Untold Story
A biopic is supposed to not only tell about good and bad incidents, but also what happened behind the scenes that no one knows. Sadly, MS Dhoni movie does very little of that. Director Neeraj Pandey rather presents us a entertaining movie based on Dhoni to feel proud of a person who was responsible for 2nd World Cup win after 28 yrs and also his contributions towards other formats like T20 and the down under series win. Personally, I never liked his captaincy, but I still very much enjoyed watching Sushant play the role to pitch perfect that at times felt like it was Dhoni, he got all the mannerisms so right (some might call it mimicking but I wont). And that expression after hitting the six in final, was simply epic. And I liked the idea of using effects and let Sushant be there in every frame of cricket matches, made the film look more real which wasn't case in Azhar. Supporting actors like Rajesh Sharma, Anupam Kher, Bhumika Chawla, Kumud Mishra are all in great form. Also, special mention to the sports shopkeeper friend of Dhoni, young child actor playing Dhoni, the local commentators who has a fixed dialogue 'match ke baad pata chal na jayega'. Disha Patani in her debut performance is really sweet and lovable, if only she wasn't saddened with irritating 'time hai na hamare paas' dialogue. How can a character know she is about to die? Kiara Advani does well too. And Herry Tangri is terrific in a cameo, resembling Yuvraj Singh completely. Neeraj uses 1st half to show Dhoni's school and teenager life, before his struggle to get into the team begins. Also, how he had to manage playing cricket and do a ticket collector job at Kharagpur station. Sadly, 2nd half is just year by year graph of Dhoni's cricketing life along with his love angles. He suddenly becomes captain, without any scene on it and then there's nothing behind the scenes of how the captain cool (that he gets labelled as) happened, his conversations with fellow team-mates ain't there either. In the end, MS Dhoni ends up entertaining, making you proud and letting Sushant Singh Rajput showcase his tremendous acting talent in a award winning performance, but Neeraj Pandey lets slip off making a memorable biopic. My fav scene from movie is interval one, when an empty train comes at platform with the background music and cheer of 'dhoni, dhoni' as Sushant takes the train deciding to focus just on cricket.
Dhoni koi tendulkar hai
Nahi paaji, dhoni dhoni hai.. ek baar uss ladke ko mauka mil gaya na, toh bahut aage tak jaayega.
10. Phobia
Very rare you get a spooky hindi movie, which is not just the routine cliches but has a story and that too a psychological one (Talaash indirectly last one that fulfilled that criteria). Here, we see leading lady Radhika Apte (playing Mehek) go through a bad incident while in taxi at late night. As a result, she develops a phobia where she is afraid of interacting with people and moving out of her house to such extent that she doesn't even open door when her own family is ringing door-bell. Even thinking about such a phobia gives me shivers, how could you live such a life where you are so refined to one place and can't talk with people. One of my fav scene is when Mehek tries to throw trashbag outside her house but is afraid to put that 1st step out of it. Or the one where her friend/wannabe boyfriend Shaan (played by Satyadeep Mishra) while dancing with her tries to take her outside the house but fails. There's very good use of current Mehak's mental condition, by bringing new plot where Mehek is curious to find whereabouts of the girl that lived in that apartment before she moved on. Special mention to lovely debut of Yashaswani Dayama (playing Nikki) who tries to help Mehak in the secret investigation, bringing some good humor in narrative, at one point you see her wearing tshirt with 'bhoot raja bahaar aaja' written on it. With no songs spoiling the story, Phobia keeps you engaged, and a super performance from Radhika Apte, makes it a great watch. Also, you will find it hard to guess the ending, atleast I couldn't.
Wahan ghar se bahar jaane se darr lagta tha,
Yahan ghar ke andar darr lag raha hai..
Kaha jaayun main..
Other Films that I liked a lot but couldn't make my top10 list were :
Sultan, Dhanak and Nil Battey Sannata
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