When “small” got big and viewers snubbed
conventional industry ‘wisdom’
Conventional Hindi
film industry ‘wisdom’ dictates that women-led storylines do not lend
themselves to box-office blockbusters, that audiences expect female-centric
films to be issue-based and grave, and that male-centric films strike gold only
when they are flashy, formulaic at least to some extent, larger-than-life
and/or headlined by men stars with larger-than-life images.
Conventional Hindi
film industry ‘wisdom’ can go take a hike. In 2018, viewers rejected the
Bollywood seers’ unadventurous interpretation of what constitutes “small” and “big”
cinema by often rejecting hyped-up mega-ventures, routinely embracing quality
content without a care for scale, and proving that “small” or “big” lies in the
eyes of the beholder.
That’s the
difference between this year and last. Most films on my list of Bollywood’s best in 2017 were barely-promoted indies that got limited time and space in
movie halls. In 2018, production majors backed a bunch of delightful,
non-formulaic middle-of-the-road ventures, marketed them well, and ensured that
they got pride of place in theatre schedules. Guess what? Many were hits. (Aside:
I use the term Bollywood to denote the Mumbai-based industry that makes films
primarily in the Hindi language.)
Here is my pick of
the best Bollywood films released in theatres in 2018.
BEST BOLLYWOOD FILMS:
1: Raazi
A brilliant
screenplay, Alia Bhatt’s flawless performance and Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s best
songs since Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
(2011) underpinned Meghna Gulzar’s emotionally charged yet restrained India-Pak
espionage thriller. Raazi’s sensitive
writing brought home the inevitable human cost of all war better than any Hindi
film in recent years.
Although the
screenplay foregrounded a Kashmiri Muslim teenager’s excruciating sacrifice for
the country, it did not tackily tomtom the heroine’s identity nor was it
patronising towards the community. In the midst of the high-decibel jingoism
pervading her industry, Ms Gulzar opted for minimalist storytelling and
achingly beautiful humanity instead.
2: Andhadhun
One of the most
compelling games of join the dots ever played on the big screen, Andhadhun was a howdunnit-cum-howtoendit
to beat all murder mysteries. Ayushmann Khurrana was fantastic as the artiste
who believes a physical challenge enhances an individual’s creativity. As if
watching Tabu being deliciously evil was not exciting enough, Andhadhun put the Bollywood spotlight on
the piano after a long time.
Sriram Raghavan’s
tale of a pianist, blindness and a young wife who wants her elderly husband
to launch her as an actor was a hilarious yet thoughtful commentary on fate,
amorality and the things guilt drives human beings to
do.
3: October
Was Shiuli
romantically interested in Dan or was she just intrigued by his eccentricity?
We will never know, but the what-if kept Dan going through director Shoojit
Sircar’s newest collaboration with writer Juhi Chaturvedi that brought out the
best in actor Varun Dhawan.
The film’s legacy
has been somewhat marred by the team’s disappointing reaction to a charge of
plagiarism by an unknown Marathi filmmaker called Sarika Mene (for details, click here.) An analysis of the facts suggests that Chaturvedi and Sircar drew some
inspiration from the true story of Mene’s brother reported in the Mumbai media
– nothing wrong with that, but a gracious acknowledgement, even if
post-release, would have meant something. Truth be told, I struggled with
whether I should include October on
this list for this very reason.
Be that as it may,
it is hard to forget this poignant saga of undefined and indefinable
relationships. October was poetry in
a motion picture filled with the most lyrical of frames seen in a Hindi film in
2018.
4: Gali Guleiyan
The pall of
melancholy enveloping debutant director Dipesh Jain’s Gali Guleiyan a.k.a. In The
Shadows is a lasting memory from 2018, and a reminder of how mesmerising
sadness can be. Manoj Bajpayee’s performance as a middle-aged man desperate to save
a child being abused in his neighbourhood was a highlight of the film as were
the strong supporting performances and the smoothness of the narrative
stringing together the stories of this troubled adult and that disturbed child
in ever-changing, never-changing Old Delhi.
5: Mukkabaaz
His dismal Manmarziyaan was heavily marketed, but
the Anurag Kashyap film that truly deserved to get eyeballs was not. Mukkabaaz featured dazzling performances
by Vineet Kumar Singh as a talented boxer bogged down by an apathetic, corrupt
establishment, and debutant Zoya Hussain as the spirited woman he falls in love
with. Only Kashyap could pack observations about politics in sport,
communalism, misogyny, physical disabilities, patriarchy and caste into one
film without trivialising anything yet, simultaneously, without seeming overly
conscious of each as an ‘issue’ to be dissected. The energy in this bright,
well-crafted film about “Uttar Pradesh ka
Mike Tyson” is so electric, it could light up a village for a month.
6: Veere Di Wedding
Cyndi Lauper
captivated Indian listeners in the 1980s singing Girls just wanna have fun, but it has taken decades for her voice
to reach Bollywood. Shashanka Ghosh’s inexorably funny yet ruminative Veere Di Wedding FINALLY drove home the
point that a woman-centric film can be as light-hearted as a man-centric
venture, adding (unlike most masala flicks toplined by major male stars) that
light does not mean assinine. It was the story of four regular women from
wealthy and middle-class backgrounds with regular joys, sorrows, insecurities
and fears, conformist relatives and nosy neighbours.
A hysterical
masturbation scene featuring Swara Bhasker shocked conservatives,
no doubt because a woman deriving pleasure from sex remains taboo among such
folk as does a public discussion on self-service. It was just one element
though in a supremely enjoyable buddy flick that thrived on the chemistry
between the female leads Kareena Kapoor Khan, Sonam Kapoor Ahuja,
Shikha Talsania and Bhasker, the unprecedented humour and frankness in
conversations between their characters, and the no-holds-barred celebration of
womanhood and of life.
7: Tumbbad
Supernatural drama?
Folktale? Horror flick? Psychological thriller? There is no telling whether Tumbbad is all the above or none of the
above. In a year in which he made big news with Zero, his directorial venture starring Shah Rukh Khan, Aanand L.
Rai also co-produced and doggedly promoted this formula-averse adventure helmed
by Rahi Anil Barve. The budget was vastly lower than Zero’s, yet Tumbbad was
as visually grand as it can get. The film’s strong cast was led by the good-looking
but not-seen-on-screen-enough Sohum Shah, who was also its producer.
Atmospheric and
chilling, it was one of the most original and rewarding cinematic experiences
of the year gone by.
8: Mulk
Courage does not
always translate into good cinema. In this case, thankfully, it did. Director
Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk grabbed
Islamophobia by the horns and wrestled the challenging subject with sensitivity
and grace. The Rishi Kapoor-Taapsee Pannu-starrer was effective because
Sinha chose to make it an entertainer, not a sermon that would have reached
only the already converted.
Kapoor can add Mulk to a list of films he can be proud
of in this remarkable post-2003 second innings of his career. Solutions are far
tougher to arrive at in real life than they were in Sinha’s story, but those
harrowing yet ultimately uplifting 140-plus minutes spent with old Murad Ali
and his supportive daughter-in-law Aarti were a healing assurance that our
fractured world might some day be a better place than it is right now.
9: Badhaai Ho
“Kasht tera hai,
final decision bhi tera hi hoga” (You are the one who will go through the
trouble that this pregnancy entails, therefore the final decision too will be
yours). Who would have guessed that a Bollywood afraid to even mention the
word “abortion” in 2016’s Sultan would,
in just two years, get to a place where an elderly male character would say
these words to his pregnant, elderly wife? Yet that is precisely what Manoj
Kaushik told Priyamvada Kaushik in Badhaai
Ho this year. Director Amit Ravindernath Sharma cast Neena Gupta and Gajraj
Rao as the older couple unexpectedly expecting a baby and facing the anger of
their grown-up offspring (Ayushmann Khurrana among them) along with the
intrusiveness, gossip and contempt of neighbours, relatives and strangers.
Twilight romance,
marital happiness, sibling bonds, young love, well-considered redefinitions of
conservatism and liberalism can all be found in this heartwarming, rib-tickling,
realistic and thoroughly gratifying family drama.
10: Stree
If Tumbbad was eerie and haunting, Stree explored another dimension of
horror with its uncommon combination of comedy, social insights and dread. A
female ghost attacks men in a town in Madhya Pradesh, leading residents to keep
their sons and husbands confined to their houses and driving some men to adopt
women’s clothing on their rare outings. A big salaam on behalf of self-respecting,
rights-conscious, freedom-loving womankind to writers Raj Nidimoru and Krishna
DK for turning on its head the accusatory “What was she wearing? Why was she out
of the house / out there / out late?” interrogation that women victims of
violence are constantly subjected to. Kudos too to them and director Amar
Kaushik for doing this in a film brimming inoffensively with laughter.
With Stree, it is also now officially
confirmed that there is nothing Rajkummar Rao cannot do: yes, in addition to
everything else, he is an A-grade comedian too.
SPECIAL MENTIONS:
Bhavesh Joshi Superhero
ALSO READ:
A
VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN PUBLISHED ON FIRSTPOST:
Photographs
courtesy:
Badhaai Ho poster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badhaai_Ho
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