5- Pink
Dir- Aniruddha Roy Chaudhury
On the face of it, there is little new or radical about Aniruddha Roy Chaudhary's 'Pink'- a legal drama that sees a rusty yet still articulate courtroom warrior stand up in defence of three women wronged because of an accidental crime of self defence against men who won't take 'no' for an answer. It is a template that seems to be done to dusted in both Hollywood and Bollywood cinema and yet the difference lies in how Chaudhary twirls it around in the heat of screenwriter Ritesh Shah's verbal fireworks and together the director and writer- armed with a legendary leading man- set out to slay the guilty culprit of urban misogyny itself.
It is also refreshing to see how the somewhat obvious plot setup— of three girls (played superbly by Tapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari and Andrea Triang) put through the shredder by society's accusing fingers- is treated with utter lack of overstatement. Chaudhary keeps things taut and believable- his film might be set in Delhi and the film's grim visuals reek of a realistic yet understated Sidney Lumet-like grit but this is a travesty that can happen anywhere, irrespective of any city in India. In fact, it is happening now, every second around us and it is the immediacy of the dastardly proceedings that makes 'Pink' so real and relatable.
Reality, however harsh, takes a backseat once we have Amitabh Bachchan's wild-eyed, bellowing and bipolar lawyer storm into the stage, as he takes on all our shallow hypocrisies and misconceptions one by one with whistle-worthy effect. What starts as a debate on right and wrong ends up becoming an impassioned cry for change.
4- Fan
Dir- Maneesh Sharma
At a time when we were all ready to write off Shah Rukh Khan as a fading sensation, the mammoth-sized star struck back and how. Maneesh Sharma’s ‘Fan’ might be most remembered for reminding us that there is still a dynamic, spontaneous and boundary-smashing actor inside the aging legend; the fact that he gets to play both the makeshift lookalike and his very own celebrity image that the former imitates with star-struck obsession is itself evidence of this. But there is more to come. ‘Fan’ lets him play both the admirer and the admired and in the process of setting up an enthralling battle of wits between the two, ends up being also a pitch-black satire on what it means to be a celebrity and what it means to slobber over one.
So, before all you cynics can write it off as contrived, pulpy or even unrealistic (the final 10 minutes may feel a bit trying after such taut, terrific storytelling all around), think again and you will realize that ‘Fan’ is firstly a bloody-edged jab at the nature of our fan-worship itself. Are we right in believing that we can do anything, no matter how right or wrong, in the unblinking worship of our screen gods? And to what limits are we all willing to go in our obsession?
Such matters are however beyond the scope of Gaurav Chandna, a hapless fanboy who has made an existence of living out his fantasies and who, when slighted by his idol Aryan Khanna, sets out on a path of chilling cinematic revenge not unlike one that our very own Khan’s anti-heroes of the 90s could have taken. There too, Sharma and writers Habib Faisal and Sharat Katariya deconstruct the image of the all-too-powerful star- here he is an egotistical and insecure man who finds his flimsy world collapsing. And it is only after ‘Fan’ has stunned your mind that it works best as an action-thriller that would have made Hitchcock proud.
3- Udta Punjab
Dir- Abhishek Chaubey
Nearly everyone walked into ‘Udta Punjab’ thinking that it will be a hilarious, off-the-wall comedy in which the problem of drug addiction of the eponymous state would be merely a backdrop. So, nobody was ready when Abhishek Chaubey, armed with one spectacular cast of both big and small performers, brought the backdrop into the centre stage and plunged it right on our eyes when we were least expecting it. You could call ‘Udta Punjab’ a cautionary crusade with coked-up humour lacing its intensity. I would call it the year’s most moral film- a film which tells us of a state that is in a deluge more sickening than a fatal overdose.
But if cinema could be a roaring campaign of protest, then other filmmakers should learn a thing or two from how Chaubey made sure that we were on the edge of our seats, grabbed by our collars and both tickled and terrified with perverse glee as a beautifully sculpted screenplay (with great support by Sudip Sharma) connects a handful of good, bad, helpless and befuddled characters in a tale that has them confronting harsh truths, gruelling realities and even possible hope and redemption.
‘Udta Punjab’ piles on the unglamorous drama, the unsavoury grit and the unconventionally biting comedy to devastating effect as its characters are fleshed to throbbing life by a cast of extraordinary performances. Shahid Kapoor’s powder-guzzling pop star Tommy Singh and Diljit Dosanjh’s do-gooder underdog cop Sartaj are both terrific but not quite as Alia Bhatt’s ferociously emotional unnamed lass, who falls and rises from the morbid depths of depravity to find a hint of mustard-hued hope. All the while, Amit Trivedi plays a fabulous score that sizzles with both the heady thrill of cocaine and the horrific anguish of an addiction.
2- Dangal
Dir- Nitesh Tiwari
Just when you thought you could find medallists destined for gold literally on trees, Nitesh Tiwari's masterful and mesmerising sports drama told us all, with the fierce determination of a stern father, that true legends are born out of domestic discipline and nourishment and not just blind luck and chance. The film sees a determined albeit domineering father who sizes up his daughters, compels them to give up their desires and teaches them how to set the wrestling pits and mats on fire. Sure, it takes hard decisions to make it to glory but Mahavir Singh Phogat also does it because he believes.
And rousing belief is what Phogat's spirited daughters inspire in us all, played in different ages by a series of exceptionally talented girls (especially the delightful Zaira Wasim and Suhani Bhatnagar) who would now be well-known enough to all. Instead, let's talk about Aamir Khan's phenomenally solid Phogat himself- a man whose ruthless methods make him hardly heroic but also whose cast-iron integrity and winsome sincerity make his pain-staking quest for glory truly thrilling. Meanwhile, Tiwari skewers our flawed beliefs of both gender and convention. 'Dangal' scores in the dramatic yet utterly credible stakes that it brings to the tale. People still need to be convinced that women, too, can slug it off with worthy opponents. Modernists need to be convinced that sport stars can be created out of traditional training too.
And we, as spectators, need to realise that this is the quintessential sports film for Bollywood since 'Chak De! India'. Tiwari's film has both brains and brawn in both its enthralling narrative and its muscular wrestling sequences and this is something that is just too rare and indeed special enough to be celebrated.
1- Raman Raghav 2.0
Dir- Anurag Kashyap
Anurag Kashyap's brilliant, breathless and bloody tale is more than just a serial killer thriller featuring one of Bollywood cinema's most incredible actors at the top of his game. Rather, 'Raman Raghav 2.0', that merely takes its name from the infamous actual murderer of the 1960s, tears out the rawest nerve of urban society- the facade of civilisation rotten from the core with animalistic brutality. Violence and depravity, as Kashyap's film suggests, is an element of our lives and it is the utterly morbid depths of the same that can make a cop the mirror image of a recklessly unhinged criminal on the loose.
And it is in the giddily enthralling yet sobering celebration of this nihilistic homoerotic union between two sides of the coin of anarchy that 'Raman Raghav 2.0' hits the peak of a bristling, brutal potboiler. Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays, with bloody-eyed menace, the psychotic Ramanna, who ambles around and sheds blood to escape from a dark world collapsing around him. And Vicky Kaushal plays, with equally hard-hitting flair, as the damaged Raghavan,a seemingly smart-aleck cop who has demons that drive him on his suicidal path. The two are destined to meet and become the face of evil that stalks the streets at night.
But before that, Kashyap, aided by co-writer Vasan Bala and cinematographer Jay Oza, reveals real balls of steel in ratcheting up the unbearable tension of a devastating death (watch that prolonged and heart-wrenching scene between Ramanna and his beleaguered sister played superbly by Amruta Subhash) and the shocking impact of the two men's amoral exploits. And in the backdrop is suburban Bombay- a character bursting with sinful sleaze, slime and sordid truths- that becomes the fiery stage for the blood-splattered fest that the Devil would have enjoyed gladly.
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