My Bollywood’s Best of 2020

Welcome to my world where Sami Naik presents you his annual report about the best things that happened in Bollywood that year. It has been declared that the quality of Hindi-language films has declined due to mainstream commercialism and entertainment which is unfortunately true but believing that quality films in India are extremely less in production, I beg to differ. The prime reason is that the sensible audience has to discover such projects and in the times of streaming services, more chances have increased that a lot of writers and directors, who were not getting the platform, will get offers and earn recognitions from the audience when they release their work. Audience or film critic like me make efforts here by blogging and do justice for people who deserve to be recognized for their quality work.

Since 2014, I have been publishing an annual report into my blog about the Hindi-language film industry of India. The purpose of this report/blog is to inform my fellow cinephiles about the better prospects of filmmaking in the film industry and making them aware of the rich quality of films that either caught the viewer’s attraction and received the deserving praise or unluckily went unnoticed and unrecognized. Following are my previous reports about the best of Bollywood:

2014  2015  2016  2017  2018  2019

My judgments are based on the realistic measures fetched from the films whether those are big or small budgeted, comprised of the ensemble or lesser-known cast. No compromise on quality. Every year, I dig around three dozen potential Hindi films, watch, and judge, pass the reviews and note down the artistic and technical excellence. For 2020, the following 38 films were selected:

Bulbbul, Halahal, Love Aaj Kal, Taish, Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa, Chhapaak, Chintu Ka Birthday, Maska, Choked, Bhonsle, Kadakh, Thappad, AK vs AK, Ram Singh Charlie, What Are The Odds, Panga, Dil Bechara, Sir, Gunjan Saxena, Axone, Yeh Ballet, Pareeksha, Shikara, Kaamyaab, Mee Raqsam, Ludo, Gulabo Sitabo, Chippa, Ghoomketu, Kaali Khuhi, Serious Men, London Confidential, Cargo, Atkan Chatkan, Dolly Kitty Aur Wo Chamakte Sitare, Yaara, Operation Parindey, and Shakuntala Devi.

In addition, I have checked the soundtracks of Ginny Weds Sunny, Baaaghi 3, Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan, Angrezi Medium, and Malang to observe the music department.

Once I am done with all the selected films, I decide by finalizing the works and pick the winner.

SO HOW THIS ALL WORKS??

1. There are 21 categories that are segregated into three different sections which are musical (5), technical (10), and major (6) sections.
2. Each category has a winner and ‘maximum’ 5 honorable mentions which are unranked and labeled as ‘Other Notable Works’.
3. If I require, I will provide short detail in each category.
4. After finishing with 21 categories, I will write down the total number of nominations and wins submitted in my report as stat fun.

The wait is over…

Allow me to honor Bollywood’s artistic and technical excellence of 2020 according to Sami Naik.

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MUSICAL SECTION

BEST BACKGROUND SCORE

AMIT TRIVEDI (BULBBUL)

Other Notable Works:

Karsh Kale (Choked)

Siddharth Mahadevan, Soumil Shringarpure, Qaran Mehta (Ram Singh Charlie)

Gaurav Godkhindi & Govind Vasantha (Taish)

Cyrille de Haes (Chippa)

A.R.Rahman & Qutub-E-Kripa (Shikara)

 

BEST MALE PLAYBACK SINGER

JUBIN NAUTIYAL (PHIR CHALA – GINNY WEDS SUNNY)

Other Notable Works:

Sachet Tandon (Faaslon Mein – Baaghi 3)

Arijit Singh (Hardum Humdum – Ludo)

Darshan Raval (Mehrama – Love Aaj Kal)

Ayushmann Khurrana (Mere Liye Tum Kafi Ho – Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan)

 

 

BEST FEMALE PLAYBACK SINGER

RACHITA ARORA (SUNN SUR JO – CHOKED)

Other Notable Works:

Monali Thakur (Muskurah – Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa)

Suchismita Das (Ratiya – Ram Singh Charlie)

Rekha Bhardwaj (Dori Tutt Gaiyaan – Gunjan Saxena)

Jyotica Tangri (Kol Kol – Taish)

 

 

BEST SONG & LYRICS

MEHRAMA (DARSHAN RAVAL/ANTARA MITRA/IRSHAD KAMIL/PRITAM – LOVE AAJ KAL)

Other Notable Works:

Phir Chala (Jubin Nautiyal/Kunaal Vermaa/Payal Dev – Ginny Weds Sunny)

Humraah (Sachet Tandon/Kunaal Vermaa/The Fusion Project – Malang)

Hardum Humdum (Arijit Singh/Sayeed Quadri/Pritam – Ludo)

Kudi Nu Nachne De (Vishal Dadlani/Priya Saraiya/Sachin-Jigar – Angrezi Medium)

 

 

BEST MUSIC

PRITAM (LOVE AAJ KAL)

Other Notable Works:

Raghav Sachar/Prashant Pillai/Govind Vasantha/Enbee/Gaurav Godkhindi (Taish)

Pritam (Ludo)

Mithoon/Ankit Tiwari/Ved Sharma/The Fusion Project/Adnan Dhool/Rabi Ahmed (Malang)

 

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TECHNICAL SECTION

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

VEERA KAPUR EE (BULBBUL)

Other Notable Works:

Sachin Lovalekar (Shikara)

Edward Lalrempuia & Karan Singh Parmar (Axone)

Payal Ashar (Ram Singh Carlie)

Darshan Jalan & Manish Tiwari (Kaamyaab)

Veera Kapur EE (Gulabo Sitabo)

 

 

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

MEENAL AGARWAL (BULBBUL)

Other Notable Works:

Sonal Sawant (Shikara)

Shamim Khan & Sikandar Ahmed (Bhonsle)

Mandar D. Nagaonkar (Taish)

Meenal Agarwal (Kadakh)

 

 

BEST SOUND DESIGN

SUSHANT H AMIN (TAISH)

Other Notable Works:

Arun Nambiar (Ram Singh Charlie)

Udit Duseja (Yeh Ballet)

Subash Sahoo (Mee Raqsam)

Sukanta Majumdar (Chippa)

Anish John (Bulbbul)

 

 

BEST EDITING

NITESH BHATIA (HALAHAL)

Other Notable Works:

Antara Lahiri (Yeh Ballet)

Priyank Prem Kumar (Taish)

Manas Mittal (Chippa)

Nitin Baid (Chhapaak)

 

 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

JIGMET WANGCHUK (BHONSLE)

There is a scene where Bhonsle is done with the meeting. Bhonsle is fixed in a crowd of 70,000 people during a festival of Anant Chaturdashi. That lengthy scene took six retakes to complete the shot. In all this continuity, Bhonsle becomes a deep muted narration of a revolutionary poet.

The most important consideration for a slow cinema is the camera work which makes the viewers observe the detailing of the smaller portions of the screenwriting. And this is where Bhonsle was very impressive. Visual shots fixing you to the neighborhood like dirty old tableware, a mischief of rats, a loaf of bread near to a street dog, etc are the essentials of adaptable graphics that squeezes you to care this kind of visual bravura.

Other Notable Works:

Avik Mukhopadhyay (Gulabo Sitabo)

Johan Heurlin Aidt (What Are The Odds)

Harshvir Oberai (Taish)

Ramanuj Dutta (Chippa)

Siddharth Diwan (Bulbbul)

 

 

BEST ACTION

IAN VAN TEMPERLEY (TAISH)

 

BEST STORY

DEVANSHU SINGH & SATYANSHU SINGH (CHINTU KA BIRTHDAY)

Axone highlighted the social challenges the Northeast Indian migrants were facing in the capital. Mee Raqsam depicted the fondness of a young girl about a classical dance in a conservative Muslim family and the consequences. Kaamyaab voiced their support for the lesser-known side actors and told an influential story about such an actor who wishes to conclude his career on a memorable note. Ram Singh Charlie gave a painful insider into the circus entertainers and their struggle to survive at an old age after the business is put to halt. AK vs AK was an unusual plot about celebrities taking professional and personal revenge.

But my pick is Chintu Ka Birthday which was astonishingly built on innocent hopes between the screaming agonies of political conflicts. A six-year-old boy wants to celebrate his birthday with his Indian family, and friends in war-torn Iraq in the times when the US military has invaded the country. What is more observing about the story is feeling the agony of one of the great political conflicts of this century through the eyes of the kid who is not even a civilian of that country. That said so, the story indirectly takes you to so many millions of stories of Iraqi children into sparing a thought who wished to live free in those times enough to cut a cake on their birthday.

Other Notable Works:

Avinash Sampath (AK vs AK)

Nicholas Kharkongor (Axone)

Nitin Kakkar & Sharib Hashmi (Ram Singh Charlie)

Safdar Mir & Husain Mir (Mee Raqsam)

Hardik Mehta (Kaamyaab)

 

 

BEST SCREENPLAY

RAJAT KAPOOR (KADAKH)

Many of you have noticed about my film reviews that I concentrate and judge more about the film’s screenwriting. Because it is the most essential part along with the editing which keeps the spirit of the film intact and helps in maintaining finesse.

Halahal, Ram Singh Charlie, Thappad, and Bulbbul, all had the best screenwriting to compel the audience and drive into it. But why I feel Kadakh is the best work from all these? All four films have a story interchanging its parallels whereas Kadakh has time to spend in between the lines of an unusual incident to get a hold of the entire story towards the conclusion. Rajat Kapoor’s screenwriting had smartness of continuity by playing a lively party with well-crafted supporting characters giving the couples a helping hand in a limited time. The audience will feel the misery and stay in the party unnoticed and waiting for the couples’ next steps towards the body lying in the box.

Other Notable Works:

Gibran Noorani (Halahal)

Nitin Kakkar & Sharib Hashmi (Ram Singh Charlie)

Mrunmayee Lagoo (Thappad)

Anvita Dutt (Bulbbul)

 

 

BEST DIALOGUES

BUDDHADEB DASGUPTA (ANWAR KA AJAB KISSA)

Other Notable Works:

Juhi Chaturvedi (Gulabo Sitabo)

Anurag Kashyap & Vikramaditya Motwane (AK vs AK)

Gibran Noorani (Halahal)

Nitin Kakkar & Sharib Hashmi (Ram Singh Charlie)

Rajat Kapoor (Kadakh)

 

 

BEST SCENE

THAPPAD

What else can there be the best scene of the year than the slap? Thappad is Anubhav Sinha’s social drama film centering on a slapping culture generally forced by men as a sign of gender dominance over women. Now we as the audience know that Taapsee will be slapped at some time in the film. The excellence of the slapping scene lies in the whole buildup which makes it so special.

Vikram enjoying one of the best evenings of his life, celebrating with his friends until that call which infuriates him and makes him verbally come into a rough argument with his colleague. Enters his wife, Amrita, trying to take her man to avoid the scene until becoming herself a scene and then comes a whacker.

Interestingly, she was nowhere involved in this incident. She became the victim and all the party attendees stared at her. Even after the slap, the scene continues to shoulder her in a slow-motion camera work towards her room with the female members of the family shell-shocked.

This slap scene is the core of the film and that part was directed superbly than any scene I have watched last year.

 

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MAJOR SECTION

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

BARUN SOBTI (HALAHAL)

Barun Sobti was one of the driving forces in Halahal’s excellence. Amongst the other best-supporting roles I have noted below, the only genuine competitor to him was Anurag Kashyap. But Anurag’s capacity as a supporting role was misleading and becoming equivalent to Anil’s leading character despite the plot’s thickness demanding the importance of Anurag’s role as secondary. What makes Barun worthier than Anurag to me is his supporting role justifying in the script and becoming a helping hand to Sachin Khedekar’s role. And Barun gave a realistic look to his role. His body language was more precise to work on the screenplay.

Other Notable Works:

Rajkummar Rao (Ludo)

Anurag Kashyap (AK vs AK)

Pankaj Tripathi (Gunjan Saxena)

Javed Jaffrey (Maska)

Deepak Dobriyal (Angrezi Medium)

 

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

MANISHA KOIRALA (MASKA)

Manisha’s terrific performance was penalized to a shockingly shorter period in the film where the leading roles were given to the amateur actors having a tough time running the film on their own. Manisha’s role had the weight, the charisma of the character who went into the skin and displayed rich body language, accent, and physical performance of a typical Parsi woman.

Other Notable Works:

Amruta Subhash (Choked)

Geetika Vidya Ohlyan (Thappad)

Seema Pahwa (Chintu Ka Birthday)

Shradha Kaul (Mee Raqsam)

Sanya Malhotra (Shakuntala Devi)

 

 

BEST ACTOR

KUMUD MISHRA (RAM SINGH CHARLIE)

Surprising, innit? None other than Kumud Mishra. Am I serious? Yes, I am. We have been watching him playing different character roles, most prominently since starring in Rockstar. But expecting to do a leading role? One has to ask the director’s thinking behind considering him for such a physically challenging role. He dropped his weight, he did Chaplin impersonations, he ran driving a rickshaw. And there were moments where Kumud executed so well. That scene where Ram Singh paints his face and gets emotional or when he meets himself and speaks to him, those were the melting points.

There were other actors who did so well like Adil in Pareeksha especially when he confesses his crime, drops my jaws. Sachin surprised me in Halahal. Sanjay did such justice to his role in Kaamyaab. Amitabh with age proved that he still is phenomenal in whatever role he considers to play. Anil Kapoor’s role in AK vs AK was the only tough competitor to Kumud’s as he gave his career’s best performance.

Other Notable Works:

Amitabh Bachchan (Gulabo Sitabo)

Anil Kapoor (AK vs AK)

Adil Hussain (Pareeksha)

Sachin Khedekar (Halahal)

Sanjay Mishra (Kaamyaab)

 

 

BEST ACTRESS

DEEPIKA PADUKONE (CHHAPAAK)

This one was easy for me. No, I am not judging her performance because the makeup was impressive. With this real-life character, Deepika smoked a soul and gave a performance she has rarely given before. She applied a different facial and body language. Notice how she smiles and laughs when she interacts with Amol.

Amongst the best performances I have written below, Deepika’s toughest competitor for me was Taapsee Pannu who had a similar victim card but less severe than an acid-attack which was a face slap. But Taapsee’s most acting minutes in consequences of the incident were gloomy and in despair. More emotional and a little slow.

Other Notable Works:

Kangana Ranaut (Panga)

Saiyami Kher (Choked)

Taapsee Pannu (Thappad)

Sanjana Sanghi (Dil Bechara)

Tillotama Shome (Sir)

 

 

BEST DIRECTOR

RANDEEP JHA (HALAHAL)

On his directional debut, I think Randeep Jha has learned a lot of directional techniques straight from Anurag Kashyap for whom he was assistant director in Ugly, Raman Raghav 2.0, and Mukkabaaz. Because you will see some glimpse of Anurag when you watch this Halahal. I am really impressed with the tone of the film on which the story is developed.

Keeping it to hardly 100 minutes, Randeep Jha wastes no time in building the plot and grows it to further implications. And the most important element which the director misses about the film in India, Halahal gets its deserving technical ending, a fitting conclusion.

Other Notable Works:

Vikramaditya Motwane (AK vs AK)

Devashish Makhija (Bhonsle)

Nitin Kakkar (Ram Singh Charlie)

Anubhav Sinha (Thappad)

Safdar Rahman (Chippa)

 

 

BEST FILM

AK vs AK

And now the final winner!!! Six films were in my mind. And after closely observing all of these works, I believe AK vs AK is easily the best film of 2020. AK v AK is about real-life celebrities, director Anurag Kashyap and actor Anil Kapoor, who were not destined to work with each other in the past, and at some event, they throw themselves into a heated argument resulting in a professional enmity. Anurag takes his revenge by kidnapping Anil’s daughter Sonam Kapoor and films his struggle to find her.

This is the funniest kidnapping you will watch in any Indian film. You are watching something you have never experienced. This mockumentary-style cat-and-mouse mystery chase is a blend of suspense, black comedy rich with entertainment.

Other Notable Works:

Halahal

Bhonsle

Ram Singh Charlie

Thappad

Chippa

 

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MULTIPLE WINS & NOMINATIONS
WINS	NOMS	FILMS
3	7	Bulbbul
3	7	Halahal
2	3	Love Aaj Kal
2	9	Taish
1	2	Ginny Weds Sunny
1	2	Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa
1	2	Chhapaak
1	2	Chintu Ka Birthday
1	2	Maska
1	3	Kadakh
1	4	Choked
1	4	Bhonsle
1	6	Thappad
1	7	AK vs AK
1	10	Ram Singh Charlie
	1	Shakuntala Devi
	1	Baaghi 3
	1	Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan
	1	What Are The Odds
	1	Panga
	1	Dil Bechara
	1	Sir
	2	Angrezi Medium
	2	Gunjan Saxena
	2	Malang
	2	Axone
	2	Yeh Ballet
	2	Pareeksha
	3	Shikara
	3	Kaamyaab
	3	Mee Raqsam
	4	Ludo
	4	Gulabo Sitabo
	6	Chippa

(Most of the images used in this blog are produced from the web sources inserted in the image.)

Thank you for reading my annual Bollywood honors report. I will return with a new report next year. Share your opinion below. Stay safe.

 

My Bollywood’s Best of 2014

Since I became a blogger writing sporadic pieces, I have given my opinion for most of the movies I have watched. There was a time when I used to watch Hindi movies with utter passion but now I hang my glasses. With the calendar year passing by, my rate of watching Hindi-language movies have fallen drastically low now. Reasons are many but majorly what is lacking in nowadays Hindi-movies is a material which make you invest your time quality.

Bollywood still in its second decade of the century majorly lacks stories on which a perfect screenplay can be implemented and put to work. Quality of acting is not sublime and no matter how good the music sounds, the worse are the lyrics. Every beginning of the year, Bollywood and its pundits, moviegoers and viewers are focused on the most prestigious movies award, FILMFARE. Unfortunately, Filmfare also do not justify most of the awards and have richly fallen under the good-pockets and well-known showbiz families.

In the last five years, I have noticed a slight change in movie production companies introducing new faces or encouraging some deserving talents and publicizing their image and promoting their movies on a high scale. In 2014, contrary to my expectations, I have watched some good movies. I chose almost 25 movies from the list of Hindi-language movies of last year from Wikipedia, which helped me increase my options of deciding to pick a promising movie. Some were disappointing but some were exciting.

Today in this blog, I present to you my Bollywood’s best of 2014 from most of the categories I have scrutinized. This is the first time I am blogging for Bollywood and will also publish for Hollywood in near future. I will discuss most of the categories if not all and mention some noteworthy names related to that category. The categories are under three different sections.  So here I go;

MUSICAL SECTION

BEST BACKGROUND SCORE

A.R.RAHMAN (HIGHWAY)

Other Notable Works: Vishal Bharadwaj (Dedh Ishqiya), Amit Trivedi (Queen) & Mathias Duplessy (Finding Fanny)

 

BEST PLAYBACK SINGERS

MIR MUKHTIYAR ALI (FANNY RE – FINDING FANNY)

REKHA BHARDWAJ (JAGAAVE SAARI RAINA – DEDH ISHQIYA)

BEST SONG & LYRICS

PATAKHA GUDDI (NOORAN SISTERS/IRSHAD KAMIL/A.R.RAHMAN – HIGHWAY)

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HDTS80dlr4

Other Notable Works: Bismil (Sukhwinder Singh/Gulzar/Vishal Bhardwaj – Haider)

 

BEST MUSIC

MATHIAS DUPLESSY (FINDING FANNY)

Other Notable Works: Amit Trivedi (Queen) & Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy (2 States)

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TECHNICAL SECTION

BEST CHOREOGRAPHY

SUDESH ADANA (BISMIL – HAIDER)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

PAYAL SALUJA (DEDH ISHQIYA)

There are two prominent features in Dedh Ishqiya which give you detailed texture – dialogues and costumes. Most of the shooting was done in Mahmudabad Palace near Barabanki. As per the script, the ancient Urdu era was revitalized with royalty. So this adds major concern with the two aforementioned features. Payal Saluja (Raanjhanaa, Ishqiya, Maqbool) has done fantastic work with costume designing and her first marks will raise your eyebrows when the attendees will gather at the royal party in Begum Para’s Haveli. Excellent dress-work on Naseeruddin Shah and Huma Qureshi and most impressively on Madhuri Dixit.

Other Notable Works: Dolly Ahluwalia (Haider) & Tabasheer Zutshi (Miss Lovely)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

TABASHEER ZUTSHI (MISS LOVELY)

Ashim Ahluwalia offers a close look at the C-grade pulp Hindi cinema of the eighties which used to make cheap horror-porn movies. It is a bold movie with an independent theme where the director exposes backstage dealings behind the curtains and problems in shooting such movies in the past. With such a script on the floor, all that matters to make the movie so special is costume and production design. If this movie proved its worth on global cinematic village, then full marks to aforementioned designing work, both projected by Tabasheer Zutshi.

Other Notable Works: Subrata/Amit (Haider & Dedh Ishqiya)

BEST SOUND DESIGN

RESUL POOKUTTY (HIGHWAY)

One of few impressive factors from Imtiaz Ali‘s road movie is Alia Bhatt, ARR’s background score, attractive locations, and sound design. The Rahman-Resul musical duo has proved the winner most of the time and also has an unforgettable achievement of bagging Academy Awards for Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. Although A.R.Rahman was off-color with average tracks but the sound designer was in full form.

Other Notable Works: Sanjay/Allwin (Queen) & Anilkumar/Prabal (Mardaani)

BEST SCENE

BEST EDITING

AARTI BAJAJ (UGLY)

Aarti Bajaj was the first spouse of Anurag Kashyap and is a regular movie editor for Anurag Kashyap and Imtiaz Ali movies. She is very responsible for their successful movies. The beauty of moviemaking lies in editing and my pick is Ugly. Ugly has a lot of turns, the script will fold you and different characters will puzzle you. Body smashing in a traffic accident in the same frame was pretty unnatural but the next scene of interrogation in the police station is very realistic. For me that was one of the best scenes of 2014, the reason is it was almost a 7-minute interrogation scene. Normally such scenes bore you but the editing is so marvelous that the scene grows and boils in your nerves. The way the Indian police take the case so light is fantastically shot and well-acted. Besides, scenes of driving, phone calls, searching and beatings, and many more brings a true color of translating fiction into reality. Wonderful editing!

Other Notable Works: Aarti Bajaj (Highway) & Sanjib Datta (Mardaani)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

PANKAJ KUMAR (HAIDER)

Photography! Brilliant work by Pankaj on Haider. I cannot go with details about this but among many movies, I found the cinematography of Haider the best one.

Other Notable Works: Anil Mehta (Finding Fanny & Highway)

BEST ACTION

SHAM KAUSHAL (UGLY)

Sorry if anyone feels this pick is offensive. I don’t have that level of enthusiasm for supernatural, unrealistic, and larger-than-life action movies of the Indian movie industry.  A lot of rage and fury, tortures and scorcher, gunshots and beatings. Ugly gives you a powerful display of action.

Other Notable Works: Manohar Verma (Mardaani)

BEST SCREENPLAY

RAJKUMAR HIRANI & ABHIJAT JOSHI (PK)

It was tough for me to pick the movie with the most outstanding screenplay. Yes PK deserves this credit. This pair Hirani/Joshi is enjoying the booming period of scripting one of the best movies viewers have witnessed since the last decade. Under Vinod Chopra Films, they have scripted the Munnabhai series, then 3 Idiots, and now PK. Every aforementioned movie has a message, a rising voice towards the system transforming to roar over changing the system. Being comical in nature, their scripts marvelously have touched almost every viewer’s heart to fully accept the nature of the movie. Every time their movies successfully inspire us with their trend-setting catchy dialogues. PK is no less than a revolution.

Both writers introduce an alien in the country of religions, hundreds of languages, and cultures. He misses a gadget and in quest loses his edge and adapts to the local language. Meanwhile, he suffers a colossal hindrance towards different religious ways of breathing life. With the flow of the script pulling the strings, the screenplay brilliantly develops characters to assist the alien to meet an end. Just another golden egg in their basket! Take a bow, guys!

Other Notable Works: Rajat Kapoor (Ankhon Dekhi) & Homi/Kersi (Finding Fanny)

BEST DIALOGUES

ANURAG KASHYAP (UGLY)

Natural!!!! very very lively and natural. No matter if that is a sick Shalini, tortured Chaitanya, opportunist Siddhant, or furious Shoumik; dialogues are not on paper but well expressed on lips. The viewer/listener will never feel an inch of unoriginality of conversation. As more there is intense, the more the dialogues burn you. The best examples are the 7-minute interrogation scene as mentioned before and where Shoumik sends Rahul to the prison where Chaitaniya is imprisoned and eating food. Wonderful job Keshyup sir!

Other Notable Works: Vishal Bharadwaj (Dedh Ishqiya) & Rajat Kapoor (Ankhon Dekhi)

 

BEST STORY

JANAKI VISHWANATHAN (YEH HAI BAKRAPUR)

Ok, the readers perhaps or surely will raise their eyebrows over this selection hehe but I am free to pick what I find more deserving. Many of you haven’t seen this movie and I promise you that the movie itself is below-average. But what attracts me the most is its story which is quite thought-provoking

Yeh Hai Bakrapur is a low-budget social satire based on the rural parts of India who blindly follow their faith. One small kid loves his goat and he doesn’t want it to get sold but his poor family has no solution to repay the debt. One young man who loves the kid’s sister comes with a brilliant plan with the goat by painting the name ‘Allah’ on the goat’s skin which makes the entire gaoonwalay fell in ultimate impression and belief that the goat is an angel and will be a sin to sell or sacrifice it. This rural blind faith following sketch is the bitter truth and a daring dilemma that speaks a lot of depth about the deception and extreme trust over something. Unfortunately, the direction was painful which bombed a very scintillating subject.

 Other Notable Works: Amole Gupte (Hawaa Hawaai) & Hirani/Joshi (PK)

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MAJOR SECTION

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

DIMPLE KAPADIA (FINDING FANNY)

She is my automatic pick. One of the finest actresses in Hindi cinema always adapts the skin of the character. She has played many different roles and in Finding Fanny, she maintains her rhythm. Dimple is Mrs. Rosalina “Rosie” Eucharistica, the self-appointed ‘Lady’ of Pocolim and mother-in-law of Deepika’s character Angie. She is over-proud for nothing and her nose touches the clouds. Some terrific screenplays ease acting gurus to add another highlight in their CV. A brilliant display of acting.

Other Notable Works: Amrita Singh (2 States) & Lillete Dubey (One by Two)

 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

VIJAY RAAZ (DEDH ISHQIYA)

Tough one but this one is the best. It is not surprising for me that this man is one of the most underrated actors in Hindi cinema. His quality is that he makes the viewers observe him. He made his name from Rajat Kapoor’s Raghu Romeo. If small B’s not well-known movie ‘Run’ was a 50-50, then this ‘Kawwa Biryani’ actor was highly praised for his comedy. Amir Khan’s Delhi Belly was centered on three partners in crime but Vijay was again a specific name in talks. Now in Dedh Ishqiya, he plays another villainous role of Jaan Mohammad who is MLA-gangster of Mahmudabad. He doubles his poetry skills word-to-word copying from another poet to win Begum Paara’s heart, marry her and become the Nawab of Mahmudabad. The fury is hidden in his role as the greediness of the character gashes with the wait for approval from Begum Para. This Vijay Raaz deserves one prestigious award in his lifetime before the lifetime achievement award.

Other Notable Works: Tahir Raj Bhasin (Mardaani), Manav Kaul (Citylights), Pankaj Kapur (Finding Fanny), Rajat Kapoor (Ankhon Dekhi) & Vineet Kumar Singh (Ugly)

 

BEST ACTRESS

KANGANA RANAUT (QUEEN)

Although there have been many ladies in 2014 with majestic performances but none reach the clouds where Kangana was heavily raining. Kangana’s role of Rani Mehra in Queen is unanimous. She plays the role of a middle-class girl who wishes to spend her honeymoon with her soon-to-be husband in Paris. At the last moment, the man unties the knot and with all soreness of life knocking at the wrong time with tickets in hand, she decides to visit Paris by herself and breathe the life. There begins east-meet-west and sweet simple Delhi girl experience an unforgettable journey and befriends with people from different nationalities.

The flow of the story looks unnatural most of the time but let’s focus on Kangana. Since her debut, she looked promising, and finally, a feast is served as she displays her best performance ever. Her facial expressions are soooo natural and her normal behavior towards the unexpected Parisian lifestyle is fantastic. She will make you feel when her fiancé will inform her breakup in the beginning. She will make you stare when she will struggle to dance in the bar. You can’t ask for more than that. Queen is very Kangana-show.

Other Notable Works: Monali Thakur (Lakshmi), Seema Pahwa (Ankhon Dekhi), Alia Bhatt (Highway) & Tabu (Haider)

 

BEST ACTOR

SANJAY MISHRA (ANKHON DEKHI)

Yeah, it was a healthy competition between the three. Two were the most popular and the one was ignored at many functions (most probably because he doesn’t carry the personality which may give him stardom). I pick the latter because I believe Sanjay Mishra ran the character in fact the whole script on his strings with a perfect note.  As compared to the competitors, the movie wasn’t popular to the house of commons like PK and Haider but he was solely responsible to bring the movie to fame.

Sanjay plays Bauji from Dilli’s gharib-khana who has compromised with his ego to accept only those things as reality in life which he has witnessed by himself. Impact? He loses his job, his brother & family separate from home, his philosophical thoughts bring many close neighbors to his devotees. It is not only about the definition of his character but the aura he brought into it. Sanjay is a thespian and Bauji is melodramatic.

The character of Bauji will make you realize how comfortable how meaningful and how relief is the life you choose in the loud noisy world in your surrounding. People will laugh at you, make fun of you, of your wit and philosophy but you will remain calm. As the movie grows on you, you begin to judge him more, you begin to find him realistic more, you see yourself in him. As a father and a brother, you see the same Bauji in two different dimensions. He is an ass, a clown without makeup, and a simple man who has everything to lose. Story of a terrible man with irreparable fate. Truly the best performance of the year!!

Other Notable Works: Shahid Kapoor (Haider) & Aamir Khan (PK)

 

BEST DIRECTOR

HOMI ADAJANIA (FINDING FANNY)

Is Finding Fanny an Indian movie? I doubt, I really doubt. It will take the whole duration of the movie to find out that it is an Indian movie because of its extremely rich portrayal of realistic sketching of realism and the technicality of movie-making. When you watch this, you will feel like watching a Western European movie. Homi Adajania directed Being Cyrus and Cocktail before this.

From comedy to suspense, it is an absolute entertainer. The characters are defined in the beginning, the story is developed and sprinted without any nonsense. Screenplay and editing of the movie have also played a major part to praise the director’s efforts to make such an incredible movie.

Why direction is so effective? Why this movie looks different from the others? Because of Pocolim? To some degree, I agree but Homi’s homework paid off. To make the movie look creative, natural, and very realistic, Homi spent a month in village Salvador do Mundo of Goa and researched/learned its culture and local Goan Catholics. Superb direction!!

Other Notable Works: Hansal Mehta (CityLights), Anurag Kashyap (Ugly) & Rajat Kapoor (Ankhon Dekhi)

 

BEST MOVIE

ANKHON DEKHI

The last and most important category of my picking. Mithiya Talkies produced thought-provoking Ankhon Dekhi directed by Rajat Kapoor. Some movies are clobber dimensional and some are socially inspirational. Ankhon Dekhi is Rajat Kapoor’s miss call to those who have lost the battle of survival in life, who have gone hopeless to see the change, and who have borrowed some time to ease and overcome their agony.

In old Dilli gharana lives the patriarch, Bauji. He lives in a small house with his family combined with his brother’s family. Has a job on which he just survives. Has a daughter who has an affair with a vagabond. Has a wife who is no less than a heater. After a lot of problems circulating in his head, he decides to accept only those things as a reality that he has witnessed himself. This philosophy gives Bauji some disciples, but in off state, he loses his job applying this philosophy, his brother shifts to a new home with his family sick of him. Bauji has everything to lose.

Ankhon Dekhi has everything to impress you. The impressive story, brilliant screenplay, social satire, natural dialogues, simple costumes, one of the best performances by an ensemble cast of 2014. It had tough competition in this category but I found Ankhon Dekhi reclusive. A wonderful movie!!

Other Notable Works: Ugly, Kya Dilli Kya Lahore, Citylights, PK & Finding Fanny

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