2014: Big blockbusters, small paybacks

There was Priyanka Chopra as the titular character in Omung Kumar’s Mary Kom, and Rani Mukherji in and as Mardaani, directed by Pradeep Sarkar and produced by Aditya Chopra.

Mary Kom (2014) – Priyanka Chopra as Mary Kom.

Conducting herself credibly, Priyanka faced down the murmurs that someone from the North East, if not Mary Kom herself, should have played her character in the biopic; Mukherji as a tough cop doing the right thing was impactful.

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Imtiaz Ali’s Highway gave Alia Bhatt, with terrific co-star Randeep Hooda, one of her breakout performances, in which she plays a young girl on the run. It set the 19-year-old Bhatt on the path of films which would challenge her, and she has made good on that early promise, by becoming one of the most successful stars in Bollywood.

Hasee Toh Phasee, directed by Vinil Mathew and produced by Dharma, was a rom com with a difference. It welcomed Sidharth Malhotra back to Dharma, and got Parineeti Chopra in its fold, and the two — a wannabe entrepreneur and an eccentric scientist — made one of the most unusual pairs in Hindi cinema.

Sidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra’s Hasee Toh Phasee was bankrolled by Karan Johar.

Vishal Bhardwaj’s third of his Shakespeare tragedies, the Hamlet-inspired Haider, isn’t as striking as the earlier Maqbool’ and Omkara, but it gave Shahid Kapoor, working with Kay Kay and Tabu, one of his best roles: being set in Kashmir, a place beset with so much contestation even today, lends it continual resonance.

But of the films that year that were truly different, Rajat Kapoor’s Aankhon Dekhi would be right on top. Through a character, played flawlessly by Sanjay Mishra, who decides to believe only what he can see with his own eyes, Kapoor weaves a magnificent tale of belief and perception, his unique injection of whimsy making it one of my all-time favourite Hindi films.

And then there was Ashim Ahluwalia’s terrific Miss Lovely which revolved around the sleazy C-grade sex-and-horror films so popular in the 80s, focussing on the ecosystem which produced these films. The creation of that parallel Bollywood era which doesn’t exist anymore, made in a most un-Bollywood-like manner, is unparalleled.