2024 was saved by horror comedies, small films and OTT | 25 years of Indian Cinema

Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, directed by Anees Bazmi, forgot that part one had given us a proper little horror-com-verse, much before Stree swam up on the horizon. The combined star power of Kartik Aryan and the ladies, Tripti Dimri, Madhuri Dixit and Tabu could do nothing to save the film, nor could our fave bhootni Monjulika.

Singham Again was every-edition-of-Singham-till-then, a signal that the Rohit Shetty cop universe was getting tired and tiresome. An array of stars, Ajay Devgn as the eponymous hero, new addition to baddie-land Arjun Kapoor, joker-of-the-pack Ranveer Singh, Kareena Kapoor Khan, and Deepika Padukone as the long-legged lethal Lady Singham, turn up, to not much avail.

A still from Munjya.

The two films which worked at the box office stuck to their horror-comedy tropes, with Amar Kaushik’s Stree 2, toplining Shraddha Kapoor and her magical choti, with a still-struck-by-her charms Rajkummar Rao, accompanied by his old pals from the first film, Aparshakti Khurrana, Abhishek Banerjee and Pankaj Tripathi.

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Maddock Films, the producers of Stree 2, struck gold with Aditya Sarpotdar’s Munjya, another supernatural tale featuring Abhay Verma and Suhas Joshi as a grandson-grandmother combine who fight the might of an evil spirit. It wasn’t perfect, but the fresh ensemble and the lovely Konkan locations created welcome freshness.

Kiran Rao’s Laapata Ladies conjured up a grounded fairy-tale, giving us a tale of swapped brides and confused spouses, mildly-corrupt-but-good-hearted-cops, and middle-aged-women who came to the rescue. It did well enough for the kind of film it was, in theatres, and got a second wind when it dropped on Netflix.

Two film festival winners won our hearts fair and square. Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light won the grand pix in Cannes, the first Indian film to have done so in thirty years, with all-round wonderful performances from Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabah, Chhaya Kadam (also in Laapata Ladies) and Hridu Haroon.

Shuchi Talalti’s Girls Will Be Girls was a terrific coming-of-age film. Each character has a growth arc, not just the teenaged Mira, played by Preeti Panigrahi, but also her mother, played by Kani Kusruti. There really is no right or wrong age to learn who you really are; the young boy, played by Kesav Binoy Kiron, who becomes the point of conflict between the mother and daughter, also learns some life lessons.

Diljit Dosanjh shone in Amar Singh Chamkila, a biopic directed by a returning-to-form Imtiaz Ali, on the life of the real-life Dalit folk singer from Punjab whose bawdy lyrics made him both popular and looked-down-up, depending upon who you listened to. Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra, so good as his singer-companion-wife, sparkle in their scenes, making this one of the best films of 2024.

Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s Kill, with Lakshya facing off against Raghav Juyal and his co, was nothing but a South Korean slash-burn-kill kinda flick, in which Lakshya’s patriotic soldier is up against an army of thugs, with the girl he loves, played by Tanya Maniktala, in between. Lots of hacked limbs, lots of blood, lots of dead people.

The best shows of 2024 were Richie Mehta’s Poacher, with Nimisha Sajayan, Roshan Mathew, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Kani Kusruti tracking a poaching ring whose tentacles reached far-away markets and collectors willing to pay good money for ivory wrenched from mighty tuskers.

Jai Mehta’s Lootere, bristling with Somalian pirates and Ukrainian containers, is a high-octane hijack drama on the high-seas, featuring Rajat Kapoor as the valiant captain of the ship and Vivek Gomber as a slippery businessman, made it an enjoyable actioner.

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Anubhav Sinha’s IC 814, based on the Kandahar hijack, with Vijay Varma in a stellar role as the resilient captain of the plane, along with Naseruddin Shah, Pankaj Kapur, Arvind Swamy—seen after a long gap in a Hindi project– Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa, was a gripping drama all the way through.

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