What a landmark year the Indian film industries have had. Perhaps for the first time in decades, the world has awoken to the diversity and sheer storytelling ambition of our cinema. For years, Indian movies were synonymous with song-and-dance melodramas, and this is largely still true. But 2024 saw a string of smaller films securing positions in top-tier international festivals, alerting audiences worldwide that India has more to offer than colourful revenge epics featuring bearded men, or quasi-religious epics that pander and plunder with equal shamelessness. Despite their achievements, however, some of the most acclaimed Indian films of the year struggled to find domestic distribution, even as big-ticked Bollywood potboilers ran to empty houses. There's enough money to go around, but independent directors continued to rely on foreign investment to get their projects made. It's a bittersweet scenario, but one that is sure to improve as the industry implodes under its own weight. Also read - The best Indian movies of 2023, from two Mammootty masterpieces to Kanu Behl’s Agra and Aamir Bashir’s Maagh Director Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies set the ball rolling in late 2023, paving the way for films such as Santosh, Girls Will Be Girls, and perhaps most resoundingly, All We Imagine As Light; Payal Kapadia's film not only secured a spot in the main competition at Cannes, but ended up winning the festival's second-highest honour. These films offered an alternative to the mostly regressive ideas still being peddled in the mainstream. They told stories about common people, of their dreams and desires; they held a mirror to society, exposing its misdeeds; they chronicled the changing times, serving as reminders of what was, and what could be. These are the 10 best Indian films of the year, in alphabetical order. Aattam Read more - Aattam: A masterclass in misdirection, Anand Ekarshi’s anti-whodunnit is an early contender for the movie of the year Director Anand Ekarshi’s anti-whodunnit offers self-reflective meta-commentary on not just the film industry’s handling of the #MeToo movement, but also points fingers at everybody who played an accessory to the crimes. A chamber piece about a group of men debating whether one of their own should be punished for misbehaving with the sole female member of their theatre troupe, Aattam is a searing portrait of social injustice, and a memorable act of misdirection. When was the last time that a movie's entire premise was revealed to be a red herring? Aattam is available to stream on Prime Video. Against the Tide Director Sarvnik Kaur’s haunting documentary about a fishing community in Maharashtra examines sweeping themes such as climate change and corporate greed through the perspective of two friends, gradually being torn apart by their conflicting ideologies. It presents dour proof that time stops for nobody, but is careful to spotlight the resilience and resourcefulness of those who dare to stand in its way. In a year when Indian cinema has transcended borders, the film is a necessary reminder that it was the documentarians who paved the way. Against the Tide is available to stream on MUBI. All We Imagine As Light Payal Kapadia’s landmark Cannes-winning drama examines big city loneliness through the prism of three working class women in Mumbai. Beautifully filmed and evocatively told, All We Imagine As Light features a star-making performance by Divya Prabha, who is able to inject her character with both a sense of loss and hope. It is a story about Indian ambition, and the hefty costs some have to pay to sustain it. But above all else, it’s a story about rediscovery and redemption — two of the most enduring themes in all of cinema. All We Imagine As Light doesn't have a streaming home yet. Amar Singh Chamkila Read more - Amar Singh Chamkila: Imtiaz Ali set out to make a movie about the slain singer, but he made a movie about himself instead Featuring a knockout central performance by Diljit Dosanjh, director Imtiaz Ali’s rapturous biopic about the slain Punjabi folk singer is an achievement in both filmmaking form and fable-like storytelling. Ali makes the winning creative decision to present Chamkila’s tale as a piece of musical theatre, combining staples of mainstream Hindi cinema with the flamboyance of a Broadway blockbuster. Along the way, he is also able to make sweeping statements about censorship, social inequality, and the power of stories. Amar Singh Chamkila is available to stream on Netflix. Bramayugam Read more - Bramayugam: Mammootty’s miraculous run continues with the bleakest Indian horror film in years, a take-no-prisoners tirade against humanity With hat-tips aplenty to the works of Andrei Tarkovsky, Christopher Nolan, Robert Eggers, and most significantly, Gothic horror of the 1940s, the stunning Malayalam-language horror film Bramayugam is shot in a mesmerising monochrome that harkens back to the glory days of Nosferatu and Universal monsters. But as old-fashioned as director Rahul Sadasivan’s inspirations may be, his anxieties feel frighteningly urgent. It’s a film about caste-conflict, about the amoral rot inflicted upon society by mortal men in the name of God. Bramayugam is available to stream on SonyLIV. Girls Will Be Girls Read more - Girls Will Be Girls movie review: Shuchi Talati’s searing psychological drama is one of the best films of the year Director Shuchi Talati pulls off an incredible tonal tightrope walk in her debut feature, the unconventional coming-of-age drama Girls Will Be Girls. Featuring a breakout performance by Preeti Panigrahi, the film transforms before our eyes — going from an innocent love story to something more sinister. Girls Will Be Girls is a complex portrait of parent-child relationships, growing pains, and like All We Imagine As Light, female loneliness. The film will be available to stream on Prime Video. Jigra Read more - Jigra: Vasan Bala weaponises Alia Bhatt in one of the best Hindi films of the year; Karan Johar better have his back A sleek, stylish spin on mainstream Hindi cinema tropes, director Vasan Bala’s Jigra opened to divisive reviews and poor box office reception. But it has all the makings of a crowd-pleasing cult classic. Led by a stunning Alia Bhatt, Jigra combines the broad sentimentality of Bollywood with Bala’s brawny sensibilities. The film tells the thrilling story of a young woman who hatches a plan to rescue her wrongly incarcerated brother after the system fails them. The jail-break sequence at the end is near-immaculate, as is Manoj Pahwa’s scene-stealing supporting performance — one of the two that he has delivered this year. Jigra is available to stream on Netflix. Kottukkaali Read more - Kottukkaali: The best Indian film of the year so far proves that PS Vinothraj is an unparalleled poet of the people Unlike his more mainstream contemporaries, who are often complicit in the silencing of women through their so-called progressive cinema, director PS Vinothraj attempts to expose the oppression of ancient systems by questioning his own position in them. The film tells the story of a young woman being hauled by her family to an exorcist, for the crime of loving a man outside her social class. Played by Anna Ben in the year’s best performance, the protagonist Meena is the moral compass of Vinothraj’s movie — a symbol of silent resistance, of civil disobedience, of simmering rage. Kottukkaali is available to stream on Prime Video. Manjummel Boys Read more - Manjummel Boys: A thrilling blockbuster about faith that doesn’t lean on religion as a crutch Director Chidambaram’s Malayalam-language blockbuster — the biggest hit that the industry has ever seen — is a story about brotherhood, about human beings coming to the aid of one of their own because they cannot wait around helplessly for God to perform a miracle. Manjummel Boys is a thrillingly staged film, crafted with the kind of attention to detail — the performances, the writing, the cinematography are all top-tier — that has cemented the Malayalam industry as the foremost creative force in our country’s cinematic landscape. The survival drama is available to stream on Disney+ Hotstar. Tees Read more - Tees movie review: Dibakar Banerjee’s unreleased saga is ambitious, intimate, and incendiary Dibakar Banerjee’s Tees is perhaps his most ambitious film. A generations-spanning story about the othering of minorities, the insidious nature of censorship, and the soft-power of art, Tees is a genre-fluid fable that needs all the support that it can get to see the light of day. It is, after all, a film that carries an almost cockroach-like resilience. Featuring a memorable performance by Manisha Koirala alongside a legendary ensemble, Tees is a film that exists at the intersection of integrity and indignation. It makes all the sense in the world that its architect is a man who represents both ideals. The movie remains unreleased after being discarded by Netflix.
