2016 Rewind: 10 best Bollywood films of the year

How does one even attempt a yearender list like this without expecting a bunch of abusive trolls and smart naysayers going What Really Well ideally you dont You cant compare apples and oranges But hey somebody has to And its fun and apples and oranges are fruits why cant you compare them So well heres what we thought were the 10 best Bollywood movies of 2016 I dont know how many of them youve already seen Most of these I can catch again But then againhellip Okay so let the arguments begin1 Dangal Yeah its become almost a clicheacute already to call it the best film of 2016 And our initial first was that itd be a clicheacuted strictcoach underdog talent sports film which its so not while it wonderfully explores not just wrestling as a sport but relationships mdash between society and girls father and daughter sport and government city and villagehellip And most significantly Aamir and his annual Christmas audience Nobody I know left disappointed yet again2 Pink Films are meant to entertain or rather engage But some I suspect should just become part of school curriculum This brilliantly edited thriller set around a bunch of young single Delhi girls should be made mandatory viewing to counter casual misogyny of North India A stupendous timely wakeup call 3 Kapoor amp Sons Minimalistic realistic hardhitting and possibly the most personal film in the mainstream space this year this drama about a dysfunctional Indian family rivals the best of its genre across the world with some seriously topnotch performances from everyone in particular veterans Ratna Pathak Shah and the adorable Rishi Kapoor Do visit this family if you havent and you may just find your own somewhere in it too4 MS Dhoni The Untold Story Chronicles the life and times of one of the most popular living Indians with such fine use of SFX candid storytelling and hey Sushant Singh Rajput in his element essaying the rise and rise of Dhoni and small town India into Indian cricket And well finally a film on cricket that gets its cricket right Havent watched anything like this in Bollywood before5 Aligarh Dark quiet deeply disturbing true story of homophobia that defines our society and perhaps a college campus as well Who better than Manoj Bajpayee to guide you into the mind of the softspoken Professor Ramchandra Siras a man of letters wrecked by hate and bigotry around him Few films let you into a characters life so gently so beautifully6 Udta Punjab The opposite of the Punjab of mustard fields weve always consumed in Bollywood movies this kickass smartly directed thriller entertains yet jolts you into acknowledging drugs as the bane of Punjabs youth in a state of rapid disarray Some films are less dangerous but equally satisfying highs of their own Udta is clearly one of them7 Fitoor Whats a list that doesnt stick its neck out Ill tell you why Fitoor belongs here First of all youve not seen it The bad press ensured few have Give it a shot check out the stunning locations fabulous camerawork two of the hottest looking actors on screen Aditya Roy Kapur Katrina Kaif and arguably the best Bollywood soundtrack this year title track and Pashmina in particular The story Charles Dickens Great Expectations was never going to seriously disappoint anyway All this put together makes Fitoor IMHO the most underrated mainstream film this year Hence the soft corner on this page8 Neerja Set pretty much in one large room with a whole lot of people in it mdash the inside of an aircraft Capturing an event hijacking of Pan Am flight 73 in 1986 and one person flight attendant Neerja Bhanots role in it that is hardly driven by manic action or solid mortal combat And yet the film holds your attention for two hours plus This mustve been the toughest film to direct And Ram Madhvani pulls it off with young Sonam Kapoor Wow No seriously wow9 Ae Dil Hai Mushkil Befikre Dear Zindagi Okay romcoms tend to have a polarising effect on popular appeal they always have But whats there not to love about films that at every level reflect the loves and lives of the contemporary young mdash keeping it all fun even frothy sometimes yet delve very seriously into the most immediate FirstWorldProblem of our times choice or rather too many choices Why settle for a relationship and eventual heartbreak when hookups and friendships suffice Yes this is the coffee shop conversation of the urbane young in 2016 These three wonderfully enacted directed dramas are also some of the best conversation starters I know10 FanSultanAirlift Whats common to these three wholly disparate films They have major superstars slowly but surely trying to break the mould push the envelope and go beyond what their core audiences have always demanded or expected from them anyway Akshay Kumar Airlift was the first to take a lead in that direction by the way with similarly smart thrillers like Special 26 and Baby Sensible and fun Sultan with Salman Khan trained to look and perform like a professional wrestler spouting local dialect is a far cry from Salman Khan whos been playing Salman Khan for a couple of generations now And if anybody had told me at the beginning of the year that there is a Shah Rukh Khan film coming up that has no songs in it I wouldnt have believed it Fan needs to be seen to be believed enjoyed and wholeheartedly embraced These are signs of great superstar times ahead