The Best of Bollywood

This year proved that neither star presence nor the opening weekend numbers (fudged or real) can predict the fate of a film; the audience is nobody's fool

- By Ananya Ghosh

MERRY CHRISTMAS

DIRECTED BY Sriram Raghavan

RELEASE DATE: January 12, 2024

Based on Frédéric Dard’s 1961 French novel Le Monte-Charge, it is a story of two strangers meeting at a pub one night; a story of two unreliable narrators, a story of a murder that reveals a body of lies, and a story that goes beyond just being a murder mystery and becomes a brooding tale of urban loneliness. Immaculately crafted, it is Sriram Raghavan’s best if unintentional attempt at an intimate love story where even the bleakest scenes are laced with breezy situational humour. Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi’s might seem like the unlikeliest romantic pairing ever envisioned in the history of cinema, but their crackling on-screen chemistry makes you root for this charming couple.

FIGHTER

DIRECTED BY Siddharth Anand

RELEASE DATE: January 25, 2024

Indian Air Force’s best combat aviators, Patty (Hrithik Roshan), Minni (Deepika Padukone), Rocky (Anil Kapoor), Taj (Karan Singh Grover), and Bash (Akshay Oberoi), are all part of the elite Air Dragons. As extremists blow up a CRPF convoy in Kashmir, this team leads the attack on the terrorist camp in Pakistan.

Although not in the same league as Top Gun, (a movie it's been compared to) there is no denying the fact Siddharth Anand’s Indian Air Force drama has the best aerial action scenes India has seen so far. The next stunner is Hrithik Roshan—as Patty he is the perfect amalgamation of a bona fide Bollywood star and a powerhouse performer.

Although let down by lazy writing and excessive jingoism, Fighter is a visual stunner that packs in enough stuff to drool over.