It’s been a year in which the deafening noise made by a few big titles drowned out the refreshing ripples created by several relatively smaller releases truly worthy of attention and applause.
In a year marked by substandard, bloated franchise filmmaking, that churned out dispiriting blockbusters such as Stree 2, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, Singham Again, and Pushpa 2, there were some that pushed the needle, served as glimmers of hope, reminders that not all is lost.
There was Hansal Mehta’s Buckingham Murders, a police investigative drama starring Kareena Kapoor Khan in a never-seen-before avatar. After about 25 years in cinema, Abhishek Bachchan turned a new leaf with Shoojit Sircar’s life-affirming I Want to Talk. Akshay Kumar assembled a gamely cast to deliver one of the most fun performances of 2024 in the ensemble relationship drama Khel Khel Mein, which also starred Taapsee Pannu and Vaani Kapoor.
With countless titles on the menu vying for attention, it’s easy to lose track of which ones to invest your time in. As we bid farewell to 2024, here are six Hindi films that you may have but shouldn’t miss.
Sector 36 (Netflix)
Based on the grisly Nithari serial murders that shocked the nation in 2006, it is a spine-chilling exploration of the darkest aumbries of human deprivation. Directed by Aditya Nimbalkar (his feature film debut), Sector 36 follows two men dangling on the opposite ends of a twisted mystery as they find their way toward each other. In the process unravels a nexus too debauched to comprehend.
Starring a terrific Vikrant Massey and Deepak Dobriyal, Sector 36 is a caustic commentary on the obscene class divide, a malady that is getting increasingly worse the world over, with the fissures deepening each day.
Girls Will Be Girls (Prime Video)
Written and directed by debutante Suchi Talati, it is an achingly intimate portrait of the inner contours of a mother-daughter relationship marked by mutual jealousy, rivalry, and little, everyday cruelties.
Talati places us in situations at once thrilling and disruptive, in moments so private, that one feels like an intruder. And yet at no point does her gaze turn voyeuristic. In fact, she crafts the film unhurriedly, with great sensitivity, capturing moments often ignored, with a dignity, a grace for the female body and experience unbeknownst to Hindi cinema.
Starring a magnificent Kani Kusruti and Preeti Panigrahi in a breakthrough debut, Girls Will Be Girls examines the first rushes of adolescent love and sexual awakening with such extraordinary detail and uncommon empathy, that it will take your breath away.
Kill (Disney+ Hotstar)
Directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat, it marks Lakshya’s film debut. Kill is 106 minutes of unapologetic, superbly choreographed bloodbath—spluttered guts, smashed bones, bodies reduced to pulp. It’s unlike anything you’ve ever seen in Hindi cinema.
The barrage of violence is relentless and yet, Kill will make you think a lot more than it will make you squirm. It has a bit of everything—love story, patriarchy, dark humor, a woman who needs saving but doesn’t want it, the reluctance of Indian parents to enroll their boys in the army, and the everydayness of evil. The plot is barebones. The dialogue, sparse. The impact? Gut churning.
Amar Singh Chamkila (Netflix)
At 146 minutes, the eponymous film on Punjab’s most infamous singer is an Imtiaz Ali classic—a curious, inventive, subversive probe of the man and his myth, the artiste and his art. Starring Diljit Dosanjh and Parnieeti Chopra, it’s a rich exploration of the context, the subtext, and the constant chatter around an underdog who delighted and disgusted, drew both awe and ire, was revered and thought of as repulsive.
After Rockstar (2011), Highway (2014), and Tamasha (2015), Amar Singh Chamkila reunites Imtiaz Ali with AR Rahman, Mohit Chauhan and Irshad Kamil. The result is pulsating, magnificent, ingenious, earthy music that elevates the story as much as it tells it.
Amar Singh Chamkila is a biting commentary on our hypocritical notions of propriety, how our culture loves to create heroes so we can turn them into villains, and how censorship kills freedom of speech, space and time no bar. Each year calendars change, but not much else.
Agni (Prime Video)
In the age of more is more, Rahul Dholakia’s recent film on the oft-ignored, taken-for-granted everyday valor and sacrifices of our firefighters shows how impactful less can be.
Set in 2017 in Mumbai, Agni is a superbly cast thriller featuring some of the most underrated actors working in Hindi cinema today. It follows Vitthal Rao (an exemplary Pratik Gandhi), the chief of the Parel fire station, as he goes about fighting a losing battle each day with his motley group of colleagues. They douse bellowing fires, save lives risking their own, and work punishing hours only to disappear into the shadows sans any credit or recognition.
Merry Christmas (Netflix)
An architect returns home on Christmas Eve after seven years to mourn his dead mother in Mumbai when it was still called Bombay. Overcome by sadness and nostalgia, he decides to disappear into the city for the night. But if only it were that easy.
His path crosses with that of a beautiful, mysterious woman and her young daughter. Over the next few hours, they get to know each other, and little butterflies that look like hope flitter as the city rejoices in the festive cheer. However, things suddenly turn murky, and the dream turns into a nightmare.
An adaptation of French crime writer Frederic Dard’s 1961 novel Bird In A Cage, Merry Christmas is a classic Sriram Raghavan neo-noir thriller with a love story quietly throbbing at its core. Starring a wonderful Vijay Sethupathi and Katrina Kaif, it’s the perfect head-scratching film (brimming with pop-culture references, clever motifs, and haunting ironies) to sink your teeth into at this time of the year.
