As Indians, we take our movies rather seriously and here’s why these films are one for the books this year!
At the end of each year, when we look back at all the movies we’ve watched, we realize how varied the stories are! 2024 has given us a bit of every genre we’ve craved. The on-going trend of horror-comedies continued this year as well. We finally got to see a bit of rom-coms that we’ve missed so dearly. There were biopics, thrillers, the return of directors we love and mainstream actors taking the leap of faith with experimenting in their filmography. The year started with Sriram Raghavan’s Merry Christmas which had all of us decoding the filmmaker’s way of storytelling. From two different casts for different languages to easter eggs from other films, he kept us hooked throughout the film. Laapataa Ladies was an unexpected game changer this year. Maybe in a plethora of action thrillers, simplicity was what we all were craving for, and clearly it worked! This year Ananya Panday really came shining through with Call Me Bae and then Vikram Aditya Motwane’s CTRL. It was almost scary to see how AI can completely take over our lives! We also saw Alia Bhatt in an action thriller for the first time and she looked rather badass while fighting the bad guys!
Kareena Kapoor Khan added another feather in her filmography with TheBuckingham Murders. The films broke stereotypes in more ways than one and who doesn’t love a good Hansal Mehta thriller? Dharma Productions is popularly known for its romantic films but this year while they stuck to their favorite genre, they did it with a little twist. Mr and Mrs Mahi was a heartwarming sports rom-com we didn’t see coming our way. But the real Dharma show stopper was Kill. Not only did it introduce new faces to the world, it also was highly acclaimed for its action and garnered prizes at film festivals. Munjya and Stree 2 from the Maddock world of horror-comedies made huge box office numbers and proved to be promising entertainers over the weekend.
We started the year with a spooky thriller and it had us guessing the murderer right till the end. Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupati were a pair we didn’t even know we needed and they did a fab job of keeping us interested in the story. This was one of Katrina’s most talked about performances and we loved seeing her bring so much to a story than just being eye candy. The main reason why this movie had the audience waiting with bated breath was not even the whodunnit but how they did it!
We need to see Kiran Rao on the director’s chair more often simply because of how we still aren’t over Laapataa Ladies! Her ability to talk about heavy societal issues in a simplistic way touched the hearts of millions of people this year. From female friendships, women empowerment, to finding the love of your life, there’s nothing not to take away from this film.
A grieving cop loses her child to murder and moves to another town where she investigates the disappearance of a missing child. Kareena Kapoor Khan brought so much depth to her character, Jaspreet Bumrah, who had to overcome her own dark past in order to solve her case. Not only was it unexpected to see Kareena in a detective thriller but the climax left us completely stumped as well.
Jigra is a tear jerking journey but one that will make you want to go give your sibling a tight hug. When Satya’s (Alia Bhatt) younger brother is wrongfully accused and thrown in jail, she bends heaven and hell to bring him home safely. This story made most older siblings feel seen for once!
Mahima(Janhvi Kapoor) and Mahindra (Rajkummar Rao) not only share the same nickname, but their love for cricket as well. His dream was to become a cricket player but that never came true. Little did he know that his wife was super talented in the game as well and eventually she went on to fulfill his dream. The movie was quite well balanced in terms of romance and being a sports drama. It passed the vibe check for an entertaining weekend watch along with songs that went viral on social media.
Kill is the kind of film Dharma has never made before. When it was initially released abroad, all anyone could talk about was how the action was what we had only seen in Hollywood films. They weren’t wrong because the action sequences in Kill felt more like a smartly choreographed dance than blind gore violence. And the reason for that violence was also well justified in the film. On the surface, this film feels like an action thriller, but at its core, it's a romantic drama where the hero becomes an anti-hero when he loses the love of his life.
A gold heist that turns into a comedy of errors with three women in the centre of it all, Crew was that light hearted casual watch that most of us needed this year. Kareena Kapoor Khan, Tabu, and Kriti Sanon were a fun trio we didn’t know we needed!
Bittu’s (Abhay Verma) visit to his native village unveils a family secret and a vengeful spirit, the Munjya, who wants to get married. He must fight to protect himself and his love from Munjya's clutches. A movie with two new faces who nobody thought would work, surprisingly became one of the biggest hits this year. Once again proving that a good story will bring in audiences even if there are no superstar names attached to it.
CTRL was a scary reality check into how much we let social media and AI take over our lives. The lines between virtual and reality are blurred in this movie when couple content creators break up and the want for vengeance goes a bit too far.
When a terminal illness gets in Arjun’s (Abhishek Bachchan) path, he relentlessly tries to stay alive for as long as he can to be a part of his daughter’s life. While this wasn’t Shoojit Sircar’s best, Abhishek Bachchan made the most of his character and that truly was the highlight of the film.
Girl Will Be Girls is Ali Fazal and Richa Chaddha’s first movie as producers and the duo brought to us a story that will remind us all of the first time we fell in love with someone. The first look, the first kiss, the first confession, the butterflies in the stomach, it’s all there! The term ‘Girls Will Be Girls’ is picked up from the popular phrase ‘Men will be men’, so this is the makers’ attempt at flipping the narrative for once.
Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light is probably the most talked about film worldwide this year. From Golden Globe nominations to being the opening film at the Mumbai Film Festival this year, the film has achieved every acclaim a filmmaker could possibly dream of! All We Imagine as Light is about a queer couple struggling to find a house of their own to get some privacy whilst making ends meet. Queer or heterosexual, this pretty much is the struggle of a majority of couples in our country and hence maybe it helped a huge section of the masses relate to it.
Childhood friends Dodo, Ayush, and Pinku embark on a trip to Goa that goes completely off-track due to a sequence of terrible decisions. Kunal Kemmu doing a film that’s set in Goa is always a good idea if history has taught us anything! Seeing Divyenndu, Avinash Tiwary and Pratik Gandhi also join him in this film and it was a laughter riot to say the least!
Based on a true story, Sector 36 shows us how monsters live among us. Vikrant Massey fully went from making us love him in 12th Fail and hating him in Sector 36, because that's how well he adorns the villain's hat too. From missing kids to cannibalism, this movie has every dark crime that you can think of and it definetely isn't for the weak hearted.
This was the much awaited sequel that thankfully lived up to our expectations and became one of the highest grossing films of 2024. When the town of Chanderi was being haunted once again, Vicky and his friends set out to save the women who were being randomly abducted by a paranormal spirit. To see Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor in the horror-comedy franchise once again was what built excitement in the cinema halls!
A biographical sports drama, Chandu Champion is based on Indian Paralympian Murlikant Petkar's inspirational journey. Kartik Aaryan portrays Petkar’s struggle post-injury from fighting in the Indian army to his Paralympic achievements rather convincingly and leaves us motivated to work on our dreams.
Which of these films was your favorite this year? Let us know in the comments below!
This article is a part of our #BingeRewind series that sums up the year from our perspective!
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