Only when I sat down to make this list, did I realize - I DID watch a lot of movies this year. This is a lot for even for me - a self confessed movie junkie. Wow !
Had a virtual Siddarth Malhotra festival with his Baar Baar Dekho, Gentleman, Ittefaq, Hasee toh Phasee & Aiyaary trailor. And also Farhan Akhtar marathon of Lucknow Central, Dil Dhadkne Do and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. And inevitably it was year of Rajkumar Rao with 6 movies.
This year too, not just the Stars or popular youth top actors alone, but the character actors shone bright. Notable - Sanjay Mishra (Golmaal Again, Newton, Baadshaho), Pankaj Tripathi (Bareilly Ki Barfi, Fukrey Returns, Newton), Seema Bhargava (Bareilly Ki Barfi & Shubh Mangal Savdhan), Neeraj Sood (SMS) and Chittaranjan Tripathy (SMS, A Gentleman, Fukrey)
A roundup of 2017 movies I got a chance to watch. Plus older ones I caught up on. Alpha order. Ofcourse I am not listing the thousands of TV shows and English movies I saw. Gwad how much screen time did I have !?!/ All thanks to Netflix and Amazon bringing out new movies asap.
Badshaho
Fills the gap for a good heist movie. Background music though was so loud I couldn't hear the dialoges half the time. Superb desert cine. Fav *'s Emran and Sanjay Mishra.
Great album - Recreation of Nusrat's 80s song, Recreation of Socha Hai and Piya More.
Barielly Ki Burfi
Fukrey Returns
Awesome movie. A rare good sequel. Fukrey was good, but this is good too.
More focus on Chooca than on heroish Pulkit. Faizal makes less appearances maybe coz of Hollywood assignments. But the whole large cast of characters work in this movie.
Music: Mehbooba only works and its good coz more focus on the story
A Gentleman: By my fav director-duo Raj & DK. Trailor showed Siddarth Malhotra in a typical action-comedy trailer. And that's how the movie begins. But boy I did not expect the pre-interval twist - it was a dash of brilliance. I mean this twist has been used in other movies, even recently, but it's great to see it without expecting. And other the noteworthy thing, was the detail in depicting US-Indians life - they got everything right there, even when used in masala movie format.
Music: Every song was interesting, hummable catchy and did not mind popping up in the interesting movie. Its a peppy mood-lifter album.
The Ghazi Attack
Golmaal Again
Seriously I didn't find it comic. More of drama and tragedy in the story.
Apart from that, it was good to see the familiar characters back, truck-load of them.
Hindi Medium
Cute love story. Irfan is cute again. Main conflict draws us in, after the part where they try to fit-in upmarket social circle is done with, which is the only part I found fake. Rest of it works.
Girl playing young Mita turns up in Fukrey 2 too.
Music highlight - infectious Suit Suit karda and the beautiful Koi Hoor.
Had a virtual Siddarth Malhotra festival with his Baar Baar Dekho, Gentleman, Ittefaq, Hasee toh Phasee & Aiyaary trailor. And also Farhan Akhtar marathon of Lucknow Central, Dil Dhadkne Do and Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. And inevitably it was year of Rajkumar Rao with 6 movies.
This year too, not just the Stars or popular youth top actors alone, but the character actors shone bright. Notable - Sanjay Mishra (Golmaal Again, Newton, Baadshaho), Pankaj Tripathi (Bareilly Ki Barfi, Fukrey Returns, Newton), Seema Bhargava (Bareilly Ki Barfi & Shubh Mangal Savdhan), Neeraj Sood (SMS) and Chittaranjan Tripathy (SMS, A Gentleman, Fukrey)
A roundup of 2017 movies I got a chance to watch. Plus older ones I caught up on. Alpha order. Ofcourse I am not listing the thousands of TV shows and English movies I saw. Gwad how much screen time did I have !?!/ All thanks to Netflix and Amazon bringing out new movies asap.
Badshaho
Fills the gap for a good heist movie. Background music though was so loud I couldn't hear the dialoges half the time. Superb desert cine. Fav *'s Emran and Sanjay Mishra.
Great album - Recreation of Nusrat's 80s song, Recreation of Socha Hai and Piya More.
Barielly Ki Burfi
Such a sweet movie indeed. I highly recommended it to everyone.
Ayushman, Rajkumar and Kirti and their 2 friends, plus parents were perfectly cast in interesting but regular characters. Great songs in BKB jukebox.
Ayushman, Rajkumar and Kirti and their 2 friends, plus parents were perfectly cast in interesting but regular characters. Great songs in BKB jukebox.
The Chef
Soothing Kerala locales setting. Gentle dialogue delivery by all. Visuals of a variety of Indian foods and where they are made. South Indian characters potrayed in non-stereotypical way.
Best was Saif - his dialoge delivery was a total reminder of DCH style. He even makes a reference to DCH Goa trip.
Earthy Music by Raghu Dixit
Commando 2
Much anticipated for Vidyut's action seq and recreation of Bhool Bhulaiya's Hare Rama Hare Krishna song. Movie was good enough in action category.
Dear Zindagi was salvaged by lovely songs and picturesque Goa locales cinematography. And also very able actors. But as such it falls in a NBD-movie category.Soothing Kerala locales setting. Gentle dialogue delivery by all. Visuals of a variety of Indian foods and where they are made. South Indian characters potrayed in non-stereotypical way.
Best was Saif - his dialoge delivery was a total reminder of DCH style. He even makes a reference to DCH Goa trip.
Earthy Music by Raghu Dixit
Commando 2
Much anticipated for Vidyut's action seq and recreation of Bhool Bhulaiya's Hare Rama Hare Krishna song. Movie was good enough in action category.
Fukrey Returns
Awesome movie. A rare good sequel. Fukrey was good, but this is good too.
More focus on Chooca than on heroish Pulkit. Faizal makes less appearances maybe coz of Hollywood assignments. But the whole large cast of characters work in this movie.
Music: Mehbooba only works and its good coz more focus on the story
A Gentleman: By my fav director-duo Raj & DK. Trailor showed Siddarth Malhotra in a typical action-comedy trailer. And that's how the movie begins. But boy I did not expect the pre-interval twist - it was a dash of brilliance. I mean this twist has been used in other movies, even recently, but it's great to see it without expecting. And other the noteworthy thing, was the detail in depicting US-Indians life - they got everything right there, even when used in masala movie format.
Music: Every song was interesting, hummable catchy and did not mind popping up in the interesting movie. Its a peppy mood-lifter album.
The Ghazi Attack
Submarine war drama. Not something we get see often in Indian movies. Includes Bangladesh war as well. Good acting by the well-known cast.
Seriously I didn't find it comic. More of drama and tragedy in the story.
Apart from that, it was good to see the familiar characters back, truck-load of them.
Hindi Medium
Cute love story. Irfan is cute again. Main conflict draws us in, after the part where they try to fit-in upmarket social circle is done with, which is the only part I found fake. Rest of it works.
Girl playing young Mita turns up in Fukrey 2 too.
Music highlight - infectious Suit Suit karda and the beautiful Koi Hoor.
Hasee toh phasee
Meera & Amu Malik, Kabir - Dynamics like no other movie. So many layers to peel from in each scenes. Never understood Karishma. High polymer ball sequence was impressive.
Itefaq
was good thriller. It unravelled well. No bore moments. Plus current fav Siddarth.
No songs. But their credit song "Itefaq se" is catchy, cause its set on the endearing Shaan se tune and Jubin Nautiyal sings it.
JHMS: Could not tolerate even half hour, even when free on Netflix. Gave it up.
But Music ah, all or most songs of the humongous album were extremely catchy and played on repeat in our house.
Judwa 2
This album also plays on repeat in our house. And the movie was a hit with our kids.
Kaabil
Jubin Nautiyal's silky voice in a wonderful album is the main draw. And Hrithik too. I had to fast-forward the uncomfortable portions, but the romance and revenge parts work very well.
Well done prison-break and buddy movie. Specific genre but escaped some of the usual stereotypes of prison-break movies. Being a non-romantic story, it totally depended on the diverse characters to endear as buddies.
Spoken Hindi in this movie was very beautiful. The specific kind spoken matched each characters background.
Farhan was again dependable.
Energetic album, again non-romantic ones, but totally catchy and hummable.
Naam Shabana
Interested in it since its prequel to spy-movie BABY character and its always comforting to see familiar characters again. I love franchise movies.
Only complaint with BABY was the disconnect between background music and the scenes pace. Same thing here. But otherwise an interesting movie.
Newton
Highly touted as quality cinema by the PR, atleast it did set expectation of what kind of movie to expect. Watched it for the feel-good wave going on for Rajkumar Rao. Does not disappoint and so did all the other actors in it. Story was simple and ends as it started.
Ondu Motteya Kathe
Really charming Kannada movie. The pace picks up after Sarala's entry but overall well made by Mr Shetty. Movie name is an obvious homage to Dr Raj movie "Ondu Muttina Kathe". Thanks to Netflix.
Raabta
Still can't get over some of its songs - Recreation of Raabta - its even better than the first one, which I had thought was perfect and cannot be improved.
Movie works if you are fond of enduring any new-age couples banter. Jim's entry and the twist he brings, is just a minor diversion.
Movie works if you are fond of enduring any new-age couples banter. Jim's entry and the twist he brings, is just a minor diversion.
Subh Mangal Savadhan
Fun movie. Hyper characters in wedding setting. All the actors really support this movie.
Loved the Pan Parag prompting scene. I was also nodding my head through the slow realization.
And the ones where the mothers say, "Itnisi thi jab paida hui thi" & "Yeh bhi itnasa hi paida hua tha".
T3EN
Very interesting premise. First movie I saw about goofed up timeline, not because of continuity issues, but actually as a plot device. Works well even with the disturbing subject and thriller treatment. More of AB & NS and less of Vidya.
Loved the Pan Parag prompting scene. I was also nodding my head through the slow realization.
And the ones where the mothers say, "Itnisi thi jab paida hui thi" & "Yeh bhi itnasa hi paida hua tha".
T3EN
Very interesting premise. First movie I saw about goofed up timeline, not because of continuity issues, but actually as a plot device. Works well even with the disturbing subject and thriller treatment. More of AB & NS and less of Vidya.
Tiger Jhinga Hai
Katrina's 3 action sequences were brilliant.
Songs all blah (hence good thing there were only few), except the extremely catchy Swag se Swagat.
Katrina's 3 action sequences were brilliant.
Songs all blah (hence good thing there were only few), except the extremely catchy Swag se Swagat.
Toilet: Ek Prem Katha
As with others, the name made me squeamish, plus I knew the story - so what was there to watch ? Eventually when I did watch, it did not disappoint. Entertaining and resolves the conflict in a roundabout way. Awesome music.
But I did not see the one movie I did want to - Tumhari Sulu. So interested in it, thanks to it's teaser, trailor and interesting songs.
