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Let's be honest, 2024 in Hindi cinema is not one for the books.
Between utter tripe and unmemorable, I found just a glimmer of hope sparking my interest on occasions too few and far between.
Despite the odds, these girls came on top reiterating their craft and hunger for exciting roles and ingenious scripts.
Two of India's most globally triumphant movies this year, both the Cannes star All We Imagine As Light and Oscar hopeful Laapataa Ladies, feature women at its centre as well as behind the scenes (Payal Kapadia, Kiran Rao).
Where the seasoned ones made good on their promise to push the envelope, get out of the comfort zone or let their hair down, relatively unknown talent bowled me over by their instinct and confidence.
Sukanya Verma raises a toast to the top female performers of 2024, in no particular order.
Kareena Kapoor Khan, The Buckingham Murders, Crew
Entering the most enlightened phase of her career has also been most gratifying with Kareena opening up in ways that's befitting of her raw, real, radiant artist.
It's what makes her portrait of sorrow looking to find closure across a murder mystery in Hansal Mehta's UK-based police procedural such a sublime expression of suffering.
Versatility is the name of the game, of course. Bebo's materialistic, manipulative avatar as part of Crew's con girl gang shows off her comedy chops are equally adept at delivering a bang for your buck.
Chhaya Kadam, Laapataa Ladies, All We Imagine As Light, Madgaon Express
What a banner year for Lady Kadam!
One year, three dramatically different films and a common goal of highlighting how stupendous she is.
Be it as tea vendor Manju Mai sharing priceless pearls of wisdom in Laapataa Ladies, hospital cook Parvati harbouring displacement woes in All We Imagine As Light or badass gangster Kanchan Kombdi in crime comedy, Madgaon Express, her wide range across all moods -- strong, sassy and silly is testament to her terrific skills.
Vidya Balan, Do Aur Do Pyaar, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3
Vidya Balan's adorable ode to the '90s kid over a spontaneous dance to the beats of Bin Tere Sanam reserved her place on this list.
At any rate, she's plain delightful in Do Aur Do Pyaar as a woman whose daddy issues often weigh down her understanding of what it means to love or let go.
Vidya's return as Manjulika in Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 is as uncomplicated as it gets. Except the actor's visible pleasure in revisiting one of her most popular roles tilts the scales in favour of Anees Bazmee's horror comedy.
Kani Kusruti, All We Imagine As Light
Kani Kusruti's eyes speaker louder than words conveying a woman's longing while living a life spent in vacuum.
As a Kerala native employed as a senior nurse in Mumbai, she is a reliable presence among the ones she works for and with.
Payal Kapadia's luminous ode to the city and its women finds its poignant texture in Kani's discreet ache and sympathetic ally.
Divya Prabha, All We Imagine As Light
All We Imagine As Light speaks Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi -- it's not a Hindi film per se. But its throbbing Mumbai voices and heart insists I ignore the specifics.
One glimpse of the spunky Divya Prabha trying out a pair of sunglasses inside a busy Bombay store makes it impossible to not do so.
The young woman's glorious mix of guts and spirit imbues All We Imagine As Light with an abandon its more self-conscious protagonists can only dream of.
Parineeti Chopra, Amar Singh Chamkila
Portraying one half of folk singers Amar Singh Chamkila and Amarjot Kaur personal and professional partnership, Parineeti Chopra's contribution to Imtiaz Ali's musical biopic may not reveal as many layers to her as one would have liked but her enthusiasm and efforts refuse to lie low.
Keeping with the movie's live singing format, Chopra uses her vocal training to her advantage whilst carrying the high pitched tunes but it's her oneness with the mood and flavour they're conveying that sets her apart.
Alia Bhatt, Jigra
Alia Bhatt channelling her inner Bachchan to rescue her little brother caught behind bars in a foreign country sounds all kinds of preposterous on paper. But her steadfast, simmering, subdued performance proves to be all kinds of explosive in how it nervously goes for its cause no matter how impossible the challenges.
Alia's slow burn onslaught is telling of her will to go against the grain and Vasan Bala's rebellious vision of mainstream.
Kriti Sanon, Crew, Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, Do Patti
A drop dead gorgeous robot stirring up domestic desires within a lovestruck bachelor in Teri Baaton Mein Aisa Uljha Jiya, a well-meaning airhostess compelled to scam for better prospects in Crew, a pair of chalk and cheese twins caught in a web of deceit and domestic violence in Do Patti, Kriti Sanon gets full marks for upping her game.
She displays her flair and hons her skills even while looking glam and functioning inside of conventional premises and treatments.
Nitanshi Goel, Laapataa Ladies
In our Gen Z actors to watch out for feature, I mentioned how Nitanshi's 'wide-eyed Phool Kumari' in Laapataa Ladies 'exudes the kind of good faith that cannot be feigned and evolves into something special' over the course of its lost and found tale.
It truly does. Hopefully, the youngster will deliver on the promise of that and more in her upcoming endeavours.
Pratibha Ranta, Laapataa Ladies
Kiran Rao's lovely Laapataa Ladies gains from the spontaneous ardour and straightforward grace of its leading ladies.
Chhaya's crackling insights, Nitanshi's blameless charm ably converge with Pratibha's elegantly essayed complexity of a young woman gently yet cleverly claiming her agency. The troika are crucial to its endless appeal.
Ananya Pandey, CTRL
Call Me Bae's comic, charismatic heroine is tailor-made for cheering and applause. It's the dignity she brings to the more dialled-down version of her social media celebrity turned whistleblower caught in a Gen Z crisis in Vikramaditya Motwane's masterful CTRL that highlights the extent of her slowly, surely building calibre.
CTRL completely relies on her up, close and personal reactions to create a feeling of empathy and paranoia towards a virtual reality that's as remote as it is omnipresent.
Props to Ananya for nailing the paradox so competently.
Katrina Kaif, Merry Christmas
Understated is the key to Katrina's breakthrough.
She's cued in at all times in Sriram Raghavan's unexpected romance in the body of a suspenseful drama revealing her as an attractive blend of fragile and flawed over the course of its enigmatic and passionate night of moody moments and madness.
A twisted slice-of-festive time-serendipity, Merry Christmas finds its source of wonder in Katrina and her acknowledgement of its many-a-slip-between-the cup-and-lip love story.
