Aseem Chhabra picks his top 10 Indian films of 2024, which includes films that have had theatrical releases or are streaming on OTT.
2024 has packed in some real highs for Indian films, including a Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival (All We Imagine As Light), three awards at the Sundance Film Festival (two for Girls Will Be Girls and one for Nocturnes) and one at Berlinale (also for GWBG). All these films were well recognised and celebrated at Indian festivals as well.
A few weeks ago I tweeted, 'For many years I have been scanning international awards and nomination lists hoping to find some Indian name. It's been an obsession, the main focus of my work. In the recent years I would find nominations for the brilliant Indian documentaries. But this year Indian cinema is already running fast.'
2024 promises good times ahead for Indian indie cinema.
(The list does not include the brilliant documentary Nocturnes, which has not released yet. I was not able to watch Vetrimaaran's Veduthalai Part 2, but the first part made it to my 2023 list.)
10. Manikbabur Megh (The Cloud & the Man) (Bengali)
Manik is a quiet, middle-aged, man focused on taking care of his ailing father.
When his father passes away, Manik is left alone, until he finds an unlikely companion: A cloud that starts to follow him around Kolkata.
Director Abhinandan Banerjee's black and white debut film is the most unique and surreal romance of our times where a man finds an admirer in an object of nature.
Initially, the cloud is menacing, always lurking in the sky, staring down at Manik. But in time, Manik starts to find comfort in the cloud's presence: His own private fluffy companion.
After screenings at numerous film festivals and winning awards as well, Manikbabur Megh had a successful run of over three months in theatres in Kolkata.
That is quite an achievement for a small independent film.
9. Roopanthara (Kannada)
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
In One Thousand and One Nights, the collection of Middle Eastern folks tales, Scheherazade narrates tales to stay alive night after night.
In Director Mithilesh Edavalath's Roopanthara, in the dystopian future, an old man is held at gun point with a similar request or else he will be killed.
The old man ends up narrating a series, somewhat interconnected stories of violence, struggles and hardship with touches of humanity.
Topping the lineup is Raj B Shetty, who plays a small-time gangster whose minor squabble with a man he accidentally passes by on the street takes a dark turn.
Somshekhar Bolegaon and Hanumakka play an elderly couple from a village who take a trip to the city that ends in a tragedy.
Lekha Naidu is a beggar woman accused of stealing a child, but she is fortunate to meet a new constable (Bharath GB) with a heart of gold.
The performances of the supporting actors makes Roopanthara deeply engaging.
But Shetty is the star of the film, as he has also co-written the dialogues with the director.
8. Kill (Hindi)
Where to watch: Disney + Hotstar
Karan Johar and Guneet Monga joined hands to produce the most violent, thrilling and entertaining film, full of blood, gore and terror.
Although Director Nikhil Bhat's Kill is inspired by the Indonesian/Irish production The Raid: Redemption, it is very much an Indian film with emotion, melodrama, families, crying mothers, creepy villains and of course, romance rolled into a clever masala concoction.
I first saw Kill on a screener given to me at the Toronto International Film Festival. But then I watched it twice again in theatres.
That is how this brilliantly executed train ride was meant to be seen -- in a theatre with other co-passengers, high on adrenaline, charged with excitement, watching bodies being slashed and hearing crunching sounds of the smashing of bones.
Kill was the most fun Indian film of 2024.
7. Merry Christmas(Hindi)
Where to watch: Netflix
A Sriram Raghavan film, even when it is not the director's best work, is definitely worth celebrating.
Merry Christmas has unusual casting with Katrina Kaif and Vijay Sethupathi playing the leads, both of whom shine in the twisted tale of love and betrayal set on a Christmas eve in a city called Bombay.
In Merry Christmas ,Raghavan enters the world of pulp fiction, this time adapting from Frédéric Dard's 1961 French novel Le Monte-charge, in which an ex-convict meets a beautiful woman with many secrets.
As always, he is also inspired by classic Bollywood thrillers. He dedicates the film to Shakti Samanta, who was the master of romance, melodrama and suspense.
The opening shot has Asha Parekh screaming 'nahin!', in a scene from Samanta's Kati Patang. Along the way, he tips his hat to other older films, when we hear Jab Andhera Hota Hai from Raja Rani and Kai Baar Yun Hee Dekha Hai from Rajnigandha.
But what worked for me the most was the stylish look and the mood of the film, the bright coloured production design by Mayur Sharma and cinematography by Madhu Neelakandan that captured the mysterious, magical world of Bombay lit up on Christmas eve, while dark deeds prevail in the background.
6. Vaazhai (Tamil)
Where to watch: Disney + Hotstar
In Mari Selvaraj's most personal film, inspired by his childhood Sivanenjam (Ponvel), a young boy lives what appears to be a normal life in a village, sharing his home with his mother and sister.
But every weekend, he is sent off in a truck with other villages to lug bananas so he can earn money to support his family.
It's a conflicting life.
Sivanenjam would much rather attend school, where he excels, has a crush on his teacher and argues with his best buddy as the two admire Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan.
But despite the harsh exploration of caste and class is the focus of all of Selvaraj's films, and Vaazhai is a lovely celebration of the director's memories of the rhythm of rural life.
The film had gorgeous shots of banana plantations, farm workers commuting back and forth on trucks, and innocent children walking in broken sandals to school.
5. Laapataa Ladies (Hindi)
Where to watch: Netflix
Laapataa Ladies is Kiran Rao's comeback film over a decade after her debut Dhobi Ghat, with a nod to Rabindranath Tagore's tragic story Noukadubi.
Laapataa Ladies is utterly charming, hilarious with strong feminist tones.
Two brides on their way to their husbands' home get exchanged in a train compartment.
Everyone seems shocked by the development but the women -- having reached wrong destinations -- take charge of their situations, and eventually find their way home.
Laapataa Ladies landed in controversy, when the Film Federation of India chose it as the country's official entry for the Best International Feature Film Oscar.
Most observers, including this writer, felt that the Indian selection should have been All We Imagine As Light.
But setting that aside, we cannot ignore that Laapataa Ladies is a heartwarming film with wonderful performances by new actors, and music and songs that will stay with you long after the film is over.
My favourite is O Sajni Re, written by Prashant Pandey and sung by Arijit Singh.
4. Manjummel Boys (Malayalam)
Where to watch: Disney + Hotstar
A survival thriller inspired by real events, Manjummel Boys is at first a story about deep friendships formed in childhood that continue into adulthood.
The men hail from the Manjummel area, located in Kerala's Ernakulam district, hence the film's title.
They party, drink, play sports and essentially hangout. But a three-day trip to the Guna Caves will change their lives when one of them falls into a pit, known as Devil's Kitchen.
From then on, the film is a race against time, as tensions create differences between the friends.
Flashbacks take us to the more normal times of childhood but Director Chidambaram keeps bringing us back to the present scene of action.
The ending is clear and expected but how we get there keeps us riveted to our seats.
3. Girls Will Be Girls (English/ Hindi)
Where to watch: Amazon Prime
'I wanted to write about a young girl's sexual awakening,' Director Shuchi Talati told me when I talked to her earlier this year about her Sundance award-winning film, Girls Will Be Girls.
It is a wonderfully realised coming-of-age drama about a high achieving teenager, Mira (a fabulous debut performance by Preeti Panigrahi), who develops a crush on a new boy in her boarding school Sri (Kesav Binoy Kiron), as she maneuvers her path with strict schoolteachers and an interfering mother who perhaps never experienced feeling of teenage love.
Kani Kasturi plays Anila, Mira's almost single mother whose actions will make you feel uncomfortable but ultimately, she is the parent guiding Mira's life.
Anila's and Mira's characters are perhaps the most complex mother-child roles created in an Indian film.
Girls Will be Girls has received two Film Independent Spirit awards nominations, for Kani Kusruti's supporting performance and the John Cassavetes Award for Talati and the film's two enterprising producers, Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal.
2. Kottukkaali (The Adamant Girl) (Tamil)
Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video
P S Vinothraj's second feature Kottukkaali is made with the same independent spirt as his debut film Koozhangal (Pebbles), which won the Tiger award at the 2021 International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Set in a day, Kottukkaali is the story of a college student Meena (Anna Ben), who is engaged to marry Pandi (Soori Muthuchamy).
But she falls in love with another man, who belongs to a lower caste.
The families try to convince Meena to change her mind.
When she refuses to marry Pandi, a dozen members of the two families travel first to a deity and then to a seer hoping to change the adamant girl's mind.
With a brilliant cast -- the stoic, composed Ben, who barely has any dialogues and an explosive Muthuchamy, who deliberately worked on the scratchy tone to his voice, Kottukkaali is a powerful study of patriarchy in rural Tamil Nadu and a woman's determination to have things her own way.
1. All We Imagine As Light (Malayalam/Hindi/Marathi)
The most talked about Indian indie film at home and abroad, All We Imagine As Light is a love letter to Mumbai. It has the fragrance and the pulse of the city -- the countless immigrants who travel there for a better life and become a part of its mosaic.
Payal Kapadia's Cannes Grand Prix winner is an ode to the single women who form deep friendships in Mumbai, become families by choice, navigating the city's complex, layered cultures, customs, foods and languages.
The heartbeat of the film is the special bond of sisterhood formed by the three lead characters Prabha (Kani Kusruti in her second significant role in 2024), Anu (Divya Prabha) and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam who also appears in Laapataa Ladies).
All We Imagine as Light is a meditative film that has touches of magic realism and a calming imagery, whether with a single character riding a Mumbai train, or when the group of women sit on a beach by a shack.
The film has bagged a number of critics' awards, and nominations for two Golden Globes (Best Director for Kapadia and Best Non-English Language Film), for the Film Independent Spirit Awards (Best International Film) and for a BAFTA (Best International Independent Film). It's been on a countless best of the year lists and was just recommended by President Barack Obama.
