The most exciting screen entertainment to look forward to in 2020

What will we see in 2020's films and web series? Ranjita Ganesan sifts through the entertainment pipeline to find titles with the most promise

HINDI

It was smaller films driven by ideas, rather than star-studded big productions, that defined 2019 for Hindi cinema. Compare the warm reception of a Badla or Article 15 with the absolute rejection of Kalank and Dabangg 3. All indications point to people wanting more from Hindi filmmakers. A number of films poised for a 2020 release look like they could make the cut.

There are a few stories of women that will be told by women. First among them will be Meghna Gulzar’s Chhapaak, based on the life of acid attack survivor and activist Laxmi Agarwal. Deepika Padukone plays the lead. Vidya Balan will appear in and as Shakuntala Devi. The biopic of the “human computer” is directed by Anu Menon who previously made the romantic comedy London, Paris, New York. 

Every recent Kangana Ranaut film has been marked by her airing her poorly considered political views just before its release. Somehow, still, her performances on screen remain enjoyable. In Panga, directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, Ranaut will play the role of a woman who makes a comeback in the national kabaddi team after marriage. 

After his searing drama on caste violence, a lot will be expected from Anubhav Sinha’s next film, Thappad. Taapsee Pannu, who earlier worked with the director in 2018’s Mulk, will play the lead, alongside appearances by Ratna Pathak Shah and Tanvi Azmi among others. Not much is known about the film’s premise, although it is reported to examine man-woman relationships. 

If you agree that Tabu should be in every film made, then it will upset you to learn that she is only likely to appear in three films in 2020. One of them is Jawaani Jaaneman, about how the relationship of a father, played by Saif Ali Khan, with his teenaged daughter comes of age. Tabu is a principal character in the story, which was shot in London. Actor Irrfan will return to the screen, after a period of illness, in Angrezi Medium, the sequel to his Hindi Medium (2017). This one has been directed by Homi Adajania, and also stars Kareena Kapoor.

Anubhav Sinha’s next, Thappad, will feature Taapsee Pannu

Shoojit Sircar’s Gulabo Sitabo, for which the director joined hands with Piku teammates Amitabh Bachchan and screenwriter Juhi Chaturvedi, is billed as a quirky family comedy. Sircar’s Vicky Donor discovery, Ayushmann Khurrana, is in the film too, playing the part of a tenant of Bachchan’s character. Khurrana, nicknamed “Content Khurrana” by fans in recent years for picking the best roles, has another release this year in a spin-off of Shubh Mangal Saavdhan titled Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan. Directed by Aanand L Rai, the film intends to tell a story of same-sex love.

Irrfan will return to the screen with Angrezi Medium

A number of sports films are in the works. Maidaan has a lovely premise: Indian football’s golden period (1952-1962). It will feature Ajay Devgn as Syed Abdul Rahim, a prescient coach — “football prophet”, according to one of his players — who led India to the semi-finals of the 1956 summer Olympics. Rakesh Omprakash Mehra and Farhan Akhtar will reunite for a boxing drama named Toofan, six years after teaming up to make the Milkha Singh biopic.

Regular collaborators, director Hansal Mehta and actor Rajkummar Rao, will come together for Chhalaang, after such sublime films as Shahid (2013) and Aligarh (2015). The social comedy will also feature Mohammad Zeeshan Ayub. Laal Singh Chaddha will be the Christmas offering at the end of 2020. The very late remake of the 1990s Hollywood favourite Forrest Gump is led by Aamir Khan and directed by Advait Chauhan.

REGIONAL

Films from the southern states, which have always been interesting, have recently started finding audiences in other parts of the country. Malayalam cinema, in particular, has received much love.

Is Fahadh Faasil the best actor currently working in Indian cinema? There are very few who can achieve anything close to his post-doctoral understanding of the human face as a vessel for emotion. He will be seen in Trance next year. It is also notable for starring Nazriya Nasim and Soubin Shahir, and because Anwar Rasheed is making a film a full seven years after Ustad Hotel. 

Kangana Ranaut will appear in a trilingual biopic Thalaivi, based on the life of the late actor-turned-Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, directed by Tamil filmmaker A L Vijay. It will be screened in Hindi and Telugu too. Vaanam Kottattum, a family drama about two generations written and produced by Mani Ratnam’s Madras Talkies, is another important release for early 2020.

Telugu star Vijay Deverakonda, known for romancing women in quite intense fashion on screen, will do so again in World Famous Lover, slated for a Valentine’s Day release. Kannada film fans will look forward to the sequel to KGF: Chapter 1. Sanjay Dutt is set to step in as antagonist to Rocky played by Yash in KGF: Chapter 2.

In West Bengal, a spin-off from the 2011 hit Baishe Srabon, which is remembered for bringing back thrillers as a genre in Bengali cinema, is expected to release. Dwitiyo Purush will retain several of the previous cast members including Parambrata Chatterjee and Raima Sen.

Back in 2008, when the comedy De Dhakka ran to packed houses, its title offered an easy pun. The film had “given a push” to Marathi cinema, it was said. The creators of that Little Miss Sunshine remake will return a dozen years later with De Dhakka 2. The same cast, Makarand Anaspure and Shivaji Satam among others, will be seen travelling about London in the sequel. Another, albeit more serious, Marathi film that is poised for an early 2020 release is Dhurala. The political drama set in rural Maharashtra stars Sonalee Kulkarni of Natrang fame and Siddharth Jadhav, who is otherwise known for his comedy.

HOLLYWOOD

Predictably enough, Hollywood’s year is filled with films of the superhero and fantasy genres. Birds of Prey with DC Comics’ vigilante Harley Quinn as its protagonist, Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Widow stand out for being directed by women and having female protagonists at their centre. There will also be a new Marvel feature for which actor Kumail Nanjiani has sprouted very many muscles. The Eternals is about an immortal alien race tasked with defeating an evil race called Deviants. 

With nineties nostalgia being the other order of the day, Disney will continue to recast its old animated hits as live action films. No doubt encouraged by the very successful remakes of Aladdin and The Lion King in 2019. This year the 1998 animated musical Mulan, about a young woman who poses as a man to fight the war in place of her ailing father, will get the same treatment. The trailer indicates the film has its own sombre tone, distinct from the comical musical flavour of the original. The Little Mermaid will be rebooted, too, with computer-generated and live action.

On Valentine’s Day, make an anti-romantic choice and watch Downhill, an American remake of Ruben Ostlund’s Force Majeure, in which a couple on holiday survive an avalanche but have their relationship thrown into crisis. In an inspired bit of casting, the film features two geniuses of comedic acting, Julia Louis-Dreyfus alongside Will Ferrell. One can expect the humour to be goofier and less absurdist than the Swedish original.

After Spike Lee’s  BlacKkKlansman in 2018, the provocateur filmmaker will make a war drama called Da 5 Bloods, in which five African-American veterans journey back into Vietnam. Near the end of 2020, Steven Spielberg’s first full-fledged musical, a screen revival of the Broadway hit West Side Story, will release. Ansel Elgort (Baby Driver, The Fault in Our Stars) will star alongside newcomer Rachel Zegler in it. Keep an eye out for an untitled Paul Thomas Anderson project which is also due next year.

INDIE AND WORLD

British director Joe Wright, of Atonement and Pride and Prejudice fame, has directed a thriller, Woman in the Window, with Hitchcock vibes about it. Amy Adams will play an agoraphobic woman who watches other people’s homes and ends up witnessing a crime. 

Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul during the filming of Memoria; Amy Adams in Woman in the Window

More adaptations are in the offing, including of the Agatha Christie bestseller about a crime of passion, Death on the Nile. Actor Kenneth Branagh, who made Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express some years ago, will direct and appear once again as the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, alongside Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer and even Ali Fazal. It will stand out for its scenes from Egypt. Next year will have Jane Austen’s Emma brought to life on screen by American indie filmmaker Autumn de Wilde with a mostly British cast of promising young actors. The brilliant comedian Miranda Hart is in it, too, which means laughs are guaranteed. 

A new Wes Anderson is upon us. The French Dispatch, Anderson’s usual suspects — Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody — will all make appearances although the film is led by Timothee Chalamet, Saoirse Ronan and Lea Seydoux.

The Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a festival favourite, is making his first English language film Memoria, backed by Chinese director Jia Zhangke as producer. The very international cast is led by American Tilda Swinton, Spanish actor Daniel Giménez Cacho and Jeanne Balibar of France.  

WEB ORIGINALS

Some of the best minds in cinema will continue to take their work to web platforms. Indian big screen directors moving to the web platform? Raj and DK with The Family Man, Deepa Mehta with Leila and Made in Heaven. Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar will come together again for Ghost Stories, a follow-up to their Lust Stories that Netflix released in 2018.

True crime’s popularity as a series genre is only growing. Jamtara: Sabka Number Ayega will debut on Netflix in January, and takes its inspiration from a real case of a phishing scam that operated out of a Jharkhand village. It is directed by Soumendra Padhi who previously made Budhia Singh: Born to Run.

No one makes social justice quite as riveting as Jordan Peele (Get Out, Us). His Hunters is doubly exciting because it stars Al Pacino, whose character leads a team in 1970s America which literally hunts Nazis, and he says things like, “This is not murder, this is mitzvah.” It is being developed for Amazon Prime. 

In more social justice television, there is Mrs America, which will tell the story of the feminists who fought for the Equal Rights Amendment. Cate Blanchett will play the antagonist Phyllis Schlafy, a conservative who led the campaign to defeat the amendment. The Hulu show will likely stream in India too.