 "Raatchasan")
A mélange of movies, from political and prison dramas to pulsing thrillers, breathed new life into Indian cinema in 2018. Here are the 10 movies that stayed with me.
Goodachari: I had long given up on the possibility of a masterful drama-thriller coming from an Indian filmmaker — and then this sleeper hit emerged out of nowhere. Armed with an A-list star cast for an indie film — Adivi Sesh, Sobhita Dhulipala, Prakash Raj, Jagapati Babu — first-time director Sashi Kiran Tikka comes up with a rare Indian thriller that not for once takes its audience’s intelligence for granted.
Pariyerum Perumal: This miserabilism is centred around a Dalit youth in Tirunelveli who is time and again forced to face the harsh reality of his downtrodden existence. Kathir is a revelation in the eponymous role of an Ambedkarite, and debut director Mari Selvaraj promises to have multiple aces up his socially conscious sleeve. Kudos to Pa Ranjith for bankrolling such a decidedly non-commercial movie.
Eeda: Small-town love stories rarely get better than this beautifully rooted one set in Kannur and Mysuru. Romance blooming in a politically charged town in Kerala has to be a genre by itself, considering the milieu that B Ajith Kumar brings to the fore in his debut feature. If there’s a trinket being given for the best on-screen Indian couple of 2018, it ought to go to Shane Nigam and Nimisha Sajayan. That Netflix subscription awaits you more than ever.
Raatchasan is the best popcorn movie of 2018
Swathanthryam Ardharathriyil: You can never second-guess Malayalam cinema. It keeps throwing curveballs, like this Shawshank Redemption reimagined in a nondescript prison in Kerala by director Tinu Pappachan in his first-time effort. The battered grace that Antony Varghese brings to his role makes you feel the pinch of inhabiting a purgatory that is like a prison in Kerala.
Rangasthalam: After delivering two famously terrible movies (Nenokkadine and Nannaku Prematho), Sukumar strikes back with a brisk, efficient, engaging drama set in the politically fraught Eighties’ Andhra, and gets Ram Charan to give the performance of his life. If you’re a sapient, sentient cinephile, there’s no way you can miss this shivery beauty of a film on Amazon Prime.
Vada Chennai: Vetrimaaran is the most exciting Indian filmmaker at the moment and he cemented that reputation with a gruesome movie about the gang wars among the fishermen community of Madras in the 1980s and ’90s. After Polladhavan and Aadukalam, this is his third outing with Dhanush who revels as a yeasty and combative carrom player-turned-saviour. These might still be early days, but we are looking at a potential Mifune-Kurosawa comparison.
Raatchasan: Director Ram Kumar’s sophomore effort is a ridiculously enjoyable serial killer movie that is screaming to be a cult hit. Vishnu Vishal’s extremely honest performance as a police officer makes this the best popcorn movie of the year.
October: Despite an overcooked movie like Piku, I’ve always admired the continuously prowling oeuvre of Shoojit Sircar, and this Varun Dhawan-starring weepie makes me look forward to more. Dhawan is a revelation as a hotel management trainee who is slowly losing his bearings as his romantic interest (Banita Sandhu) is lying comatose in hospital. Sircar takes the hunky scaffolding off Dhawan, and that’s a major win in my book.
Chekka Chivantha Vaanam: Armed with a star cast full of the who’s who of Tamil cinema — Arvind Swami, Silambarasan, Vijay Sethupathi, Jyothika, Prakash Raj, Jayasudha, Arun Vijay, Aishwarya Rajesh — Mani Ratnam is back in form with this gripping tale of fratricide in a family where shady dealings are part and parcel of daily life. Despite a higgledy-piggledy script, the auteur shows he has not lost his mojo and, honestly, that’s good enough for someone like me who grew up watching his cinema. Maybe another Thalapathi or Agni Natchathiram is around the corner.
Badhaai Ho: Hands down, the laugh riot of 2018. Director Amit Sharma’s paper-thin plot about a mother getting pregnant well into her 50s is a testament to the unassailable fact that skilled dialogue and performances can take a movie to dizzyingly high standards. Feel-good Indian cinema never felt better than this.
Next column: Best TV shows of 2018
jagan.520@gmail.com
