Just came across an old post of mine which I had made on Bollywood in 2014. Copy-pasting it here for the sake of nostalgia:
In 2014, we are in a new phase of Bollywood – perhaps the most interesting one since 2006 when the ‘new’ kinda movie started being made. This means we still have the formula-ridden, stale, and inane stuff on one hand and on the other we have a new generation of stars trying to break the formula and steer clear of the tried-and-tested path.
This divide has almost come to its peak in 2014, where Akshay Kumar-Shah Rukh Khan-Salman Khan -and Hrithik Roshan continue to act and endorse the 100-crore-no-brainer film and on the other hand, we have young stars like Shahid, Deepika,Alia, Varun, Parineeti, Arjun Kapoor, Siddharth, and Kangana valiantly charting out a trajectory in the new and untested with a determination which is young, feckless, and yet carefully marketed.
It of course helps to be supported by directors like Vikramaditya Motwani, Vikas Bahl, Dibakar Banerjee, Vishal bhardwaj, Anurag Kashyap, Shoojit Sirkar, and so on - but that’s another story!
Some of the movies in 2014 which were young, trendy, and yet path-breaking in different ways!
1. Queen – Kangana Ranaut
One of the best movies of 2014, unarguably, it raked in both the moolah and good reviews across the board. It was a gentle, good-humoured and sweet-tempered movie, which however did make some important points about liberal humanism, gender, and relationships.
2. Haidar – Shahid Kapoor
After a decade of song-and-dance , Shahid wanted to experiment with ‘real’ cinema. The results are there for everyone to see. The movie has garnered rave reviews and Shahid’s acting has been elevated even as we sit captivated by poetry on canvas.
3. Highway – Alia Bhatt
What acting – what cinema! Clutches of pure brilliance by a 21-year-old , one of the youngest actresses in Bollywood. Stockholm Syndrome, and a child with a split personality – if only Imtiaz Ali had incorporated some realism to make it more believable.
4. Finding Fanny – Deepika and Arjun
A quirky, niche movie with loads of black humour, and some standout performances. Deepika Padukone and Arjun Kapoor fit in like fish to water. At times, you are left wondering whether there really is a noir element to the film, and how could two such young stars not get intimidated by the presence of luminous talents like Pankaj Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, and Dimple Kapadia.
5. Hasee to Phasee – Parineeti Chopra and Siddharth Malhotra
Hasee to Phasee is an avante-garde movie, not much talked about, but with a quiet, refined sensibility and sparkling performances. Parineeti Chopra is exquisitely talented and makes no bones to hide her talent beneath layers of pretensions.
This is upfront entertainment, and Siddharth Malhotra also unravels slowly but surely, showing he has more to prove and is not just eye-candy. If only film-makers could tap into this side to him more.
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