Category: Yearly roundups

2019 Mid-Year Checkpoint – Bangla Films

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Continuing with the mid-year checkpoint discussion, here is taking a pause to look at the Bangla films of 2019. Personally, I think it has been a pretty good year for Bangla Films in 2019 so far and has been a big turnaround since last couple of years. There have been quite a few good films that made their mark, and the good thing was that we got to see a lot of promising new talent coming up with the best of the year. There were also films in relevant and refreshing themes, modern in treatment with a lot of soul. We still had some biggies that were disappointing, but then which year won’t have that in the mix.

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2019 Mid-Year Checkpoint – Hindi Films

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As the first half of 2019 is over now, it is a good time to take a pause and retrospect at what Hindi cinema had to offer so far for us this year. Overall, it has been a mixed bag year of a few brilliant films and a huge bunch of average and poor films so far.

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Roundup 2018 : The Top 10 Hindi Films

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2018 will go down as a year where variety was the name of the game. The year will be particularly remembered for a few standout trends in particular: One – it was a reboot for the horror genre towards the better, Two – A-list directors pushed the bar on not catering to the typical comfort zone of the Indian cine-goer irrespective of the genre, Three – the budgets of the mega star movies did not decide their box-office success, Four – Real life incidents & people dictated stories on screen though each one of them wasn’t necessarily honest, and Five – the year marked the beginning of serious movie content being developed exclusively for digital, something that is bound to see explosive growth in the years to come. Clearly, there were a lot of movies that contributed to these trends, and some of them appeared as top class, finding their very deserving place in the Best Hindi Films of 2018.

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Roundup 2018 : The Top 10 Leading Performances (Male) in Hindi Films

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2018 in Hindi Films was an year of tectonic shifts of sorts for its leading men. It was the year when the audience rose above the massive stardom of all the three major Khans, and only the classiest of the Khans delivered in a highly experimental world. It was the year when two of the biggest names in the current generation of actors delivered the weakest performances of their careers in two blockbusters films. But it was also the year when the new breed of actors broke new ground and continued to rise and rise in very interesting characters, and age became just a number on either side of the curve for the best performers of the year. With all this and more, it was a difficult task to pick up Best of Leading Performances by Male Actors for 2018, a category that will possibly have the widest range of personal perspectives and rightfully so. 

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Roundup 2018 : The Top 10 Leading Performances (Female) in Hindi Films

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Leading female actors of Hindi Cinema will all remember 2018 as the year where flawed, relatable and deeply layered characters, very different from the inconsequential formulaic ones that usually titillate the box office , were written and then deliciously played by them. There was a plenty of range to love and choose from for picking up the Best of Leading Performances by Female Actors for 2018. 

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Roundup 2018 : The Top 10 Supporting Performances in Hindi Films

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2018 in Hindi Cinema saw very interesting characters being written not just for the lead roles, but even for the supporting characters who raise the bar of the film through their sheer craft even in limited screen time. Men or women, they are at times the foundation on which the film flourishes. Here is looking at the Top 10 Supporting Performances of 2018 in Hindi films – playing some of the most memorable characters of the year and hence deserve to be celebrated in their own right!

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Roundup 2018 : The Top 10 Lyrics in Hindi Film Songs

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After having looked at the Best Playback Performances of the year, here is looking at the songs that mesmerized the most with their words and are the Songs with Best Lyrics for the year. At times poetic, at times quirky, at times a deep emotion, at times a simple thought of life – these songs weaved magic through their words and stood out with what they said and how they said it. The poets behind these songs were true magicians of words.

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Roundup 2018 : The Top 10 Playback Performances in Hindi Film Songs

On By Jayashree ChakravartiIn B. Retrospective - Looking Back, Best Of Lists, Yearly roundups2 Comments

Kicking off the yearly round up of 2018 with the Music category, here is looking at what were the Best Playback Performances both for Male and Female Singers for Hindi films of the year.

Though the overall music scenario looked relatively dull till the first half of the year, it beautifully picked up towards the second half courtesy some excellent soundtracks especially coming from films like Manmarziyaan, Andhadhun, Laila Majnu, Sui Dhaaga or Kedarnath. There was still a lot of noise coming in the form a deluge of remixes, but the following playback performances were all soul and made it permanently to the recurring playlists of the year.

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Roundup 2018 : BENGALI FILMS OF THE YEAR

On By Jayashree ChakravartiIn B. Retrospective - Looking Back, Best Of Lists, Yearly roundups1 Comment

In the wrap up for the segment of Bengali Cinema in 2018, here is looking at the best and worst of what was on offer this year. A disclaimer here is that this retrospection is based on around the twenty odd films of the year that I watched of the ones that got theatrical releases. I did not get an opportunity to catch up on some of the films that technically did festival circuits this year only, and will find a larger release only in 2019. 

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Roundup 2018 : PERFORMANCES OF THE YEAR – BENGALI FILMS

On By Jayashree ChakravartiIn B. Retrospective - Looking Back, Best Of Lists, Yearly roundups

Bengali Films in 2018 had some good stories to tell, and saw some good writing at play to create a few memorable characters brought alive by some brilliant performances. At the same time, we saw some miserably poor or highly disappointing performances in multiple films as well. Let us find out more about who shined and who disappointed in their performances for both male and female actors ranked by preference. (Do note that this is based on theatrically released films that were watched. Hence outstanding performances in films that did the festival circuits only might have been missed out, since they are yet to be watched.)

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