A good year for movies can mean many different things. Studios fund movies well, independent projects find their way into the mainstream, underdogs win tentpole projects, new faces emerge, and old faces rediscover their voices. In that sense, 2024 fulfilled most of these possibilities. Filmmaker Sriram Raghavan, known for overseeing gore in his films, conjured up a heartbreaking romance in Merry Christmas. A commercially viable crew starred three female actors, the low-budget Munjya was a huge success, Payal Kapadia’s self-financed All We Imagine As Light was released theatrically, and Ensembles like ‘Madgaon Express’, ‘Stree 2’ and ‘Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3’ emerged victorious. On paper, we are making steady progress. However, a little digging dismantles this neat narrative.
There can and should be different views on something. But no matter how you look at it, it’s clear that 2024 is not going to be exciting for Hindi films. Quantity no longer matters. Sure, there was a lull during the Covid-19 crisis, but time has passed and there is now a steady roster of theatrical and streaming releases in place. Theater owners and promoters have also come up with strategies to combat infrequent screenings. It was about re-screening old Hindi movies. However, the quality has been steadily declining.
The era of “genericness”
For now, the landscape of Hindi cinema resembles a straight line drawn by fading ink. Multi-billion Industries is imbued with such universality in its plot and aesthetics that its identity is difficult to find. In other words, no matter how long the lines are and no matter how expansive the industry is, growth feels haphazard and ambition is stifled.
It could be the post-pandemic uncertainty, the easy availability of other Indian language films through streaming sites during that period, or the huge success of those ventures. In 2022, SS Rajamouli’s RRR recorded the highest opening performance for an Indian film. This year, another Telugu film, Sukumar’s Pushpa 2, became the highest-grossing Indian film in its opening week. But clearly, the monopoly of Hindi cinema and its false equivalence with Indian cinema has weakened considerably. The industry’s diversity has been pushed into a prickly homogeneity where no two movies look the same, feel the same in scale, uniformly designed in action, and introspective humor in style. It is.
As is often the case, Shah Rukh Khan led the way. His 2023 film Pathaan not only marked his return to the big screen after a four-year hiatus, but also became one of the few films that earned him money while many others struggled. . That success resulted in three things. Once again proving Khan’s superiority, action was legitimized as a thriving genre, and the star’s cameo in the film was recognized as the beginning of a multiverse.
Spectacle above all else
This year, most of the Hindi films are likely to fall into these different categories. Rohit Shetty’s ‘Singham Again’ was his version of the (cop) multiverse, and production company Madhok Films took that horror-comedy world further with ‘Street 2’ and ‘Munja’. Sagar Ambre and Pushkar Ojha directed the action thriller ‘Yoda’, Siddharth Anand directed the aviation (action) thriller ‘Fighter’ and Ali Abbas Zafar directed the bottomless ‘Bade Miyan Chhote’. He directed “Miyan” (BMCM). There are other examples. Nikkhil Advani resorted to action in Veda, Ravi Udiyawar did the same in Yudra and Aditya Dutt also did in Krack. It may be reductive to consider them together, but it’s hard not to appreciate the filmmaker’s thorough attempt to treat plot as an accessory to the action.
Along the way, meta references get in the way of the script. Khan’s famous “Bete ko hath lagane se pehle, baap se baat kar” (“Before you touch your son, face your father”) was rooted in the personal turmoil caused by his son’s arrest in 2021, and the jawan (2023), a similar repetition was created after that. Tiger Shroff repeated the famous meme ‘Chhoti bachi ho kya?’ (“Are you a little girl?”) after first uttering them in Heropanti (2014) at BMCM ten years later. Chitrangada Singh briefly appeared in Akshay Kumar’s Khel Khel Mein (2024), and their scenes were set to the music of their last film together, Desi Boyz (2011). were produced together. The subtext here is that the actors wink directly at the audience, establishing a connection despite the fourth wall. But Hindi cinema has never felt so far away.
stuck on repeat
If 2024 has proven anything, it’s that what works really works, and when it works, it repeats. The success of Stree 2 and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3 has led to more sequels being made and multiple sequels are currently in the works. Animal (2023) starring Ranbir Kapoor ended with the announcement of an animal park scheduled to open in 2027. Varun Dhawan has appeared in ‘No Entry 2’ and ‘Border 2’, and is also reported to be a sequel to ‘Jag Jug Jeeyo’. A sequel to Vikas Bahl’s Shaitan, which raised funds this year, is in the works, and in October, actor Salman Khan and producer Sajid Nadiadwala announced their plans for Kick 2 in a cheeky Instagram post. He admitted that he is working on it. Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan is rumored to be appearing in ‘Pattern 2’.
It seems like every actor is either in the sequel or wants to be in the sequel. This is a disturbing trend that heralds a creative crisis in Hindi cinema. At the moment, filmmakers are more focused on catering to the audience than creating for them. Budgets have been increased, more investment has been made for VFX, and the scale of Hindi films has increased. But it would be hard to tell the difference between the trailers for, say, Baby John and Animal. It’s the same story everywhere. Overgrown men fight ambiguous vengeance not to seek justice but to prove their manhood.
bankruptcy of imagination
This perhaps embodies the most frightening symptom of today’s Hindi cinema, where the failure of the imagination manifests itself in the form of an emphasis on masculinity. More and more movies are starring men who need an excuse to drain the blood from the person next to them. It doesn’t matter the face or the cause. While they danced across the screen, they also appeared in Sanjay Tripathy’s warm “Binny and Family,” Karan Goa’s whimsical “Fairy Folk,” and Shoojit Sircar’s seminal “I Want.” Smaller, more inventive projects such as “To Talk” were vying for more screens and our attention. Even Kiran Rao’s brilliant Laapata Ladies and Varun Grover’s insightful All India Rank garnered acclaim when they hit digital platforms. In the past, these were called multiplex films. Today, they’re too ambitious for streaming and too atypical for theatrical release. They live in a no-man’s land, and in their chaos they reflect the gradual distortion of Hindi cinema.
(Ishita Sengupta is an independent film critic and culture writer from India. Her writing is influenced by gender and pop culture and has appeared in The Indian Express, Hyperallergic, New Lines Magazine, and more.)
Disclaimer: These are the author’s personal opinions.
