1. Khufiya (Netflix) is many things at the same time. It is on the topmost layer an espionage thriller about a spy at RAW selling confidential information to the neighbouring country(you know, the ‘P’ factor). Ali Fazal plays this character with such straggling imprecision that I thought we would lose focus on the spy’s brazen antics(how did he get away with it for so long? Bhardwaj, fully in charge for once wastes no time in exploring hazy characters played by lazy actors. His focus is the ever-resplendent Tabu who has earlier created enduring magic for Vishal in Maqbool and Haider. In Khufiya Tabu plays a number of roles, and I don’t mean that as disguises. Tabu’s spy with a secret Krishna Mehra is a sum-total of so many elusive emotions that I shudder to think what she would have been in lesser hands. Cutting through the acres of ambiguity and symbolisms that run through his work, Vishal Bhardwaj delivers his most coherent cogent and compelling film in years.
2. Kho Gaye Hum Kahan Gaya(Neflix): A goodlooking film with a heart, debutant director Arjun Varain Singh has cast Sidhant Chaturvedi, Ananya Pandey and Adarsh Gourav as bestfriends negotiating their way through dating,mating, heartbreak and other modern emotional ailments. Sharply written and convincingly performed,not only by the trio at the centre(Pandey is a surprise) but also by every actor in the smallest of roles. This is the surprise of the year.
3. Mast Mein Rehne Ka(Prime Video): . In this era of animalistic toxicity, Mast Mein Rehne Ka is filled with hope humanism and compassion. For that only, a standing ovation for actor-turned-director Vijay Maurya who earlier directed the fairly watchable series Crash Course for Amazon.Maurya’s foray into feature filmmaking is fresh, moving and very endearing. The chawl culture of Mumbai , those cramped gullies and lanes where most of the workingclass looks desperately for breathing space,is captured in all its guttural glory by Nagraj Rathinam’s curious restless camera which allows the characters to use their cramped spaces as best as possible.
4. Kathal(Netflix): Kathal celebrates the silliness of power-drunk politics when Vijay Raaz(as glib and glorious as ever) a local MLA in a small dusty rusty crusty town in North India, loses his prized kathals from their tree. The entire police police force is deputed to find the missing fruits.It is all hilariously inappropriate, and Saniya Malhotra’s cop-act as Mahima Basor, and her subtle smirk says it all.Her frown breaks into a twinkle whenever she is next to her subordinate Saurav (played with a jaunty innocence by Anant Joshi).The ongoing romance between Mahima and her junior is one of the valued assets of this comely comedy.But this isn’t about the laughter of triviality being given administrative priority. Kathal tears through the riproaring surface to reveal the tragic and terrifying emptiness of caste politics .
5. Pippa(Amazon): There aren’t too much bullets and bloodshed in this war film. This is not your Bridge Over the River Kwai, Border kind of violence-torn war saga.Based on the real experiences of war hero Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta from the book The Burning Chaffees, Pippa takes its time to get to the point: there is no point to shedding blood at the border. Sure, India helped East Pakistan in creating Bangladesh. But at what cost? Was all the bloodshed worth it? Director Raja Krishna Menon(whose earlier credits include the taut and gripping Airlift) takes his own time to gather the plot into a compendium of collective war images. This is not an upscale war film like J P Dutta’s Border or Farhan Akhtar’s Lakshya. The stakes in Pippa are not that high.