This decade's genre-defining cinema.

This decade was a transformative one for Hindi cinema. It ushered in the good, the bad and the ugly. Here, we look at perhaps the defining film for each year. This may not mean they’re the best films of that year, but perhaps the most culturally resonant, the most palatable and the most memorable ones.

2010: Dabangg

Director Abhinav Kashyap gave us a taut and unabashed police procedural, that oozed both gravitas and wit. Salman Khan finally got the character both he and his fans deserved in a fun and light-hearted film that stayed true to its roots. It’s a shame that both sequels middled in comparison. I hope Part 4 has Abhinav on the director’s chair.

2011: The Dirty Picture/Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

2011 was the year of women. Whether it was Vidya Balan breaking all norms of sexuality in the riveting The Dirty Picture, where Milan Luthria painted a carefully observed portrait of a woman both liberated and caged by her sexuality or Zoya Akhtar, donning the director’s cap in her second outing, making the decade-defining film. Both films were smartly etched pieces that spoke to the wild side of viewers across the board.

2012: Kahaani

Sujoy Ghosh’s thriller wasn’t as marvellous as Anurag Basu’s delicious Barfi!, but that scene of Vidya Bagchi ripping off her fake pregnant belly is imprinted in my mind. Ghosh made a fine film, that spawned a less sparkling but often inspired sequel in 2016. Kahaani also personified Kolkata as a living, breathing place - with its narrow gullies and its claustrophobic set up. Kahaani was a genre-defining film that bent all perceptions of what Indian thrillers should be.

2013: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

Ayan Mukerji’s uneven drama wasn’t without flaw. It got too lost in the world it had created, and even completely got de-railed in its final act. Yet, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani bests better films of 2013, like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Ram-Leela and The Lunchbox, because it’s the most memorable one. Ayan made a gorgeous travelogue, taking cue from Zoya Akhtar, about a man who finds himself in another person - only he doesn’t know it himself. I think Yeh Jawaani is one of Indian cinema’s most misunderstood films, each time you watch it, you’ll discover something new.

2014: Queen

Vikas Bahl’s best film to date is Kangana Ranaut’s maniacal Queen. Hinging entirely on Ranaut’s able shoulders, Bahl’s routine script was transformed into comedic gold. As the reserved yet confident Rani, Ranaut didn’t let a single note falter. She was absolutely magnetic to watch. It’s a shame she couldn’t shed this manic pixie dream girl persona for another five years - until Manikarnika and Judgementall Hai Kya, both completely flipped that notion over on its head.

2015: Piku

Shoojit Sircar (and Juhi Chaturvedi)’s Piku was infinitely better than Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s operatic Bajirao Mastani, that was both over-indulgent over overtly operatic. He started the trend of smaller stories with catchy macguffins, but his didn’t stink of the same commercial greed that later films like Dream Girl and Made In China did. Piku was an observed tale of human suffering, told through the eyes of an octogenarian who really longs a nice, long shit. Cinematic gold.

2016: Udta Punjab

Abhishek Chaubey’s riveting drama about a state in fear of devouring itself was absolutely crackling, because of the gutsy way in which it indicted not only the cops, doctors, and individuals - but the entire country. It was driven by fine performances from its four-people ensemble, particularly Alia Bhatt, who gave her career best performance as Bauria or Mary-Jane. Udta was a classic exercise in complete and total abandon in filmmaking - a trope we’d see later on in Chaubey’s Sonchiriya.

2017: Bareilly Ki Barfi

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s sweet and affable drama represented the blah year it came out in. 2017 was pure drivel for Hindi cinema, and Tiwari’s more lax brand of filmmaking ushered in a welcome change. Rajkummar Rao was the undoubted star of this flick, but Kriti Sanon and Ayushmann Khurrana gave performances that revolutionised their careers for the next three years. I loved and still remember everything about Bareilly Ki Barfi.

2018: Andhadhun/Mulk

Andhadhun was Sriram Raghavan’s return to his roots. It was a crazily conceived thriller, that did become tedious and lose almost all of its spunk in the final act. It meandered and meandered to no end, but it’s the one that I remember the best. Mulk was the awakening of the new Anubhav Sinha, a filmmaker who would go on to make films like Article 15 and next year’s Thappad, which I’m keenly looking forward to. Both offered respite in a year filled with commercial small town tales that just forgot to update the formula.

2019: URI: The Surgical Strike/Kabir Singh

I had issues with both URI’s jingoistic tone as well as Kabir Singh’s misogynistic one. But the films were undoubted box office phenomenons, and will have large impact, I assume, on the coming year. Filmmakers have already announced a plethora of war dramas and South remakes. There’s no doubt that both pieces served as riveting art, but they posed the great question - does cinema have to be morally responsible? URI and Kabir Singh both were a perfect end to a decade that revolutionised Hindi cinema, showing us no matter how many steps we take forward, we can always take just as many back.

Those were our picks for the genre-defining films of 2019. Tell us yours!