Top 20 Indian films of 2024

Illustration/Uday Mohite

Here's a List of Top 20 Indian Films of 2024. Films 11-20 are here; films 1-10 were last week.

11. THANGALAAN by Pa Ranjith, Tamil: Visceral, period film, part fable, on the exploitation of indigenous people and low castes by local landlords and the British, in order to mine gold. Starring Chiyaan Vikram and Parvathy Thiruvothu; on Netflix.

12. MEIYAZHAGAN ("Unexpectedly") by C Prem Kumar, Tamil: Absolutely delightful family film about a man returning to his village for a wedding and meeting a generous relative whose name he can't remember. On our loosening traditional roots. Starring Karthi and Arvind Swami. On Netflix.

13. SUPERBOYS OF MALEGAON by Reema Kagti, Hindi: Delightful, melodramatic tribute to real-life Nasir Shaikh of Malegaon, and his imaginative, no-budget, community sourced films. Starring Adarsh Gourav, Vineet Kumar Singh, Shashank Arora. Opened at Toronto IFF. Woman director-producer, and woman producer Zoya Akhtar, among others. On Amazon/soon available.

14. VAAZHAI, Banana, by Mari Selvaraj, Tamil: Powerful, gut-wrenching, partly-autobiographical film about Sivanaindhan, about 12, from a poor family, who wants to go to school, instead of carrying banana headloads. Moving comment on poverty, hunger and child labour. On Disney+Hotstar.

15. IN THE BELLY OF A TIGER by Siddartha Jatla, Hindi: A rural, landless farmer and grandfather, offers to be eaten by a tiger, so his desperately poor family can live off the compensation. Stinging critique of capitalism; Berlin Film Festival.

16. SECOND CHANCE by Subhadra Mahajan, Hindi, Kullavi and English: When Nia retreats to her summer home in the Himalayas following a traumatic incident, she forms unexpected bonds with the caretaker's mother-in-law and grandson. Karlovy Vary Competition, Busan, IFF Kerala. Debut feature, woman director.

17. FARMING THE REVOLUTION, Inquilab di Kheti, by Nishtha Jain and Akash Basumatari, Punjabi, Hindi: Documentary feature. Nearly half a million farmers from Punjab and other states successfully protested around Delhi, against the newly enacted exploitative farm laws, for over a year, in 2020. Hot Docs, IDFA, IDSFFK, Dharamshala IFF. Woman director and producer.

18. NOCTURNES by Anirban Dutta and Anupama Srinivasan, English, Hindi, Bugun: Experiential documentary about a scientist studying moths at night in Arunachal Pradesh, and how they signal climate change. Won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft at Sundance, CPH: Dox. India-US co-production; woman director.

19. A FLY ON THE WALL by Shonali Bose and Nilesh Maniyar, English: When Shonali Bose's close friend Chika is diagnosed with terminal cancer and given four months to live, he chooses to die by assisted suicide via Dignitas in Switzerland, and asks Shonali to film his final moments. Shonali chooses to celebrate his life, rather than mourn his death. Documentary was at Busan. Woman director and producer.

20. ROOPANTHARA, Metamorphosis, by Mithilesh Edavalath, Kannada: Superb debut, with an anthology of four stories, held together by a metaphorical tale on the power of storytelling itself. Presented by Raj B Shetty, who also did the dialogues, and plays a familiar goon.

My features shortlist would include: Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies (Lost Ladies, India's Oscar entry, but it was already in my previous Top 20 Indian Films to watch in 2024, T20x2024); Shuchi Talati's exquisite Girls will be Girls will be on my Top 20 South Asian and South Asian Diaspora films of 2024, as the director is US-based; T20x2024) ; Vetri Maaran's Viduthalai 2 (Liberation 2), IFF Rotterdam 2024 showed Liberation 1 and 2; T20x2024; mentioned here only because my Top 20 list was published before the film released last week and I haven't seen the latest version; Dibakar Banerjee's LSD-2 (T20x2024, Netflix); Dibakar Banerjee's Tees (cold-shouldered by Netflix but shown at Dharamshala IFF); Atul Sabharwal's Berlin; Achal Mishra's Ri; Chidambaram's Manjummel Boys, Malayalam, Girish AD's Premalu ( Malayalam), Dinjith Ayyathan's Kishkindha Kaandam (Malayalam); Suman Ghosh's Parama: A Journey with Aparna Sen, documentary, Bengali/English, IFF Rotterdam; Gurvinder Singh's Trolley Times, documentary, IFF Rotterdam; Venky Atluri's Lucky Baskhar (Telugu); Midhun Murali's Kiss Wagon, animation feature, won Special Jury Award, IFF Rotterdam; Prithvi Konanur's Hadinelentu (Seventeeners, Kannada); Ritesh Sharma's Jhini Bini Chadariya (The Brittle Thread); Abhinandan Banerjee's Manikbabur Megh, The Cloud and The Man, Bengali; and Ishan Shukla's Schirkoa- In Lies We Trust, animation feature, won NETPAC Award IFF Rotterdam.

This Top 20 film list is more a conversation starter that includes some of my favourite films, than a Biblical edict. It includes 11 Indian woman filmmakers, three documentaries and three films from the North East, and mentions animation features and short films.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com