TOP 5 WORST AND BEST INDIAN FILMS I WATCHED IN 2023

WORST

5. JAWAN

I don't care how many people liked this film, or whether it collected 100000 crores (god knows how) or whether it became the biggest blockbuster of the universe, I simply didn't liked this film, forget about liking, the plot was utter cringe, predictable to the core, bogus and even nonsensical at times, like this film celebrates a scene as a massy moment when an NSG commando is stripped naked in women's jail and this is just the tip of the iceberg, the film is filled with such scenes. The father son angle looked to be straight away lifted from Atlee's previous films, the scenes designed for generating mass moments looked to be high budget Balakrishna scenes, rest of the scenes lifted from Money Heist or Gabbar is Back, add a Sanjay Dutt cringe cameo whose importance in the story is as much as of the part 'ueue' while pronouncing the word Queue and Jawan is ready. Forget Shahrukh Khan, the script was so ridiculous that it made someone like Vijay Sethupathi ham.

4. KUTTEY

To be honest whenever any film maker casts Arjun Kapoor in the lead role for any of his film, that's the 1st red flag. Vishal Bharadwaj although hasn't directed this film officially, but it's no hard task to say that he has ghost directed it. And the result is a disaster. Taking an ensemble cast, make them swear each and every possible hindi abuse ever heard in the name of comedy, shoot the film in an extreme dark canvas and then think that you have made a made a Tarantino. From story to performances not a single thing was in track in Kuttey. On a hilarious note, while watching the 2nd half, even I also forgot why are these people are behind each other's back, and didn't even bother to check the reason.

3. BAWAAL

The tagline here says that EVERY LOVE STORY HAS IT'S OWN WAR, but in reality it was the AUDIENCE WHO WAS AT WAR WHILE WATCHING THIS FILM. Apart from weak performance of the lead, the plot, the motivation of the lead character were unclear from the 1st frame itself. I mean just listen to this, Ajay (Varun Dhawan) is to get fired from his job, so in order to save his job, the only way is to teach his students the chapter of World War 2 by travelling to the important places of World War 2 and ends up mending his relationship with his epileptic wife Nisha (Janhvi Kapoor). If that's not enough, the film has a dialogue like "HAR RISHTA APNE AUSCHWITZ SE GUZARTI HAI" for those who don't get the context, Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland was used to torture Jews during World War 2 and in 1944, nearly 1.1 million people were murdered by gassing, starvation, individual executions, beatings .etc. and such kind of place was used as a metaphor here for the problems in the lead couple's married life. On the top of that, this is said by the intelligent one or the more matured one from the couple, the one who is actually trying to save the relationship. My question is what level of insensitiveness and dumbness one should acquire to write such a horrendous dialogue? And interestingly we all know the famous history of Varun Dhawan with Christopher Nolan (Dilwale = Inception) and this film based on World War released along with another Nolan film based on World War (Oppenheimer). This last sentence wasn't a criticism, but a simple trivia.

2. ROCKY AUR RANI KI PREM KAHANI

Now see, before you jump your guns, let me tell you one thing. The film is not bad, it was my mistake that I thought my brain cells have the power to tolerate the irreparable damage that will be done by a Karan Johar film. I was wrong, that's it! I was the one who watched it, else if I would NOT have watched the film then This would probably be my most favorite film of the year. I mean you need a special talent to write a scene such as a mother in law feeling proud seeing her son in law hanging her bra to let it dry and they even hug after that with Arijit Singh's Kamleya is being played in the background. Tears weren't stopping from my eyes during that scene. If I elaborate further on this film, then there are chances of me getting into depression, such a masterpiece was this movie. You know nowadays there various roasts and nutshell videos on YouTube about films that were bad, I could not even dare to watch those nutshell videos of Rocky Rani as that would again remind me of the trauma I went through while watching this (excuse for a) film.

Honorable Mentions:

MISSION RANIGANJ

The only reason this film isn't in my top 5 list is due to the respect I have for Sir Jaswant Singh Gill as an engineer and his heroic act as the story was the only saving grace of this film which was technically a disaster as the VFX came from some intern doing a project on Maya Effects , story pacing, everything else was pathetic here Not a single thing looked in place in the film except Dibyendu Bhattacharya's evil act. Akshay Kumar wasn't particularly bad, he had his moments but even that wasn't enough to salvage this film. Even I don't completely blame the director also because he himself might be helpless as there were reports that this film was released in theatres just to meet it's OTT release deadline and that is a sheer ridiculousness from the producers and most importantly a sign of disrespect to Late Sir Jaswant Singh Gill as he deserved a better film.

TIGER 3

In the name of spy film from the ISI UNIVERSE OF YRF, this film was nothing less than a joke. The plot was terrible to say the least as to why would anyone want to watch a film where RAW agent is saving Pakistani PM? It was nowhere near it's prequels and easily the weakest film not only from spy universe, but also from the whole isi universe of yrf.'

1. ADIPURUSH

No brownie points for guessing which film was going to take the number one spot. This film was nothing but a mockery of Ramayan, mockery of our culture, mockery of Shri Ram. From the looks, to the script, not a single thing, I repeat, NOT A SINGLE THING in this film was worth praising. On the top of the that the intentions of the makers were shady as they told that children see Ramayan exactly like this. EXACTLY LIKE THIS? Children see Meghnad as tattoo model? They see Ram as Ravan? and Ravan as chapri? It actually was a dilemma for me to whether to put RRKPK in 1st place or Adipurush. While the former was a mental trauma for me and a direct attack on my senses, the latter went a step ahead and was a sheer disrespect to our Heritage and Culture. And what was even worst that the director even gave interviews blaming the audience and calling the audience as 'IDIOTS', there is a limit to shamelessness.

OTHER FILMS

Before going on to the best films, I would like to let you know that there were some films like Yaariyan 2, The Archies, Thank You For Coming, Ganapath, Annapoornai. It was a task for me to even watch the trailers of these films completely. So watching these films was out of question for me.

Apart from these there are films like Zara Hatke Zara Bachke and The Kerala Story which I couldn't watch due to them being not released in any OTT platforms till now

BEST

5. THE VACCINE WAR

Pandemic was a traumatic period for all of us. The story about India's victory in the bio-war needed to be told to the public and it has been done beautifully in The Vaccine War. I do have some reservations against Vivek Agnihotri and his opinions but that shouldn't reflect here as Vaccine War was actually a very well made film, unfortunately ignored by the audience. The performance by Nana Patekar especially was clap worthy and the climax was a highlight point in the film.

4. MISS SHETTY AND MR POLISHETTY

There are rare times when I put a romcom in my list of top 5 films of the year. Miss Shetty Mr Polishetty is that much good. The humor is excellent in some places and the performances by the leads is another strong reason to watch this film. While Anushka Shetty looked simple and elegant and playing her part sincerely, it was Naveen Polishetty who single handedly made this film a 10 on 10 for me. How can someone be so much convincing every time in his comic parts? All in all MSMP was very endearing story where you felt connected to the characters, especially Sidhu, and those who carve for feel good films, this is a must watch.

3. JAILER

When mass films are done right then Jailer is the example of how good the result can be. I don't remember how many times have I watched this film. That much repeat value this film is having. For me this was Nelson's career best film, even better than Doctor. Although on screen it was Rajnikanth's show all the way, the aura he possesses even at this age was something unimaginable for any star in today's time, but the offscreen hero of this film was non other than Anirudh, who with his BGM and songs (especially Rathamaare and Hukum, these 2 songs were on loop in my playlist) created the effect of the scenes 10 times more. What's more interesting is that this was a mass film after so much time that the hero was shown more than a hero, his pain and sufferings were portrayed beautifully by Rajni sir and it is rare nowadays to see such films ending on a sad note (yes, it was an ENDING, A PROPER ENDING, not any cringe hint towards the start of a cinematic universe, maybe Jailer can be included in some cinematic universe later but that wasn't the case in this ending at least).

2. OMG 2

A film made on sex education and directly discussing the topic of masturbation and involving Mahadev in it. This does sound offensive from the reading it only. Right? If even a single scene or dialogue would have been a miss then the level of carnage OMG 2 would have been is unimaginable. But thankfully this film was blessed by Mahadev himself and we got one of the best films on the social taboo of sex education. This film shows the importance of sex education in the society and how Pankaj Tripathi's character was helped by a divine intervention in the fight to give justice to his son. The film's messaging may seem problematic to some, but it is essential for today's youth, either believe it or be an ostrich. Amit Rai deserves all the credit for handling such a delicate subject brilliantly, but the salient hero of the film was Amalendu Choudhary whose cinematography was class apart from what we have seen recently in Indian cinema, especially the scenes involving Mahadev. Akshay Kumar as Mahadev (I don't consider CBFC's 'messenger' narrative to even be a thing) was a treat for the eyes, especially his Shiva Strotam Tandav in Bhasm during the interval was just epic.

Honorable Mentions:

IB71

A film based on the IB operations during 1971 war, IB71 is a very well made film showing the details of the operations but sometimes the films seems too bland

12th Fail

An inspiring story based on IPS Manoj Kumar Sharma and his struggles. Vikrant Massey's performance was a knockout and the film was brilliant altogether

Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai

A film made to show the struggles faced by PC Solanki to give justice to the child molested by a popular godman. Technically the film was excellent and manages to make you feel empathetic

1. ANIMAL

This may be the last visit on my page by some of you. If you belong to the category where "we agree to disagree" then it's fine, but if you belong to the other category of "destroying youth", "ban this film", "Vanga needs mental therapy", then good riddance! I did not get any reason as to why not put this film in the 1st position. The story, acting, music, everything was magnificent for me. Other than it's mass moments, there are some subtle, very subtle references Vanga had put in this film which I decoded in my 2nd watch and realized the cinematic brilliance Animal had. And there's a saying that 'a Lie when said 100 times, becomes truth for some' and there are some people who without even watching the film are getting carried away in this narrative that ANIMAL IS A BAD FILM FOR SOCIETY. Frankly, I don't care who thinks what, Animal is the best Indian film of 2023 for me.

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