I added a new page to the site titled Upcoming Bollywood Releases, with a link available in the right sidebar under the heading “Other Pages at This Site.” I’ve long maintained a list of upcoming Hindi movie release dates for my own personal reference, so why not make that list public?
Note that this is not a list of every Hindi movie scheduled for release in India, only those that I believe are likely to open in theaters in the United States. My predictions are based on a factors such as stars, directors, and studios, and even holidays. The more popular the star or director, the more likely the movie is to release internationally. Some studios — such as Excel Entertainment — release all of their movies in US theaters, regardless of who’s in them.
I’m bound to miss a few films — who would’ve expected Nanak Shah Fakir to open here? — but most of the movies on the list are safe bets. Movie release dates in India are notoriously fluid, so some of the dates will likely change, and I will update the list accordingly. Just today, Welcome Back‘s release was delayed only a month before its scheduled opening. Nevertheless, my list is a good guide as to what films to expect to see in US and Canadian theaters in the near (and distant) future.
Even though the 87th Academy Awards ceremony took place just last month, we’re almost halfway through the qualifying period for submissions to the 88th Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Qualifying films must be released theatrically in their home country between October 1, 2014 and September 30, 2015. (Click here for the 87th Oscar’s eligibility rules.) Accordingly, dozens of Hindi films already meet that qualification.
Since this blog focuses on Hindi-language films, I’m not going to discuss the merits of the dozens of movies in other Indian languages that would meet the qualifications. I’m also limited to movies that are, or have been, available in the United States. So, there are surely a few worthy Hindi films I’m going to miss.
Since October 1, 2014, I’ve given six films 3.5- or 4-star reviews. Let’s look at their chances:
As much as I enjoyed The Shaukeens and Kill Dil, they earned their stars primarily as great examples of their genres (comedy and revenge, respectively). I’m also ruling out Badlapur and NH10 because of similarities to other films — I Saw the Devil and Eden Lake, respectively — that could rub Oscar voters the wrong way.
That leaves us with Haider and PK. Haider — a gripping retelling of Hamlet set in a starkly beautiful, war-torn region — seems like an obvious choice to appeal to Oscar voters.
As charming and smart as PK is, it’s more mainstream than the average Foreign Language Oscar contender. Still, that fact could make it a bold choice for submission. It has high production values working in its favor, along with a funny and accessible performance by Aamir Khan, whom Oscar voters may remember from Lagaan.
Haider and PK would both make interesting challengers in the Foreign Language Oscar category. However, the Indian selection committee has in recent years chosen movies out of left field, regardless of their chance of actually winning the award (submitting The Good Road instead of The Lunchbox? Seriously?). I don’t know that either Haider or PK stands much of a chance of being selected by the committee, but I sure hope they are considered come September.
I updated the My Other Sites section of links in the right sidebar to include a link to my page at Letterboxd. This is where I write brief thoughts on all the movies I see: Hollywood, Bollywood, and other international fare. My latest Letterboxd review is of Cinderella (which I really liked).
Filmmaker and fellow movie reviewer Meera Darji is raising funds for Transindia, a documentary focusing on the lives of transgendered people in India. The fundraiser is in its final days, so head over to Meera’s blog to learn more about how you can support this documentary. While you’re there, why not check out some of Meera’s movie reviews!
Director Anurag Kashyap’s five-hour crime epic Gangs of Wasseypur made a splash on the festival circuit in 2012. It released theatrically in India but didn’t make the journey overseas. Finally, on Friday, January 16, 2015, select AMC theaters across the United States will carry Gangs of Wasseypur Part I. The following Friday, January 23, those same theaters will carry Gangs of Wasseypur Part II. Both parts of the film will run for one week only.
Through a stroke of luck, my local public library ordered Gangs of Wasseypur on DVD back in 2012, so I was able to review it back then. It’s a fascinating movie, unlike any other Hindi film I’ve seen. However, my viewing experience suffered by having to wait several weeks in between watching Part I and Part II.
The one-week break between the theatrical releases of Part I and Part II sounds about right in order to maintain the film’s momentum. Fans of Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Manoj Bajpayee will want to make a point of seeing this on the big screen.
Follow this link to see if Gangs of Wasseypur is playing in a theater near you.
2014 delivered a bunch of well-crafted films aimed at a savvy audience. Here are my ten best of the year. (Click on the title of each movie to read my original review.)
Films with budgets large and small took aim at social issues affecting ordinary citizens. Siddharth powerfully explores poverty through the experience of a man searching for his missing child. The divisive intersection of politics and religion is skewered both by indies — Filmistaan and Dekh Tamasha Dekh — and the year’s biggest hit, PK.
Other films put creative spins on existing formulas. Highway turns a typical damsel-in-distress scenario into a young woman’s journey of self-discovery. Dedh Ishqiya features a budding romance between a middle-aged couple, played by Madhuri Dixit-Nene and Naseeruddin Shah. I thought I’d seen enough gangster movies for a lifetime until Kill Dil revitalized the genre in stylish fashion.
Ankhon Dekhi challenges the notion that a movie has to be “about” a specific theme, instead presenting itself as a movie to simply experience.
My sentimental favorite film of 2014 is Queen. Watching Kangana Ranuat as charming small-town girl Rani gallivanting about Europe on her solo honeymoon is a joyous experience. It’s a movie I look forward to revisiting.
Yet one movie stood out from the rest because of its riveting story and immaculate direction. The best Hindi movie of 2014 is Haider.
I’m a huge fan of director Vishal Bhardwaj, and even with high expectations going in, I was still blown away by Haider. It’s gorgeous, thanks both to the natural beauty of Kashmir and Bhardwaj’s use of a bold color palette against a snowy backdrop. Kudos to cinematographer Pankaj Kumar as well.
Bhardwaj — who also wrote the film’s music — maximizes the potential for song as a narrative device in a sequence in which Haider (a modern Hamlet, played by Shahid Kapoor) publicly implicates his uncle in his father’s disappearance. The scene is much more effective as a musical performance than it would have been as a speech.
Bhardwaj also deserves credit for placing his version of Hamlet in such a politically and emotionally charged environment. Notes at the end of the movie highlight how ongoing tension between India and Pakistan have cut off a beautiful place like Kashmir from the rest of the world, to the detriment of regular people simply trying to exist. Placing a 400-year-old story within the context of a modern conflict emphasizes that quelling the dangerous temptations that come with political ambition is a problem humans haven’t yet solved. Haider is a magnificent piece of visual storytelling.
While I felt that there were more good Bollywood movies than bad released in 2014, the year did produce some truly awful Hindi films. (Click on the title of each movie to read my original review.)
Some primarily suffered from poor story construction. In Jai Ho, Salman Khan inexplicably goes on a violent rampage when people fail to embrace his “pay it forward” scheme, resulting in Suniel Shetty plowing through traffic in a tank. Another Khan film — Kick — makes even less sense, as Khan transforms from a dopey slacker into Robin Hood overnight, and none of the supposedly intelligent characters in the film realize it’s him. Koyelaanchal‘s disorganized plot is a problem, but not as big a problem as its multiple flashbacks from the perspective of a baby.
I often write about gender issues in my reviews, so it’s no surprise that many of the worst movies of the year portrayed women negatively. The Xpose is essentially a morality lecture for women delivered by writer-actor-composer Himesh Reshammiya. According to Super Nani, a woman’s only real asset is her beauty, even if she’s old enough to be a grandmother.
A few lousy 2014 movies actually fancy themselves as socially progressive, even though they aren’t. Kaanchi inaccurately characterizes the heroine’s personal revenge as representative of a youth uprising against systemic corruption. The hero of Heropanti denounces arranged marriage while simultaneously affirming a father’s right to choose his daughter’s husband. Daawat-e-Ishq — the most disappointing Hindi film of 2014, given the quality of its cast and crew — depicts men as the real victims of dowry tradition.
The delightfully inept Karle Pyaar Karle could have been a perfect “so bad, it’s good” movie, were it not for a racist subplot. The movie’s heroine is threatened with forced marriage to a dark-skinned African man, a character introduced solely to represent the worst fate imaginable for an Indian woman. The hero and heroine use racial slurs, and the heroine’s mother proposes suicide for herself and her daughter as a way to avoid the marriage. It’s an offensive and frustrating end to an otherwise unintentionally hilarious movie.
The absolute worst Hindi movie of 2014 combines the shortcomings of the other films on the list and multiplies them exponentially. That film is the loud and tacky Humshakals. Offensive jokes are aimed at almost every group except straight Indian men, with director Sajid Khan’s preferred target being overweight women. As one can infer from the female characters Khan wrote for the movie, his ideal woman is a brainless sex object.
Unlike Karle Pyaar Karle, there’s nothing funny about Humshakals, intentional or unintentional. It’s a cynical film, pandering to the basest prejudices of the lowest common denominator. Sajid Khan writes the mean-spirited jokes he does because he thinks he can get away with them. It’s time for not only the audience but members of the industry to tell him that we deserve better.
With 2014 winding down, let’s look ahead to the Hindi movies likely to open in American and Canadian theaters in 2015. Keep in mind that these are educated guesses on my part. There’s always a chance some random family film starring Sharman Joshi will open in 75 theaters, despite the fact that he’s not a box office draw here. Also, I consider Bollywood release dates tentative until the film is actually in the theater. Expect many of these dates to change.
January
The new year of Bollywood movies starts with Tevar on January 9. It’s Arjun Kapoor’s turn to rescue Sonakshi Sinha from some guy she doesn’t want to marry. Even with Manoj Bajpayee as the villain, I can’t get excited for this one.
Bipasha Basu’s horror movies rarely open in North America, but I would LOVE to see Alone on January 16.
The following weekend sees the release of the Akshay Kumar spy thriller Baby…
…and Dolly Ki Doli, starring Sonam Kapoor and Rajkummar Rao.
Long shot releases on January 30 include Ayushmann Khurrana’s Hawaaizaada and Ali Fazal’s Khamoshiyan.
February
February 6 sees the possible release of two films: Amitabh Bachchan’s Shamitabh and John Abraham’s Rocky Handsome. I am filled with dread at the thought of John Abraham starring in a remake of The Man From Nowhere, a Korean movie I love. Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, and Jacqueline Fernandez come to the rescue on February 13 with Roy.
One of my most anticipated movies of the year is the action-packed February 20 release Badlapur, starring Varun Dhawan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, and my girl Huma Qureshi.
Though no date has been set, the sequel to 2012’s surprise hit OMG: Oh My God is planned for release in February.
March
March is front-loaded, with three potential candidates planned for March 6, and nothing else until April (except possibly Randeep Hooda’s Main Aur Charles on March 13). Movies scheduled to open on March 6 include Y-Films’ Bank-Chor; Anushka Sharma’s NH10; and Emraan Hashmi’s Tigers.
April
After two slow months, a flurry of notable titles come out in April. The month kicks off on the 3rd with two action flicks: Gabbar, starring Akshay Kumar and Shruti Haasan, and Phantom, starring Saif Ali Khan and Katrina Kaif.
Another film I’m really excited about releases April 10: Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, starring Sushant Singh Rajput.
The following week sees the release of Excel Entertainment’s Bangistan, along with Emraan Hashmi’s thriller Mr. X. April closes out with Yash Raj Films’ Dum Laga Ke Haisha on the 23rd and Piku — starring Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone — on the 30th.
May
From May onward, details on release dates are sparse. For example, the month kicks off with a film Bollywood Hungama has tentatively titled “Kajol-Ram Madhwani’s Next“. The surer bets are director Anurag Kashyap’s long-awaited Bombay Velvet on the 15th and the comedy sequel Welcome Back on the 29th.
June
I’m really looking forward to June 5, which sees the release of Dil Dhadakne Do, director Zoya Akhtar’s star-studded film about “a dysfunctional Punjabi family on a cruise” (according to Wikipedia). Vidya Balan and Emraan Hashmi star in the romance Hamari Adhuri Kahaani, releasing on the 12th. Much to my delight, the dance flick ABCD 2 hits theaters on June 26.
July
Amitabh Bachchan’s All Is Well opens on July 3, in time for Independence Day in the U.S. On the 16th, Salman Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan — co-starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui — opens in time for the end of Ramadan. Another remake already making me cringe is Brothers, Akshay Kumar’s rendition of the riveting 2011 film Warrior. Brothers opens on July 31.
August
Shahrukh Khan claims the Indian Independence Day audience with Fan, opening on August 14. Then on the 28th, Ranbir Kapoor plays a teenage detective (Seriously? He’s 32!) in Jagga Jasoos.
October
There’s no news yet about September, but October 2nd sees the release of the unnecessary sequel Singh Is Bling. The fact that Prabhu Deva is directing it just makes it worse.
November
Salman Khan and Sonam Kapoor star in the November 1 release Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. No word yet on which superstar will claim the Diwali holiday release window during the middle of the month.
December
A big battle is scheduled for Christmas day between two movies starring Deepika Padukone. Bajirao Mastani features Deepika alongside Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra in a historical romance directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Tamasha features Deepika opposite Ranbir Kapoor in a romance directed by Imtiaz Ali, with a score by A.R. Rahman. There’s no way these two films will actually face off, so let’s see who blinks first and changes dates.
When writing about Happy New Year‘s opening weekend box office performance in the United States and Canada, I was intrigued by the way that Bollywood movies’ per-screen averages have decreased over the years as screen counts have gone up. The examples I cited in my weekly box office update were Om Shanti Om (114 theaters, $15,474 per-theater average) and Chennai Express (196 theaters, $12,328 average), as compared to Happy New Year (280 theaters, $7,417 average).
With more and more Bollywood films opening on 200+ screens in North America (e.g., Happy New Year, Bang Bang, Dhoom 3, Krrish 3, Ram-Leela, Besharam, and Kites), theaters that regularly carry Hindi films have likely seen their per-screen earnings for each film decrease. But are these diminished averages still high enough to make it profitable for new theaters to carry major Bollywood releases?
For an example, I looked at the Marcus Addison theater in Addison, Illinois, in the western suburbs of Chicago. The Marcus Addison has carried Indian films in languages other than Hindi sporadically over the years, and recently programmed Bang Bang and Happy New Year. Eight other theaters within twenty-five miles of the Marcus Addison also showed Happy New Year over the weekend of October 24-26, 2014.
Was it really worth it for the Marcus Addison to carry Happy New Year, when there were so many other theaters in close proximity showing it as well? The answer is yes. I checked Box Office Mojo for the per-screen average earnings of all the movies showing at the Marcus Addison that weekend and ranked them from highest to lowest, also noting each film’s week of release. Happy New Year‘s average was second highest of the nineteen films that played at the Marcus Addison from October 24-26.
The Principle (Week 1; only theater showing it in U.S.): $8,657
Happy New Year (Week 1): $7,417
Ouija (Week 1): $6,955
John Wick (Week 1): $5,568
Fury (Week 2): $4,209
Gone Girl (Week 4): $3,556
St. Vincent (Week 3; 1st week of wide release): $3,395
Kaththi (Week 1) $3,374
The Book of Life (Week 2): $3,228
Alexander & the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Week 3): $2,309
Dracula Untold (Week 3): $1,860
The Equalizer (Week 5): $1,696
The Judge (Week 3): $1,673
The Best of Me (Week 2): $1,575
The Maze Runner (Week 6): $1,572
Addicted (Week 3): $1,566
Annabelle (Week 4): $1,337
The Boxtrolls (Week 5): $840
Men, Women & Children (Week 4): $119
Happy New Year beat not only older Hollywood movies, but also every new Hollywood film released that weekend as well. The only film it lost to was a documentary that happened to make its U.S. theatrical debut at the Marcus Addison that weekend.
With so much money to go around, theater counts in excess of 300 can’t be far off.
Legendary film composer A. R. Rahman will receive an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music in Boston on October 24, 2014. To mark the occasion, Rahman will perform a concert with the school’s Indian Ensemble. Proceeds from the concert benefit a scholarship in Rahman’s name that provides funds for Indian students to attend the school.
Though the concert is sold out, it’s going to be streamed online starting at 8 p.m. Eastern on Friday. Here’s where you can watch the concert live. If you need more incentive to watch — “Free A. R. Rahman concert” isn’t incentive enough? — check out the video below of the Berklee Indian Ensemble performing Rahman’s “Jiya Jale” from Dil Se. They’re fabulous.
