Tag Archives: AK vs AK

Best Bollywood Movies of 2020

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COVID-19 upended the Hindi movie industry (along with everything else) in 2020, but Bollywood fans still had plenty of new films to choose from — and a lot of great ones at that! My five favorite Hindi movies of 2020 had one thing in common: they all released directly on Netflix. Three were produced specifically for Netflix, while the streamer nabbed exclusive rights for the other two. Let’s see what topped my Best Bollywood Movies of 2020 list!

Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl was supposed to have a theatrical release, before COVID hit. While Janhvi Kapoor didn’t get to command the big screen in her first solo leading role, Netflix gave her patriotic movie plenty of hype for its streaming service debut just before Indian Independence Day. Kapoor proves that she’s got what it takes to carry a film, turning in a delightful performance opposite Pankaj Tripathi, who plays her father in the movie.

The most inventive film on the list is one of the titles produced specifically for Netflix. AK vs AK pits Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap against one another, playing fictionalized versions of themselves in this darkly comical skewering of the Hindi film industry. Director Vikramaditya Motwane’s documentary-style filming makes this a compelling watch from start to finish.

Like AK vs AK, Ludo is another dark comedy made just for Netflix. In contrast to AK vs AK‘s gritty realism, Ludo is full of bright colors and peppy music, as its characters play their part in a game overseen by a pair of celestial narrators (one of whom is the film’s director, Anurag Basu).

Cargo was the only film on my list to screen anywhere before debuting on Netflix, having premiered at the Mumbai Film Festival in late 2019. It’s an endearingly low-tech science fiction movie about the afterlife. Writer-director Arati Kradav demonstrates how to make a movie with a strong visual identity on a comparatively limited budget — and with a charming story, too.

Like Cargo, my Best Bollywood Movie of 2020 was another feature debut by a woman filmmaker with a bold aesthetic sense. Anvita Dutt’s gothic horror flick Bulbbul is almost shocking in its use of color, from the cautionary red glow of the night sky over early 20th century Bengal to the shadowy blue interiors obscuring dangers within the lord’s mansion. Its story condemns not only those who perpetrate violence against women, but the men who enable violence as well, whether deliberately or through willful ignorance. Bulbbul is a movie I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since I saw it.

Kathy’s Best Bollywood Movies of 2020

  1. Bulbbul — stream on Netflix
  2. Cargo — stream on Netflix
  3. Ludo — stream on Netflix
  4. AK vs AK — stream on Netflix
  5. Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl — stream on Netflix

Previous Best Movies Lists

Movie Review: AK vs AK (2020)

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3.5 Stars (out of 4)

Watch AK vs AK on Netflix
Buy the soundtrack at Amazon

AK vs AK is the most novel Hindi film to release in 2020, but novelty is just part of its appeal. Director Vikramaditya Motwane’s meta take on the Indian film industry — and two members of it in particular — is smart, insightful, and a lot of fun.

The AKs of the title are Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap, who play outlandish versions of themselves, as do other members of the Kapoor family. The story is fictional but trades on the participants’ real-life reputations and circumstances. AK vs AK‘s Anurag is a temperamental and self-important arthouse director who feels he deserves more acclaim, while Anil is an aging star who’s slow to accept that his biggest films are behind him.

Anil’s character seems further removed from the real person (no offense to Anurag), but he serves to highlight both the importance of the Bollywood star system and the refusal of many of the men within it to acknowledge the passage of time, insisting on playing college students into their fifties. The fact that Kapoor chose to play the character as he does in AK vs AK shows why he’s the model for aging gracefully in Bollywood.

The story opens with Anurag and Anil onstage for a question and answer session with film students. They trade barbs, bringing to the surface a simmering resentment from when Anurag was a young filmmaker and Anil turned down a role in one of his movies. Anil accidentally spills water on Anurag’s expensive shoes, and Anurag retaliates by throwing water in Anil’s face.

All of this is captured by a video camera operated by Yogita (Yogita Bihani), a filmmaker shadowing Anurag for a documentary project. Yogita helps Anurag concoct an audacious revenge plan to kidnap Anil’s daughter Sonam (playing herself) and film Anil’s search for her. Anurag believes this will cement his directorial genius by capturing Anil’s most realistic performance ever.

What follows is a nighttime chase, as Anil tries to find Sonam before sunrise, at which time the kidnappers who’ve nabbed Sonam have promised to kill her. A video of a tearful Sonam bound and gagged convinces Anil that Anurag is not joking. The two cruise around in Anil’s SUV along with Yogita, who documents the search.

The chase involves a stop at Anil’s house to put in a cursory appearance at his own birthday party to placate his suspicious family, who don’t know about the kidnapping. Anil and Anurag get in a fistfight and destroy a Christmas tree, but it’s somehow not even the funniest part of the sequence at the house. That honor goes to Anil’s son Harsh (playing himself), who is desperate to work with a director of Anurag’s caliber. Harsh acts out his pitch to play an action figure while Anil tries to get him to leave, ending with Harsh screaming about AK vs AK director Vikramaditya Motwane ruining his career when their movie Bhavesh Joshi Superhero flopped. It’s insidery, but hilarious.

Those familiar with the Hindi film industry will get more out of AK vs AK than those who aren’t. I’m sure I missed some references to films from earlier in Kapoor’s career. That said, the overall story is totally comprehensible for those who aren’t Bollywood fans. The way it’s shot — with long takes and clever camera angles that keep Yogita out of frame except for when she’s part of the story — is reason enough to watch it.

There’s also a great examination of the price of stardom. In his most vulnerable moments, Anil can’t get anyone to help him without first taking a selfie with them. Years of entertaining people onscreen isn’t enough for a cop or taxi driver to give Anil information without demanding an additional toll. Not only does he not get special treatment in his hour of need, he doesn’t even get the same courtesy one would afford a complete stranger.

Motwane walks a fine line, making sure the audience always knows how to react to a given scene. AK vs AK is funny when it’s supposed to funny and sad when it’s supposed to be sad. Even the uncomfortable moments where the audience is forced to consider whether something is funny or not clearly feel intentional. Motwane always makes great movies, and AK vs AK is no exception.

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Streaming Video News: December 24, 2020

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I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Amazon Prime with dozens of Indian titles added in the last week, including today’s premiere of Coolie No. 1 (also in 4K UHD), the Varun Dhawan remake of the classic Govinda comedy.

I also updated my list if Bollywood movies on Netflix with the debut of the Netflix Original dark comedy AK vs AK, starring birthday boy Anil Kapoor and Anurag Kashyap as sinister versions of themselves.

The other gigantic Netflix news is that 48 Hindi movies are scheduled to expire on December 31. Most of them are Shemaroo Entertainment titles that were added to Netflix on December 31, 2019, and almost all are also currently available on Amazon Prime. Since there are no expiration dates listed for the versions on Prime, I’m guessing that Amazon is their permanent home for the time being. I don’t expect the movies expiring from Netflix to return anytime soon. Nevertheless, I’m gonna wait until January 2 to purge my Netflix list, because it would be super annoying to remove them all and have to re-add them two days later if the contract renews. Here’s the full list of Hindi movies expiring from Netflix on December 31:

Merry Christmas, everybody! — Kathy

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Streaming Video News: December 11, 2020

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I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Netflix with today’s addition of the new Sanjay Dutt drama Torbaaz.

I also updated my list of Bollywood movies on Amazon Prime with a bunch of Indian titles added this week, including yesterday’s debut of the Bhumi Pednekar supernatural flick Durgamati: The Myth.

Both services have new stuff lined up for the next two weekends. Here’s what’s coming up:

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Streaming Video News: July 16, 2020

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I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Netflix with info from today’s big announcement about the streaming service’s slate of upcoming Indian movies and TV series. In addition to five new series, Netflix announced five Original films that were already in the works and seven movies that have chosen not to wait for theaters to reopen (whenever that may be). Netflix’s press release has details about the new additions, all of which are in Hindi or English. The only one with a release date so far is the previously announced Gunjan Saxena, which debuts on Netflix on August 12.

For me, the highlights are Ludo (which stars Abhishek Bachchan, Rajkummar Rao, Aditya Roy Kapur, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Sanya Malhotra, and Pankaj Tripathi), Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare (Konkona Sen Sharma and Bhumi Pednekar), Aurangzeb director Atul Sabharwal’s Class of ’83, and Vikramaditya Motwane’s AK vs AK — shorthand for Anil Kapoor vs Anurag Kashyap.

New movies coming to Netflix

New series coming to Netflix

I also updated my list of Bollywood movies on Amazon Prime with more than 20 Indian titles added in the last week, including today’s global debut of the Kannada film Law.

Hotstar dropped the trailer for Lootcase, which launches on the service on July 31.