Tag Archives: Best Hindi Movies

Best Bollywood Movies of 2025

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Time to take a final look back at last year with my Best Bollywood Movies of 2025 list. The Hindi film industry has gotten bashed recently for a lack of quality titles, but last year produced a bunch of terrific movies.

As a side note, I’ve decided not to do a Worst Bollywood Movies of 2025 list. There are just too many common things that are wrong year after year — sexism, jingoism, unfunny romantic comedies that don’t recognize their own toxicity — to warrant a brand new list. I will say that my three least favorite films of 2025 can all be found on my list of Bollywood movies on Hulu.

Back to the good stuff. Here are my Top 10 Bollywood Movies of 2025, counting down from number 10.

The year’s biggest overachiever is the crime drama Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas. Arshad Warsi portrays the rare Hindi-cinema cop who is flawed but working on improving himself, making his own personal journey as compelling as the mystery he’s trying to solve. Running his story parallel to a romantic subplot is clever and keeps the audience guessing as to how it ties in to the main story. This was way better than I expected it to be.

Saiyaara didn’t wind up the year’s surprise box office hit for nothing. Overwrought, youthful romances used to be much more commonplace, and this engrossing drama reminds everyone why that was the case. What a treat to be introduced to two talented young lead actors — Aneet Padda and Ahaan Panday — who will undoubtedly be the stars of the future.

Most Hindi films set in Kashmir are war stories, but director Danish Renzu’s Songs of Paradise offers a refreshing change of pace. This gentle movie about a trailblazing woman in Kashmiri music history is a delight to watch.

Though it premiered at festivals in 2024, Humans in the Loop first got a wide release on Netflix in 2025, so I’m counting it here. Like Songs of Paradise, Humans in the Loop takes a quiet, focused approach to telling the stories of the Indian women who make AI possible.

In contrast, Dhoom Dhaam is a raucous adventure about an interrupted honeymoon. Yami Gautam Dhar and Pratik Gandhi are a ton of fun as a newly married couple who have a lot to learn about one another.

I adored the 2008 documentary Supermen of Malegaon, and director Reema Kagti’s fictional version of that film — Superboys of Malegaon — is a fitting tribute. It’s a perfect movie for anyone who loves movies.

Probably the biggest surprise of the year was Stolen, a film that excels as both a taut action thriller and an astute commentary on wealth inequality and institutional shortcomings. Director Keran Tejpal’s kidnapping drama is the best rural thriller since NH10, which is saying a lot.

Like Humans in the Loop, Mrs. is another film that finally got its wide release in 2025 after playing at festivals. The wait was worth it. Sanya Malhotra shines in this story of a new wife slowly crushed under the impossible expectations of her husband and father-in-law. It’s a poignant depiction of how abusers disguise their actions while still exercising control — and the resilience it takes to escape such an oppressive situation.

It made perfect sense when Homebound was selected as India’s official submission to the Oscars for Best International Feature Film. It’s a moving portrayal of two friends trying to escape poverty, only to run up against prolonged COVID business closures right as they start to make real money. Homebound captures an important moment in history while giving us characters we come to truly care about.

My favorite Hindi film of the year might also be the strangest (well, that honor might go to Crazxy). Another tale of an unhappy newlywed bride, this one takes a bizarre and hilarious turn that succeeds entirely thanks to a career-best performance from Radhika Apte. The Best Bollywood Movie of 2025 is Sister Midnight. Thank goodness this actually got a wide release and didn’t disappear after its festival run in 2024. I love this bonkers film.

Kathy’s Best Bollywood Movies of 2025

  1. Sister Midnight – stream on Hulu; buy/rent on Amazon
  2. Homebound – stream on Netflix
  3. Mrs. – stream on ZEE5
  4. Stolen – stream on Amazon Prime
  5. Superboys of Malegaon – stream on Amazon Prime
  6. Dhoom Dhaam – stream on Netflix
  7. Humans in the Loop – stream on Netflix
  8. Songs of Paradise – stream on Amazon Prime
  9. Saiyaara – stream on Netflix
  10. Bhagwat Chapter One: Raakshas – stream on ZEE5

Previous Best Movies Lists

[Disclaimer: my Amazon links include an affiliate tag, and I may earn a commission on purchases made via those links. Thanks for helping to support this website!]

Best Bollywood Movies of 2024

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With the first theatrical releases of 2025 due to make their streaming debuts any day now, it’s time to wrap up 2024. I wasn’t able to get to all of the films I wanted to review (sorry, Madgaon Express), but I did have 35 Hindi movies to choose from. Here are my Top 10 Bollywood Movies of 2024:

Sequels can’t help but be compared to the films that spawned them. Thankfully, Stree 2 had the same spooky, funny energy as the original Stree from 2018.

Choosing Laapataa Ladies as India’s submission to the most recent Oscars opened it up to unfair criticism, especially after it failed to make the shortlist for Best International Feature. Still, it’s a very cute story that introduced some fresh new acting talent.

If you’ve read any of my previous “Best of” lists, you know that they almost always include a Vidyut Jammwal action flick. This time it’s Crakk: Jeetegaa Toh Jiyegaa! (which is unfortunately not available anywhere in the United States at the time of this writing).

I’m a sucker for buddy comedies about women, and Tabu, Kareena Kapoor Khan, and Kriti Sanon came through with the heist flick Crew.

The movie that India’s selection committee should have picked as its Oscar submission was All We Imagine as Light, a great look at the alienation of modern day life in the city.

Some of my favorite performances of 2024 were by Deepak Dobriyal and Vikrant Massey in the tense serial killer drama Sector 36.

The most exciting action movie of the year was Kill. Watching Lakshya punch, kick, and hack his way through goons on a crowded train provided nonstop thrills.

Alia Bhatt makes an appearance on this list as an action heroine in the jailbreak drama Jigra. Vasan Bala is one of my favorite directors, and casting Bhatt as a sister who’ll do anything to save her imprisoned brother was a genius choice.

One of my other favorite filmmakers took a huge risk in shooting a thriller that consists almost entirely of footage meant to look like it was shot on a smartphone, and boy did it pay off. Vikramaditya Motwane trusted Ananya Pandey to lead the claustrophobic mystery CTRL as an influencer lured into a technological trap, and he was repaid with a career-best performance in a gripping film.

The best Hindi movie of the year told the true story of a controversial artist via a clever, memorable mix of narrative techniques. Diljeet Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra shone in their leading roles in my new favorite movie from writer-director Imtiaz Ali. The Best Bollywood Movie of 2024 is Amar Singh Chamkila!

What was your favorite Hindi film of 2024? What would have made your Top 10 list? Let me know in the comments!

Kathy’s Best Bollywood Movies of 2024

  1. Amar Singh Chamkila – stream on Netflix
  2. CTRL – stream on Netflix
  3. Jigra – stream on Netflix
  4. Kill – stream on Hulu; buy/rent on Amazon
  5. Sector 36 – stream on Netflix
  6. All We Imagine as Light – buy/rent on Amazon
  7. Crew – stream on Netflix
  8. Crakk
  9. Laapataa Ladies – stream on Netflix
  10. Stree 2 – stream on Amazon Prime

Previous Best Movies Lists

[Disclaimer: my Amazon links include an affiliate tag, and I may earn a commission on purchases made via those links. Thanks for helping to support this website!]

Best Bollywood Movies of 2019

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It’s time for my annual roundup of the year’s best Hindi films. I need to start with a caveat, in anticipation of any comments asking why certain movies didn’t make my list. Both my mother-in-law and father-in-law died in 2019, and I missed seeing a bunch of movies, especially those released in the first half of the year. I’m particularly disappointed to have missed Sonchiriya, since I’ve read many good things about it. It only ran in North American theaters for two weeks in March before heading to the streaming service Zee5 — which isn’t available in the United States. It’s not available for digital purchase or on DVD here either, so there’s no legal way for me to catch up on it. I’m sure there are other 2019 releases that I would have enjoyed that I also missed out on.

That said, 2019 was a fantastic year for action movie buffs like me, so let’s get to it!

What better place to start than with my favorite martial artist Vidyut Jammwal’s family-friendly eco-thriller Junglee. This is a rare Hindi film directed by an American: Chuck Russell, best known for the Jim Carrey hit, The Mask. While most Indian productions lean heavily on computer-generated effects to create animals on-screen, Russell had Jammwal and the rest of the cast interact with live elephants. It adds an element of awe that reinforces the story’s messages of conservation and respect for nature. And Jammwal’s excellent stunts are always a ton of fun.

India’s submission to the 92nd Academy Awards — Gully Boy — certainly deserved the honor, even if it failed to make the shortlist for the Oscars (not that any film can beat Parasite). Director Zoya Akhtar’s story of a young Muslim man voicing his generation’s frustrations through the medium of rap is timely and relevant, but also a great example of character creation and world-building.

Another of the action flicks on this year’s list is the thrill ride War. With world-class stunts and fight choreography — and a totally unexpected romantic undercurrent between characters played by Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff — War is a Bollywood action flick you could easily share with your non-Bollywood watching friends.

Speaking of Bollywood films for non-Bollywood watchers, the best of the year in that regard was the thriller Article 15. I recommended it to several acquaintances outside my Hindi-film circle, and all of them went to the theater to see it and really enjoyed it. Some readers have asked me if Bollywood movies can ever find crossover success in America, and to that end, Article 15 shows the value of having an English title and a plot that’s easy to describe. Oh, and it has to be a darned good movie as well, which Article 15 definitely is.

Given the theme of this year’s list, it’s no surprise that my favorite Hindi movie of 2019 is yet another action film, albeit an unconventional one. Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota (“The Man Who Feels No Pain“) — which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018 but didn’t play in Indian theaters until March, 2019, followed by a May Netflix release in the United States — features a hero raised on a diet of old martial arts movies who doesn’t have an ounce of cynicism. He believes that the good guys really can beat the bad guys. It’s a fun, goofy movie with a ton of heart, lots of flying kicks, and wonderful performances by newcomer Abhimanyu Dassani, Pataakha‘s Radhika Madan, Mahesh Manjrekar, Jimit Trivedi, and Gulshan Devaiah in my favorite double role of all time. Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota makes me incredibly happy.

Kathy’s Best Bollywood Movies of 2019

  1. Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota — Buy/rent at Amazon or iTunes/stream on Netflix
  2. Article 15 — Stream on Netflix
  3. War — Buy at Amazon/stream on Prime
  4. Gully Boy — Stream on Prime
  5. Junglee — Buy at Amazon/stream on Hotstar

Previous Best Movies Lists

[Disclaimer: my Amazon and iTunes links include an affiliate tag, and I may earn a commission on purchases made via those links. Thanks for helping to support this website!]

Best Bollywood Movies of 2018

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In 2018, it feels like most of the Hindi films I reviewed fell into the “okay” category — not horrible but not necessarily outstanding either. Only five movies merited a star-rating of 3.5 or higher, and just five earned a star-rating of 1.5 or lower. (Obligatory critic’s disclaimer that star-ratings are convenient shorthand lacking context, so please read the reviews!) As a result, I’m only doing a Top 5 and Bottom 5 for 2018.

That said, I think the movies at the top of the list are fantastic for different reasons, and I’d love to revisit all of them someday. Let’s see what made the list!

[Note: I didn’t get to review Tumbbad until after I’d written this post. I’d rank it in second place for the year.]

One of the year’s most delightful surprises was the horror comedy Stree. I wasn’t even sure it was going to open in the United States, given that movies starring Stree‘s lead pair — Rajkummar Rao and Shraddha Kapoor — aren’t locks for international release. Thank goodness it did, because Stree was a ton of fun, weaving hilarious moments with a progressive message discouraging male objectification of women.

While Stree was about how men view women, Veere Di Wedding was as woman-centric as can be. The female buddy comedy gave wider latitude to its characters than most women are allowed onscreen in Bollywood, and it did so while being positive and uplifting. I have a soft spot for movies about nice people behaving nicely, and Veere Di Wedding was just that.

A buddy film of a different sort, Bhavesh Joshi Superhero follows a trio of vigilantes and what happens when two of them abandon their revolutionary ideals in exchange for middle-class comfort. It’s a timely story of the importance of organized resistance and a rejection of complacency among financially secure citizens, in India and abroad.

In the runner-up spot for 2018 is the top-notch spy thriller Raazi, about a young woman forced to leave her homeland in order to save it. Raazi was another win for women in Hindi cinema–not just because of Alia Bhatt’s riveting performance in the lead role, but because of the two talented women behind the camera: screenwriter Bhavani Iyer and writer-director Meghna Gulzar.

Another thriller was my favorite Bollywood movie of 2018, and the only one to which I awarded 4 stars: director Sriram Raghavan’s fiendishly clever Andhadhun. Ayushmann Khurrana’s first $1 million movie of the year featured him as a blind pianist drawn into danger by a calculating trophy wife, played by a devilish Tabu. Radhika Apte plays Khurrana’s love interest, adding to the talent level of a cast directed by a filmmaker who’s cemented his position as Bollywood’s neo-noir master. Andhadhun is currently on Netflix in the United States, which is great for first-time watchers and those of us who can’t wait to watch it again.

Kathy’s Best Bollywood Movies of 2018

  1. Andhadhun — Buy at Amazon/stream on Netflix
  2. Raazi — Buy/rent at Amazon or iTunes/stream on Prime
  3. Bhavesh Joshi Superhero — Buy at Amazon/stream on Netflix
  4. Veere Di Wedding
  5. Stree

Previous Best Movies Lists