Top Movies: 2023

Sirf Ek Banda Kaafi Hai

Based on the true story of one lawyer’s dogged pursuit of justice in the face of the murderous headwinds in the form of a godman’s muscle and machete power (read Asaram Bapu) and the epicrisis of blind faith, the movie’s unassuming flow on real-life advocate P.C. Solanki takes on a powerful garb, thanks to Manoj Bajpayee’s mesmerizing performance. Director Apoorv Singh Karki provides the actor center court, and does he use it heart-whole. The actor’s closing argument — an over 10-minute punch-after-punch — leaves you stunned and heartbroken. The powerful are presumed innocent, even if proven guilty, sheltered behind a curtain of Gods and Goddesses, exploiting the very human characteristics that faith makes mortals seek refuge in the venerated forces: trust and vulnerability. (Streaming on Zee5)

2018

Director Jude Anthany Joseph creates a visually stunning drama based on the Kerala floods that year, building up a smorgasbord of routine lives variegated by everyday forces of tension and drama, and just when you begin caring about them, are sucked into a terrifying mass of gushing water that knows neither socio-economic layers nor the ironic water dispute between the states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Buoyed by an ensemble cast that includes Tovino Thomas, Kunchako Boban, Asif Ali, Lal, Indrans, Aparna Balamurali, Tanvi Ram, and Aju Varghese, the director ensures that each character gets their moment etched on their side of the levee, even as the struggle to survive is upstaged by an unstoppable force: the reflexive action to save others, no matter the cost. (Streaming on Sony LIV)

Bloody Daddy

Basing his caper on the 2011 French movie Nuit Blanche, director Ali Abbas Zafar whips out a riot of madcap action and self-effacing fun. The movie’s a superbly orchestrated piece of outlandish characters and a manipulated decoy of a bag of cocaine and flour that sets off a time-ticking race involving a ticked-off drug lord and his crony (Ronit Roy and Sanjay Kapoor), a morally ambivalent cop — aren’t they the best? — played with verve by Shahid Kapoor, and an equally careless-on-principles senior cop (Rajeev Khandelwal) and caught-in-the-quagmire officers Diana Penty and Zeishan Quadri. The actors have a ball, as do you. This is sheer high-octane madness pumped with crackling dark comedy. (Streaming on Jio Cinema)

Pranaya Vilasam

The rustle of past love stirs up a family life that’s been shattered by an irreversible event, quickly turning a patriarchal setup into a road journey that’s as much a discovery of relationships for one as it is the vulcanizing of terrible behavior for the other. An unflinching yet gentle look at double standards in relationships, director Nikhil Muraly, with his terrific cast consisting of Sreedhanya, Manoj K.U., Arjun Ashokan, Miya George, Anaswara Rajan, Hakkim Shah, and Unnimaya Naalppadam,nudges you into thinking about the path that lovers set for their lives and the sharp bends that life uses as a cleaver to ensure they don’t materialize. And how forever love doesn’t mean living together. It’s being apart and yet renting out that emptiness in our hearts to memories of the past. (Streaming on Zee5)

Por Thozhil

A pulse-pounding police procedural that digs out the superior-junior relational trope from the cemetery of been-there-done-that to coat the movie with constant anxiety and tension. Director Vignesh Raja uses Sarath Kumar and Ashok Selvan to terrific effect, their interplay the kinetic energy to power nervous laughs, clouds of suspicion, and the urge to look behind their backs on their behalf. Nikhila Vimal and the late Sarath Babu also star in this movie, whose highlight is a railway crossing scene where the wait for the train is an agonizing one, as a quasi-interrogation builds up into terror that zips by with hair-raising Doppler effect. (Streaming on Sony LIV)

Oppenheimer

In a breathless inquest into what led to the success (if it could be classified as that) of the Manhattan Project, director Christopher Nolan flits ruthlessly between timelines, hinging his terrific outing on the insecurities of Rear Admiral Lewis Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) and the anxieties of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). While they form the fulcrum of what’s an atom bomb waiting to go off, plenty of academic skulduggery is stewing in the spices of egos, political polarization, and national interest projects across countries and allied blocks. Plus, there are the women in Oppenheimer’s life: the doughty wife (Emily Blunt, superb) and a love fusion force combined with Communism (Jean Tatlock, played by Florence Pugh). The fine ensemble also consists of, among others, Matt Damon, Josh Hartnett, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, Kenneth Branagh, Benny Safdie, Mathew Modine, Tony Goldwyn, and Tom Conti. In pursuit of an obsessive dream project, the consequences radiate much too late. As does the guilt.

Vidhuthalai: Part I

Director Vetrimaaran’s latest outing opens with a stunningly choreographed post-train wreck sequence set in 1987. Lives, limbs, and a coach hang by the tether atop a bridge as he constructs a single-take shot ballet that lasts six minutes. Makkal Padai (People’s Army), an extremist group, is behind this sabotage, and the government sets up a task force to capture its head, an elusive and ghost-like figure, Perumal (Vijay Sethupathi). Told from the POV of fresh-recruit Kumaresan (Soori), this opus of the tracking of Perumal amidst the locals who seem to pay the price for every side’s aggression is much like the 2023 Netflix documentary, The Hunt for Veerappan, in terms of fingering the antagonist. As Kumaresan discovers, the villains’ faces change based on whose story you listen to and who you’re with. Vetrimaaran strikes notes of tenderness amidst the oppression with Bhavani Sre and Soori as the lovely chlorophyllic camouflage of hope to the simmering goings-on, while Vijay Sethupathi’s presence looms over the movie, even if he isn’t present for the most part. With R. Velraj’s fluid camerawork (one of the best I’ve seen since director Nagraj Manjule’s criminally overlooked Jhund) and composer Illaiyaraja’s lush score, Vetrimaaran switches on the light in a snap, changing your perspective in a blinding epiphany. All figures in the dark aren’t really ghosts. They could be the collective huddle of people awaiting their turn in the light of truth. (Streaming on Zee5)

The Killer

What price to pay to quit a job that involves assassinating people, especially when that line of work ricochets with horrifying effects for loved ones? Director David Fincher takes a deep cinematic breath and navigates the answer for his nameless killer (Michael Fassbender, terrific) across countries and lanes as he attempts to eliminate the tracks — and people — involved in his last job that slugs an unintended person. With surgical edits that span the length of half a heartbeat and a climactic dinner table sequence with another killer (Tilda Swinton, a wisp of deathly acceptance and calm), he realizes there’s no quiet quitting his job. Like those of us sneaking a look at our inboxes, even on vacation, he’ll forever be looking over his back. Just in case. (Streaming on Netflix)

Past Lives

Director Celine Song’s debut marks the deep lines of feelings that seem to have passed their shelf life but have, in fact, settled deep inside our souls in a state of languid dormancy. And when they’re triggered, as they are for Hae Sun and Nora Moon (Seung Min Yim and Greta Lee in acts that seem so fragile, you don’t want them to break, please), it’s the opening of spaces that both didn’t know were empty inside them. Nora has found true love again and married him; that’d be Arthur Zaturansky (John Magaro), who bears witness to this resurfacing of past connects and past lives and the rumblings that cause mild tremors, much like underground subways. And like those clattering coaches at terminals, past lives — and loves — won’t wait forever. (Streaming on Prime Video)

Killers of the Flower Moon

Based on the series of true murders that took place in the Osage nation after the discovery of oil on tribal land in the 1920s, this is director Martin Scorcese’s tour de force that’s bracing, shocking, violent, and yet horrifyingly intimate. A magnum opus in its run time and coverage, this is the story that got buried by Americans along with the indigenous people they killed. Scorcese unpeels the how and why in painful cuts, the knife of conspiracies and greed skinning the trusting tribals slowly and surely. As William Hale and his nephew Ernest Burkhart, Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio are powerhouses of murderous intent in their acts, aided effectively by Scott Shepherd as Byron, Ernest’s brother. They spin a web of marital deceit that entraps Mollie Kyle, an Osage whose family owns land rights that entitles them to a quarterly share of the Osage Mineral Estate. Lily Gladstone, playing Kyle, is the movie’s heart and heartbreak. Her performance is quiet, and yet her eyes and lips speak of unspoken pain and courage. Like the true-life character she portrays, she carries the burden of justice and survival with poignant power. (Streaming on Apple TV+)

12th Fail

Director Vidhu Vinod Chopra embraces the true story of Manoj Kumar Sharma, who overcame extreme poverty and being quite the gomer to become an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, with empathy and a humane lens. When clearing the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam is the only hope that millions of youngsters have to get out of poverty, and when the statistics are loaded against them, this biographical story is as inspiring as it is despairing. With a career-best performance by Vikrant Massey, who encompasses all foibles, gullibility, and wrong moves with character, and some fluid cinematography by Rangarajan Ramabadran, the movie snakes its way into your heart long before you know it, which is its own delicious payback considering true stories featuring underdogs tend to be snared by the template trap. Also uplifted by the superb Anshuman Pushkar, as by Medha Shankar and Anant Joshi, 12th Fail passes with flying colors. (Streaming on Disney+ Hotstar)

Kaathal — The Core

A beautiful piece of cinema, Kaathal shows that it takes a brave superstar to question societal and familial norms that fit roles, desires, and aspirations into neat folders so life goes on as planned. Ostensibly. Producing and acting in director Jeo Baby’s courageous take on sexuality, Mammootty turns in a nuanced and finely calibrated performance as Mathew Devassy, a retired bank manager whose life is upended by a divorce petition and a local election he’s forced to contest. From that point of view, the movie gracefully moves to Devassy’s wife, Omana’s side. Played with knowing strength by Jyothika, Omana forces her husband, their family, and the town to come to terms with truths that cause only discomfiture. The movie is replete with meditative scenes conceived naturally and organically. Here’s Ooman handing over her purse to Mathew as she takes the stand in court, and he holds it with equal ease. There’s both of them holding each other tight, broken yet together, the floods of guilt and sorrow creating a whirlpool of love and forgiveness. An ode to relationships, Baby shows how protecting someone we’ve been with for the longest time means holding off doing that one thing that’ll liberate us but put them in a cage, figuratively and literally. Caring means letting go when the time’s right, not when right now’s the time. (Streaming on Prime Video)

All images owned by the producers.