14 Most Anticipated Indian Films yet to come in 2014

So first 2 months of 2014 have passed & we had some amazing films to our company like Dedh Ishqiya, Miss Lovely, Highway & Kamal Swaroop’s cult classic Om Dar-B-Dar. We even had nausea inducing & cringe worthy masala entertainers like Yaariyaan, Jai Ho & Gunday to counteract that. With Queen getting immense critical acclaim from every front, surely 2014 looks like a great year & there is more yet to come. There are many such films yet to release in coming months of 2014 that have managed to create curiosity or buzz for them with their unique theme or star cast. So here’s a list of 14 Most Anticipated Indian Films yet to come in 2014 -

14. Peddlers
Director – Vasan Bala
Cast – Gulshan Deviah, Nimrat Kaur, Siddharth Menon & Kriti Malhotra

Vasan Bala’s debut was showcased at Cannes in 2012 but struggled to get theatrical release as no distributors wanted to invest in this tale of drugs, lust & Bombay’s portrayal as a ghost city.

13. NH 10
Director – Navdeep Singh
Cast – Anushka Sharma & Neil Bhoopalam

After stellar debut in Manorama Six Feet Under (2006), Navdeep Singh faced disappointment when his most ambitious project Rock The Shaadi – A Big Fat Punjabi Wedding meets zombie apocalypse starring Abhay Deol & Genelia D’souza was shelved. Finally he is filming his next which is a horror thriller about a road trip gone wrong. Anushka has co-produced this with Anurag Kashyap.

12. Monsoon Shootout
Director – Amit Kumar
Cast – Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vijay Verma, Tanishtha Chatterjee & Neeraj Kabi

Amit Kumar’s Monsoon Shootout too was screened at Cannes 2013 & received extremely positive reviews. It narrates a story of a cop struggling to make a decision of killing a notorious gangster in the heavy rains of Mumbai.

11. Filmistaan
Director – Nitin Kakkar
Cast – Sharib Hashmi & Kumud Mishra

After impressing critics over various International film festivals & winning National Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi (2012), Nitin Kakkar’s Filmistaan finally gets a theatrical release. It is a satirical story of bollywood buff & wannabe actor getting abducted by an Islamic terrorist group while shooting for film in desert areas of Rajasthan.

10. Finding Fanny Fernandes
Director – Homi Adajania
Cast – Deepika Padukone, Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, Arjun Kapoor & Pankaj Kapur

After his mind blowing neo-noir debut Being Cyrus (2005), Homi disappointed with his sappy romance in Cocktail (2012). But with a dysfunctional Goan family on a road trip, Homi is back in action with this quirky film. Produced by Saif Ali Khan & that’s what you call an outstanding star cast. DP is on a roll!!!

9. City Lights
Director – Hansal Mehta
Cast – Rajkumar Rao, Patralekha & Geetanjali Thapa

Official remake of Oscar nominated British film Metro Manila (2013), City Lights marks second collaboration between Hansal Mehta & Rajkumar Rao who gave one of the finest biopic in Indian cinema, Shahid (2013). Produced by Mahesh Bhatt.

8. Katiyabaaz (Powerless)
Director – Deepti Kakkar & Fahad Mustafa
Cast – Real people

After commercial success of extremely hilarious satire Supermen Of Malegaon (2012), comedy-documentaries are slowly but gradually gaining their foothold in Bollywood. Based on long power cuts in Kanpur, Katiyabaaz traces the story of a man who supplies illegal electricity while local government’s angst and search for him. Best part of this documentary is that it offers stories from both perspectives. Music by Indian Ocean.

7. Ugly

Director – Anurag Kashyap
Cast – Ronit Roy, Vineet Kumar, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Rahul Bhatt & Siddhant Kapoor

The biggest disappointment of 2013 was no release of Anurag Kashyap’s dark thriller Ugly. A simple child kidnapping gets more complex as true & ugly faces of people are revealed. Hope Censor Board understands and gets away with those anti-smoking watermarks. And boy! Ronit Roy looks like a badass!!

6. Haider

Director – Vishal Bhardwaj
Cast – Shahid Kapur, Irrfan, Kay Kay Menon, Tabu & Shraddha Kapoor

VB completes his trilogy of Shakespeare adaption by adapting his Hamlet into Haider set in ‘90s Kashmir. Hope this film brings back the hero Shahid Kapur actually was (Kaminey, Jab We Met). Also it marks VB’s collaboration with his hit Maqbool pair – Irrfan & Tabu. Gulzar’s lyrics & VB’s music. Simply waiting.

5. Tumbaad
Director – Rahi Anil Barve
Cast – Sohum Shah

Anand Gandhi after tasting critical & commercial success with Ship Of Theseus is back but this time as a producer. With almost same crew as that of SOT (Pankaj Kumar as DOP & Sohum Shah in lead) Tumbaad is a period horror thriller set in pre & post independence era of Pune. For me the genre of Period Horror Thriller itself is so luring. Plus Rahi Anil Barve made an ultra dark disturbing B&W short film Maanjha which was praised by many including Danny Boyle for its unsettling theme.

4. Detective Byomkesh Bakshy
Director – Dibakar Banerjee
Cast – Sushant Singh Rajput, Anand Tiwari & Sohum Shah

Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s famous Bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi is set to be revived in Bollywood by Dibakar Banerjee. Being filmed as a series, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy (first part in so-called series) will showcase young 20-something Byomkesh (Sushant Singh Rajput) solving crimes in 1940 Calcutta with his trusted assistant Ajit (Anand Tiwari). Very much similar to Sherlock Holmes series, movie will also have a super intelligent villain trying to wage war in British occupied India. Looks damn promising and yes it is being co-produced by YRF.

3. P.K.
Director – Rajkumar Hirani
Cast – Aamir Khan, Anushka Sharma, Sushant Singh Rajput, Boman Irani & Sanjay Dutt

A Rajkumar Hirani film is just not a film it is a subject for any budding filmmaker to understand how films are made, how characters are written, how editing is done & how humour is mixed superbly with narrative. Hirani has himself created a genre for himself with feel good yet intellectual films like Munnabhai Series & 3 Idiots. Teaming up yet again with Aamir Khan, Hirani’s P.K. is a religious satire on self styled god men in our country co-written by superbly talented Abhijat Joshi. Do you still need a reason to watch this one?

2. Bombay Velvet
Director – Anurag Kashyap
Cast – Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Karan Johar, Kay Kay Menon & Raveena Tandon

Based on Gyan Prakash’s book Mumbai Fables, Bombay Velvet is a neo-noir drama thriller set in ‘50s & ‘60s Bombay showcasing how Bombay transformed into a metropolis. The most interesting thing is that Ranbir Kapoor plays Street Boxer; Anushka & Raveena play Jazz singers while Karan Johar plays an egoistic Parsi Businessman (main antagonist). Also Kashyap reunites with his Dev.D team – Amit Trivedi (Music), Amitabh Bhattacharya (Lyrics) & Rajeev Ravi (DOP). Christmas 2014 will be exciting to wait for.

1. Qissa – The Tale of a Lonely Ghost
Director – Anup Singh
Cast – Irrfan, Tisca Chopra, Tillotama Shome & Rasika Duggal

Undoubtedly the most awaited film of the year is Anup Singh’s Qissa set in 1947 partitioned Punjab. It is a story of a man who raises his youngest daughter as a son. Irrfan’s power packed performance, dark theme of confused sexuality, partition, political turmoil & women oppression are reason enough to watch this Punjabi-hindi film. This film was awarded with Netpac Award for best Asian film at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

Hope you liked the list. Feel free to comment about your most awaited/anticipated film yet to release in 2014.