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Best Hindi Films Of 2024: Some of the much talked-about blockbusters of 2024 turned out to be much ado about nothing. The real gems of the year were the ones that audiences hardly saw in the theatres, and that is super-scary. If Hindi cinema is reduced to glorified circuses, then what happens to genuine cinema and filmmakers?1. Do Aur Do Pyaar: Take a bow, debutant director Shirsha Guha Thakurta for giving us a film that celebrates the man-woman relation in all its fractured glory. There are no dramatic highs in the storytelling. There is no turning point that defines why Kavya and Annirudh’s marriage has staled and stalled. The marital drama reminded me of Basu Bhattacharya’s Griha Pravesh. Except for the fact that Basuda’s film lacked the urban wit of this winner of a film.2. I Want to Talk: Coincidentally, another Bengali director and a maestro at that. For those who found Shoojit Sircar’s I Want to Talk too morbid, I want to know why a film that gives hope to the dying, which says never give up on life, is morbid. This film celebrates the gift of life. It is that rare piece of cinema which inspires and motivates us to be a better version of ourselves. This places Shoojit in the phalanx of the most relevant filmmakers of our times. If this is morbidity, then spare us the asininity of fatuous franchises, bring on the melancholy.ALSO READ: 3. Bhakshak: From now on Pulkit is a director to watch closely. Bhakshak is set in a hell-house camouflaged as a shelter home in Munnawarnagar, where good things don’t happen to young girls. Pulkit’s film does much more than make polite noises. This is a film of smothered shrieks and chilling recriminations. It is partly a true-crime thriller that Costa-Gavras would approve of, and partly a severe docu-dramatized condemnation of our socio-political reality that allows such unspeakable crimes to happen, right in the heartland of India. Bhakshak is a wakeup call that sends a chill up our spine.4. Maidaan: Have biopics had their day, and say? Are we no more interested in real people? Are the new heroes the neighbourhood Robin Hoods and vigilantes gunning down their adversaries as though there was no tomorrow? What about someone like Syed Abdul Rahim whose dedication a passion and loyalty toward football’s underdogs brought India two gold medals in 1951 Asian Games and 1962 Asian Games. Maidaan is everything that the cinematic experience should be but seldom is: exhilarating, gladdening and motivating. Sure beats men dancing and fighting in sarees.5. Sharmajee Ki Beti: Ms Kashyap’s Sharmajee Ki Beti is quite a neat balancing act with a number of messy plotting strands that highlight familiar tropes of teen angst, midlife crisis, broken marriages and sexism in sports. However, Sharmajee Ki Beti is not marred by its flaws. It has an ingrained feel for life and makes use of it, warts and all.