The 10 Bollywood Movies of 2011-2012

2011 was a year of amazing variety in Bollywood. From good old-fashioned masala fare - 'Singham', 'Force' and, of course, 'Bodyguard' to techno wonders - Ra.One - to real-life inspired stories that touched a chord - 'No One Killed Jessica' and 'The Dirty Picture'. Read on to know which movies we, at Masala!, have chosen as our top 10 and what we liked about them.


Cast: Rani Mukerjee and Vidya Balan
What We Loved: Hard-hitting, entertaining and a message movie without falling in the trap of being a message movie considering that it tackled the real-life case of the Jessica Lal murder.
Standout Star: Rani Mukherjee rocked, but she was overshadowed just a tad by Vidya Balan’s portrayal of Jessica's sister Sabrina
Standout Scene: A preoccupied Sabrina walking down the street, so lost in her thoughts that she doesn't see an elephant
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Abhay Deol, Kalki Koechlin and Katrina Kaif
What We Loved: The way Imran (Farhan) take cares of the expensive handbag makes us laugh every time we think about it. Picturesque Spain and Abhay Deol rock throughout the movie. We did think Hrithik Roshan’s acting was a bit mechanical; also, is it just us or did he use too much bronzer?
Standout Star: Farhan Akhtar - we can’t imagine anyone else in the role of Imran. The way Farhan cracks jokes to hide his emotions and his awesome poetry made the character amazingly real.
Standout Scene: It has to be when Imran (Farhan) finally gets to meets his dad (Naseeruddin Shah). As always Naseeruddin Shah sets the benchmark.
Cast: Imran Khan, Vir Das, Kunaal Roy Kapoor and Poorna Jagannath
What We Loved: The mad situations, the nutty humour, the crazy songs and the perfect-for-the part actors (Vijay Raaz as the matter-of-fact gangster rocked)
Standout Star: Vir Das, he makes you laugh and cry all at the same time at his character's track
Standout Scene: The scene where the trio of friends attempt a robbery - howlarious!
Cast: Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Mahesh Manjrekar
What We Loved: Surprise, surprise! 'Bodyguard' didn’t have crass, double-meaning jokes like most movies of the genre. Instead, this simple love story seasoned with action was complete paisa-vasool for Sallu fans.
Standout Star: Obviously Salman Khan! Our Topless Tornado doesn’t disappoint! He didn’t go over-the-top in this movie and looked oh-so sexy in his bodyguard uniform. Of course, no movie is complete without him going shirtless but who’s complaining!
Standout Scene: It’s definitely the one where Lucky Singh (Salman) practices his love confession with Divya (Kareena) until his 'real' love comes along. We got a bit senti during that scene, Salman looked sooo childlike and absolutely convincing!
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Arjun Rampal and Armaan Verma
What We Loved: It’s a benchmark for a sci-fi flick! Indian cinema has never seen such a visual spectacle even if it did lack on an overall 'wow' quality because of the script.
Standout Star: The kid, Armaan Verma - he gave a super-confident performance in the movie!
Standout Scene: Rajnikant’s cameo - he's a superstar for all seasons!
Cast: Kalki Koechlin, Rajeev Khandewal, Shiv Pandit, Kirti Kulhari, Gulshan Devia and Neil Bhoopalam
What We Loved: The movie takes you for a rollercoaster ride, it’s thrilling and at the same time you fear what’s going to happen next.
Standout Star: Rajeev Khandewal - he is definitely an actor to watch out for.
Standout Scene: The scene where one of the youngsters cooped in a rundown house plays tennis and the camera moves with the tennis ball. Intense!
Cast: Tushaar Kapoor, Nikhil Dwivedi, Pitobash, Sundeep Kishan, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Radhika Apte and Preeti Desai
What We Loved: A great script and a sincere effort put in by the whole cast.
Standout Star: None. The film rests on the shoulders of the full cast, without any of them it wouldn’t have been able achieve what it has.
Standout Scene: The funniest scene we came across was about an arms dealer being interrupted by a phone call
Cast: Atif Aslam, Iman Ali, Mahira Khan, Humaima Malick, Shafqat Cheema, Manzar Sehbai, Zaib Rehman and Amr Kashmiri
What We Loved: The hard-hitting theme of the movie, dealing with the abuse of women, is chilling to core and was portrayed so realistically.
Standout Star: It’s a tie between Humaima Malick and Manzar Sehbai. You can’t imagine anyone else in the characters of Zainab and Hakeem Sahib.
Standout Scene: When Zainab tells her sisters to live a normal life - touching and heart-breaking at the same time.
Cast: Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah, Emraan Hashmi and Tushaar Kapoor
What We Loved: Just the sheer boldness of the subject - it takes guts to conceptualise and execute a movie on a complex character who lived life so completely her way. Take a bow, producer Ekta Kapoor.
Standout Star: Vidya Balan, for her gut-wrenchingly honest portrayal of Reshma
Standout Scene: The monologue that seems to drain Vidya's character and get everybody in the audience thinking
Cast: R Madhavan and Kangana Ranaut
What We Loved: A love story that's also a family entertainer - hard to find these days.
Standout Star: R Madhavan, with his family-packs abs and sincerity, is drool worthy.
Standout Scene: The film has some wonderful moments but the best one was when Manu confides to his best friend that Tanu doesn't want to marry him.

or subscribe in as a reader