Manav Kaul’s Kashmir Files

 He was a Kashmiri Pandit with a seemingly impossible dream in Real Kashmir Football Club on SonyLIV. Manav Kaul also por­trayed a Kashmiri Muslim police officer tasked to find missing children in Netflix's Baramulla, where he is tormented by the ghosts of a Kashmiri Pandit family who fled in 1990 at the height of ethnic cleansing in the Valley. Kaul, a Kashmiri Pandit, steers clear of a grating accent and is a master of understate­ment, letting silences speak where words are superfluous.

Auteur of Change

 Neeraj Ghaywan blends fiery intellect with empathetic filmmaking. In Masaan (2015) and the short ‘Geeli Pucchi’ within the Netflix film Ajeeb Daastaans (2021), he focused a warm lens on the marginalised people in our world. In Homebound, he takes off from an article in The New York Times on two friends making their way home during the pandemic. Two communities, living on the edge of a village, find a connection in the friendship of Shoaib and Chandan, both vying for a dignified life. Some directors make gamechanging movies, Neeraj Ghaywan changes lives.

Star Turn: Akshaye and Emraan

Taal (1999), featuring a young Akshaye Khanna, was the first Bollywood film ever to break into the Top 20 in the US box office. So those who have just discovered him in Dhurandhar, please be mindful. Khanna has always been good in good movies, whether it was Border (1997) or Dil Chahta Hai (2001) or Gandhi My Father (2007). But he has never been one to chase fame, choosing to let his work speak for him.

This year, it spoke loud and clear in Chhaava, where he played Aurangzeb, and Dhurandhar where he played a Baloch leader, Rehman Dakait. The year was also good to another underrated actor, Emraan Hashmi, the king of naughty musicals in the noughties. By giving him a role as an intimacy coach for a newbie couple onscreen, The Ba***ds of Bollywood director Aryan Khan gave him the aura he deserved. “Akha Bollywood ek taraf aur Emraan Hashmi ek taraf,” in the words of his greatest onscreen fan Parvaiz (Raghav Juyal). In an industry where everyone seeks the promise of overnight success, both these actors have proved that perseverance pays off.

 The Hit Maker

He composed the earworm ‘Ghafoor’ along with eight other tracks from The Ba***ds of Bollywood, but it was Shashwat Sachdev’s soundtrack for Dhurandhar that got everybody to understand the power of immersive music. Sachdev is the music director behind the Ranveer Singh starrer and his remixes as well as collaborations have wowed the world. A classically trained musician, he blends Indian, Western, and folk music, and recently collaborated with Hans Zimmer on the theme for the British series Virdee, marking a significant crossover into international projects.

 Faith and Glory

Rishab Shetty brings utter convic­tion to the prequel to Kantara with Kantara: Chapter 1. Tracking the story of Berme (Shetty), who is found in a sacred well, ventures beyond the forest and discovers that spices from his land are being exploited by King Kulashekhara. He returns and starts cultivating the spices himself. This leads him into a face-off with the king and his children. Mixing myth, female empowerment and the notion of sacred land, Shetty proves once again that a tale well told will have an audience.

Franchises Go Northeast

Perhaps it was a mere coincidence but three outstanding shows had returning seasons this year and all of them spent some time in the Northeast. Jaideep Ahlawat’s Hathi Ram Choudhary went to Nagaland in the second season of Prime Video’s Paatal Lok to look for a deadly assassin, losing some friends along the way. In Season 3 of The Family Man, Manoj Bajpayee’s Srikant Tiwari goes to Nagaland to find the killers of his beloved boss, while also encountering Ahlawat’s drug lord. And in the third season of Delhi Crime, Shefali Shah’s Vartika Chaturvedi is transferred to Assam where she uncovers a human trafficking network with international connections. There is a change of scenery in all these shows but the villains are still venal.

 He was a Kashmiri Pandit with a seemingly impossible dream in Real Kashmir Football Club on SonyLIV. Manav Kaul also por­trayed a Kashmiri Muslim police officer tasked to find missing children in Netflix's Baramulla, where he is tormented by the ghosts of a Kashmiri Pandit family who fled in 1990 at the height of ethnic cleansing in the Valley. Kaul, a Kashmiri Pandit, steers clear of a grating accent and is a master of understate­ment, letting silences speak where words are superfluous.