The year 2012 has been a box office delight with quite a few block busters from big stars like ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, ‘Rowdy Rathore’ and ‘Agneepath’. However, the year has been unique in itself as many low budget independent cinema with lesser known cast and in many cases with debut directors made a firm footing in the industry securing both box office success and critical acclamation among the movie goers. So, in picking up our favourites, we lay greater stress on off-beat cinema of 2012. Here is our choice of the best from 2012:

Barfi
This film which made to Oscars is about three young people learn that love can neither be defined nor contained by society’s norms of normal and abnormal. Made under the direction of Anurag Basu, the film starred Ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Ileana D’Cruz in lead roles. The movie tells the story of “Barfi”, a mute and deaf boy in Darjeeling and his relation with two girls, one of whom is autistic. The film has been sent as India’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film nomination for the 85th Academy Awards in February 2013. Barfi! also was a box-office success, becoming one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of all time in India.

Vicky donor
Directed by Shoojit Sircar, the movie narrates the story of a man who is brought in by an infertility doctor to supply him with his sperm, where he becomes the biggest sperm donor for his clinic. The film stars Ayushmann Khurrana, Yami Gautam, Annu Kapoor, and Dolly Ahluwalia. Produced by John Abraham, ‘Vicky Donor’ received overwhelmingly positive reviews from various top critics of India. Blessy Chettiar of DNA India rated it with 4 stars and said – “Run to the nearest theatre and surrender yourself to the charm of Vicky and his team. This “Aryaputra” provides only good quality entertainment.”
Kahaani
Kahaani was a thriller directed, co-written and co-produced by Sujoy Ghosh. The film features Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chatterjee and Nawazuddin Siddiqui in lead roles. Balan portrays the role of Vidya Bagchi, a pregnant woman in search of her missing husband in the city of Kolkata during the Durga Puja festivities, who is helped in her quest by Satyaki “Rana” Sinha (Chatterjee) and Khan (Siddiqui). Despite a contrived culmination in the climax, this was a taut, gripping, thriller with memorable performances from each member of the unique ensemble. While Vidya held it all together, it was the lesser known faces supporting her, who provided the extra edge. Kahaani released worldwide on 9 March 2012 to major critical acclaim. Critics praised the screenplay, the cinematography and the performances of the lead actors. Word-of-mouth publicity and good critical response paved the way for Kahaani’s commercial success at the box office.

Paan singh tomar
The movie is a biography based on the true story of an athlete Paan Singh Tomar employed by the Indian Army and who won a gold medal at Indian National Games, but was forced to become a notorious bandit. It is directed byTigmanshu Dhulia and produced by UTV Motion Pictures. Irrfan plays the titular role, with Mahie Gill, Vipin Sharma and Nawazuddin Siddiqui portraying supporting roles. Benefiting immensely from an outstanding performance by Irrfan Khan, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s film made a hard-hitting point, and posed difficult questions about how this country treats its sporting heroes. The movie’s runaway success was like a shot-in-the-arm for unconventional cinema.

Gangs of Wasseypur (Part 1 and 2)
Anurag Kashyap successfully weaved in five hours of blood, gore and fun. Packed with smart dialogue, “Gangs of Wasseypur” was an experiment with revenge saga that went right. The grime of the coal mines, the edgy characters and a great ensemble cast meant that audiences left the cinema sated.  It centers around power struggles, politics and vengeance between three crime families. Part one features an ensemble cast with Manoj Bajpai, Richa Chadda, Tigmanshu Dhulia in the major roles and its story spans from the early 1940s to mid 1990s. Part two features an ensemble cast with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Richa Chadda, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Pankaj Tripathi, Raj Kumar Yadav, Huma Qureshi and Zeishan Quadri in the major roles and its story spans from the 1990s to 2009.

The list given above exclusively expresses our personal opinion and is not conclusive or exhaustive. Apart from those mentioned above, movies like ‘OMG! Oh My God’ and ‘English Vinglish’ are strong contenders in the category.

Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known to pay attention to the minutest details when it comes to carving the look and feel of the characters in his film. Who can forget the immaticulate details with which he portrayed the perfect Gujarati settings in his super hit ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam’. Aishwarya Rai was a perfect ten on ten as a Gujarati girl in the film with her looks, clothes and not to forget her perfect ‘Garba’ moves in ‘Dholi Taro’.

The director is currently busy with his next project ‘Ram Leela’ for which he will once again use a Gujarati setting. The film is a modern Romeo Juliet with Ranveer Kapoor in the male lead. For the female lead, Deepika Padukone has been roped in place of Kareena Kapoor.

It is known that Sanjay has asked Deepika to take tips from Ash’s dance moves in ‘Dholi Taro’. As such, Deepika will learn Garba for the film. Deepika is gearing up to play the role of a perfect rural Gujarati girl in the film.

Sanjay even shopped with the designer Anju Modi for the clothes for Deepika’s character and her costumes were sourced from remote areas like Bhoj, Mundra and Mandvi in the Gujarat’s Kutch district. Ranveer Singh has put on a six-pack look for the film.

Malaika Arora Khan had made Zandu Balm famous with her superhit item song ‘Munni Badnaam’ in ‘Dabangg’. Now, Kareena Kapoor steps in with ‘Fevicol’ in her item number for ‘Dabangg 2’.

The first look for Kareena Kapoor’s much hyped item number in this Salman Khan sequel is out and it shows Kareena Kapoor clad in a black choli and a shimmery blue lungi. Her hair is kept open and she wears a gajra on her wrist. However, the first look lacks novelty as it bears striking resemblance to her look in ‘Halkat Jawani’ and ‘Chammak Challo’.

Kareena’s costume has been designed by Manish Malhotra who is said to have drawn inspiration from elder sister Karisma Kapoor’s attire in her famous track ‘Sarkaiye Lo Khatiya’ from the film Raja Babu. Karisma Kapoor even visited the film’s sets when Kareena Kapoor was shooting for the song.

The song ‘Fevicol Se’ also features Salman Khan, the leading man of Dabangg 2. The movie will release on December 21 and the video of Kareena Kapoor’s item song will release soon.

Arshad Warsi is playing the role of Mahender Fauji in ‘Zilla Ghaziabad’ while Imraan Khan is playing the role of Matru in ‘Matru ki Bijli ka Mandola’. Co-incidentally, both the actors are sporting a beard and a striking similar look in both the films which are set for release on the same date. Producer of Zilla Ghaziabad, Vinod Bachchan says, “When I saw the first look of Matru ki Bijli ka Mandola, I was really amazed by Imraan’s look. This is really very surprising that both of them are seen in a same look for the film, we wanted to keep it exclusive for Arshad.”

Zilla Ghaziabad made under the direction of Anand Kumar has been under production for six years. Apart from Arshad Warsi, the film features Vivek Oberoi, Sanjay Dutt, Minissha Lamba and Rajpal Yadav in lead roles. The movie is based on a gang war between two rival groups of Satbir Gurjar (played by Vivek Oberoi) and Mahender Fauji, played by Arshad Warsi (a series of real life incidents) which happened in Ghaziabad.

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola is a comedy film written and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. Apart from Imran Khan, the film stars Anushka Sharma and Pankaj Kapur in the lead roles. Set in the rustic surroundings of a village in Haryana, the movie relates the story of Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapur), a wealthy industrialist who loves his drink, his daughter Bijlee (Anushka Sharma) and the unusual bond they both share with Harry’s man friday, Matru (Imran Khan). Much to her father’s delight, Bijlee is all set to marry Baadal (Arya Babbar), the son of a powerful politician Chaudhari Devi (Shabana Azmi). This alliance which is far from just being a simple union of two young people becomes the seed for a story that brings twists and turns in the lives of Matru, Bijlee and Mandola.

Though both the films are of completely different genres, their same release date and strikingly similar look of Imran and Arshad brings them under comparison.

Asin has been a part of many Rs 100 crore club films, including ‘Ghazini’, ‘Ready’, ‘Housefull 2′ and ‘Bol Bachchan’. However, despite quite a few hits, she is yet to get a firm foothold in the industry.

Recently, the actress was in Santorini in Greece recently for a holiday with her family. She was at a tourist spot without makeup and an international fashion photographer, not recognizing her and still finding her face extremely photogenic and European-looking, requested her to pose for him. Asin was delightfully surprised to receive compliments for her looks and she did pose for him without revealing her real identity and that too without charging anything.

Asin had started her film career with Malayalam film ‘Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka’ in 2001. She will be seen next with Akshay Kumar in ‘Khiladi 786’. The fans appreciated her chemistry with Akshay Kumar in ‘Housefull 2′. The fans of Akshay Kumar and Asin are waiting for December 7, 2012, when ‘Khiladi 786′ will hit the screens.

Aamir Khan’s shower scene in ‘Ghajini’ was a crucial one for the story and the success of the film. Moving on similar lines, the actor has a shower scene in his forthcoming ‘Talaash’ which will play a pivotal part in the flick. The scene takes Inspector Shekhawat (played by Aamir Khan) to the root of the problem that he fights against. The scene was a one-take shot taken in a flat that belongs to hairstylist Avan Contractor’s mother.

Aamir Khan who is very choosy about his films says that he chose to do this film because he was drawn to the script which is both thrilling and emotional.

“For me, it was the script. When I was listening to the script, I was very stressed and tense as I could not predict what is going to happen (in the story). So I found the story very exciting,” said Aamir.

“It’s not only a drama and suspense, but also a very emotional story. We all love someone or the other, who is close to us – our parents, our children, husband or wife, or lover. We are always scared of losing them,” he added.

Directed by Reema Kagti, Talaash also stars Rani Mukherji and Kareena Kapoor. It hits the screens on November 30.

Aamir Talaash

Deepika Padukone is using her private space on Twitter to promote Race 2 and to launch fist look of cast of the movie. With 2.5 million twitter followers, Deepika is using her digital popularity to launch the first look of all the actors featuring in the film including her own poster.

Apart from her first look, Deepika also unveiled the first look of Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham and Jacqueline. The look of all the actors assures that the movie is going to be pretty high on the glam quotient.

Jacqueline looks quite stylish and spunky in her new haircut in Race 2 which bears close resemblance to Angelina Jolie’s chic hair cut in the movie Salt. Till now Jacqueline has not been seen in fringes in any of her films. This Sri Lankan beauty will be seen sporting leather jeggings, and sleeveless to bra tops in the film.

Giving Jacqueline and Deepika close competition is Ameesha Patel on the first look poster. The girl has worked pretty hard on her body and looks superbly glamorous with knotted top and sexy sunglasses.

The film will have the girls doing hi-octane stunts in the film. As for Deepika Padukone, who is being claimed as the ‘Indian Bond Girl’ after the film, director Abbas states, ”Deepika will easily be one of the hottest action babes in Bollywood”

Produced by Tips, the action thriller RACE 2, starring Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandez, Anil Kapoor and Ameesha Patel is scheduled to release 25th January, 2013.

The raw, funny, fearless and go-getter Chulbul Pandey returns with the release of the first poster of ‘Dabangg 2’. The poster shows Salman Khan in the same look of Chulbul Pandey with his signature glasses firing a gun. The first teaser of the film will be released by director and Salman’s brother Arbaaz Khan on November 9, Friday, on Bigg Boss 6. On the following day, November 10, Saturday, the full-length trailer would be released on the show.

The sequel takes the trail from the original film with Sonakshi Sinha as Chulbul’s wife. The negative shades will ne donned by Prakash Raj thus replacing Sonu Sood from the original. The icing to the cake are the item numbers by Kareena Kapoor and Malaika Arora.

Whether the film meets the expectations of the fans is a matter of wait and watch as the film is slated for a December 21 release, just a few days before Salman’s birthday.

Abbas Mastan are back with what they are best in- action thrillers. The duo have released the first poster of the sequel to their superhit ‘Race’. The first look of the Race 2 logo was released via Deepika Padukone’s Twitter and creative producer, Jay Shewakramani. The theatrical trailer of Race 2 will be released on November 13, 2012, the day of Diwali, alongside the prints of Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Son of Sardaar as confirmed by creative producer, Jay Shewakramani. The first official poster of Race 2 will be released on November 07, 2012 , six days before the release of the trailer.

The first poster shows Saif Ali Khan with an adorned case which seems to be holding some valuable stuff. The backdrop has been set in an Arabic town, presumably somewhere in Morocco, Tunisia or even Turkey. The tagline says “Betrayal Is Survival”.

Race 2 stars Saif Ali Khan, Anil Kapoor, John Abraham in male leads. The leading ladies are Jacqueline Fernandez, Chitrangada Singh, Ameesha Patel and Bipasha Basu.

Sunny Leone’s Bollywood debut ‘Jism 2’ may have turned out to be a disaster at the box office, but the pornstar-turned-actress is here to stay for sure. Not only is she doing the sequel to ‘Ragini MMS’, but Leone has also reportedly signed a three-film deal with Alumbra Entertainment (known for their recent release ‘Bhoot Returns’) for a whopping Rs 5 crore. The company is also producing “Ab Tak Chhappan 2“, “Warning” and another film based on the 26/11 attacks.

The production company, which is headed by Parag Sanghavi, will start the shoot of their first film in the second quarter of 2013 and the remaining will be shot later.

“Sunny will do her third, fourth and fifth film after ‘Jism 2′ and ‘Ragini MMS 2′ with us. We will share details at the opportune moment,” said a spokesperson for Alumbra Entertainment.

sunny leon gorgeous

After her daredevil stunts in her last release ‘Tezz’, Sameera Reddy turns into a sizzling item girl for Prakash Jha’s political thriller ‘Chakravyuh’. The song titled ‘Kunda Khol’ has been composed by Sandesh Shandilya, sung by singer Sunidhi Chauhan, and the lyrics are by Ashish Sahu.

The song has been shot extensively in Bhopal at Rizwanbagh area of Koh-e-fiza of the old city. “The song is shot in the midst of a naxalite camp. And considering the realism in his films, Prakashji said the makeup has to be dusky to ensure the look of a local girl. I was surprised that he wanted the dusky look, because most of the time, we are expected to be on the fairer side. It’s voluptuousness and dusky skin that make us, Indian women, sexy. It’s a welcome change that this trend of wholesome women has come back and the audience seem to be loving it,” says Sameera.

“Unlike other songs, which have extras dressed up as locals, here they were actually locals. The atmosphere was so realistic that it helped me push myself. Nothing had prepared me for that amount of energy, it really tested my stamina,” she adds.

Prakash Jha is all praises for Sameera and feels that she was just the right choice for the song. “Sameera has that look and she’s such a good dancer. When I told Ganesh about her, he agreed immediately. And she’s done it fabulously. I’m very happy with the song, it’s fantastic,” he says.

This was the grandest welcome Bollywood could have offered to any heroine on her comeback. The entire Bollywood fraternity turned up for Sridevi’s ‘English Vinglish’ premiere and she was basking in praises as the attendees ended up applauding after the screening of the film.

The premiere was attended by Madhuri Dixit, Bipasha Basu, Vidya Balan, Amitabh Bachchan, Sonakshi Sinha, Shilpa Shetty, Zarine Khan, Ayesha Takia, Yash Chopra, Jaya Bachchan, Anil Kapoor, Konkona Sen Sharma, and many others from the TV and film industry.

Sridevi, who attended the premiere with hubby Boney Kapoor and family, R Balki and director Gauri Shinde, Sridevi interacted with the media and said: “I am not at all nervous; I am more than just exited! I feel like I am on top of the world! This is a special day for me, my husband and my children! And I would like to thank all those who have come here, and I really hope they like the film!”

Her 15-year-old daughter Jhanvi said: “I am so proud she is the coolest mom.”

Well! We could not agree more!!