This was a weird year, were smaller films like Bareilly Ki Barfi and Newton found massive box office & critical success, bigger & much awaited films like Rangoon & Sarkar 3 were complete washouts. Even superstars like Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan had to bare the burn of their film’s failures, initially forcing them to return a certain investment back to their investors. Even though filmmakers tried their hands at concept-based films like Raabta or realistic films like Haseena Parkar, nothing seemed to have struck a chord with the audience. Thankfully, our ‘Bharat’ star Akshay Kumar, like almost every year, was here to save the day with two rousing hits in the form of Toilet – Ek Prem Katha & Jolly LLB 2, even Ayushmann Khurrana kind of scored a comeback with two back to back hits romantic comedies, which did well financially as well as with the audience. While the Varun Dhawan–Alia Bhatt starrer Badrinath Ki Dulhania was an expected, it was Irrfan Khan‘s Hindi Medium, the Sridevi thriller Mom, and the submarine film The Ghazi Attack, which hit was unexpectedly. But without a doubt, the year 2017 would be talked about as the year of rising star, Rajkummar Rao, who starred in six releases this year, out which two were financial successes, while he received acclaim for the rest. Also a major victor this year was filmmaker S.S. Rajamouli’s tent pole Baahubali 2, which grossed a mind-boggling $265 million, but it’s worth noting that it is a Telegu language film, which was dubbed in Hindi along with other languages. The following list of 10 films in my opinion deserve praise for standing out from the releases of this torrid year:

1. Newton (2017)
2. Hindi Medium (2017)
3. Toilet – Ek Prem Katha (2017)
4. Shubh Mangal Saavdhan (2017)
5. Jolly LLB 2 (2017)
6. Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017)
7. Bareilly Ki Barfi (2017)
8. Mom (2017)
9. Badrinath Ki Dulhania (2017)
10. The Ghazi Attack (2017)