The genre votes! Which were all over the place. People couldn’t even agree on where to put Badhaai Ho, for instance. Just goes to show that Masala is alive and well in Hindi film, so many things just don’t quite fit.

Action:

Simmba: 3 votes

Bhavesh Joshi Superhero: 2 votes

Thriller:

Andhadhun: 2 votes

Raazi: 2 votes

Pari: 1 vote

Bhavesh Joshi: 1 vote

Romance:

Manmarziyaan: 3 votes

Dhadhak: 1 vote

Sui Dhaaga: 1 vote

Comedy:

Happy Phir Bhaag Jayegi: 2 votes

Stree: 1 vote

Veere Di Wedding: 1 vote

Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety: 1 vote

True Story:

Gold: 1 vote

Soorma: 1 vote

Mulk: 1 vote

Family:

Badhaai Ho: 4 votes

Karwaan: 1 vote

102 Not Out: 1 vote

You see what I mean? Simmba is definitely “Action” and Badhai Ho is definitely “Family” (although I did have one person try to sneak in a vote under “comedy”), but everything else could be everywhere.

And there were so many under each genre! Except for Action, which just had Simmba and Bhavesh Joshi which it had to share with Thriller. I guess Action is the real dying genre right now. Or else the DCIB audience just doesn’t watch much of it.

But thrillers, comedies, and true stories are on the rise!!!!

And all of them are kind of new genres. At least as we are seeing them this year. “True stories” is obviously a new genre, Hindi film has never really had biopics until just the past 20 years, this is very different.

But “thrillers”, technically they have had thrillers. Just not the kind we are seeing now, the taught realistic entertaining kind. There’s something very different about a “Raazi” versus a “China Town”. These new thrillers are being given the depth and emotion and character drama that, in the past, would have identified them more as romances.

“Comedies” like this are something new too. Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety is kind of the must old-fashioned, comic actors and one long running confusing plot that leads to a lot of comic set pieces. But then we have Andhadhun which is this odd intelligent complicated black comedy. Stree, a horror comedy. And even Veere Di Wedding, which feels like a romance but isn’t, so “comedy” is the closest genre you can identify it with. More and more light films that cause laughter, but also have plots and characters and meaning.