Woo, Excel Entertainment! Such an odd interesting company, I was going to say that they have never produced a bad movie, but I forgot about Game. Besides Game, they have never produced a bad movie.

Farhan Akhtar is Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani’s son. Both his parents are major screenwriters and general talents in the industry. And his extended family, including his cousin Farah Khan on his mother’s side and his stepmother Shabana Azmi on his Dad’s side, are also major talents. Farhan himself took some time to find himself, went to college for a bit, worked in advertising for a bit, did this and that. And then wrote his first script and decided he wanted to direct it following his own unique vision. But what producer would let him do that? None! So, he set up a little company and asked his best friend from college (son of a business man, nothing to do with film) to help run it and they produced his funky little film Dil Chahta Hai. Which turned into a revolution and forever changed Hindi film. They took that money and folded it into Lakshya, Farhan’s second movie three years later, which was just as good (I think) but far less popular. But it made enough that they made a third movie (now with the official Excel logo backed by the Lakshya theme music) Don, which was a massive hit and left them with some money to burn.

Excel has a very distinctive corporate style. They take weird intelligent “multiplex” style film ideas, give the filmmaker creative and financial support, and then shop the film around to distributors and international studios for more backing. They still don’t have that much money and don’t seem interested in growing any bigger (no expansion into TV or distribution or anything like that). But they really want to find and support new artists and bring very VERY odd films into being.

Oh, and they specifically want to support artists Farhan is related to. Which I am cool with, because they are all very talented. There is Farhan’s sister Zoya, Zoya’s life partner in an ill-defined way Reema Kagti, and Farhan’s father in there with the beautiful lyrics and dialogue for most of their films, and his stepmother making an appearancein small parts.

Anyway, now that most of the Excel catalog is available on Netflix (not their very newest films, Prime most have an exclusive separate deal for them), I thought I should put out a post giving a suggested ranking of every Excel film. And then you can all yell at me about how wrong I am. It’ll be fun!

Dil Chahta Hai

The first and best! Sure, you can watch it now and get bored and feel like it is like every other film. But, see, it didn’t used to be like very other film! This is the first one! The very very first one!

Luck By Chance

Such a brilliant movie. No explanation or apology needed, the whole thing is genius start to finish.

Talaash

See above. It’s a good movie on the first watch, and a great movie on the second watch. Sensitive, smart, loving, everything.

Lakshya

No one really talks about this movie any more, but it has so much in it that is good and unique. Starting with simple stuff like a girlfriend who breaks up with her boyfriend because she simply can’t wait for him to wake up any more, and going all the way to considering patriotism as part of identity and growing up.

Dil Dhadakne Do

“Rich people problems” or simply “people problems”? You decide! But the correct answer is “people problems”.

Don

It’s not just a great complex film on its own, it’s a great complex film that subtly converses with the Masala genre of the 1970s.

Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Lmtd.

Okay, first time you may not agree with me. But it has superheroes! And middle-aged lovers! And a male-male kiss! How can I not put it above almost all the rest?

Gully Boy

Newest one, not on Netflix yet, but awfully good. The soundtrack drives the story, the central performances are amazing, the ending is hopeful. But no superheroes, so it’s below Honeymoon Travels.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

I should go back to this one, my first watch didn’t really impress me. But even on that uninterested watch, the beauty of the song sequences jumped out at me, and Hrithik’s story touched me.

Don 2

It’s a slicker film than the original, but not a better film. The plot is a little less jawdropping, and the conversation with the classic Masala films is gone.

Gold

Best sports movie! And best patriotism movie, which really digs into what having a national identity means and what India lost when it gained independence.

Raees

I wish this could be higher on the list. Great performances all around, and plenty of stunning visual moments, but it just doesn’t gel somehow.

Baar Baar Dekho

Do you secretly kind of love Katrina Kaif? Do you find Sidharth Malhotra very pretty to look at? This might be a movie for you! Or not. It’s an extremely odd film, but it has good songs and a happy ending, you just have to learn to accept the idea that Sid M. is a genius mathematician.

Rock On!!!

Oh Farhan, why??? After directing and producing amazing movies, he decided he wanted to be a movie star and play a rock star, and he produced this. But Arjun R. has really long hair and looks great, so that’s good.

Rock On!!!2

No Farhan. No.

Game

Want to see a “An Then There Were None” style thriller featuring Abhishek Bachchan and Kangana Ranaut as a romantic pair? Yeah, no one else did either, this was Excel’s first big flop.

Also, the movies I don’t know enough about and can’t rank:

Karthik Calling Karthik

Bangistan

Fukrey

Fukrey Returns

3 Storys

Okay, now give me your spirited defense of ZNMD! Or your complaints about DCH. Or just your responses now that Netflix has these movies and you just watched them for the first time.