You know when you hear casting news, or see a trailer, or hear a relationship rumor, or whatever, and your first thought is “oh, this is going to be terrible”, and then time goes on and you have the nice surprise of realizing it isn’t that bad? This is the post for that!
I’m gonna list off my “nice surprises”, you can vote for one of them as the nicest surprise, or you can suggest your own surprise in the comments.
Gully Boy
I saw the trailer and totally wrote it off. Poverty porn, unbelievable central romantic pair, immitation of 5 Mile, just no good. And then I dragged myself to the movie, and it was GREAT! Alia and Ranveer were a totally relatable young couple, Ranveer gave an amazing performance as an invisible average guy who had a burning hidden fire inside, and it wasn’t poverty porn, it was poverty anger. What a nice surprise!
Pati Patni Aur Woh
A remake of a classic film, and a story about a guy cheating on his wife, and a teenage girl cast opposite a grown man as the young seductress-TERRIBLE! But then turns out it was a legitimate update of the classic concept, really dug into the question of male privilege and male self-pity, and the age gap in the casting was on purpose. What a nice surprise!
Ananya Panday
Teenage connected Bombay brat, shoved into two films just because of her family name. This is going to be horrible. Then, it turns out that she has a real spark and presence onscreen and, more importantly, she was cast in completely appropriate roles. Youthful, fresh faced, pretty-but-not-beautiful kind of roles. I went from rolling my eyes and dreading her to going “yaay, Ananya casting!” What a nice surprise!
Bharat
Salman with CGI to look younger? Katrina cast at the last minute and rushed into production? So many heroines I can’t keep track of them all? This is going to be horrible. And then, it wasn’t! The CGI was used very lightly, Katrina was such perfect casting she didn’t need preparation, and all those heroines were treated respectfully and used appropriately. What a nice surprise!
Notebook
Salman launching his old friend Mohnish Behl’s daughter in a low budget romance? No way it will be good! Salman’s producer choices are very questionable, especially with romances. And then I saw it, and oh my gosh it was so good! The two leads were great, the directing was solid, even the songs were good! What a nice surprise!
De De Pyaar De
A Luv Ranjan produced sex comedy about Ajay Devgan and Rakul Preet Singh? And Tabu as Ajay’s ex-wife? This seems likely to be terrible! And then I went to see it and it was a legitimately serious take on the challenges of May-December romances, relationships between ex-spouses, parenting adult children, all kinds of good things! What a nice surprise!
Hrithik-Tiger Chemistry
Tiger has never had chemistry with a single co-star, Hrithik’s track record is kind of 50/50, this will clearly be one of those boring buddy movies where you feel like the two leads are never actually vibing with each other, just fighting the camera. And then, MIND-BLOWN!!!!!! Such smoking hot chemistry the screen is on FIRE!
Anyway, those are my top surprises for the year. Which do you vote for? Or what is your write-in choice?
dontcallitbollywood 
I haven’t seen Pati Patni aur Woh but all the others were SUCH good surprises. I can’t pick just one.
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Aw, really? Not even Kat in Bharat versus Hrithik-Tiger chemistry in War versus Gully Boy originality?
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Especially not between those three. I was so worried about Kat in Bharat and then she was magical. I never ever in my wildest imagination expected a love story to be between Tiger and Hrithik! Again magical. I was prepared to be so dissapointed in Gully Boy (I am not sure why, since I love Zoya and Reema) and then boom it was fantastic! All such wonderful happy surprises.
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Oh man, I was so disappointed by Gully Boy. I’m in the minority but that film really didn’t work for me. And I even gave it a second shot because an American I know who lives in Delhi loved it and has watched it three times. Still didn’t like it after trying it again though the guy who played MC Sher was fantastic.
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I know others who felt the same way you did but am a total sucker for underdog stories with a happy ending. It is my comfort food of movies. Also, I was mesmerised by Ranveer in it. He was so restrained yet so deeply angry at the system. You could see and feel the volcano bubbling inside of them. Also, while Alia’s character was very over-the-top, I was equally cheering for her to achieve her professional and personal goals.
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Oh, also, I just put up a post because of our back and forth about Alia-Ranbir-Ayan earlier today. You can drop brilliance over there in the comments if you want.
On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 2:38 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Oh yay! Going to go read it now.
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War was clearly my most nice surprise since I had no plans to see it and now I can’t shut the f*ck up about it three months later. But I’d add ELKDTL to your list because it got such tepid reviews and then I watched and went WTF, this is an absolutely delightful film with wonderful performances and quietly subversive even if it didn’t center the female couple.
The other really nice surprise for me is discovering how awesome Malayalam films can be. I’m very excited to dig in and see more! I’ve only seen five so far: Bangalore Days, Annmariya Kalippilannu, Sudani from Nigeria, Kumbalangi Nights and Helen. I’ve enjoyed them all and the last two blew me away.
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Koode will rip your heart out and break you and then make you smile again. So, highly recommend it! Same writer/director as Bangalore Days, and a lot of the same cast. Take Off has a lot of what you liked about Helen. So does Uyare, but it isn’t as good a movie overall as Take Off.
Question: would War be your most nice surprise, or would Kat in Bharat be your most nice surprise? Because you also talk about Kat a lot! Which I enjoy, since not enough people are talking about her.
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I would still put War over Kat but yeah, Kat was delightful in Bharat. Not sure I was exactly surprised by it. I’ve become a Kat fan. She’s far better than she gets credit for. The movie where she really surprised me was ZNMD. Her performance was so good and she had fantastic chemistry with Hrithik who also gave a wonderful performance. And I didn’t like them together in Bang Bang so that tells you it’s really about the performance (and the director, presumably).
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So long as you are on a Kat kick, have you seen Mere Brother Ki Dulhan yet? It’s a favorite around here and a great Kat role (same director as Bharat).
On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 2:11 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I started it but never finished even though I liked it. That happens sometimes. I liked the scene between Irfan and Kat where he’s comforting her because a guy slut shamed her. That was a nice little movie.
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IMRAN not Irfan, stop it brain
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Had a random recasting thought watching parts of Dilwale and trying to fix it in my head. Kat could have been a better fit for the Kajol role – more believable in the ass kicking action scenes, and even as Kristi’s big sister. (Also what a waste of Pankaj Tripathi!)
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Yes, but Kat and SRK have NO CHEMISTRY!!!! Would we believe them as this passionate decade long love story?
On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 11:44 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Who knows? Maybe we would have gotten our first glimpse of the Zero chemistry. Probably not, but it’s in my imagination. For the songs and the ending scenes where they’re back together, it is hard to imagine Kat instead of Kajol, but for the rest of the movie I don’t know, I think she would have worked better. That moment where she walks up to him after blowing up his car and takes off her sunglasses? Kat could have nailed that. The scene where she shoots him too.
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Oh heck, what if it was a Kat-Salman movie instead of an SRKajol movie? Blasphemy I know, but I think it might have been a better film?
On Fri, Jan 3, 2020 at 8:00 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I really should stop watching the weird crap I watch and see more mainstream movies because I want to discuss with you all. I have only watched Notebook from your list, and I agree it was very good, but it wasn’t big surprise because I like this kind of movies and felt it can be nice.
The biggest surprise I think was the success of War. I still haven’t seen that movie (will watch as soon as I finish what I already started), but I really wasn’t expecting it will be so popular.
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But if you stop watching weird stuff, then we would have to watch it! I don’t need that, you can stay our “every bad Parineeti movie in history” correspondent.
I think this list in particular has to be super mainstream, because the idea is that it was big enough for us to have an opinion in advance, and then be surprised when it was good. But later today I am going to have a post about rom-coms of the 2010s, so you should be able to contribute to that conversation FOR SURE.
On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 3:26 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Looking forward to read about rom-coms.
I was thinking about other nice surprise of 2019 – Malaal. Sorry, I know I mention this movie in every comment, but I realized it was my favourite movie of 2019, and I think more people should watch it, especially romance lovers.
I decided I will watch this movie, the moment I saw Meezaan’s photo in the announcement. But later I read it will be 7G Rainbow Colony remake and I lost almost all interest, because I don’t like tamil love tragedies. Anyways I saw the movie and it was like made for me : beautiful visually, with some super cute scenes but also some real life problems, good songs, costumes, fights in the rain and SO MUCH LOVE.
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I love when films surprise me like that! I think they are good to begin with, and then they are so much happier than I had hoped for.
On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 3:55 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Completely agree, Margaret! Angie – your list of favorite movies of the decade and 2019 made me smile so much! I love your quirky taste in movies!
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If I hadn’t read your opinion of Bharat I never would have watched it. And I loved it. A bunch of the films you listed I haven’t seen, so I better get on it, after I finish every single Made in Heaven episode.
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Ek Ladki Ko Dekha and Notebook! Those are probably my top picks for “believe me, they will make you happy and everyone should watch them” movies of 2019.
But also, Made in Heaven! Which I have covered on ane episode by episode basis, so there will be much for you to read once you finish watching.
On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 3:44 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yes, I am trying to only read your episode by episode reviews of Made in Heaven until I have FINISHED the episode… but sometimes I cheat. I’m only on episode 3.
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You have to finish the seasons and give me your opinion on characters! I may be the only person who really hates one of the central people that you are supposed to like.
On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 4:20 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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WAR. Absolutely. I saw it nearly a month after it came out when I randomly decided to something for myself over a long weekend. I was not expecting to love it as much as I did. Gully Boy I had a feeling it would be good, and I was right. And I guess Ananya Pandey is nice, but I only saw her in SOTY2, and she had the best character of the three, so I don’t know how much that says about her acting chops. She was decent enough. She did her job.
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Another vote for War!!!!
On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 5:45 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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The only one I’ve seen is War, and I liked it but that wasn’t a big surprise since everyone here raved about it. So, I’m ruining the poll, sorry. My pleasant surprise is Shaadi Mein Zaroor Aana, which sounded super dumb and I only watched because I was trapped on a plane and it’s got Rajkummar. It is delightful and one of the few romcoms I’ve watched where I genuinely couldn’t figure out how it was going to end.
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I watched that movie purely based on your recommendation and enjoyed it so much! Thanks for the recommendation!
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Oh, great! Glad you liked it!
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Oh oh! I just mentioned that movie in my rom-coms post!
On Thu, Jan 2, 2020 at 6:45 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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I’m changing my answer because I realized that, although it’s MY nicest surprise of 2019, it actually came out in 2017. So my nicest surprise that came out in 2019 is Badla, just because I ignored everything about it and then when I was testing out the new Einthusan subscription it popped up in the “new” section and I thought “Huh. Amitabh and Taapsee. I could just watch this.” and I did and of course it was marvelous. But I’m sure everyone else knew it was marvelous before they started watching.
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I didn’t know! I knew it might be good, but I was dubious. I wouldn’t call it a “surprise” maybe, but certainly a nice “that worked out even better than I expected”
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Absolutely War. Remember we were discussing the trailer and were like, I bet this won’t be as gay as we want it to be? And then it was GAYER! That never happens!
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It truly was magical.
On Fri, Jan 3, 2020 at 2:44 AM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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War it is. I wasn’t expecting it to be so well made with characters having some arcs,good dialogues & Hritik being the god that he is.Last time I was thoroughly entertained by a masala film was Dhoom2. It was well worth the money and effort of a theater visit. I have even started liking Tiger a little bit and not quite dismissive of him as before.
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Such a nice October surprise. Hopefully we will have something as good next fall. Or sooner!
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I was thinking about another nice surprise I had in one of the movies I saw last year. I found one of the best father characters ever in a B grade, little known telugu movie Ratham. The movie was very uneven and had too many ideas but the romance was great. I have already written about this plot last year.
The heroine has many stalkers who follow her everyday and demand her to choose one of them. She doesn’t want and pretend she is in love with the boy who was just passing by (our hero). He also falls in love with her, and after some time she reciprocates. They are happy together, but one day heroine’s father is released from prison, and he founds out about their romance. I was sure he will be just another bad father who wants to control his daughter, but no. He is the best. He opposes their relationship because the boy is just like he was in the past – fearless, and ready to fight for justice no matter what. And it always brings trouble. The boy will end in prison or dead soon and the dad doesn’t want that for his daughter. The hero refuses to change his ways, the couple split. The girl becomes depressed and her dad decides to help her. He makes peace with the hero, and suggests they (boy+girl) should go together somewhere (without being married!) far from the village and maybe there he will change a little. They are happy for some time, but later old enemies find him, he startes fighting with them, the girl sees him and realizes her father was right – she won’t be happy in this relationship. (but don’t worry, there is a happy ending later)
Isn’t it great? A male character who thinks about the well-being of his daughter and not about what people will say , or about his status, pride, money etc. And who sees that his actions hurt his wife and daughter. Nobody ever admit it in those action movies. Who cares about the women? And this movie does! It was such a nice surprise. Later I also spied the actors on instagram and discovered the main couple was together in real life. They celebrated every little succes in his little apartment and it was so cute!
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That is a nice surprise! Oh! And I am going to be putting up a “most breaking traditional masculinity” poll post in the next week or so, you can add this one on to it.
On Sun, Jan 5, 2020 at 5:22 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah, I didn’t think War would be as fun as it actually was. But for me I think the nicest surprise is Gully Boy which I had no interest in after the trailers but it ended up becoming one of my favorite movies of the year. I especially loved Alia’s character.
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Oh that’s really nice to hear. I liked it too, but not so many people have been picking it.
On Fri, Jan 17, 2020 at 1:27 PM dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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