Top 10 Bollywood Movies Of The Decade

Written by Indrani Karmakar, BA Hons  • 

December is a month when the sweaters are out and the heaters are turned on. It’s the month of merry with Christmas around the corner. What makes this month even more special is the flashback of all things good and bad that have gone by before the New Year begins. And this time, the flashback is a little longer, a little more emotional, and a little more heart-warming because it’s the end of a decade.

Bollywood movies form a huge part of our lives as Indians, we revolve our lives around them at times. We take cues from movies when it comes to how to propose to the love of our life, how to handle the toughest situations of life and never give up, etc. So, come, allow us to take you through a flashback of some of the top Bollywood movies of this decade according to us.

10. Barfi! (2012)

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This movie was directed by Anurag Basu and starred Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Ranbir Kapoor in lead roles. This was a movie that Bollywood fans had never witnessed before. The movie depicted sheer innocence between Jhilmil (Priyanka) a rich, autistic woman who falls in love with Barfi (Ranbir) a poor, deaf and mute man. When Jhilmil gets abducted and her fortune gets threatened, Barfi does everything in his hands to get her back. This movie’s storyline and the actors’ performances were of international attention. This movie was definitely on a sweet note without walking on the saccharine road.

9. Gangs Of Wasseypur (2012)

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This movie was a crime drama that revolved around the stories of mafia families in the northern part of India. With the direction of Anurag Kashyap, this film has an intergenerational and intricate storytelling. The movie which was of a duration of 5.32 hours was released in 2013 in two different parts. The movie is majorly about bloodshed, backstabbing, and all things crime.

8. Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013)

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We’ve seen many films based on the aftermath of India and Pakistan’s separation. But this one revolved around the birth of an athlete, a runner who went onto become India’s fastest running man. Farhan Akhtar who plays the role of Milkha Singh has the audience rooting for him throughout the movie because of his epic performance. The movie based on the true story of the rise of Milkha Singh was a huge hit among the audience. It is also said that Milkha charged just Rs. 1 for giving the rights of his personal story for the making of this movie which was directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra.

7. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013)

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This movie directed by Ayan Mukerji is based on the dissatisfaction of the millennials and how they try to go in search of what makes their soul happy. The movie has a typical storyline of a medical student, Naina (Deepika) living a boring life who decides to embark on an adventure trek where she reunites with her former classmates. She falls in love with Bunny (Ranbir) during the trip but gets heartbroken when she realizes that Ranbir is fickle-minded and loves living a life of travel and no strings attached. Well, the storyline of this movie is a little meh but what got the audience buying tickets for this movie is the coming together of Deepika and Ranbir onscreen after their high on drama breakup in real life.

6. Queen (2013)

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Queen, directed by Vikas Bahl is a perfect example of how the worst situations of your life have the power to take your life on a blissful trail. Rani (Kangana Ranaut) gets blindsided when Vijay (Rajkumar) ditches her just a day before their wedding because she is too old-school. Rani decides to go on the honeymoon trip to Paris-Amsterdam alone to recover from the trauma of her broken wedding.

While galavanting on this solo honeymoon trip, she gets introduced to people from different walks of life and in the process, she realizes how special and unique she herself is as a person. Queen is a beautiful piece of feminist art that sends the message of women’s self-sufficiency and independence.

5. The Lunchbox (2014)

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This movie directed by Ritesh Batra shows how unpredictable human connections can be. Lonely and bored in her marriage, a wife (Nimrat Kaur) puts effort and packs a special lunch for her husband in the hope to rekindle the lacking spark in her marriage. This lunch box gets delivered to a wrong person, a widower (Irrfan Khan) and they both cultivate a naïve friendship over an exchange of notes through the lunch box. The understated elegance and drama that one can see in this movie warm the spectators’ hearts.

4. Piku (2015)

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If you’ve loved movies that have storylines related to on-road journeys, then you’ll love Piku for sure. This movie is all about how even the most off-beat personalities are capable of building strong connections. This movie directed by Shoojit Sircar revolves around the story of a father (Amitabh Bachchan) who is a hypochondriac and his daughter (Deepika) who is a strong-headed woman. The movie is about the road trip they take to Kolkata, their hometown with the driver being Irrfan Khan. The road journey and the driver helps the daughter-father duo understand where they are going wrong in their bond and begin to value things they never valued before in life. After watching this movie, you are bound to give your daughter or your father a tight hug.

3. Dangal (2016)

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This movie narrates the rreal-life story of a former national wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat (played by Aamir Khan) and his wrestler daughters Geeta and Babita and is directed by Nitesh Tiwari. The movie is about how the father doesn’t give up on making his children international wrestling champs. He always wanted a son to fulfill this dream. However, when he gets blessed only with daughters, he decides to make his daughters wrestling champs. He doesn’t bow down to the societal expectations with respect to women. He teaches his daughters to be brave and conquer all their dreams.

2. Lust Stories (2018)

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Lust Stories is an anthology movie by four of India’s finest directors (Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Karan Johar, and Dibakar Banerjee). This movie manages to capture the different faces of attraction, love, and lust. Each of the directors has contributed a short story that focuses on the stigma of lust and the four parts are then very cleverly woven into a single picture because it shares a common theme– lust.

1. Gully Boy (2019)

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Released in February early this year, the Zoya Akhtar-directed movie makes an impactful entry to the list of movies that need to be remembered in this decade. The story is about a slum-dweller young man Murad (Ranveer Singh) and his journey from being a poor street kid to becoming one of the most celebrated rappers of the country. Murad’s raps are inspired by the social disparities that he observes around him. The film has also been chosen for India’s official Oscar entry because of its enthralling performances and a storyline that is universally appealing.

We hope that this list is good enough for you to binge watch movies during your winter holidays. This list of movies is surely going to take you down the memory lane this decade which is about to end. Which is your favorite movie from this decade? Let us know in the comments below.

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