These are most of the movies that I was eagerly waiting for last year, and for everything on this list I had to run out and get the dvd as soon as I could. I’d say 2013 was a pretty good year, Bollywood-wise.
I just loved this movie to bits. It’s like Rajkumar Santoshi got a list of all the things I like best about Bollywood (goofy Shahid Kapoor, melodramatic mothers, ridiculous schemes going out of control on three different levels, loving filmi in-jokes, and all the warm and fuzzy songs) and wrapped it up in a package with my name on it. I can get why it wasn’t that popular, but I really can’t imagine enjoying a lot of the more successful movies (for a timely example, say, The Lunchbox…) as much as I enjoy this one.
Lootera
This was probably my most anticipated movie of the year. I was hooked as soon as saw the first trailer, with its melancholy voice over and beautiful shots of Sonakshi and Ranveer. And it completely lived up to my expectations. It was romantic, beautiful, and melodramatic in a very quiet way that really took the actors seriously. Not that I don’t also love Ranveer and Sona in their commercial films, with their flashy dance moves, but this gave them the scope to do some acting and it really paid off.
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani
I know I gave this a bit of a “meh” in my original review, but the fact is that I’ve watched it more times than any other movie from last year, I listen to the whole soundtrack every couple weeks, and most of the song picturizations have made it to my youtube favorites. Now that I know what I’m getting into, I can appreciate the story for what it is and I think Ayan Mukherji did a good job capturing that sense of friends reuniting and feeling like everything has changed around you.
Raanjhaana
This odd genre of stories about love that aren’t love stories is something that I took a while to warm up to, but it was worth it. I avoided Raanjhaana in the theaters because of all the talk of glorifying stalkery romance, but the promos finally sucked me in and I really enjoyed it. There’s even a review languishing in my drafts folder about how I was able to pry a semi-feminist reading out of the story’s presentation. Dhanush was fantastic, and to my surprise, so was Sonam Kapoor.
Dhoom 3
This is a worthy sequel. There are so many motorcycle stunts (including magical transforming motorcycles which fly and become speedboats when necessary) and Aamir Khan has the best scowl, even if he doesn’t have the same bromance with Abhishek that Hrithik did in Dhoom 2. I liked the circus glamour and the way they played with the camera angles to get Katrina and Aamir in the same shot, plus the emotional narrative really worked for me. 
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