2021 for B-town: A bad dream

Antim: The Final Truth

"Antim: The Final Truth" is an action thriller directed by Mahesh Manjrekar and produced by Salman Khan Films. It is an adaptation of the Marathi film "Mulshi Pattern" and stars Salman Khan, Aayush Sharma and Mahima Makwana. The story revolves around the face-off between a police officer (Salman Khan) and a gangster (Aayush Sharma), and like the original, it explores the hard conditions faced by farmers that pushes some of them towards crime.

83

"83" is a sports drama directed by Kabir Khan and produced by Deepika Padukone, Kabir Khan, Vishnu Vardhan Induri, Sajid Nadiadwala, Reliance Entertainment and 83 Film Ltd. Based on the India national cricket team led by Kapil Dev, which won the 1983 Cricket World Cup, the film's story and dialogues were co-written by Khan, along with Sanjay Puran Singh Chauhan, Vasan Bala and Sumit Arora. It stars Ranveer Singh as Kapil Dev and Padukone as Romi Bhatia, Dev's wife, featuring an ensemble cast of Pankaj Tripathi, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Jiiva, Saqib Saleem, Jatin Sarna, Chirag Patil, Dinker Sharma, Nishant Dahiya, Harrdy Sandhu, Sahil Khattar, Ammy Virk, Adinath Kothare, Dhairya Karwa and R Badree. The film received positive response from critics and audiences, praising the performances of the cast, screenplay, direction and technical aspects.

Sooryavanshi

Sooryavanshi is an action film directed by Rohit Shetty and produced by Reliance Entertainment, Rohit Shetty Picturez, Dharma Productions and Cape Of Good Films, based on a screenplay by Yunus Sajawal and an original story by Shetty. The fourth instalment of Shetty's Cop Universe, it stars Akshay Kumar as ATS chief DCP Veer Sooryavanshi opposite Katrina Kaif with supporting cast of Jaaved Jaaferi, Vivan Bhatena, Niharica Raizada, Jackie Shroff, Gulshan Grover, Abhimanyu Singh, Sikandar Kher and Nikitin Dheer. It also stars Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh in extended cameo appearances who reprise their roles of Singham and Simmba from the franchise's previous films. Kumar's character was announced towards the end of Simmba that served as a character introduction of Sooryavanshi. The film was released after several postponements due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bell Bottom

Directed by Ranjit M Tewari, "Bell Bottom" is written by Aseem Arrora and Parveez Sheikh, with production by Vashu Bhagnani, Jackky Bhagnani, Deepshikha Deshmukh and Nikkhil Advani. It stars Akshay Kumar as lead, with Lara Dutta, Vaani Kapoor and Huma Qureshi in an extended cameo appearance. "Bell Bottom" is inspired from real life hijacking events in India by Khalistani separatists during the 1980s, such as the Indian Airlines Flight 423, 405 and 421 hijackings. The film received mixed to positive reviews, praising Kumar's and Dutta's performance, art direction, fast paced narration & screenplay, background music & cinematography, but criticised the low quality VFX shots in action sequences and weak climax.

Tadap

The romantic action drama directed by Milan Luthria and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, it is a remake of the Telugu block buster "RX 100", the film stars debutant Ahan Shetty and Tara Sutaria.

Roohi

Directed by Hardik Mehta, the comedy horror film was produced by Dinesh Vijan under the banner Maddock Films. The film is the second installment in Dinesh Vijan's horror-comedy universe after "Stree", and is to be followed by "Bhediya". It tells the story of a ghost who abducts brides on their honeymoons. The film stars Rajkummar Rao, Janhvi Kapoor and Varun Sharma. The film received negative reviews from the critics for its convoluted plot but it many centers, the film entertained audience.