Mark your calendars

2016 ended on a high note with ‘Dangal’ and 2017 promises to be even bigger. As a Bollywood buff, you can twiddle your thumbs in anticipation because 2017 is lined up with exciting movies one after the other. At the cost of sounding totally clichéd, 2017 is probably going to be one of Bollywood’s biggest years in terms of the genre of movies that are in the pipeline and the box office numbers they promise to rake up. Here is your year planner for 2017

Raees – January 25
However hard its makers will try to convince you otherwise, this one for sure is based on one of Gujarat’s well-known law breaker. How true that is will be seen later but the trailer has already increased the anticipation. ‘Raees’ is also critical for Shah Rukh Khan as his last few movies have not exactly set the box office on fire and therefore he needs to crack this one with big numbers. ‘Raees’ is also interesting because after a long time Nawazuddin Siddique is pitted against an ‘A-list’ actor. Last time it happened was in ‘Badlapur’ and Nawazuddin had Varun Dhawan for breakfast. It will be interesting to see that who wins this cat and mouse chase – SRK’s colossal charm or Nawazuddin’s smouldering intensity.

Kaabil – January 25
Hrithik is a great choice for retribution stories. ‘Agneepath’ and ‘Bang Bang’ stand a testimony to what I claim. Hrithik over the years has mastered the art of communicating cold fury. ‘Kaabil’ is also exciting because it has an added twist of the avenger being a blind person. The trailers are as polished as a Sanjay Gupta movie has to be. Interestingly, this one clashes with the SRK’s biggie ‘Raees’ and the ongoing media hype already created a tremendous buzz for this one.

Tubelight
The king of big numbers, Salman Khan will be back with ‘Tubelight’ in the summer of 2017. This one is a love story of a soldier falling in love with a Chinese girl during the 1962 war. ‘Tubelight’ is helmed by Kabir Khan, who has already scripted two major box office successes with Salman in ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ and ‘Bajrangi Bhaijan’. Will it be third time lucky for both? We will have to wait and see. However, for sure a huge number of fans are waiting for this one.

Jolly LLB 2 - February 10
Personally, I am a little disappointed that the original Jolly (Arshad Warsi) will not be there in this one. The first part, ‘Jolly LLB’ was a great story about an underdog’s clash with the system. The spar of Boman Irani and Arshad was epic and therefore the sequel is awaited with huge underrated current by many. The fact that it has our biggest box office workhorse Akshay Kumar playing the lead role against one of our most rock solid character actors – Annu Kapoor; it does make it a marked event in the calendar. Will it be as good as the original? Let’s wait and watch.

Baadshaho
The rocking pair of Ajay Devgn and Milan Luthria will be back with this one in 2017. The last time they came together it was pure screen magic called ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai’. Will they create the same magic again? This is what we do not know but we can surely pray for it. This one is written by Rajat Arora, one of our better writers. And it is supposedly a thriller set during the days of Emergency in the 70s, making it a product to wait for. Not much has been attempted by Bollywood around the Emergency, so this one falls under the unique ones of 2017, if it hits the mark.

2.0
The name might not be what you expect from a regular Bollywood filmmaker because it is not. This film is being made by Shankar, one of our most technically innovative directors. This one is also promising because the first film ‘Robot’ had graphics, which would have made a Hollywood technician proud and also ‘2.0’ has an epic clash in the offing – Rajnikanth, the god of south celluloid vs Akshay Kumar as a baddie. This one will send the temperatures up in the North and South when it hits.

Commando 2
‘Commando’ was a surprise sleeper hit and if you have not seen it, you have missed one of our better-made action movies and one of our underrated villains in the super effort of Jaideep Ahlawat as the obsessed AK Singh aka AK 74. Vidyut Jamwal is back as the dashing Commando and any Bollywood fan who is an action buff will not miss ‘Commando 2’ come what may. Its only challenge will be to get a baddie as good as AK 74 but let’s keep the hopes up for ‘Commando 2’.

Baahubali - The Conclusion
Finally, in 2017 we shall know why Kattappa killed Baahubali. The original was called ‘Baahubali - The Beginning’ and when it hit the screens in 2015 it made every other “large canvas” movie of Bollywood look like the TV plays of Jalandhar Doordarshan from the 1980s. Epic moments and grand execution, larger than life characters and the traditional and most magnetic plot of a great warrior standing up for good and an awesome villain. In my book Bhallala Deva is no less than Darth Vader. We await the revenge of the son and his mother Devasena in 2017 with a bated breath.

Dabangg 3
Chulbul Pandey without any doubt is the biggest cop character ever made by Bollywood, probably next only to Inspector Vijay of ‘Zanjeer’. ‘Dabangg’ is immensely watchable for the single-handed revival and masala presentation of small towns of UP. It is also a great entertainer simply for the great on-screen chemistry between Chulbul and his wife Rajjo. Since not many male villains will match up to the invincibility of Chulbul there are media reports that this one will have a female antagonist. Sounds interesting!

Sarkar 3
If there is one dark horse movie for 2017 then this is the one. ‘Sarkar’ was RGV’s last epic effort and a great entertainer. Besides having memorable performances from Amitabh, KK and Abhishek, in that order, it was also Bollywood’s best tribute to ‘Godfather’. What stands between the success of the film ‘Sarkar 3’, is Verma’s own unpredictability. Subhash Nagre, however, deserves anticipation and this one has to be in Bollywood’s list of 2017 must watch.