Filmfare recommends: 7 Hindi films to watch with your dad on Fatherâs Day

Fathers are our first heroes. In most cases, our confidantes, our lifelong friends. They are someone we most look up to. We want their approval in most things we do. They try to teach us the difference between right and wrong and become our conscience keepers as well. And our measuring blocks. Bollywood films have shown them in a favourable light in most cases. If earlier, they were portrayed as being harsh and strict, the screen fathers, much like their counterparts in real life, have mellowed down over the years. And feel like real flesh and bone men than the exaggerated constructs of cinema. On the occasion of Father’s Day today, we have picked 7 films from the recent era for you to binge-watch with your dads. Thanks to this semi-lockdown situation, most of you would actually have the time to do that. Make the most of it. Enjoy!

Angrezi Medium (2020)

Director: Homi Adajania
Cast: Irrfan Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Radhika Madan, Deepak Dobriyal

Hindi Medium (2017) was a path-breaking film about a couple's desire to get their daughter admitted to a good school. They try all sorts of loopholes to get that done. Angrezi Medium takes the idea forward and applies it to higher education on foreign shores. It's about a daughter's dream to study in a premier college in London and a father's determination to see the dream through. Radhika Madan and Irrfan Khan look like real-life father and daughter. The bond they share is palpable. You root for them and want them to succeed. You overlook the complete absence of a plausible plot just because of the emotional quotient they share. It showcased a father’s complete determination to fulfil his child’s wishes whatever the cost.

Jawaani Jaaneman (2020)

Director: Nitin Kakkar
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Tabu, Alaya Furniturewala

Jazz (Saif Ali Khan) is a 40-something slacker living in London who pretends to be a property broker but in reality, is a 24-hour party animal and a bit of a sex addict as well. He feels he has never grown up, preferring to date younger and younger women each day, hasn’t invested in a single meaningful relationship in his life and thinks wife and kids are for losers. So imagine his surprise when a 21-year-old turns up, claiming to be his daughter. A paternity test confirms that Tia (Alaya Furniturewala) is not only his daughter, but she’s also pregnant as well. She decides to have the baby in London in the company of her newly found daddy dearest and along the way, Jazz learns the value of real relationships and finally grows up. Saif Ali Khan is at his hedonistic best as a playboy and is shown to be initially in denial about being a father. His acceptance of his situation is gradual and not sudden. And his chemistry with Alaya F looks real as well.

Chhichhore (2019)

Director: Nitesh Tiwari
Cast: Sushant Singh Rajput, Shraddha Kapoor, Varun Sharma, Prateik Babbar, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Naveen Polishetty

It's a campus comedy/ romance at one level but tackles the serious problem of student suicide on the other. Annirudh (Sushant Singh Rajput) called Anni by his friends and Maya (Shraddha Kapoor) are a divorced couple. Their lives turn topsy turvy when they learn that their young son Raghav has tried to commit suicide. Annirudh feels that narrating stories from his own college days might help his son recover mentally. It was during college that he fell in love with Maya, and formed life-long friendships with the likes of Sexa (Varun Sharma), Derek (Tahir Raj Bhasin), Acid (Naveen Polishetty), Mummy (Tushar Pandey), Bevda (Saharsh Kumar Shukla), and others. As the friends regroup in order to be with Anni and Maya in their time of need, distance and time fades away to reveal a treasure trove of memories. Sushant played a caring dad in his older avatar and shared a genuine bond with his son. He hopes against hope that the stories of his own youth might boost his son’s confidence. The love, the care, that we see in Sushant’s eyes is heartfelt and genuine.

Dangal (2016)

Director: Nitesh Tiwari
Cast: Aamir Khan, Sakshi Tanwar, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Zaira Wasim, Sanya Malhotra

The film is inspired by the life of Mahavir Singh Phogat, a national level wrestler who trains his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari to become India's first world-class female wrestlers. To give it an authentic feel, the film was shot across several villages in Ludhiana, Punjab. Aamir Khan weighed around 90 plus kgs to lend authenticity to his role. The wrestling matches were shot in Delhi, at Talkatora Stadium, as well as Thyagaraj Stadium, where Commonwealth Games and National Games sequences were filmed. Special coaches were hired to teach Aamir Khan and the four girls the nuances of wrestling. They were quite weak initially but became better wrestlers as they gained in strength. The film wasn’t just about the technical aspects of wrestling, however. It also explored the emotional bond between the sisters and also with their father, who gave it all to make his daughter world level athletes. The film boasted of realistic performances by the entire cast and became a worldwide success story, and broke all kinds of records at the Chinese box office. Mahavir exercises tough love towards his daughters. His only aim is that they should excel at what they do. There’s a scene where not understanding his true motives, his elder daughter takes out her frustrations in the akhada, defeating her out of shape father but despite that, he isn’t angry or grieved and only wishes for her success.

Dear Dad (2016)

Director: Tanuj Bhramar
Cast: Arvind Swamy, Himanshu Sharma, Ekavali Khanna and Aman Uppal

Coming out of the closet is maybe the hardest thing for people with alternate sexuality. Everyone craves acceptance and to be shunned by your loved ones after your taboo confession is a very real possibility. How does one break it to your parents and worse, to your children? Writer-director Tanuj Bhramar, who made his debut with this film, kept the situations and dialogue real. Nothing looks forced or melodramatic. The progression from shock, denial to acceptance takes place over a road trip between Delhi and Mussoorie. Arvind Swamy brings to life the pathos of a middle-aged man caught between finding his true self and being a father. He needs closure but at the same time fears that the bond between him and his teenage son might break irreparably. His hesitation, his anxiety, the deep love he feels for his son, all look genuine. Himanshu Sharma as his son is a natural too and their moments together seem like they are stolen from actual interactions. Their acting truly lifts the film.

Piku (2015)

Director: Shoojit Sircar
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone, Irrfan Khan, Moushumi Chatterjee and Jisshu Sengupta

Piku Bannerjee (Deepika Padukone) is an architect living in Delhi who loves her widowed father Bhaskhor Bannerjee (Amitabh Bachchan) but at the same time is constantly irritated by him because of his eccentricities. He suffers from acute constipation and tends to relate everything in his life to his bowel movements. He wants to go to Kolkata to visit his ancestral home and Piku reluctantly agrees to take him there. She takes the help of Rana Chaudhary (Irrfan Khan), who runs a taxi business. As no driver is available, Rana decides to drive them to Kolkata himself. They experience several misadventures on the way. Rana is constantly irked by Bhaskhor’s eccentric ways but soon begins to see past the exterior. He begins to like Piku as well. Irrfan gave a natural performance as a proprietor caught between two different extremes and yet manages to find a middle way. His chemistry with both Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone was on point. The bond that Bachchan and Deepika share comes across as genuine. You don’t feel you’re watching two actors at work, they look like real father and daughter.

Drishyam (2015)

Director: Nishikant Kamat
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Shriya Saran, Ishita Dutta, Mrunal Jadhav

It’s a remake of hit Malayalam film Drishyam (2013) directed by Jeetu Joseph. The film shows the protective nature of a father. It tells you that a father would go to any lengths to make sure he safeguards his children from evil. Vijay Salgaonkar (Ajay Devgn) is a semi-literate orphan who hasn’t studied beyond class 4. Despite that he’s a successful businessman running a cable TV service in Goa. He is married to Nandini (Shriya Saran). They have an adopted daughter Anju (Ishita Dutta), who studies in 12th, and their biological daughter Anu (Mrunal Jadhav), studies in 6th. One day, on a field trip, a fellow student makes an MMS of Anju when she’s taking a shower. He then starts blackmailing her for sexual favours. He even lands up at their place. Both Nandini and Anju plead with him but he brashly says he’ll destroy the evidence if Nandini sleeps with him. They get into a scuffle and Anju ends up killing him. The boy happens to be the only son of the Inspector General of Goa Police, Meera Deshmukh (Tabu). She starts investigating his disappearance. Vijay comes up with a brilliant plan to come up with plausible alibis for them all. His cunning wins at the end as the police are unable to find the body.

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