It has been an interesting year for Indian cinema. The royal jewels do not quite belong to Mumbai, with the best film coming from Telugu cinema (Baahubali 2) which was considered as the biggest film of 2017. Yet Bollywood has itself had a quiet year, with many usual suspects failing to make an impression and, hearteningly, many a fresh voice breaking through. We have some of the best Hindi films of 2017 that made at the box office.

Secret Superstar: Advait Chandan’s film is all about a guitar-playing girl who wants to sing for the globe, but it is just as much a film about her loving mother trying to rescue a burdensome marriage. The film gives us both its ladies agency and allows them to make up their mind.

Rangoon: Vishal Bhardwaj’s theatrical period drama might not be the director’s finest work – the climax is awfully cheap – but it drapes across a boundless canvas set in pre-Independent India, its characters are textured enough to belong to a noteworthy novel, and its history is aggressive, favourably propagandist. Kangana Ranaut shines at the impossibly passionate lead.

Newton: What happens when a system is built on adjustment – runs into one man who wants to play by the rules? What happens when that person cannot be moved? Is there any hope for the system, or for rules? A thoughtful and inward-looking of Amit Masurkar’s – Newton is a rare political Bollywood film that poses many queries and leaves us obsessed by the lack of answers. Rajkummar Rao plays the adamant Newton Kumar while Pankaj Tripathi, in the opposite of him, plays an army officer who knows that he is in charge, and the two are just fantastic.

Tumhari Sulu: When we read biographies of any team leaders, sportsperson, we come to know that how competition becomes a part of their very nature, something they want in order to function. It is this uncommon driving force that director Suresh Triveni highlights a pleasant film about a housewife who just refuses to be put into a box. She’s an inspirationally excellent character in a warm, finely written film.