The year started out nicely enough with the blockbuster Vicky Kaushal starrer, Uri: The Surgical Strike performing remarkably well at the Box Office and also earning some high praise from critics. Then, we had the Gully Boy sensation taking over the country and making gully rap mainstream. It also highlighted many important aspects of the music community and brought names like Divine to the fore.

However, then we had some terrible films and what’s worse is that they weren’t some fringe film that nobody cared about – these were highly-awaited movies with a massive budget. What’s more, they came from the Dharma stable. Yes, we are talking about Kalank and Student of the Year 2.

We also had an Akshay Kumar nationalistic brand of cinema thrown in somewhere in the middle which was, as other Akshay Kumar films go, quite well shot and they also did quite well at the Box Office. We were also impressed with the Gazal Dhaliwal scripted Sonam Kapoor starrer Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga which made an important point without dramatizing or diluting the issue.

Below, in order, we’ve catalogued a list of films that we think have made Bollywood proud so far this year.

Uri: The Surgical Strike

Gully Boy

Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi

Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga