While we often lay emphasis on the overall success of a movie and the praise and appreciation its content achieves, we overlook the captain of the ship, the film’s director, who seamlessly bring all the elements of filmmaking together in creating a successful project and 2022 brought to front a lot of new talents that deserve a shout-out.
Here’s taking a look at those directors, who made a mark in 2022 and stood out for some breakthrough work:
Harshavardhan Kulkarni
Praised for bringing an actual and relatable representation of the queer community to Indian screens, Harshavardhan Kulkarni with ‘Badhaai Do’ (2022) produced by Junglee Pictures, gave us an entertainer that also addressed an issue that continues to remain a sad reality in the country. The filmmaker was also the first to highlight the concept of a lavender marriage between closeted individuals who make a compromise to please their families. The film was praised for normalising the subject for the average Indian family and acted as a conversation-starter all while keeping the audiences entertained. In just his second film, Harshavardhan has shown tremendous maturity in handling such a complex subject and has received accolades worldwide with this Rajkummar Rao and Bhumi Pednekar-starrer.
Jai Basantu Singh
The maiden venture of Bhanushali Productions ‘Janhit Mein Jaari’ (2022), directed by Jai Basantu Singh took audiences through a woman’s struggle in a man’s world while highlighting the importance of safe sex and the use of condoms. A popular name in the television world and three-time winner of the International Promax Award, Singh chose a brave subject for his Hindi film debut and took an even braver call of headlining the film with Nushrratt Bharuccha.
Jasmeet K Reen
Who better than a female director to understand and beautifully capture the plight of domestic abuse and that’s exactly what Jasmeet K Reen did like a pro in her dark-comedy ‘Darlings’ (2022), produced by Red Chillies Entertainment and Alia Bhatt’s debut production house Eternal Sunshine Productions. The director stayed true to her vision, undaunted by the enormity attached to the project with the names headlining it. Jasmeet made a confident debut by getting career best performances from Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah, Vijay Verma and Roshan Matthew.
Aniruddh Iyer
An intriguing narrative of the toxic relationship of film stars with media and fans, T-Series and Colour Yellow Productions’ ‘An Action Hero’ (2022) was one of the many tales scribbled in Aniruddh Iyer’s notebook. Interestingly, while crafting the narrative, the director who earlier worked as assistant director in ‘Tanu Weds Manu Returns’ (2015) and ‘Zero’ (2018), ensured he didn’t pick any sides in ‘An Action Hero’, leaving it to the audience to introspect in this David vs Goliath battle between Ayushmann Khurrana and Jaideep Ahlawat. Aniruddh handled the complex narrative with much aplomb and gave one of the best action comedy thriller which wowed the critics. If his first film, is anything to go by then this director is here to stay.
Anubhuti Kashyap
Having assisted her much acclaimed brother Anurag Kashyap in his films, Anubhuti Kashyap learnt the ropes of filmmaking and chose to tread a different way of storytelling unlike whatever films she had worked on with Junglee Pictures ‘Doctor G’ (2022), starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Shefali Shah and Rakulpreet Singh. One of the first medical-campus comedy drama was a tale of an aspiring orthopaedic who becomes a male gyanec. Anubhuti was appreciated by audience and critics alike for coming up with a well researched story and weaving it with humor and emotions in right balance. This debuntante director is surely to watch out for what she does next.
Abhishek Pathak
What happens when a director whose debut film has gone unnoticed and in just his second film is given the reigns to direct one of the most anticipated sequel and with veteran actors like Ajay Devgn, Akshaye Khanna, Tabu and many others? You keep your calm, be self assured and deliver one of the biggest blockbuster on box office in ‘Drishyam 2’ (2022). Abhishek has been in the industry from a very young age and has worked as a writer, assistant director and also produced films with his father Kumar Mangat Pathak in Panaroma Studios and ventured as a director with the film ‘Ujda Chaman’ (2019) and the way he has made ‘Drishyam 2’ his own has made audience and film industry to take notice of his talent and makes him a director to watch out for.
