2011 wasn't a great year for Bollywood, creatively at least. Though some films made a lot of money and hype ensured good opening for several big but trite films, Suparna Sharma recalls more groans than grins. Here's our critic's list of the 10 best films of 2011...

The Dirty Picture
Vidya Balan licked all inhibitions goodbye and landed with a thud in the middle of a corny Eightes set created for the delight and pleasure of Silk Smitha fans. Jiggling her stuff to the beats of Nakka Mukka, Ms Balan carried The Dirty Picture on her spunk, daring, talent and ungainly tyres.
She heaved, revealed, massaged thighs (her own and other significant ones) and often propositioned with just her tongue and eyes, all the while dissing Bollywood's stick figures with toned muscles and bland souls.
Henceforth, Bollywood heroines who think they have given an Oscar worthy performance when they haven't put on makeup in one scene, or worn cotton saris in two will have to outdo Ms Balan who let it all hang out in a performance that still makes me breathless.
The plaque of “Game-changer of the Year” goes to Ms Balan and Ekta Kapoor’s The Dirty Picture.
http://www.asianage.com/movie-reviews/love-dirty-girl-869

****

Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster
One lonely, horny housewife, her philandering, hot-headed husband and a smooth, kinky lover. To this deadly cocktail, director Tigmanghu Dhulia added a loaded gun, silken bedspreads, sweaty afternoons, and a twist that left me smiling and smarting.
Saheb Biwi aur Gangster is a raunchy bedroom thriller that owes its sexy intensity, in part, to Mahie Gill’s overt sensuality and memorable performances by Jimmy Shergil, Randeep Hooda and very talented supporting actors. But the larger chunk of brilliance comes from Dhulia's wicked retelling of Bimal Mitra’s story of a dead marriage in fading aristocracy.
http://www.asianage.com/movie-reviews/raunchy-bedroom-thriller-239

****

That Girl In Yellow Boots
That Girl in Yellow Boots is a dark adult movie that is not an easy watch. The story, written by director Anurag Kashyap and his lead Kalki Koechin, is a twisted tale of a lonely girl’s search for her father in Mumbai. She, Ruth, gets by on giving massages and handjobs, Rs 1,000 a piece, and when she finally finds daddy, she calls for a gun.
That Girl in Yellow Boots, seemingly calm but seething inside, is crammed with feral, bizarre and yet believable characters. It is a master class in acting and direction.
http://www.asianage.com/movie-reviews/daddy-s-girl-twisted-dirty-tale-934

****

Stanley Ka Dabba
The next time you lament the dearth of meaningful cinema in Bollywood and you still haven’t watched Stanley Ka Dabba, I suggest you keep quiet.
Less maudlin than Taare Zameen Par, Stanley Ka Dabba is a small, delicate film about an adorable boy, his crotchety and greedy teacher and their similar, sad stories.
Director Amol Gupte tells the story with exceptional honesty, packing in a heart-rending punch in the last box of his multi-tiered tiffin-box.
His cast — classroom full of animated school-going boys — is delightfully talented.
http://www.asianage.com/movie-reviews/lunchbox-full-delicious-delights-680

****

Delhi Belly
A cocky, pacy film that is really desperate to make you laugh, Delhi Belly abuses, sings a dirty song, farts, belches, lays out shit on red velvet and it has a story. Well, sort of. Sort of, like, Guy Ritchie’s Snatch.
Crafted with love, care and a two-hoots attitude to prudes, Delhi Belly tumbles from one crazy accident to the next insane situation, all the while revelling in all bodily functions and juices.
The film, with contemporary contempt for all things old, has serious street cred and is a snob. Despite that, it's very desi.
I doubled up with laughter everytime Vijay Raaj arrived. So did you, I am sure.
http://www.asianage.com/movie-reviews/desi-belly-s-achingly-funny-and-fl...

****

I Am
Onir’s I Am is an angry, honest and bold film that takes you to places you’d rather not go to, and makes you listen to stories that are best ignored.
I Am tells four stories in all — about Kashmiri Muslims and Kashmiri pandits, a young boy who is sexually abused, a gay man, and a woman in search of a sperm. These stories of bruised and brutalised characters, whose personalities are twisted out of shape because of guilt, rage or desperation, make you think, and shake your worldview.
http://www.asianage.com/movie-reviews/angry-honest-bold-988

****

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
Three glorious boys do glorious things with glorious girls in tow — ZNMD is Bollywood escape cinema at its biggest and lyrical best. The film has it all: gorgeous locations, soaring visuals, touching emotions, life-affirming friendships and grand romances.
Director Zoya Akhtar's ZNMD is neither as naughty nor shrewd as her debut, Luck By Chance. But if, in 2012, you need a nudge to reconnect with old friends just so you can get drunk and behave really badly, watch ZNMD, or simply sing along with Farhan, Chahat ke do pal bhi mil payein, Duniya mein yeh bhi kum hai kya... Senorita
http://dc.asianage.com/movie-reviews/week-gift-yourself-experience-123

****
Bubble Gum
Bubble Gum is a film for all those in the 35 to 50 age group — it's an emotional trip to their adolescence. While watching this film, another one will start to play in your head and you will find yourself back home, with the Godrej almirah, mummy’s stiff cotton saris and the ugly dressing table. You’ll yearn for the glass water bottle in the fridge, those steel thalis and the seeti of the pressure cooker. You’ll recall Phantom cigarettes, ganne ka juice, Debonair, and wonder how you managed to buy cold drinks, samosas and, of course, bubble gum, with your pitiful pocket money.
Bubble Gum is a story of those days, days when love meant life and rejection was death. The film is in colour but in my head it played in sepia — faded with age, yet full of feelings, mood and nostalgia.
http://www.asianage.com/movie-reviews/desi-70s-show-498

****

Force
From a pinch-worthy butt encased in tight yellow chaddies to rippling muscles, from shaking his booty in Munda sadda gay to a wail so guttural that you scream Ghajni, John Abraham travels an impressive creative distance to show us that he has exactly what it takes to be Salman’s Wanted clone.
John Abraham can’t act, and yet I liked this killing machine called ACP Yashvardhan because he has real friends, real love, and he hurts, bleeds, cries and, in the end, fights a man his own size.
http://www.asianage.com/movie-reviews/macho-fists-and-sculpted-bodies-237

****

Don 2
The year 2011, which belonged almost entirely to Salman Khan in terms of box office, at the end established that there’s more than one Khan in Bollywood’s mayan.
Don 2 was cool and clever for several reasons — director Farhan Akhtar and Shah Rukh Khan’s dogged pursuit of a legend (AB’s original Don), their ability to serve a mishmash of Hollywood’s cocky crooks and SRK’s lover boy ishtyle and yet manage to create their own adorable baddie. After a long time, Don 2 also gave us a brief glimpse of SRK the actor.
http://www.asianage.com/movie-reviews/don-belongs-srk-392