Masaan · reception & legacy
2015 · Neeraj Ghaywan
How Masaan has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
It arrived already garlanded — a five-minute standing ovation and two prizes at Cannes 2015 — but was a modest box-office affair in India; a decade on, Vicky Kaushal's superstardom and Ghaywan's stature as a rare Dalit voice in Bollywood have turned it into a routinely cited 'best Hindi films of the 2010s' pick.
What's debated
The one recurring quibble among fans: whether the two parallel storylines converge a little too neatly — poetic destiny to some, screenwriting tidiness to others.
Its footprint
Vicky Kaushal's weary 'Yeh dukh kaahe khatam nahi hota be?' ('why does this sadness never end?') became a full-blown Indian internet meme for millennial malaise, and the song 'Tu Kisi Rail Si' — Varun Grover setting a Dushyant Kumar couplet to Indian Ocean's music — is endlessly quoted as the high-water mark of Hindi film poetry in the 2010s.
Where it stands
A cornerstone of the 2010s Hindi indie wave and a Letterboxd favourite — the 'start here' film for anyone entering post-Wasseypur independent Indian cinema.