Anurag Kashyap's five best films of 2014

Ankhon Dekhi

I saw Rajat Kapoor's film quite recently. Minus the ending, I liked everything. The writing, the performances, and the way it was made. 

Queen

A man or a woman, you identify with the film. The film somehow empowers you without being obvious about it. It makes you feel that there is life beyond having it revolve around one person. There's much more to life and you can have fun without being judgemental. It tells you that the world can see you for who you are and accept you that way, but first, you need to know who you are.

Highway

I liked it, but again, I had an issue with the ending. The journey itself, taking the girl out of her world, and the unspoken romance between the two of them (the kidnapper and the victim) was magic. Randeep (Hooda) is outstanding.

Titli

Kanu Behl's film worked for me. The two leads - Shashank Arora and Shivani Raghuvanshi - take you by surprise. It is dark but it will work with the audiences.

Fandry

For me, the ending made the film. The actors were very good, and the director, Nagraj Manjule, himself is a good actor. I want to cast him one day.

I haven't seen Court and Killa yet. I know both the filmmakers: Avinash Arun and Chaitanya Tamhane. Arun was the cinematographer on my short, That Day After Everyday, and he has also shot Neeraj Ghaywan's debut film Masaan. I am really looking forward to seeing both the films.

This year, I haven't seen that much in international cinema. I liked Nightcrawler, Birdman, Whiplash and Force Majeure. The latter (Sweden's Oscar entry which is on the shortlist for best foreign language film) is funny. The avalanche sequence is unbelievable - the father runs away leaving his wife and kids behind. How that one moment comes back to haunt him - the resentment of the wife and two kids and his own denial about the episode. The way the film is written is unbelievable.

I also loved Borgman and Hellion.

(As told to Suhani Singh.)