Best of Indian Cinema: Hall of Fame

[Atharv]

The final category has wrapped up. Meiyazhagan (2024) topped the Feel‑Good category with 85 upvotes, officially completing the Best of Indian Cinema community grid.

What began as a simple community voting experiment turned into weeks of discussions, debates, surprises, close contests, and passionate film recommendations from all over Indian cinema.

Hall of Fame:

• Romance - Mouna Ragam (1986)
• Action - Thallumaala (2022)
• Comedy - Panchathanthiram (2002)
• Drama - Kireedam (1989)
• Thriller - Drishyam (2013)
• Horror - Tumbbad (2018)
• Emotional - Taare Zameen Par (2007)
• Family - Kumbalangi Nights (2019)
• Gangster - Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)
• Cop - Mumbai Police (2013)
• Sci‑Fi - Enthiran (2010)
• Fantasy - My Dear Kuttichathan (1984)
• Sports - Dangal (2016)
• Experimental - Super Deluxe (2019)
• Best Film - Pather Panchali (1955)
• Feel‑Good - Meiyazhagan (2024)

Thank you to everyone who voted, debated, agreed, disagreed, and helped shape this list.

Credit to u/hogyaku_aizen for inspiring the grid.

Looking back at the completed grid, which winner do you agree with the most, and which result would you change if you could?

[Dayanand]

Special shoutout to u/Flat_Clock151 who missed a few votes but still kept up with everything.

[Raghav]

Best Action movie category alone says it all about how objective and impartial this list is.

[Ajay]

Mumbai Police as the cop pick? Films like Vikram Vedha, Theeran Adhigaram Ondru, A Wednesday, Article 15, Droh Kaal (Kuruthi Punal in Tamil) and even Ratchasan fit the cop/investigation/thriller vibe. This sub seems dominated by one group, so yeah.

[Amitabh]

Kind of sad there isn't even a single Tollywood film, but these are still great movies!

[Naresh]

Except for Action and Cop, in my opinion every other film is well‑deserved.

Thallumaala is a nicely crafted film with solid action sequences, but I wouldn't call it the best Indian action movie ever. Movies like Kill, Vikram (great set pieces) and the Commando series feel stronger to me.

Mumbai Police feels more like a psychological thriller than a straight cop film. It has cop elements, but they sit under the thriller narrative. Films such as Theeran Adhigaram Ondru and Taanakaaran showcase the cop's training, daily life, and procedures more directly.

[Chitra]

Please crop the last three images, they're really triggering my OCD.

[Kanchan]

No 3 Idiots anywhere?

[Amar]

Since this is the last post in the series, could you add links to all the previous posts? They're hidden right now.

[Jai]

The best cop movie should have been Sarfarosh. It's the only one I've seen that focuses on the cop's work without the over‑the‑top theatrics like Singham. Plus, director John Matthew Mathan spent seven years researching the subject, which really shows in the film.

[Madhuri]

So how many Malayalam movies made it onto the list?