| # | Film | Language | Where to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola (2013) | Hindi | — |
| 2 | Rangoon (2017) | Hindi | — |
| 3 | 7 Khoon Maaf (2011) | Hindi | — |
| 4 | Pataakha (2018) | Hindi | — |
| 5 | Omkara (2006) | Hindi | — |
| 6 | Kaminey (2009) | Hindi | — |
| 7 | Haider (2014) | Hindi | — |
| 8 | Maqbool (2003) | Hindi | — |
Vishal Bhardwaj doesn’t just adapt Shakespeare in Hindi; he makes the stories feel like they were born in India’s dust and blood. I’ve ranked his best because his filmography is too rich to just say “watch them all.” This list goes from the ones I admire to the one I’d save first.
If you love the movies, this is less a definitive canon than a personal map through one of Hindi cinema’s most distinctive voices—a director who can make a gunshot feel like poetry and a song feel like a warning. Start at the bottom, argue with me in the middle, and tell me where I got it wrong at the end.
Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola (2013)
This is Bhardwaj in full mad-cap folk mode, a strange brew of land politics, eccentric comedy and a pink buffalo. It sits here because the film itself can’t decide what it wants to be—a biting satire, a romance, or a boozy fable. Watching Pankaj Kapur and Imran Khan play off each other is a joy even when the tone lurches. You feel the director grinning at his own mischief, but the ride is more wobbly than wild. It’s worth your time if you like big swings more than clean landings.
Rangoon (2017)
Bhardwaj goes big here: a wartime romance carried by Kangana Ranaut, Shahid Kapoor and Saif Ali Khan, all framed in sepia and flag-waving. It is visually magnificent and wildly ambitious, but the emotional threads don’t quite tie up. I keep it lower because the spectacle, the music and the period detail outrun the story that holds them together. Watching it feels like being shown a richly dressed set and being asked to care about the war beyond it. It’s a film I admire in pieces more than as a whole.
7 Khoon Maaf (2011)
A dark, brave swing about a woman who marries seven times, with Priyanka Chopra committing fully to every grim chapter. Each segment works in pieces, powered by a wicked sense of humour and a haunting title track. It ranks here because the whole is less than the sum of its very committed parts. The film feels like a series of punches that don’t always land in the same fight. Still, you can’t look away from its daring.
Pataakha (2018)
This is Bhardwaj at his sun-baked, small-town best: two warring sisters who can’t live together or apart, played with full-throated chaos by Sanya Malhotra and Radhika Madan. It is a small riot about family, pride and the fights that become love. But it feels like a firecracker that burns out too soon, so it sits mid-list. The film leaves you grinning, then slightly wishing it had stayed longer at the fair. There’s real warmth under all the shouting.
Omkara (2006)
His Othello is a sharp study of jealousy, power and the brutal politics of Uttar Pradesh’s badlands. Saif Ali Khan’s Langda Tyagi is one of the great modern villains, and the film turns Shakespeare’s tragedy into something raw and local. A few stretches sag under the weight of the tragedy, so it’s not at the very top. Watching it feels like standing too close to a fuse: you know the explosion is coming, and you still hope it won’t. The dialogue and music stay with you long after.
Kaminey (2009)
If Maqbool is Bhardwaj in classical mode, Kaminey is him at his most caffeinated—Tarantino-laced, relentlessly paced and full of double-crosses. Shahid Kapoor’s twin act is wonderfully controlled, and the film is tight, stylish and endlessly rewatchable. It’s this high because it makes chaos feel choreographed. Every time the plot seems to settle, it swerves again. You finish it out of breath and ready to press play.
Haider (2014)
His Hamlet in Kashmir is the most emotionally devastating thing he has made, a tragedy about grief, displacement and impossible choices. Shahid Kapoor and Tabu are extraordinary, and the atmosphere is thick with snow, silence and surveillance. It’s second because that heaviness asks for patience, and the length sometimes works against the urgency. Watching it feels like being pulled into a wound that doesn’t close. The moment it ends, you know you’ve seen something major.
Maqbool (2003)
His Macbeth remains his most assured film, where every frame, performance and note of the background score feels inevitable. Irrfan Khan, Pankaj Kapur and Tabu make the criminal world feel mythic and horribly human at once. Nothing else he’s done feels this complete. It’s the one I’d save first because it announces everything that makes Bhardwaj special: Shakespeare’s bones, Mumbai’s blood and his own wounded wit. If you only watch one film from this list, make it this.
That’s my ranking—messy, personal and open to argument. Tell me which Bhardwaj film you’d save first, whether it’s one of these or a deeper cut like The Blue Umbrella, and why it still lives in your head.
Film images from TMDB. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
