I absolutely love it when a film is self-aware. When it knows its strengths and weaknesses and references these in the narrative itself. It makes my job that much easier. Take Bestseller, for example. I have little to add to what the characters have to say at three different points in the film. ‘What the nonsense is this?’ says one. ‘What the f %# is going on?’ says the same character a little.
It’s now an instantly recognisable subgenre in Hindi cinema. A ‘hatke’ subject that deals with social ‘taboos’ and dollops of humour to make the issue palatable. A largely north Indian middle-class setting, often small-town, with extended families. A top-notch ensemble featuring a permutation-combination of the same character actors, headlined by those torchbearers of this school of films.