Best Bollywood Movie of 2026
- Parikshit Khanna
- 1 day ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 55 minutes ago
By Parikshit Khanna
Some films entertain you for a few hours. Some impress you with performances, scale or technology. Some make you think.
And then, very occasionally, a film reaches a much quieter place within you.
For me, Hanuman Ansh was that film.
I entered the theatre expecting a devotional biographical drama inspired by the life and teachings of Neem Karoli Baba, lovingly remembered by devotees as Maharaj-ji.
I left with tears in my eyes, gratitude in my heart, and a strange sense of inner stillness.
It did not feel as though I had simply watched a film.
It felt as though I had been reminded of something.
Released theatrically on 7 August 2026, Hanuman Ansh is a 150-minute Hindi devotional drama with a U certificate. The CBFC describes its central journey as that of a boy searching for his departed mother who eventually discovers that his path lies in serving humanity through love, feeding people and remembering Ram.
At a time when Hindi cinema is increasingly competing through enormous budgets, franchises, action set-pieces and visual spectacle, Hanuman Ansh attempts something almost counter-cultural.
It asks us to become still.
And perhaps that is why it stayed with me.
A Film About Transformation Rather Than Spectacle
The story follows young Lakshminarayan as questions about death, suffering, God and existence gradually take him away from an ordinary life and towards the spiritual journey through which the world would eventually know him as Neeb Karori Baba.
BookMyShow describes the film as the transformation of an inquisitive young seeker into a saint whose spiritual influence would ultimately reach people across the world.
But what interested me most was not simply the chronology of his life.
It was the idea at the centre of the film:
The greatest struggle is often not against another person. It is against our own fear, attachment, grief, ego and way of seeing the world.
There is no conventional cinematic villain dominating the narrative.
Human suffering itself becomes the question.
Love becomes an answer.
Seva becomes an answer.
Surrender becomes an answer.
That makes Hanuman Ansh fundamentally different from most mainstream Hindi releases of 2026.
Where many films attempt to increase your adrenaline, this one attempts to reduce the noise inside you.
Shobhinaw Satyaa Does Not Simply Imitate a Saint
The greatest risk in portraying a deeply revered spiritual figure is turning reverence into performance.
Shobhinaw Satyaa largely avoids that trap.
His portrayal works because he rarely appears desperate to demonstrate spirituality.
There is warmth in the smile, simplicity in the posture and an understated calmness in his presence.
Even reviews that have been more reserved about the film itself have praised his performance. Film Information, for example, described Satyaa's acting as very good even while criticizing parts of the screenplay and pacing.
His own journey to the role makes the casting even more fascinating.
India Today reported that Satyaa was originally working on Hanuman Ansh as an assistant director before the unexpected journey that eventually resulted in him portraying Maharaj-ji.
That knowledge changed the way I looked at his performance.
It does not feel designed around star mannerisms.
It feels unusually unforced.
And having had the opportunity to meet him after the screening, what stayed with me was his humility. The folded hands and warmth I encountered outside the theatre felt surprisingly consistent with the gentle energy visible on screen.
Dr. Vishal Chaturvedi's Nearly Two-Decade Journey
Hanuman Ansh is clearly not a story that writer-director Vishal Chaturvedi discovered six months before production.
India Today reports that he had been carrying the idea of telling Neem Karoli Baba's story for nearly two decades, with his connection beginning after an unexpected visit to Kainchi Dham. His research became systematic around 2016-17 and expanded further in subsequent years.
He travelled to places associated with Maharaj-ji, including Vrindavan, Akbarpur, Neeb Karori and Lucknow, speaking with people and gathering accounts. He has said that the filmmaking team tried to rely on incidents found in books or other documented sources.
Chaturvedi also compiled his research into the book Divine Detour before translating that material into a cinematic narrative.
That context matters.
Because Hanuman Ansh does not feel like an attempt to place spirituality on top of a conventional commercial screenplay.
It feels like somebody spent years asking:
How do you put faith on a cinema screen without turning faith into spectacle?
The Film Is About 'Leela', Compassion and Seva
One of the most important things Chaturvedi has said about the film is that he did not want to create what he described as simply a “miracle film.”
Instead, he wanted the narrative to be grounded in human emotions and in the long-term impact that compassion, service and spiritual values can have on society.
That distinction is important.
The extraordinary events associated with saints will naturally fascinate audiences.
But the deeper question is:
What did their presence make people become?
Kinder?
More generous?
Less ego-driven?
More willing to serve?
More conscious of another person's hunger or pain?
For me, that is where Hanuman Ansh becomes more meaningful than a catalogue of miracles.
Why I Cried
My tears were not caused by one giant climactic scene.
They accumulated quietly.
They came from the boy's grief.
From the search for his mother.
From the longing for God.
From surrender.
From feeding another human being.
From the idea that personal suffering can sometimes become the doorway through which compassion enters.
And perhaps they also came because of the contrast with my own professional world.
Much of my life revolves around technology, artificial intelligence, learning, productivity and the future of work.
AI teaches us how dramatically human capability can be multiplied.
But Hanuman Ansh reminded me of a question technology cannot answer for us:
What should we multiply?
Efficiency without compassion is incomplete.
Intelligence without humility is incomplete.
Progress without purpose is incomplete.
AI may increasingly help humanity decide how to do something.
Films like Hanuman Ansh ask us to think about why we are doing it in the first place.
That thought followed me outside the theatre.
What Audiences Are Saying
The public response is where the Hanuman Ansh story becomes particularly interesting.
As of 25 August 2026, BookMyShow shows the film at approximately 9.8/10 from more than 7,100 votes. Its review section is dominated by tags such as:
BookMyShow had also accumulated thousands of written reviews, with emotional and spiritual responses appearing repeatedly among viewers.
IMDb's current main title page shows approximately 8.9/10, though ratings on live platforms can naturally change as additional votes arrive.
The response is not universally glowing, and that is worth acknowledging.
Some critical reactions have argued that portions of the film can feel slow or structurally repetitive. Film Information praised Shobhinaw Satyaa but felt that the screenplay could become monotonous, while another review rated the film 7/10 and similarly noted that its 150-minute runtime could test audiences looking for faster entertainment.
Punjab Kesari, meanwhile, gave the film 3.5 stars, highlighting the emotional effectiveness of its devotional simplicity.
I actually think this division explains the film well.
If you approach Hanuman Ansh expecting the grammar of an action blockbuster, its stillness may feel slow.
If you surrender to its rhythm, the same stillness may become its greatest strength.
The Remarkable Word-of-Mouth Story
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Hanuman Ansh is what happened after its quiet opening.
Bollywood Hungama records an opening day of only around ₹10 lakh and a first weekend of approximately ₹64 lakh.
Yet its third weekend reportedly reached ₹3.68 crore, compared with roughly ₹29 lakh during its second weekend.
That is an extraordinary reversal of the normal theatrical pattern.
Newer trade reporting subsequently said the film's show count expanded dramatically as demand grew, with one report recording 909 shows on its third Monday. Exact collection figures differ slightly among box-office trackers, but the central trend is unmistakable: Hanuman Ansh became dramatically stronger several days after release instead of disappearing.
NDTV reported another striking development on 24 August: at approximately 5 PM, Hanuman Ansh was reportedly recording more hourly BookMyShow bookings than the much larger commercial release Awarapan 2.
The same report described audiences creating social-media reels supporting the film and calling it an underrated film and even a masterpiece.
A Reddit discussion posted on 23 August similarly described its appeal in terms of introspection, faith, peace and its refusal to depend upon giant CGI moments, while another viewer said they had discovered the film through an Instagram reel before deciding to watch it.
That is genuine word-of-mouth behaviour.
Not manufactured opening-weekend hype.
People watch.
People feel something.
People tell other people.
More shows appear.
That is one of cinema's oldest and most beautiful forms of success.
Hanuman Ansh vs Major Bollywood Releases of 2026
Ratings across platforms should never be treated as an absolute ranking of artistic quality. Vote volumes differ enormously, fan communities behave differently and genres cannot be compared mathematically.
But the current figures reveal something remarkable.
BookMyShow audience ratings among major Hindi films checked as of 25 August 2026
Film | BookMyShow Audience Rating | Approx. Votes | IMDb | Audience Character |
Hanuman Ansh | 9.8/10 | 7.1K+ | 8.9/10* | Spiritual, emotional, highly enthusiastic |
Dhurandhar: The Revenge | 9.4/10 | 642K+ | 8.2/10 | Huge-scale action, performances, direction |
The Kerala Story 2 | 9.2/10 | 34K+ | 5.7/10 | Highly passionate but polarised response |
Mardaani 3 | 8.9/10 | 34K+ | 6.0/10 | Rani Mukerji, crime-thriller intensity |
Border 2 | 8.4/10 | 114K+ | 5.8/10 | Patriotism, nostalgia, performances |
Awarapan 2 | 8.1/10 | 69K+ | 6.7/10 | Emraan Hashmi, music, nostalgia |
Cocktail 2 | 7.9/10 | 64K+ | — | Performances, romance and music |
Bhooth Bangla | 7.5/10 | 95K+ | 5.0/10 | Comedy and ensemble performances |
Dhamaal 4 | 7.5/10 | 68K+ | — | Broad comedy and franchise entertainment |
Welcome to the Jungle | 7.4/10 | 61K+ | — | Ensemble comedy and spectacle |
Sources: current BookMyShow listings and IMDb title pages. Ratings are dynamic and may change.
IMDb figures referenced above are drawn from the current title pages for the respective films.
*IMDb ratings can fluctuate particularly quickly for newly released titles.
What does this comparison actually prove?
It does not scientifically prove that Hanuman Ansh is “better than every Bollywood movie of 2026.”
Something more interesting is happening.
Among the major Hindi releases I could verify, Hanuman Ansh currently carries the highest BookMyShow audience score in this comparison.
And it has done so without the scale of Dhurandhar: The Revenge, the franchise recognition of Border 2, the nostalgia surrounding Awarapan 2, or the enormous ensemble casts associated with films such as Welcome to the Jungle.
That is what makes its achievement worth discussing.
Dhurandhar Has Scale. Hanuman Ansh Has Stillness.
Dhurandhar: The Revenge is one of 2026's major theatrical events.
It commands enormous audience volume: BookMyShow shows approximately 9.4/10 from more than 642,000 votes, while IMDb lists it around 8.2/10 from 70,000 ratings.
Its strengths are cinematic scale, Ranveer Singh's performance, tension, action and immersive spectacle.
Hanuman Ansh cannot and should not compete with that vocabulary.
One wants your pulse racing.
The other wants your mind slowing.
Both are legitimate cinematic experiences.
But only one made me walk out of a theatre thinking about seva, surrender and compassion.
Border 2 Has Patriotism. Hanuman Ansh Has Inner Surrender.
Border 2 drew enormous attention through patriotic emotion, nostalgia and its ensemble.
BookMyShow currently shows approximately 8.4/10 from 114,000+ votes, while IMDb is much more reserved at approximately 5.8/10.
Its emotion moves outward towards country, sacrifice and military courage.
Hanuman Ansh moves inward.
Its battlefield is consciousness.
Its victory is surrender.
Awarapan 2 Has Nostalgia. Hanuman Ansh Has Discovery.
Awarapan 2 carries nearly two decades of emotional nostalgia and the return of Emraan Hashmi's Shivam.
BookMyShow currently places it around 8.1/10 from more than 69,000 votes, while IMDb is around 6.7/10.
It is also a genuine 2026 commercial success.
That is why the report that Hanuman Ansh temporarily overtook it in hourly BookMyShow bookings on August 24 is so fascinating.
Not because it makes one film “better” than the other.
But because it demonstrates how unexpectedly powerful organic recommendation became for this small devotional film.
Where Hanuman Ansh Is Not Perfect
A sincere review should also acknowledge what may not work for everyone.
The film is 150 minutes long.
Its rhythm can be deliberately slow.
Its spiritual structure sometimes matters more than conventional dramatic escalation.
Some viewers looking for constant plot movement may find portions repetitive.
And because the film treats its central subject with reverence, viewers approaching the story from a purely sceptical or conventional biographical perspective may respond very differently.
These are valid observations.
But I would argue that some of what critics identify as slowness is also inseparable from what admirers experience as peace.
The film is asking for a different kind of attention.
A Film Families Can Watch Together
Another quality increasingly rare in mainstream cinema is that Hanuman Ansh genuinely works across generations.
Its U certification makes it accessible to families.
Children can encounter the values of compassion and service.
Young audiences can discover the story of a twentieth-century Indian spiritual figure whose influence ultimately travelled far beyond India.
Older viewers may recognize values they grew up hearing about:
Feed people.
Serve people.
Love people.
Remember God.
That simplicity should not be mistaken for intellectual shallowness.
Some of the hardest truths are also the simplest.
My Verdict: One of the Most Meaningful Hindi Films of 2026
I do not want to reduce Hanuman Ansh to a star rating.
Nor do I want to call it “the greatest Bollywood movie ever” merely because a platform currently shows an extraordinary audience score.
The film deserves a more thoughtful compliment.
For me, Hanuman Ansh is one of the most meaningful and emotionally affecting Hindi films of 2026.
Not because it has the biggest star.
Not because it has the biggest budget.
Not because it opened with hundreds of crores.
But because it achieved something cinema rarely manages to do:
It changed the emotional state in which I left the theatre.
Shobhinaw Satyaa delivers a performance built upon restraint and warmth.
Dr. Vishal Chaturvedi has brought nearly two decades of personal connection, research and conviction to a story that could easily have become either preachy or sensationalised.
Instead, the film keeps returning to a remarkably simple idea:
Love everyone. Serve everyone. Feed everyone. Remember Ram.
Perhaps that simplicity is precisely what our increasingly complicated world needs.
I entered the theatre to watch a movie.
I left with tears.
I left with gratitude.
I left thinking about compassion.
And I left with a quieter heart.
My heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Vishal Chaturvedi, Shobhinaw Satyaa, Vihaan Shedge, the producers, cast, crew and every person associated with Hanuman Ansh.
A film that opened quietly is now finding audiences because people are telling one another:
Go and experience it.
May this beautiful story reach millions of hearts.
