Aneez Bazmee is a heavyweight director when it comes to mainstream Bollywood comedies, thanks to the quintessential 2000s-era over-the-top theatrics of Welcome, No Entry, and Singh Is Kinng. Here’s a definitive ranking of the best Anees Bazmee films and a handy guide to stream them all.
Where can you stream Anees Bazmee’s filmography?
Most of Aneez Bazmee’s popular credits like Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2, Sandwich, and Welcome among others, are available to stream on popular OTT services like Netflix, Prime Video, and ZEE5. Sony LIV, Lionsgate Play, and Eros Now are also good options to stream the rest of his filmography while Ready can be rented on YouTube movies and Google Play Store.
You can also watch Welcome and its sequel Welcome Back for free on Jio Cinema, ZEE5, and Shemaroo.
Once you’ve sorted your Anees Bazmee watchlist, look at the comedy director’s track record over the years.
Early Start with Thrillers like Deewangee
Despite making a career out of directing comedies, Bazmee initially started out with thrillers. His directorial debut was the Ajay Devgn-led action thriller Hulchul which failed to make much of a mark. A warmer reception was received by his sophomore thriller Deewangee, a Hindi remake of the Richard Gere and Edward Norton-starrer Primal Fear.
Comedy Breakout with No Entry and Welcome
Following Deewangee, Bazmee tried to tickle his audience’s funny bone and stuck to it for the decades to come. His first comedy was No Entry, a commercial and critical success with a stellar ensemble led by frequent collaborators Anil Kapoor and Salman Khan. The movie, known today for its catchy songs and quotable one-liners, is a raunchy comedy revolving around a web of lies about cheating husbands and their womanizing friends.
Similar themes were echoed in his next movie Sandwich, a comedy starring Govinda as a man caught between his two wives. The film underperformed at the box office and Bazmee failed to replicate the No Entry success. However, in 2007, his fate turned in his favour again with Welcome.
The 2007 comedy of errors starred Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif as a couple in love caught within the drama around two bumbling gangster brothers (played to perfection by Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar). Welcome was an instant hit and remains a cult comedy till today.
Sequel experiments with Welcome Back and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2
Following Welcome, Bazmee continued exploring his recurring themes of failed marriages, infidelities, and romances interrupted by snobby families with movies like No Problem, Thank You, Mubarakan, and Ready. But while honing his familiar tropes, Bazmee also took time to work on sequels to iconic comedies. One was Welcome Back, a gangster comedy that served as a direct sequel to his own Welcome (sans Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif this time).
The other was the supernatural comedy Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. The latter initially aroused criticism for Kartik Aaryan starred as the lead instead of the preceding movie’s Akshay Kumar. But upon release, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 subverted audience expectations and earned Bazmee his first-ever Filmfare nomination for Best Director.
Why is Welcome Anees Bazmee’s best movie?
With tongue-in-cheek dialogues immortalised in memes and slapstick-mannered characters like Dr Ghungroo and Majnu Bhai that still dominate Indian pop culture, Welcome is arguably Anees Bazmee’s career-best film. Welcome is loud and silly with a sense of self-awareness, aging only better after more than a decade since its release. For many a Bollywood comedy fan, Welcome continues to be their comfort watch.
