Biggest Bollywood hits of the year so far

The first half of Bollywood saw some much-awaited movies like Kites, Raavan, Raajneeti and Housefull. Unfortunately, most of them tanked at the box office. Instead, we saw quite a few surprise hits.

Vinod Mirani gives us the half-yearly box office report card, in alphabetical order. In this two-part series, we first take a look at the hit films:

Atithi Tum Kab Jaaoge
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Konkona Sen Sharma, Paresh Rawal
Directed by: Ashwin Dhir

As the film title suggests, Ajay Devgn and Konkona Sen Sharma's characters have to deal with an uninvited guest (Paresh Rawal), who overstays his visit. Rawal creates a lot of trouble for the couple, and they resort to finding means to get rid of him.

The film saw some good comedy, and laughter, as everyone knows, is the best medicine -- especially for a healthy box office run.

Read the review of Atithi Tum Kab Jaaoge

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Deepika Padukone, Ritesh Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal, Boman Irani, Jiah Khan and Chunky Pandey.
Directed by: Sajid Khan

Akshay Kumar goes on a 'girl' hunt to change his poor luck in the film, and manages to find reel success as well as real success. Housefull ended Akki's bad run at the box office, after a series of big flops last year.

Poor reviews did not deter audiences from flocking to the theatres to watch Akshay on screen Housefull is, in fact, the biggest recent hit after 3 Idiots.

Read the review of Housefull

Cast: Anshuman Jha, Raj Kumar Yadav, Neha Chauhan, Amit Sial, Arya Devdutta, Herry Tangri
Directed by: Dibakar Banerjee

Banerjee, who made terrific films like Khosla Ka Ghosla and Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye earlier, makes another good film, Love Sex Aur Dhokha.

The film starred only newcomers, and still went on to become a hit.

Read the review of Love Sex Aur Dhokha

Cast: Vivek Oberoi , Aruna Shields, Neeru Bajwa and Nandana Sen
Directed by: Kookie V Gulati.

Prince told a story similar to Matt Damon's Bourne Identity. Vivek Oberoi plays a thief, who gets shot while performing the biggest heist of his career. When he regains consciousness, he cannot remember anything about himself. Soon, he learns that every cop and criminal is after him.

Great action sequences made this film worth a watch, and revived Oberoi's sinking career.

Read the review of Prince

Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Ajay Devgn , Katrina Kaif, Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai, Arjun Rampal, Naseeruddin Shah.
Directed by: Prakash Jha

Starring a host of actors, Raajneeti got mixed reviews. Yet, it did very well at the box office, especially in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Ranbir and Katrina scored yet another hit, making these actors some of the most promising stars to watch out for.

Read the review of Raajneeti