Breaking Bolly: 10 atypical Indian films
Bollywood and its regional counterparts are known for their glitter and glamor, fabulous costumes and intricate musical numbers. But that's not all that India has to offer. In the last two decades, quieter films have come to the forefront, proving that it takes more than melodramatic masala to entertain an audience.
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- DirectorMira NairStarsNaseeruddin ShahLillete DubeyShefali ShahA stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.Probably Mira Nair's most personal film, Monsoon Wedding revolves around an arranged marriage set to happen right as the monsoon descends on Delhi. With a deceitful bride, two potential couples and a cousin with a dark secret, there are plenty of plates for Nair to keep spinning.
- DirectorVikramaditya MotwaneStarsRajat BarmechaRonit RoyManjot SinghExpelled from his school, a 16-year old boy returns home to his abusive and oppressive father.Udaan is one of the most stripped-down films to come out of Bollywood in recent memory. It tells the story of Rohan, his abusive father and a brother that he never knew existed. His father, played by the frightening Ronit Roy, is one of the most chillingly realistic villains to appear in a Bollywood film.
- DirectorAnand GandhiStarsAydah El-KashefYogesh ShahFaraz KhanThe film explores questions of identity, justice, beauty, meaning and death through an experimental photographer, an ailing monk and a young stockbroker.Three very different people must confront similar ethical dilemmas.
- DirectorAparna SenStarsRahul BoseKonkona Sen SharmaBhisham SahniDuring a bus journey, a devout Hindu Brahmin woman protects a Muslim man when communal rioting breaks out.A Muslim man and a Hindu woman form an unexpected connection on a bus traveling in the midst of an outbreak of communal violence.
- DirectorDev BenegalStarsTanvi AzmiRahul BoseRupen BoseAgastya Sen (Rahul Bose), nicknamed "English, August", speaks and thinks in English. A lover of poetry, he listens to Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, rock, and jazz, and reads Marcus Aurelius. He is also an Indian Administrative Service Officer, a member of the most influential and powerful cadre of civil servants in India. He is sent off for a year's training to Madna, the hottest town in the country. Culture shock and a language barrier in his own country follows (August's mother tongue is Bengali). He feels like a foreigner, but must survive. He's surrounded by wild characters: Srivastava, the pompous head bureaucrat and his wife Malti, the fashion and cultural leader of the town; Sathe, a local pothead and cartoonist; Kumar, the Police Superintendent and connoisseur of porn films; and Vasant, the world's worst cook. August negotiates this provincial creek with the only paddle he can find; fantasy, daydreams and "self-abuse" become his means of revolt and escape as he escapes from the heat into the mystery and quiet of his secret world of erotic fantasy and contemplation.A bored clerk takes refuge in his daydreams when he is stuck in an Indian backwater, isolated from the locals by his lack of language skills.
- DirectorKiran RaoStarsPrateik Patil BabbarMonica DograKriti MalhotraThe lives of four people intersect in Mumbai: a washer-man who wants to become an actor, a banker-turned-photographer, a painter looking for inspiration, and a newly-married immigrant who journals her experiences on home video.A love triangle develops between three people who live in the Dhobi Ghat area of Mumbai.
- DirectorAnurag KashyapStarsKay Kay MenonPawan MalhotraAditya SrivastavA film about the investigations following the 1993 serial Bombay bomb blasts, told through the different stories of the people involved --police, conspirators, victims, middlemen.A dramatic recreation of the 1993 Bombay bombings and the resulting investigation.
- DirectorMadhur BhandarkarStarsKunal KemmuNitu ChandraUpendra LimayeTraffic Signal is a Madhur Bhandarkar movie that reveals the truth behind the multimillion dollar begging Industry in India.A film set in a microcosm of society at a single traffic light. Madhur Bhandarkar tells the stories of the hustlers, prostitutes and beggars who all make their living off the light.
- DirectorOnirStarsJuhi ChawlaRahul BoseRadhika ApteFour traumatic and life-changing stories in various parts of modern secular India.Four loosely connected Indians strive to overcome personal tragedy as they also fight cultural stigma. A gay man attempts to navigate the tricky pickup scene. A divorced woman tries to get pregnant without a husband. A flighty filmmaker must deal with his traumatic past and a woman returns home to Kashmir and finds that everything has changed.
- DirectorRituparno GhoshStarsAjay DevgnAishwarya Rai BachchanAnnu KapoorAll he wanted was to see her just once. Manu was from a village in the backwoods. Neeru was the girl next door, his lost love.Rituparno Ghosh's finest film, a story of love, pride and lies.