Over the last few years, a number of online streaming websites have entered the Indian entertainment market. With Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hotstar, the Indian audience are no more caught between the new releases in theaters and the limited choices dished out by the television channels. From classic Hollywood and original series to Asian animes, Netflix India has left us spoilt for choice.
Here is a list of lesser known gems (not bound by any criteria) streaming on Netflix India:
Our Souls At night
Ritesh Batra’s film, set in an American small-town, might remind one of his acclaimed debut film, The Lunch Box. The films share a similar pace, and characters who are past the prime of their youth. They fall in love, defying the judgmental gaze of the society, and the warmth of this romance cheer up their otherwise lonely life. In Our Souls At Night, Louise, a retired school teacher, is taken by surprise, when his neighbour, Addie, pays him him a visit at night and puts forth a strange proposal to start sleeping together at night. “It’s not about sex,” she assures him. It turns out that both of them are suffering from a similar problem – getting through the lonely night, fighting insomnia. Their casual sleepovers make way to a deep romance that fills their life once again with adrenaline and joy. Our Souls At Night is an unabashedly romantic film that cares deeply for its characters.
Bluejay
Alex Lehmann’s monochromatic film is about two high-school flames getting back together for a day in the town where they first met. The film stars Mark Duplass, who also wrote the screenplay, and Sarah Paulson, as the former ‘lovebirds’ who were once the envy of their classmates. There are no supporting characters, or a conventional plot twist. The characters meet, treat themselves to a bad cup of coffee, listen to some old tapes, and talk. The mood is akin to Richard Linklater’s Before series, yet less romantic. Duplass is fantastic as the broken man, while Paulson charmingly hides her woes beneath a veil of smile.
Aankhon Dekhi
Rajat Kapoor’s 2014 Indie super hit is one of the best Indian films streaming on Netflix. It has an excellent cast, comprising of Sanjay Mishra, Rajat Kapoor, Seema Pahwa, Maya Sarao, among others, who bring the charming milieu of old Delhi alive on screen. Mishra is Bauji, a grey-haired middle-class man who, one fine day, decides to not take every mundane things in life for granted. This new approach to life earns him many admirers, but jeopardises his job and his relationship with Rishi (Rajat Kapoor), his brother. The old man is, however, is determined to live life by his ideals. To the men who wants to follow his views, he says, “Search your own truth. Don’t just borrow my truth.” Aankhon Dekhi is a delightful film that revels in its simplicity.
Ozhivu Divasathe Kali (An Off-day Game)
Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s 2015 film is one of the few Indian indie movies that have managed to impress the film festival audience and box-office alike. Shot without a definite screenplay, with a non-star cast, the film starts as an unsuspecting drama centered around a bunch of friends who get together on a hartal day, to have some fun, and ends on an edgy note. It cuts open the dark interiors of the male psyche. The film bagged the Kerala State Award for the best feature film that year.
Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories
The Japanese’s affair with food is as spiritual as sensuous. Midnight Diner, a Netflix original series directed by Joji Matsuoka, is adapted from a popular Manga comics of the same title. Centered around a small eatery that runs from midnight 12 to morning 7, the first season of the series has 10 episodes. The anchor of every story is the eatery’s enigmatic chef, known to everyone as Master. He has a bunch of regular customers who treat the eatery as an adda where they can unburden their stress as well as share their happiness. Some of the customers include a female taxi driver whom other customers identify as a yesteryear television actress, and her friend, a former actor who disappeared from the acting field for his hidden identity as a cross-dresser. He comes out in public through a midnight radio show hosted by a fellow customer at the eatery. The eatery, although set in one of the busiest streets of Tokyo, has an oracular existence. One of the episodes concludes with the spirit of a customer’s mother waving at him from outside the restaurant’s window. Yet it doesn’t look bizarre, for Midnight Diner is a space where regular life blends with the spiritual world, in the most endearing style.
Amdavad Ma Famous
Hardik Mehta’s national award winning film about the famous kite-flying festival of Ahmedabad doesn’t have the aspirations of a conventional documentary. The film follows Zaid, a 11-year-old boy, is a devoted kite-flier, as he speeds through the narrow gallies and climbs precariously the rooftops of Ahmedabad with the confidence of an expert. Mehta and his crew followed Zaid for six days over a period of two years to make the 30-minute documentary film, a witty and technically brilliant work that captures the spirit of an Indian city, among other delightful things. It has great visuals – the kind you rarely find in Indian documentary films that are often sombre works by filmmakers reluctant to experiment with the form or be funny. The film is slickly edited, further enriched by Manoj Goswami’s sound design and an aptly cheerful background score composed by Alokananda Dasgupta.
Munroe Island
Recommended
Munroe Island isn’t an easy watch. The critically acclaimed Malayalam indie film, directed by debutante Manu, is set in a house perched on a small strip of land, surrounded by backwaters. The old patriarch who lives in the house gets a guest in many years, his grandson, who hasn’t visited the island in over a decade. The young man is clearly disturbed, and his grandpa hopes that the island, wrapped in a solemn silence, would relieve him. There is a poetic quality to the film’s visuals that are as fluid as the water that surrounds the house. Munroe Island also features one of the best performances from Indrans, the veteran comic actor who transforms brilliantly into a frail old patriarch here.
*****
Given the gamut of choice, Silverscreen will carry a weekly review on the films/documentaries/television series available on these digital platforms. This list is a work in progress and we will keep updating it.