Drama
Agantuk/1991/Bengali
FiC Rating 5/5
Dir: Satyajit Ray
Why FiC recommends?
1. Satyajit Ray’s oeuvre of his four decades forms a complete circle with this film drafting a perfect epilogue.
2. Web of skeptisism, caution spreads up when the family receives the letter from a far and almost forgotten uncle about his arrival to their house for few days stay, but how things change as everyone spend good time with him forms the story.
3. It has some very interesting debates and discussions that lights up the thoughts and mirrors (mock?) the current human settings.
Piravi/1989/Malayalam
FiC Rating 5/5
Dir: Shaji N. Karun
Why FiC recommends?
1) A melancholic story that lay a ladder into the mind of aged father who is in midst of his dolour and longingness of his demised son and how he gradually settles the terms with the reality or reality becomes just as far as his son? forms the story.
2) Meanwhile also narrates the story of a sister who holds the truth of her brother and has no heart to express same to her father.
3) Definetly to be watched for Premji and Archana’s portrayal of father and daughter and the way the movie bulids an atmosphere of desolation.
Blue Velvet/1986/English
FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: David Lynch
Why FiC recommends?
1) Eerie, but no horror; Bizarre, but not absurd; repulsive, but sticky; erotic, but no porn.
2) Blue velvet could serve as a classic start for the cine-buffs who want to explore David Lynch’s filmography. Elements of absurdity here is quite balanced, it’s not too much – not too less.
Astu – So Be It/2013/Marathi
FiC Rating: 3.5/5
Dir: Sumitra Bhave, Sunil Sukthankar
Why FiC recommends?
1) A poetic movie around a retired professor who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.
2) ‘Astu’, through its heart touching storyline, establishes an important aspect of the need of human (family) interaction for the elderly people.
Shahid/2012/Hindi
FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Hansal Mehta
Why FiC recommends?
1) Shahid is a biographical drama based on the life of Shahid Azmi, a lawyer and human rights activist who was behind the acquittals of several falsely implicated.
2) There is no over-dramatization anywhere in Shahid; even the courtroom scenes are very realistically shown.
3) With this film the director Hansal Mehta made a solid comeback to Bollywood.
Jallikattu/2019/Malayalam
FiC Rating: 4/5
Dir: Lijo Jose Pellissery
Why FiC recommends?
1) Jallikattu isn’t an unusual movie just for the sake of it. On the outset it may look like just another ambitious visual narration of a long-running political situation in few southern states of India. But Jallikattu is about many more things – animal politics, madness of masculinity, human monstrosity and more.
2) With each movie, Lijo Jose is just raising the expectations on his movies and Jallikattu is the latest addition to it.
3) Does that rouge buffalo on the run in this movie an allegory for the ‘system/society on the run’ in India? quite possible!
A Summer at Grandpa’s/1984/Taiwanese
FiC Rating: 4.25/5
Dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Why FiC Recommends?
1)Beautiful ode to nostalgia in association with time spent in Grand parent’s place, a country side town, a dip in the stream, country game with the local folks.
2)Coming of age drama that unravels the side of transition where the innocence slowly takes the shape of maturity and laying foundation for days to come.
3)It connects its viewers and stands very much relatable irrespective of cultural or geographical canvas.
The Wild Pear Tree/2018/Turkish
FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Why FiC Recommends?
1)Balad of self discovery and identifying ones worth as the journey goes on, father and son feud, urge to make a mark, identifying oneself in a societal dias, journey covers various layers of metamorphosis of a literature graduate who is trying to get his first book published.
2)Beautiful documentation of Turkish town that syncs well with the mood of the movie flow, point highlighted because Ceylan filmographs are also known for landscapes.
3)Its a delicate take on character’s conflict of choice who is valiant in surface meanwhile also representing Turkish unemployed mass.
Inland Empire/2006/English
FiC Rating: 4.5/5
Dir: David Lynch
Why FiC recommends?
1) A three hours long psychotropic meditation, where you fail to comprehend it as a whole but you learn that something beautiful happening there which makes you stick to the screens
2) Like Mulholland Dr., there’s Hollywood here too (or I think it is about Hollywood) but there are other things which pop up here but God knows why! But all makes sense somehow, including those animals that talk in this film remain with you, like forever!
3)Is it the trippiest film by the director? Possibly ‘yes’!
11 Flowers/2011/China
FiC Rating 4/5
Dir: Wang Xiaoshuai
Why FiC Recommends?
1) 11 Flowers is a delicate and intimate look at childhood during the tail end of Cultural Revolution. There’s oppression, murder mystery, Labor exploitation and so many examples of authoritarian sovereignty over individual rights but it is marinated in innocence and nostalgia, the context of Cultural Revolution is so faint that it’s relevance only comes to light once it trespasses into the children’s small world.
2) Xiaoshuai’s discourse without analyzing anything strolls through history as perceived by a child, the era of political persecution and misdeeds fails to weigh down the carefree and joyous spirit of childhood.
3) Just like the children Xiaoshuai filters out the disturbances and remains willfully ignorant about the topological shift that China was going through.
Shanghai Dreams/2005/China
FiC Rating 3.5/5
Dir: Wang Xiaoshuai
Why FiC Recommends?
1) Enthusiastically chronicles individual struggle and defiance to fit in a collapsing universe during the Cultural Revolution at it’s peak and reckons with the collective hardships of his country.
2) Shanghai Dreams is a poignant and poetic musing over the hardships of the older generation to embrace a new reality forgetting their roots as well as the hardships of the younger generation whose dreams and ambitions get butchered by a crumbling social order.
3) The individual agonizing existence mingles with the country’s comprehensive grief.
Mulholland Drive/2001/English
FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: David Lynch
Why FiC recommends?
1) Hardcore David Lynch fans might not consider Mulholland Drive to be his best creation. But this film brought the special genre psycho-sexual surrealism to the mainstream.
2) The mysterious relationship between Rita and Betty adds on to the delight of witnessing seemingly unconnected and surreal chain of events.
3) Even though understanding Mulholland Drive in the first (first few?!) watch is almost impossible, an involved viewer can sense that the film as a whole is trying to address something around the self-indulgent pop culture that has creeped into (and spoiling?) the Hollywood system.
Shatranj Ke Khilari /1977/Hindi & Urdu
FiC Rating 5/5
Dir: Satyajit Ray
Why FiC recommends?
1) Ray’s first Hindi language movie that tells the story of two wealthy men immersed in the play of chess that they become numb and heedless about the happenning in their surrounding.
2) Undoubtedly a timeless classic for Ray’s formidable deftness for the pick of subject which remains relevant in any timeline its watched.
3) This film credits some big names in performance space like Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey, Shabana Azmi, Amjad Khan meets the right chord with the viewer.
Aparajito/1956/Bengali
FiC Rating 5/5
Dir: Satyajit Ray
Why FiC recommends?
1) Second instalment from Ray’s Apu trilogy, this is the continuation of Apu’s saga from where Pather Panchali ends, rightly could be called as India’s best coming of age narrative.
2) The way it penetrates the psyche of an adolescent and slowly unsnarls the vulnerability, seek for stability and identity through the eyes of Apu is the journey to experience.
3) Undoubtedly one of the best work from the Master who is known for his prestigious adroitness in bringing ordinary life and people onscreen.
4) Music by Ravi Shankar
Ganashatru/1989/Bengali
FiC Rating 5/5
Dir: Satyajit Ray
Why FiC recommends?
1) When Ray faced with harsh criticism for his work ‘Devi’ he answered the public outcry through Indian adaptation of “An Enemy of the People”
2) Brilliant in its depiction of the phrase “Religion is an opium of the people”
3) This piece of art paired up with some brilliant performance by Soumitra Chatterjee, Dhritiman Chatterjee and Mamata Shankar makes an exemplary watch.
Nayak /1966/Bengali
FiC Rating 5/5
Dir: Satyajit Ray
Why FiC recommends?
1) One of the original screenplay written by Ray himself narrating the snippet from the life of a person who is an actor by profession.
2) Very effortlessley but delicately divulges the layer of an actor’s potrait till the point where everything is laid bare.
3) Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore
Gangs of Wasseypur/2012/Hindi
FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: Anurag Kashyap
Why FiC recommends?
(note: This FiC comment is on the world release of the film which combined both Part 1 & 2 with a total runtime of 5hr 21min)
1) This epic crime saga running across over seven decades and three generations is one of its kind in many ways. Although many filmbuffs tend to call it as Indian version of ‘Godfather’, it is more than that; even though crime sits at the center of the story there is abundance of reinvented sense of humor, satire, daring political comments and refreshing and well suited music throughout the length.
2) When the film ends it fills in a weird feeling of emptiness; by then you would understand ‘betrayal follows crime and both are part of a vicious cycle’
3) It also paved way to lot of super-talented actors towards Indian cinema circuit (just have a look at the cast!)
Dev.D/2009/Hindi
FiC Rating: 5/5
Dir: Anurag Kashyap
Why FiC recommends?
1) DevD can be considered as one of the major spotlights in contemporary Indian cinema. When regular Bollywood films were becoming too filmsy and parallel waves were not even trying to reach to masses, DevD came.
2) Dev (performed by Abhay Deol) is not a typical Bollywood hero with all God like qualities; he is just as confused as most of us are, but with a difference – he is weirdly expressive, self-destructive and a drug addict without guilt.
3) The triangular (love?) story of Dev-Paro-Leni is a difficult yet delightful watch.
4) Amit Trivedi deserves a special mention for his brilliant music composition that gels so well with the flow of the story and covers so many genres including rock and jazz.
After the Storm/2016/Japanese
FiC Rating 4.5/5
Dir: Hirokazu Koreeda
Why FiC recommends?
1) “Simplicity” is the one word review for this movie
2) Its a soft, breezy story of the character and his perseverance that has lost its tenacity and the way world around him has started to look at his deeds.
3) “Are you who you wanted to be?” – “I am not who I wanted to be YET” – After the Storm