Information Your favourite Indian films

[elanor]

Just to open this forum.
Please add your favourite Indian films.


My taste is rather weird. Here are those films from my top favourites I would call best, ordered by year:
Pather Panchali (1955) - Satyajit Ray
IMO a must-see classic, beautiful and poetic
Apur Sansar (1959) The World of Apu - Satyajit Ray
simply classic, third part of the Apu trilogy
Bandit Queen (1994) - Shekhar Kapur
intense and gripping, based on a true female life
Theeviravaathi: The Terrorist (1998) - Santosh Sivan
a beautiful film and a haunting story, probably the one modern film most agreeable to western tastes from my list
Asoka (2001) - Santosh Sivan
my favourite film worldwide, caters just to all my preferences, I like the story, the visualisation, the editing, the acting, the casting, the sets, the production values, the fight and war choreographies
Satta (2003) - Madhur Bhandarkar
for me the best Indian film about politicians as gangsters

there is one exception in my Indian favourites, a film not even I would call "best":
Koyla (1997) - Rakesh Roshan
noone on the Indian cinema board liked it much, it is campy, but for me it has a gripping story, a lot of beautiful pictures, and lots of good Bollywood dance-songs


As I have only very few Indian top favourites, now my next rung:
Aparajito (1956) - Satyajit Ray
second part of the Apu trilogy
Do Ankhen Barah Haath (1957) - V. Shantaram
a nice classic, good story, good visualisations
Pyaasa (1957) - Guru Dutt
a nice classic, good story, good visualisations
Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) - Guru Dutt
a nice classic, good story, good visualisations
Company (2002) - Ram Gopal Varma
one of the best Indian gangster films, well made, good acting

Much to the chagrin of many on the IMDb Indian Cinema board my top favourite film of all is Asoka (2001).
My reasons:
1. Santosh Sivan is one of my favourite directors and my top favourite cinematographer.
2. Asoka encases all what I like about Bollywood and enhances it by its artfilm characteristics.
3. I have a huge preference for historical films. Asoka caters perfectly to my preferences, so perfectly that it is my top favourite film. Due to its modern and IMO better cinematography it is surpassing the historical films by Eisenstein and Kurosawa in my frame of reference.
4. The soundtrack (songs and score) is one of my top favourites.
5. I have a huge liking for Bollywood dance-songs. The ones in Asoka belong to the best I've seen and they further the story.
6. I like the story, the visualisation, the editing, the acting, the casting, the sets, the production values, the fight and war choreographies.

 

[manel8]

I have a soft spot for Asoka, first movie from India I ever watched. Many others came later thanks to it.

I really like Ghare-Baire, I think maybe being my favourite so far, although tons of them I have not watched yet, like some of the ones you mention. I will look for them (that is what I liked the most about the boards, finding out new movies thanks to other users).

 

[elanor]

I really like Ghare-Baire, I think maybe being my favourite so far

Hi manel8! I put your favourite Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World (1984)) on my IMDb watchlist. I never heard of it before. But since Satyajit Ray is one of my favourite directors I plan to watch it. I didn't find it on Amazon, but on youtube it's available with English subtitles. Thanks for the recommendation.

 

[manel8]

Hope you can find it, I watched it some years ago.

Among yours there are a few truly classic movies I have not watched yet, but they are on my list :)

 

[clayton-12]

I watch way too few Indian movies to be able to compile a list of favourites - my list of everything I watched over the last two years was extremely large by my standards, but still can be counted on one hand (without using a thumb):

The Coward was definitely the pick of the bunch, actually the only Satyajit Ray film I've watched.
The Lunchbox - I'm a sucker for films that revolve around the joy of cooking, and this didn't disappoint.
English Vinglish was, well, pleasant enough but a pretty disposable commodity
Raman Raghav 2.0 has to take the award for 2016's most amoral film, narrowly edging out the Japanese Himeanole in the nastiness stakes. Nawazuddin Siddiqui was absolutely electrifying - I was floored to realise that it was same actor that played the fresh faced trainee in The Lunchbox.

 

[BradyBunchFan]

Slumdog Millionaire

 

[elanor]

Slumdog Millionaire

Actually I would not call Slumdog Millionaire an Indian film. IMO it's a British film based on an Indian book.

IMDb says:
Country:
UK | France | USA

 

[mplgmg]

I love Hindi Movies alot and there are great movies . Following are the list of hindi movies which I like a lot

PK (2014)
3 Idiots (2009)
Munna Bhai M.B.B.S (2003)
Hera Pheri( 2000)
Lagaan (2001)
Bhaag Milkha Bhaag (2013)
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander (1992)
Dangal (2016)

most of the these Hindi Movies are performed by my favourit actor Aamir Khan.

 

[elanor]

my favourit actor Aamir Khan

Aamir Khan has a lot of fans. Unfortunately I'm not one of them, so I watch Aamir Khan films only from time to time. PK and Dangal are still on my watch-list (I'm very busily watching Asian films). Hopefully another Aamir Khan fan will chime in.