The best Indian film according to you

Exactly what the title says.

Very, very hard to just name one.


Still it has to be Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali.

Well again best is relative. But Apu trilogy is widely regarded as diamond in the crown of Indian Cinema. And it definitely deserves to be. But there are other Ray movies which are brilliant. Agantuk (1991), does come to mind. The Cloud-Capped Star (1960) and Reason, Debate and a Story (1974) by Ritwick Ghatak is awesome too.



A lot of Indian movies gets lost because so many languages exist in the same country, and all of them more or less have to a certain degree have their own movie industry. So its when it comes to India, mentioning the language is a better option rather than the country.


As you would notice, all of the movies I mentioned are of Bengali language. There are so many others languages, its hard to even compile a list.

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My Favorite Films

Slumdog was pretty good

That is a Hollywood flick by the way.

Pather Panchali.

Absolute pile of dog ****, that did the usual glorification of poverty porn for the West.

Also, it wasn't really an Indian film.

The only good thing about it was that A R Rahman won two Oscars. The man is a genius.

Have to admit I have not seen too many but this:



was pretty good.

I haven't seen any classic Indian films other than Pather Panchali (which I love), so recommendations are certainly welcome. India is a pretty big blind spot for me.

As for some modern Indian films I saw, I enjoyed Dangal, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, and PK to varying degrees, with Dangal being my favorite.

My experience with Indian/Bollywood films is close to none, but every time the topic comes up, I feel the need to pimp The Lunchbox. Delightful movie.

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I'm going to really step out of the box here and say Pather Panchali.

But I also have to put in a strong word for Charulata, which I loved.

Hello, new person here.


My favourite would be Sholay, which for those who haven't seen it is like a Bollywood equivalent of a spaghetti western and packs in everything exciting about commercial Indian cinema into one movie. It's four hours long, but wildly entertaining the entire time.


Satyajit Ray is great. My favourite from him would be either The Music Room or The Big City, the latter of which best exemplifies what I find to be his most appealing qualities (the even-handedness and the balance of gentle, knowing humour with delicately handled serious content).


I grew up to an extent with Bollywood but not so much the other regional cinemas, and even then I haven't been following it that closely over the years, so I have my share of glaring blind spots despite having a decent familiarity with a large chunk of mainstream Indian cinema. Out of recent films, Gangs of Wasseypur, a five-hour multigenerational gangster epic, is my favourite and one I think might be an easy sell to cinephiles not familiar with Indian cinema given the way it uses its flamboyant, consciously cinematic style as self-commentary. (Last I saw, Netflix had it broken up into a miniseries, which might make the length more digestible.)

Slumdog Millionaire It's awesome and inspiring

You all should also check out Shyam Benegal. His works are amazing.

Also, do remember that India has 1000+ languages, thousands of cultures and ethnicities, and multiple film industries. Not just Bollywood, and Ray.

You can have all the languages, but Ray will be Ray. He is on another level when it comes to telling a story. Benegal's earlier works were good. The newer ones were just meh.

If I look at the current state of Indian cinema, which I do watch from time to time, Bengali and Malayalam are the ones I go for. And the occasional Assamese stuff.

Bet you watched Aamis. I absolutely loved it. So much so, that I watch 'that food sequence' for fun from time to time. Also, the music was melodious.


To add to Bengali and Malayalam, Marathi movies are also way better and bolder than Bollywood.



Also, speaking of filmmakers, I would add Hrishkesh Mukherjee. He knew how to portray human emotions brilliantly.


Of the new ones, Vikramaditya Motwane is just special.

I have heard of Aamis. Could not find any sources here in the US. Not even via backdoor channels, if you know what I mean. Will get to it in due time.

It's only available on moviesaints dot com. Paid 99 Rs for it (which would be 1.30 dollars for ya). Totally worth it. Cheaper than going to the movies.


I am kinda shocked that Netflix didn't take this movie. It would be perfect for them.

Okay. Will give it a shot there!