PART 2 INDIE CINEMAS: 10 BEST INDIAN PARALLEL CINEMA

In our Part 2 segment for Indie Cinema we have got you

Powerful, small-budget and independent Indian films received

not just widespread national attention, but also recognition in

international film festivals.

So for the fellow cine lovers, sit back and UNBOLLYWOOD

yourself.

1) Court – Marathi

This courtroom drama directed by Chaitanya Tamhane was an Indian’s official

entry for Oscars. The film follows the trial of an ageing folk singer in a

Sessions Court in Mumbai as he battles charges of abetment of suicide,

because one of his songs might have incited a man to jump into a sewer.

2) Titli — Hindi

First screened at Cannes International Film Festival, this movie went on to

receive lots of acclaim. Kanu Behl’s debut feature is about a family, which you

haven’t seen in Bollywood before. It’s the polar opposite of the happy, shiny

creatures by the Barjatya-Johar brand of cinema. This family is in Carjacking

business and wants the youngest member Titli to join the same. However, he

has other plans. He finds an unlikely ally in Neelu, the woman they've

arranged for him to marry.

3) Ship of Theseus- Hindi

After three years in development, the film premiered at the 2012 Toronto

International Film Festival, where it received great critical acclaim. Ship of

Theseus tells three stories one after another. The first stars a blind

photographer. The hero of the second story is a monk. The last story is about a

young man whose profession watching the movement of stocks on his laptop.

The three characters have one trait in common — they've all had or need an

organ transplant.

4) Lucia- Kannada

This Kannada psychological thriller revolves around a man suffering from

insomnia is tricked into buying a drug, Lucia, that makes his desires come true

in his dreams, blurring the line between fantasy and reality.

5) Sulemani Keeda- Hindi

This is a Bromantic Comedy about two struggling writers who peddle their

mediocre screenplay, "Sulemani Keeda & quot; in Bollywood. When one of them falls

in love with a bohemian photographer who is leaving India in three days, he is

faced with a choice- whether to co-write a film he doesn't believe in or woo

the girl he has fallen in love with.

6) Umrika — Hindi

This film premiered at the Sundance Festival and bagged the prestigious

World Cinema Dramatic Audience award. Hilarious and emotional at certain

parts, the movie is about a missing brother, letters of his wonderful life in

America, and the quest for the truth.

7) Parched-Hindi

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2015. Set in the

backdrop of Gujarat’s rural landscape, it has three women as protagonists.

The women defy conventional norms the entire movie trying to question

patriarchy at every step.

8) Masaan (Fly Away Solo) — Hindi

The film has two parallel stories- that of Devi(Richa Chadda) whose

reputation is at stake when she is found in a hotel room having sex with a man

by the police, and that of Deepak, a Dalit corpse-burner, who falls in love with

a Brahmin girl. The way it handles the sensitive topics of both gender and

caste is remarkable, moving and often heart breakingly beautiful.

9) Kshay-Hindi

The film premiered on 8 October 2011 at the Chicago International Film

Festival. Kshay is a 2012 black-and- white independent Indian psychological

drama film. The story is of an Indian middle class housewife, who is infatuated

with a pricey monument of Goddess Laxmi and is firmed to own it.

10) Flimistaan-Hindi

Sunny, an assistant film director in Mumbai, aspires to become a superstar.

While working with an American crew, he is mistakenly kidnapped by an

Islamic terrorist group. Cinema comes to his rescue.