25 Best Indian Films on Amazon Prime : Summer 2019 List

Amazon Prime has stepped up its game to woo the global Indian audience. Prime is pushing out many Indian movies (all languages) at the same time as their DVD releases and is also beefing up its collection of older Indian movies. This could be a real blow to the pirates.

Indian movie industry - Bollwood together with the regional movie hubs is the largest producer of movies in the world. With the world's largest movie going public, third largest in terms of ticket sales revenue (blame/thank the lowest movie ticket prices in the world) and a huge diaspora spread across the globe, no wonder Amazon is focusing on tapping the Indian audience market.

I have made a list of post-2000s Indian movies which I consider are some of the best Indian movies available on Amazon Prime as of July 2019. I watch movies in four languages mainly as these are the ones I can understand without subtitles, so the movies in these four languages - Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu make up the bulk of my list. I have watched every one of films in the list below and deem them immensely watchable.

Virus, Malayalam film by Aashiq Abu (2019) is a fictionalized account based on true events about the outbreak of Nipah virus epidemic in the southern Indian state of Kerala. (Language: Malayalam)

Kumbalangi Nights (2019) a story about a dysfunctional family of four brothers in a small island hamlet of Kumbalangi, Kerala.(Language: Malayalam)

Premam by Alphonse Puthren (2016)is a film exploring the phases of love in the life of a young man, one of the highest grossing Malayalam movies of all time. (Language: Malayalam)

Bangalore Days (2014) : The original Malayalam hit about the lives of three cousins in the city of Bangalore, directed by Anjali Menon. It went on to be remade in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi (under production.) (Language: Malayalam)

Sapthamashree Thaskara (2014) : A Malayalam heist movie about seven thieves directed by Anil Radhakrishna Menon. (Language : Malayalam)

Dil Chahta Hai : A bro movie, a Bollywood comedy about 4 young men, could be seen as the part one of the next movie in the list, Dil Dhadkane Do (Language: Hindi)

Dil Dhadkane Do (2015): A Bollywood road trip movie by Zoya Akhtar. A good intro to contemporary Bollywood. (Language: Hindi)

Gully Boy : India's version of Eminem's 8 Mile. (Language: Hindi)

3 Idiots (2009): A Bollywood comedy. (Language: Hindi)

Chak De India (2007): A well directed and scripted Bollywood sports movie. The only big name in this movie is Bollywood super star, Shahrukh Khan in a very different-than-his-usual avatar. (Language: Hindi)

Kapoor and Sons (2016): Family drama directed by Shakun Batra (Language: Hindi)

Newton (2017) : A little peak into the working of how elections are run in the world's largest democracy through the eyes of Newton Kumar, a feature film directed by Amit Masurkar. (Language: Hindi)

Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year (2009) : India's Office Space? Directed by Shimit Amin, starring Ranbir Kapoor. (Language: Hindi)

Karthik Calling Karthik (2009) : Psychological drama set in the world of young urban Indian professionals. Not your usual Bollywood movie, infinitely entertaining nevertheless. (Language: Hindi)

A Death in Gunj (2018) : A haunting coming of age story directed by Konkona Sen Sharma. (Language: Hindi)

Talaash (2016) : An excellent Bollywood psychological thriller with top name actors, directed by Reema Kagti. (Language: Hindi)

October (2018): A beautifully melancholic movie about young love, life, loss and acceptance. (Language: Hindi)

Alaipayuthey (2000) : A Tamil romantic drama directed by Maniratnam (Language: Tamil)

Dhruvangal Pathinaru (2016): An offbeat suspense thriller directed by Karthick Naren.(Language: Tamil)

Peranbu (2019): A brilliant film exploring the relationship between a father and his grown-up, disabled daughter. (Language: Tamil)

Pariyeram Perumal B.A B.L (2018): A young man's life in rural TamilNadu as he navigates a caste-stratified society.(Language: Tamil)

Arjun Reddy (2017):Self titled movie about a sexist alpha male character. Was a huge hit in Telugu, remade in Bollywood, a landslide blockbuster there as well. Such movies make you realize that entertainment  has to cater to all types of audience. (Language: Telugu)

Fida (2017): A simple love story, if you want to see a typical South Indian entertainer, this is a good one. (Language: Telugu)

Mahanati (2018) : A biopic about the first South Indian female super star - Savitri. (Language: Telugu)

The Japanese Wife (2018) : Directed by the acclaimed directed Aparna Sen, a beautiful cross-cultural love story.(Language : Bengali)

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Leila : Netflix TV show review

Sometimes the specter of a dystopia is too real and close for comfort. There is no hiding from the fact that we live in portentous times. USA, Russia, China, India, Brazil - the masochistic monarchs (many democratically elected)  who preside over these critical nations of the Earth make me wonder whether we - the human kind, are in the first chapters of a Stephen King horror novel or an Atwoodian dystopia. Wish I had been born a boomer like my parents and done with my time on this planet before whatever Idiocracy that might descend upon us. 

Leila - the Netflix series by Deepa Mehta, is India's take on its dystopian future, life in a pure Hindu utopia - Aryavarta. The production design is commendable considering they didn't construct elaborate sets, rather used what is available along with a smattering of CGI and still came out with a convincing presentation. The Indian utopia/dystopia (depending on which side you are on) in Leila is based on a religion,caste based categorization of the masses.  It has more similarities with Hitlerian version of a pure-bred paradise than the gender based subjugation explored in The Handmaid's Tale. Leila's take, I believe, is more relevant and timely from an Indian (and current global) perspective than the Margaret Atwood's tale of subjugated maids.

Great casting - Huma Qureishi, Siddharth, the lead pair thrown together by circumstance make a powerful impression.  The supporting characters are also well etched out. Leila, got a lot of flak in India for its purported Hindutva bashing. I like to think of it as a possible outcome, an alternative reality that will come into existence if we keep on making bad choices while selecting our leaders. And yes, WATER, like it is shown in Leila, is going to be resource over which future wars will be fought, long as we keep on denying climate change.

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Ishq, Malayalam movie review 2019

Ishq is unsettling. The fine print of its subtitle – ‘not a love story’ warns the audience to get rid of their preconceptions about the title – Ishq (means love or passion), at the opening credits. Even with that ominous heads-up the movie starts off pretty tame with two young lovers – Sachi (Shane Nigam) and Vasudha (Ann Sheetal) sneaking texts and phone calls as they carry on their semi-long distance relationship.

The film makers have boldly attempted to address the issue of moral policing prevalent in every-town, India. In a society and culture still squirming and yearning to be free from under years of traditions, patriarchy and conventions, Ishq is a young couple’s encounter with this formidable wall and its aftershocks.

Shane Nigam has been getting a lot of tortured young hero roles – from Kismath and Eeda, to Kumbalangi Nights and Ishq. He is inching closer to being typecast with every new movie. Maybe it is his vulnerable, barely legal looks with a hint of rebellion, that leads to these type of roles land on his plate. This is wishing him he choose wisely as he goes forward.

Ann Sheetal, Shine Tom Chacko and Leona Lishoy have essayed their roles brilliantly. It was harrowing to watch the incident which became the crux of the movie without reaching for the remote. The torture the lead couple was undergoing was palpable. Good work director - Anuraj Manohar, script writer (Ratheesh Ravi) and editor (Kiran Das)! These central moments along with the ending left me a bit disturbed. The creeps-in-the-car scenes unsettled me with their sheer terror that was so subtly executed. The climax was upsetting because this was not the triumph of feminism I had wished to see. But then again had the hero turned into a feminist instead of the heroine, where is the shock factor, right?

BTW Anuraj Manohar, why the name Ishq? This is the third movie by the name of Ishq that I have seen in the last 25 years albeit they were all in different languages. Love/Ishq transcends languages, eh?

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The JFK Enigma and the media products it spawned

John F. Kennedy was fascinating in his death as he was in his life. The mystery of his assassination continues spawning new stories, podcasts, books, movies and keeps the midnight oil burning for thousands of conspiracy theorists. Everyone, especially if you live in the United States, gets lost in the fog of Kennedy mystery, at least once. If you get hooked, there is no telling that the unsolved mystery of the late President's death won't comeback to haunt you on an idle Saturday afternoon.

I have been to Dealey Plaza in Dallas once. The grassy knoll, the brick buildings flanking it and the smooth curve of the black top had seemed to me like a serene hideaway tucked just beyond the reach of urban throes. It was hard to visualize a Presidential assassination happening there.

With the recent release of all confidential JFK files, which according to our current President should put all JFK conspiracies to rest, there is more attention on the case which never left America's consciousness. I did some reading and watching related to JFK assassination and here are my notes.

Norman Mailer's Oswald's Tale is a work of gargantuan proportions covering Lee Harvey Oswald's life - Kennedy's purported killer, in two separate sections - Oswald in Minsk and Oswald in America. Mailer went back to Russia in early 90s after Gorbachev, Perestroika and Glasnost made landfall in USSR and he was able to access a lot of information than before and discuss with 'newly talkative' people about Oswald's time in Russia. In the end it tows the Warren Commission line that Oswald was a disillusioned loner who acted alone. But Mailer never intended his book to solve the mystery of Kennedy's assassination, his work was a study about the evolution of the purported killer - Lee Harvey Oswald.

Kevin Costner as Jim Garrison in JFK

JFK, the Oliver Stone movie, which I re-watched recently provides a believable counter point to Warren Commission's bureaucratic fact finding mission. It brings out the discrepancies in the Warren Commission findings and showcases New Orlean's District Attorney Jim Garrison's work trying to unravel the Kennedy assassination mystery.

Garrison might have been one of the few true and honest investigators of this case for which he became a victim of a smear campaign, probably paid for by the CIA. But to my relief, Jim Garrison re-emerges victorious on the other side after all the plots to bring him down fizzle out. This led me to the best seller he authored which became one of the books on which Stone's JFK is based on - On the Trail of Assassins (1988). The other work that provides material for JFK, the movie is CrossFire : The plot that killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs.

Killing Kennedy is another movie starring Rob Lowe as JFK. Lowe's resemblance to Kennedy in the movie is uncanny, and in many places he appears more handsome than JFK. Nothing sensational about the movie, it is built up on the single shooter theory as is depicted in U.S. history books.

11/22/63 by Stephen King. King, one of the best writers practicing the art of fiction in our age could not stay away from the JFK charisma either. His novel, 11/22/63 is a fictional work of epic proportions where the protagonist (from Maine, of course) gets pulled into the JFK assassination through a time travel vortex. I thoroughly enjoyed the ride. But do not read or watch 11/22/63 (Hulu has come out a TV series of the same name) to provide a new and reasonable theory that will put an end to all other conspiracy theories. King's work agrees with Warren Commission findings of Lee Harvey Oswald being the sole assassin of Kennedy and builds the story around the premise of trying to stop Oswald.

To round things off I listened to Conspiracy Theories podcast and Gone podcast from Parcast Network. The podcast revealed further botch-ups that happened after Kennedy was assassinated - how rules were broken by his staffers taking his body for post mortem back to Washington, when as per the rule it should have been done at the hospital in Dallas where he was taken to after he was shot and how his post mortem was performed a pathologist, who has never done any post-mortems before?! This is the American president we are talking about, how could this happen to such an eminent figure ? In the movie JFK I remember one character saying, if they could kill Kennedy, what are you and me to them? Then the original post mortem notes were destroyed soon after they were written and was never found again including Kennedy's brain which disappeared after the post mortem. The most crucial piece of evidence that Kennedy's body could provide, his brain where those fatal bullets struck, disappeared under high security. WTH?!?

Robert Kennedy's assassination by Sirhan Sirhan (another pawn) five years later in 1968 is as mysterious and unsolved as his elder brother's. It is as if someone at the top was bent on removing the Kennedy 'contagion'. RFK, I think was the brainy brother, JFK being the handsome one. In an alternate reality where both Kennedy brothers are alive, I wonder what it would be like. In 11/22/63 Stephen King paints a discouraging picture of this parallel universe if it ever existed.

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