12 Seriously Underrated Films That You Should Totally Watch If You Haven't Already

Feeling cinephilish right now. Might exist like a functional member of society later.

1. The Great Indian Kitchen

Amazon Prime Video

A dancer is married off to a teacher whose family's traditional values expect women to be submissive. Our dancer protagonist is not supposed to have a life beyond taking care of her husband's family. While cooking and cleaning, she is always on her toes and barely has time to breathe. Tired of a marriage where her identity is getting lost, she takes matters into her own hands.

2. The Little Hours

StarStream Media

The story revolves around three nuns — Alessandra, Ginerva, and Fernanda. From harassing a friendly gardener to fraternising with witches, they break every possible rule of the convent they were unwillingly a part of.  Father Tommasso, who is supposed to lead them, doesn't occupy a moral high ground either. The characters together are chaos personified and that's what keeps the plot of this movie rolling!

3. Tokyo Godfathers

Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan

One Christmas Eve, three homeless people — Gin, Hana, and Miyuki, discover an abandoned newborn baby. After many disagreements, they decide to embark on a journey to return the baby to her mother. Come rain or shine, nothing can deter them from ensuring that the child reaches her mother safely. While trying to find her home, they will also forge an unconventional friendship and make a home out of each other.

4. Peepli Live

Aamir Khan Productions

In the village of Peepli lives a poor farmer named Natha with his family. They are barely making ends meet and survival seems impossible on most days. Encouraged by his brother, Natha is ready to die by suicide. They believe this will help secure a loan waiver and keep his family from going homeless. However, news channels and politicians lap this news up, scheming to make him a prop in their game of ascension.

5. Rim of the World

Wonderland Sound and Vision

Alex, a misanthrope, reluctantly attends a summer camp called "Rim of the World". He is still coping with the loss of his father and doesn't have much interest in socialising. In the summer camp, he meets Zhen Zehn, Dariush, and Gabriel and as the kids are busy fighting their internal demons, they are faced with an alien invasion. The task of saving the world is on them.

6. The Peanut Butter Falcon

Armory Films

Zak, a young man with Down syndrome, escapes from a state-run care facility with the dream of becoming a wrestler. He meets Tyler, who is also on the run, and the two quickly become friends. They set out on a journey to North Carolina, where Zak's dream wrestling school is located. Later, Zak's caretaker at the nursing home, Eleanor, will also join them and the three will share a heartwarming friendship.

7. Eeb Allay Ooo!

NAMA Productions

Dreaming of financial stability and a better future, Anjani comes to Delhi and stays with his pregnant sister and her husband. He lands a job as a monkey repeller but his heart is not into it. The sounds he needs to make to drive away the monkeys are not something he is adept at and his despair amplifies every day. A nuanced take on the working class lifestyle, this film sheds light on the side-effects of the human condition.

8. The Long Goodbye

Redinho

A South Asian family in suburban London is preparing for a wedding. Suddenly, there are right-wing extremists at their house, holding them at gunpoint. Riz Ahmed's short film, The Long Goodbye, is a powerful and heart-wrenching story that makes one question the ways of the world. The bigotry this particular family is subjected to is not an isolated incident and Ahmed urges us to confront our reality.

9. A Death in the Gunj

MacGuffin Pictures

Shutu arrives at his cousin, Nandu's parents' house for a vacation. He wishes to escape his harrowing reality and his failing grades for a while. But Nandu, his family, and their friends make it incredibly difficult for him to have fun as they are constantly playing pranks on him. Sensitive and sweet, Shutu doesn't know whom to turn to and therefore, ends up making a drastic decision.

10. Qarib Qarib Singlle

Zee Studios

Widowed Jaya meets Yogi on a dating app. Yogi helps her get rid of the weird message senders she has come across. When he tells her that his three ex-girlfriends are still yearning for him, Jaya challenges him and asks him to arrange for a meeting so that she can judge the truth for herself. Together they travel across India, meeting his former lovers to whom Jaya is introduced to as his cousin. As bizarre as the start of their love story sounds, it doesn't take them long to fall for each other.

11. I Am Kalam

Smile Foundation

Chotu wants to go to school so that someday he can become like (former) President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. But owing to his financially disadvantaged family background, he has to start working at a very young age. This film draws attention to how, even in the twenty-first century, access to education is still a luxury and not a right. However, despite initial impediments, Chotu’s dreams cannot be thwarted for long, as he gets by with a little assistance from the universe.   

12. The Squid and the Whale

Samuel Goldwyn Films

Nothing in the world hurts more than having parents who are on the verge of a divorce. And nobody knows that better than Frank and Walt. For some time, the boys feel like they have lost control over their lives. Though as the movie progresses, they understand that life is neither beautiful nor damned, but rather a bunch of teachable moments that the passage of time always makes bearable.