Here Are 17 Excellent Regional Indian Movies You Can Watch On Netflix

Your movie nights are sorted for a few weeks.

1. Shonar Pahar (2018)

GreenTouch Entertainment

Upama is an independent, 72-year-old retired school teacher, who lives alone after being abandoned by her only son, Soumya and his wife, Moumita. Upama comes across Rajdeep, who runs a local NGO for orphaned children, and befriends a 7-year-old orphan boy named Bitlu. This unlikely friendship causes both Upama and Soumya to examine their strained relationship with each other.

Language: Bengali

Watch On: Netflix

2. Visaranai (2015)

Wunderbar Films

Pandi, Murugan, Afzal, and Kumar are homeless Tamil labourers who work in a provision store in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. The lives of these four migrant labourers take a turn when they are detained by the local state police and tortured brutally in police lock-up for a crime that they have not committed. Visaranai tells a gripping, powerful tale of how the powerless are made scapegoats and exploited for their weaknesses in a highly corrupted system.

Language: Tamil

Watch On: Netflix

3. Village Rockstars (2017)

Flying River Films

Single-handedly written, produced, edited, and directed by Rima Das, Village Rockstars tells the story of Dhunu, a 10-year-old girl from a small village in Assam, who dreams of owning a guitar and forming her own rock band. The movie follows her journey as she tries to defy the odds that life throws at her while also fighting against the societal prejudices and the gender bias that she faces.

Language: Assamese

Watch On: Netflix

4. Cycle (2017)

Happy Mind Entertainment Pvt. Ltd

Set in 1948, Cycle revolves around Keshav, a doctor and astrologer from Konkan, who sets out in search of his most prized possession — a yellow bicycle which he inherited from his grandfather — after two thieves break into his house and steal this bicycle to escape. It is a simple, comical, feel-good movie with delightful visuals of the beautiful Konkan landscapes.

Language: Marathi

Watch On: Netflix

5. C/o Kancharapalem (2018)

Suresh Productions

Set in the small town of Kancharapalem, this movie focuses on four love stories that span across different ages, religion, caste, and class. It is a beautifully narrated tale that portrays all these different relationships in an authentic yet heart-warming way.

Language: Telugu

Watch On: Netflix

6. Thithi (2015)

Maxmedia

In a remote village in Karnataka, three generations of sons come together for the final funeral ceremony of Century Gowda, the oldest man in their clan. Thithi is about how these three men react to his death in three different ways resulting in a bittersweet comedy. Century Gowda's son Gaddappa is free-spirited; his grandson, Thammanna, is filled with greed and plots to illegally sell the dead man's property; and his great-grandson, Abhi, is filled with lust and shrugs his responsibilities to pursue a girl.

Language: Kannada

Watch On: Netflix

7. Njan Prakashan (2018)

Full Moon Cinema

Njan Prakashan is a comedy that revolves around Prakashan, a qualified nurse, whose ambition was to become a doctor. He dislikes the nursing profession because of its pay and thankless nature and avoids it. However, he has an ambition of a lavish life and longs to live in a foreign country. In order to do so, he tries to scam his ex-girlfriend in the hopes of marrying a foreign citizen and acquiring a family visa.

Language: Malayalam

Watch On: Netflix

8. Dhh (2017)

Amdavad Films

Gungun, Bajrang, and Vakil are three failing students who skip school and go to a nearby town to watch a magic show of their favourite magician, Surya Samrat (played by Naseeruddin Shah). The three friends write to the magician asking him to use his magical abilities to help them pass their exams. The magician replies and hilarity ensues.

Language: Gujarati

Watch On: Netflix

9. Asees (2018)

Navroz Gurbaz Entertainment

This 2018 movie is an emotional drama that shows the bond between a mother and son. Asees is the only child out of five children who shares a loving relationship with his mom. His siblings' connection with their mother, on the other hand, is only through her property. The story takes a turn when the village panchayat settles a dispute amongst the siblings and divides the family property.

Language: Punjabi

Watch On: Netflix

10. Mayurakshi (2017)

Friend's Communication

This 2017 film explores the relationship between Sushovan, a retired 84-year-old history professor who starts showing symptoms of dementia and cognitive dysfunction, and his middle-aged son Aryanil. When Aryanil returns from Chicago to visit his ailing father, the housekeeper informs him that his father has been asking for someone named Mayurakshi, which further leads to new discoveries.

Language: Bengali

Watch On: Netflix

11. Merku Thodarchi Malai (2018)

Dream Tree Film Productions

Rengasamy is a daily wage labourer who resides on the borders of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. He aims to own a piece of land and live off farming. The plot follows Rengasamy and the people around him as their lives get complicated due to political corruption.

Language: Tamil

Watch On: Netflix

12. Bulbul Can Sing (2018)

Flying River Films

Rima Das' Bulbul Can Sing is a coming-of-age tale about Bulbul and her two best friends, Bonny and Suman, who are exploring their sexual identities and find themselves at odds as they try to break free from the gender norms dictated by the society in their small village in Assam. As the three friends are rocked by tragedy, Bulbul must find her own voice and sing.

Language: Assamese

Watch On: Netflix

13. Killa (2014)

Jar Pictures

11-year-old Chinmay Kale is in the seventh grade and has just lost his dad. He moves to a small town from the city of Pune where his mother Aruna, a government official, has been posted for a year. Killa is a simple yet poignant tale about how Chinmay adapts and copes with his new life and new school that is far different from what he's used to.

Language: Marathi

Watch On: Netflix

14. Mallesham (2019)

Suresh Productions

Mallesham is a biopic of Padma Shri winner Chintakindi Mallesham, who invented the Asu machine that revolutionized the weaving industry. Mallesham drops out of school after the seventh grade to help his father out and grows up watching his mother and a lot of other women in his village suffer from gruelling working conditions, which propel him to come up with the Asu machine.

Language: Telugu

Watch On: Netflix

15. Nathicharami (2018)

Tejaswini Enterprises

Starring Sruthi Hariharan as the main protagonist, Nathicharami is about Gowri, a widow, who is struggling to move on and cope with the loss of her husband. She is faced with a dilemma — a choice between her sexual desires or her desire to remain faithful to her deceased husband. Gowri's dilemma brings to light how women's sexual desires are a taboo and frowned upon by the Indian society.

Language: Kannada

Watch On: Netflix

16. Vikruthi (2019)

Century Films

Eldho and Elsy, a married couple, have hearing and speech disability. Their life changes when a stranger posts a picture of Eldho online labelling him a drunkard, having mistaken him for one. The picture goes viral and soon he is recognized as the "Kochi Metro Drunkard". The movie chronicles this upheaval for Eldho and his family as well as the stranger who shared the photo online.

Language: Malayalam

Watch On: Netflix

17. Harishchandrachi Factory (2009)

Mayasabha Productions

Directed by Paresh Mokashi, Harishchandrachi Factory is a biopic of the visionary, Dadasaheb Phalke, and it depicts his struggles while making India's first full-length feature film called Raja Harishchandra in 1913. Suffused with incredible wit and humour, the movie portrays Dadasaheb's endeavours in a very heart-warming manner.

Language: Marathi

Watch On: Netflix