There is nothing quite like an amazing cinema that leaves you satiated. That one movie or TV Show that you absolutely binged on. Or might even find yourself going back to it, time and again. And this is something that has been facilitated by the OTTs all the more. OTTs have opened doors to a wide variety of creative expression, leaving the audience to explore through a palette that offers a taste of everything. It so happens on some of those random surfing that we do come across underrated gems and wonder why these aren’t talked about often.
So, today I decided to discuss five such underrated movies in the Indian Cinema, that are so deserving of the acknowledgement and praise that it is a shame that they are not known to as many people. Whether you are a connoisseur of movies or just engage in them from time to time, the list below should imperatively find its way to your watchlist.
Here we go!
Tumbaad
Cast: Sohum Shah, Jyoti Malshe, Dhundiraj Prabhakar, Ronjini Chakraborty, Harish Khanna.
Though heavily renowned critically and scoring an IMDb of 8.2/10, I am almost certain that none of these names sound familiar or even the name of the movie for that matter. The movie is available in five languages and was released in 2018 with Rahi Anil Barve and Anand Gandhi as Directors.
The story of Tumbaad is set in the 1920s and revolves around the three generations that are facing the consequences of building the temple for the first-born goddess namely Hastar. Hastar is someone who must not be worshipped. It is an atrocious entity with an ability to curse the person as well as grant gold coins to them.
Tumbaad is a movie where multiple genres meet like horror, thriller, fantasy etc. While the movie is successful in instilling traditional elements of horror like blood and gore, it stands apart from other horror movies when it comes to playing with the minds of the audience. It stirs up a surreal illusion in the minds of the viewers by knitting the tale of ordinary men turning into monsters. One can sense the character’s motivations, their fright and dejection through the fine use of imagery along with its insightful soundscape. Now, pair this with state-of-the-art production design and what you are looking at is nothing short of a masterpiece.
This film has single handedly redefined the genre of horror in the Indian Cinema and is in no way for the squeamish or the faint-hearted viewers.
Sir
Cast: Tillotama Shome, Vivek Gomber, Geetanjali Kulkari.
Initially, Sir released at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018 and it was only during the COVID in 2020 that it hit the OTTs in India. The direction of the movie is owed to Rohena Gera and finds its place on the IMDb rating of 7.7/10.
Tillotama Shome plays the role of Ratna who is a widowed maid working for a rich US return architect Ashwin played by Vivek Gomber. Ratna is unexpectedly summoned from her village by Ashwin as he calls off his wedding with fiance Sabina after finding out her philandering ways. What follows is a poignant saga on class, relationships and love.
Personally, I have watched this movie a total of three times and it never fails to surprise me. While watching the movie, if you pause on a random frame and try to read it, it both conveys and adds a great deal to the plotline. That is how beautifully this movie is shot!
The film plays out like a poem well-structured that spans over the impossibility of two people from different strata of society as they fall in love, only for it to remain unrequited. This is exactly why the movie hits different for its realistic outlook. The movie has done an outstanding job in being a brilliant piece of social commentary that not only includes the struggles of an ambitious woman but also includes her upward mobility in class hierarchy.
The unique selling point of the film lies in the fact that it employs lesser dialogues and the story is conveyed with the help of the different frames consisting of the objects necessary.
Trapped
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Vikramaditya Motwane, Geetanjali Thapa.
This movie was released in 2017 and much like most of the good movies, it failed to make a noise. It is directed by Vikramaditya Motwane, who also features in the film. It sits at an IMDb of 7.5/10.
The story is about Shaurya who falls in love with his colleague Noorie. But, she is set to get married to someone else. Shaurya wants Noorie to be with him. However, the major concern is that he has no decent place to live with her. Hence, he comes to a decision to rent a good place and once he does, he mistakenly locks himself inside his new house with no water, food, electricity or any neighbours. What follows is a struggle against all odds to come out of it alive.
The movie makes no use of fancy locations and is mostly shot in the natural light. There are frames where Siddharth Diwan’s camera deliberately restricts the audience’s vision and shows the outside world to be a place where everybody operates on auto-pilot mode. This encapsulates the essence of residing in top cities like Mumbai where nobody cares, nobody knows about what is happening in the premises of an abandoned building.
The majority portion of the movie is shot over the stretch of an apartment, following the minimalist approach. So, the actor is working in a limited space and as the time passes with no sign of help, the panic that sets in is real and Rao has done a brilliant job in showcasing that range of panic. The feeling of being lonely and left-out is what truly makes Trapped a scary experience.
Ugly
Cast: Anurag Kashyap, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Rahul Bhat, Surveen Chawla.
The movie released in theatres exactly a decade back and is directed by none other than the OG itself, Anurag Kashyap. Most of Kashyap’s movies generally score good on IMDb. Hence, Ugly’s 7.9/10 isn’t exactly surprising.
An actor that is struggling to make his name in the society, Rahul starts to search for his daughter Kali after she goes missing. Kali’s stepfather Bose, who is a policeman, begins to look for her and it is not long before Rahul and Bose start to accuse each other of kidnapping her.
Ugly is peak cinematic brilliance for its simple yet moving and mind-blowing message of greed that lies in humans and how it holds tremendous potential to destroy one’s life. The movie rolls with certain darkness and holds up a mirror to the society where people destroy their own lives because of ego, jealousy and misunderstandings. Ugly steers clear of typical Kashyap’s style of political and social innuendos but instead makes human follies and emotions its crux.
Movies like Animal that to a certain extent glorify violence where Ugly, on the other hand, looks at the aftermath of violence. The director successfully keeps the pivotal twists and the suspense of the movie intact by using black screens and abrupt cuts.
The movie puts forth characters that entail the gravest of human follies and the actors casted have gone above and beyond in doing justice to their roles.
Qala
Cast: Tripti Dimri, Babil Khan, Swastika Mukherjee, Varun Grover.
If you are on Instagram, it is highly unlikely that you have missed out on the ‘Ghodey Pe Sawaar’ song. And yes, it is one of the tracks from this movie released in 2022 on Netflix. With an IMDb of 7.2/10, the movie is directed by Anvita Dutt Guptan.
The movie is about the rise of a talented singer who is coping with the pressure of success and a tumultuous relationship with her mother. A considerable chunk of the story shows her struggle with the past and the voices of doubt that fill her. The narration is seemingly fractured with continuous shifts to the past and present.
Via some of the most aesthetically appealing frames that I have come across in the recent past, the movie perfectly captures a toxic and abusive relationship that exists between the mother and the daughter. Not only that, it imparts due focus on the quest of an artist’s expression and identity while simultaneously shedding light on the heap of misogyny that is prevalent in the industry and how it is often swept under the rug.
The backbone of Qala definitely lies in its soulful music that helps in describing the overall tone of the movie.
These were some of the movies that we thought were underrated. Let us know what are some of the underrated movies you have watched!
By Deepali Verma
