Yes, you’ve watched every 100 crores grossing blockbuster that has hit the theater so far. Your favorite Bollywood movies include Sholay and DDLJ. But have you had a taste of the uncommon? Here are the 5 Must-Watch Hindi Movies You May Not Have Heard Of
Presenting … a list of five Hindi movies you may not have even heard of, but are purely sensational.
Go grab a copy of these; if you cannot find them in stores, you know where to look for them.
(HINT: It starts with a T and ends with a T but has nothing to do with a women’s anatomy)
5 Must-Watch Hindi Movies You May Not Have Heard Of
Here is the list of my favorite uncommon yet must watch Hindi movies. You will definitely like this list if you love the unconventional stuff like pure-gold.
#5. Urf Professor – 2001
Director: Pankaj Advani [1]
For those of you who have watched that deliciously quirky Kay Kay Menon, Anupam Kher, Chunky Pandey, and Rimi Sen starrer Sankat City, you know what to expect.
For the uninitiated, Sankat City was a hell of a joyride.
A conventional con caper stuffed in an oddly un-Bollywoodish mold.
The reason I cite Sankat City here is that the director of the movie back in 2000 directed a pulpy black comedy called Urf Professor.
The cast, headed by the delightfully chubby Manoj Pahwa, also included Sharman Joshi, Antara Mali, and Yashpal Sharma.
Urf Professor took the route less followed back in 2000-2001.
The opening scene, where a new bride describes her previous sexcapades to her husband, sets the tone for a romp of a ride to span the next 2 hours or so.
NOTE: Stay away if adult content (visual and/or verbal) offends you. This is a progressive atom bomb you cannot digest.
#4. The Film Emotional Atyachar – 2010
Director: Akshay Shere [2]
Two immoral cops, a gang of crooks, a businessman, a bar girl … the film has all the perfect ingredients to make a perfect comic caper.
The movie is flawed in numerous places but still comes off better than most crass comedies Bollywood churns out.
The threads appear disjointed in the first half, only to come together to create a formidable, gory and hilarious in its second half.
The film largely benefits from a low-profile but uber-talented ensemble of actors – Vinay Pathak, Ravi Kishan, Ranvir Shorey, Abhimanyu Singh, Mohit Ahlawat, and Kalki Koechlin (in that order).
A special mention to that peculiarly hilarious scene post-interval, where Ravi Kishan’s character, in a bid to dislodge a bullet from one of his accomplice’s belly, ends up facilitating a fountain-like stream of blood from his body!
NOTE: The film has a lot of entangled threads and whizzes between time frames regularly, you miss a scene, and there’s a good chance you may not understand the rest of the film.
#3. Fruit and Nut – 2009
Director: Kunal Vijaykar [3]
Funnyman Kunal Vijaykar teamed up a bunch of other funnymen (Cyrus Broacha, Boman Irani, Mahesh Manjrekar, et al) to direct his first.
Again, with its share of flaws and some flimsy prat jokes, the film fares better as a comedy than most of the crass stuff churned out on a daily basis.
A lunatic who believes right below Mantralaya lies his ancestors’ palace, a beggar who is an undercover RAW agent, a dumbass lead character, a builder who HAS to translate everything to English and … you get the drift?
Do not try to make sense of the film; just watch it for its inane joviality.
Fruit and Nut is absurdity at its enjoyable best.
You have seen people get hit in the crotch by a car’s opening door and you have seen people pee on live open wires resulting in an explosion, but Vijaykar’s direction of the oft-repeated slapstick carries a unique novelty.
And yes, keep your ears wide open every time Mahesh Manjrekar opens his mouth, coz there will be a lot of hilarious shit coming out of it EVERY SINGLE TIME.
NOTE: If you are not tuned into pop culture trends and popular celebs across fields, Mahesh Manjrekar may not make a lot of sense to you.
#2. Khamosh – 1986
Director: Vidhu Vinod Chopra [4]
Post Murder at Monkey Hill, Sazaye Maut and working with Kundan Shah in Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Vidhu Vinod Chopra assembled some of the finest faces of non-commercial Hindi cinema of the 70s and 80s to direct Khamosh.
A classic whodunit set in Kashmir (Pahalgam to be precise), Khamosh had Amol Palekar and Shabana Azmi playing partially fictionalized self-portrays.
The film follows a film crew’s shooting schedule in Pahalgam and suicide that happens in the hotel where the crew is put up.
Enter Naseeruddin Shah, who is confident that it is a murder and proceeds to investigate it further.
Chopra keeps the plot well-looped for most of the duration and extracts fine performances from his cast.
If halfway through you do figure out where the film’s headed, do not give up.
Remember, the mystery may seem like a run of the mill now, back in 1983, this was groundbreaking stuff!
NOTE: Do not visit the film’s wiki page; it gives away the climax and the culprit.
#1. Paanch – 2003
Director: Anurag Kashyap [5]
Okay last but not the least, must-watch Hindi movie on this list is Paanch. So technically, not a film you may not have heard of.
But criminally unjust to the film and its genius director, half the country still hasn’t watched this masterpiece.
If asked, Anurag Kashyap will definitely say Paanch is his personal favorite.
The 10-years-later-still-unreleased-film is a cult classic for many.
That the film is available on the internet and many have seen it.
It is almost a symbolic indication of how the youth of this country disapproves of their moral guardians.
Paanch is dark, gritty, yet enchanting. And the film’s cast including Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Shrivastav and Vijay Maurya was an absolute delight!
Paanch SHOULD be watched for many reasons, the most important being, this is the film that led to the foundation of Anurag Kashyap we know today.
The film’s failure to make it to the theaters made the man channel his anger into his succeeding works and resolute to churn out even grittier material.
You don’t believe me? … Go back to Black Friday and No Smoking.
NOTE: Look up Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders on Google before watching the film. The incident inspired Kashyap to write this film.
I hope you find the list of five must-watch Hindi movies interesting.
Which movie you think should be on this list, do let us know in the comments section below.
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