The Festival of Lights is a time for marking the year gone by and embracing new beginnings for people from South Asian backgrounds all over the world. Celebrated in different ways, there is one universal idea that symbolises the spirit of this festival: it’s about coming together as a collective and cherishing the moments from the year gone by and looking forward to a brighter future.
The at SBS on Demand is full of exciting Indian movies and shows that embrace the various themes representing this auspicious occasion. So, grab your jalebi and laddoos and take a seat as we deep-dive into some of these exciting titles.
Four Years Later
Can love survive the distances that keep you apart? That’s the delicate question at the heart of creator Mithila Gupta and team’s Indian-Australian series Led by Shahana Goswami (she is having a stellar year already, with her Cannes-premiering film Santosh being UK’s Official Selection for the Best International Feature Film at the upcoming Academy Awards) and Akshay Ajit Singh, who play the lead couple Sri and Yash respectively, the show breaks stereotypes around Indian-Australian representation in subtle, but important ways. Yash and Sri’s newly blossoming arranged marriage faces a stern test when Yash is sent to Australia to complete his medical traineeship. What hit me deeply was a considered and sensitive arc around Yash’s recurring panic attacks. There is still plenty of stigma around discussing mental health in South Asian households, and I hope this show in its small way, breaks through that barrier.
All episodes of Four Years Later are streaming at SBS On Demand:
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Four Years Later
series • drama • Hindi
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series • drama • Hindi
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Ahista Ahista
The arrival of Abhay Deol on the scene in the early 2000s helped change the image of a conventional Hindi film ‘romantic hero’ on celluloid. His urban, yet decidedly low-key screen persona was in stark contrast to the larger than life, sweeping epic love stories that Shah Rukh Khan was slotted into. Deol is also a catalyst for the emergence of director Imtiaz Ali, who would go on to define the Hindi cinema romance template amongst the urban Indian youth with films like (2007). (2006), though not directed by Ali, is still written by him, and has his signature all over it. An adaptation of Dostoevsky’s short story ‘White Nights’, it traces the intertwined journeys of Ankush (Deol), a witness-for-hire at a marriage registry, and Megha (Soha Ali Khan), a young woman who has eloped with the hopes of marrying her fiancé. But on the big day, she gets stood up by her fiancé and Ankush comes to the rescue. It’s a sweet, understated film about two people discovering the best versions of themselves. If you’re used to the grandeur of mainstream Bollywood romantic dramas, the slice-of-life approach of this film will pleasantly surprise you.
Ahista Ahista is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Ahista Ahista
drama • romance • 2006
drama • romance • 2006
The Lunchbox
Premiering at the Cannes Critics Week, Ritesh Batra’s debut feature (2013) is arguably one of the most well-known Indian films for western audiences over the past 15 years. Carried by the late Irrfan Khan, who plays a lonely and ageing widower Saajan Fernandes, the film is a heartwarming two-hander. A housewife Ila (Nimrat Kaur), who suspects that her husband is having an affair, strikes up an unlikely friendship with the widower when the lunchbox intended for her husband lands up in the hands of Fernandes. Even after a decade of its release, The Lunchbox remains the definitive ‘feel good’ film that you can revisit again and again. If you’ve seen it already, go watch it again. If you haven’t yet, boy are you in for a treat!
The Lunchbox is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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The Lunchbox
comedy • romance • 2013
comedy • romance • 2013
Sholay
Sholay (1975) is the most iconic mainstream Hindi-language film of the past 50 years, to the extent that it set the benchmark of what a commercial Hindi-language ‘masala’ film was supposed to be. As the film nears its 50th anniversary next year, it’s almost unfathomable to think that a film that’s shaped the contours of Hindi cinema was in danger of being deemed a box office flop upon its release. The makers even considered adding an alternate ending that would appease audiences more. Thankfully, that didn’t transpire. The film is the closest that Hindi cinema has come to making an out and out western. A retired police inspector (Sanjeev Kumar) takes the help of two criminals, Jai (Amitabh Bachchan) and Veeru (Dharmendra), to take personal revenge on a band of dacoits that threaten his village. Even though the film had recognisable faces in Kumar, Bachchan and Dharmendra, the breakout star of the film became Amjad Khan, who plays the amoral and unpredictable dacoit leader Gabbar Singh. I remember dressing up as Gabbar for my ‘mufti’ day at school as a young boy. It’s hard to overstate the cultural impact of this film. A milestone of commercial Hindi cinema, this film is required viewing.
Sholay is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Sholay: Flames Of The Sun
action • 1975
action • 1975
Maqbool
No one does Shakespeare adaptations better than Vishal Bhardwaj. His Shakespearean trilogy box set is one of my most prized possessions. (2003), an adaptation of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, is the first of the trilogy, followed by Omkara (2006), an adaptation of Othello, and finally Haider (2014), an adaptation of Hamlet. Bhardwaj smartly adapts the main beats of Macbeth and sets them against the backdrop of the Mumbai underworld. Maqbool (the late Irrfan Khan) is the right-hand man of a feared mob boss (a stellar turn by veteran Pankaj Kapur) who gets seduced into believing that he’s fit for the throne. This is the second film where Irrfan, the greatest actor of his generation, and Tabu, the greatest actress of her generation, share screen space together. And they’re perfect together. Not only one of the best Shakespeare adaptations, but one of the best films of the past two decades.
Maqbool is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Maqbool
drama • 2003
drama • 2003
Bandit Queen
Before Shekhar Kapur got obsessed with historical dramas with films like Elizabeth (1998), he made a raw and one-of-a-kind biographical drama called Bandit Queen (1994), which is the best film from his body of work and one of the most harrowing Indian films ever made. In a career defining performance by Seema Biswas, the film traces the life of how Phoolan (Biswas), a lower caste girl from a small village who is subjected to a child marriage and horrific sexual abuse, becomes a feared outlaw and dacoit leader fighting for justice in her own way. The film takes an unflinching look at caste-based oppression and content warning alert, has graphic scenes of sexual abuse against women. The film still gives me nightmares but is necessary viewing to understand some of the pervasive social evils that exist in Indian society.
Bandit Queen is streaming now at SBS On Demand.
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Bandit Queen
biography • Crime drama • 1994
biography • Crime drama • 1994
The Blue Umbrella
Vishal Bhardwaj had a golden run in the 2000s. He followed up Maqbool, a gritty and tense Shakespearean adaptation, with The Blue Umbrella (2005), a film that uses a child as a central protagonist to build a humanist narrative around the dangers of succumbing to greed. Based on the story of the same name by Indian author Ruskin Bond, The Blue Umbrella is a spiritual sibling of films from Iranian masters like Jafar Panahi – such as The White Balloon (1995) – and Abbas Kiarostami – such as Where is the Friend’s House (1987). Much like Kiarostami and Panahi’s mentioned films, Bhardwaj’s film also operates like a moral fable, where a seemingly innocuous incident takes on a larger significance. In a small village, a nine-year-old girl becomes the talk of the town when she acquires a Japanese-style blue umbrella. This makes some villagers jealous, including a shopkeeper (Pankaj Kapur) who desires the umbrella for himself. Watch this film for its understated humanism and a wondrous performance by Pankaj Kapur, who flexes his thespian muscles and follows up his incredible turn in Maqbool with another standout performance here.
The Blue Umbrella is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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The Blue Umbrella
drama • 2005
drama • 2005
Jab We Met
I mentioned Jab We Met (2007) earlier while discussing Ahista Ahista, but the film deserves its own focus. It’s hard to fully encapsulate the depth of the cultural impact this film has had in defining the romantic drama template since its release. The way I look at it, Ali took the beats of Ahista Ahista (a film he wrote), tweaked them slightly, changed the ending and voila! You get Jab We Met. A heartbroken son of an industrialist, Aditya (Shahid Kapur) meets a girl on the run to meet her fiancé Geet (Kareena Kapoor), only to realise that they may be a better fit for each other. Jab We Met is a film that’s all about Kareena Kapoor. Kareena’s portrayal of Geet was so iconic that she ended up defining what the new age Hindi film heroine was supposed to personify. When you ask any mainstream Hindi film actress of this generation about who they want to be, there’s only one answer: it’s Kareena. More specifically, it’s Kareena from Jab We Met.
Jab We Met is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Jab We Met
drama • Romantic comedy • 2007
drama • Romantic comedy • 2007
Last Film Show
Do you love Cinema Paradiso (1988)? Sorry, that’s a silly question. Who doesn’t love Cinema Paradiso? Director Pan Nalin decided to pay homage to this great film by giving it his own unique flavour, with the heartwarming Last Film Show (2021). Take a trip down memory lane with this film and reminisce about what made you fall in love with the movies as a child in the first place. This is a neat homage to an already beloved classic.
Last Film Show is streaming at SBS On Demand.
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Last Film Show
