5 movies that you may have missed this year

It’s the season of festival. Time that you spend with your family… doing what you like best. And for the movies lovers like me, we love watching movies. And preferably get our loved ones to watch them along with us. Some movies that you have loved and you would like your family to watch… and some that you just could not find time or money to watch and would like to catch now at home! Original DVDs of course…

There have been good films and also hit films. We thought of bringing out a list of good movies which we think you may have missed. Take a peek and take your own pick.

1) Road to Sangam

This movie was stuck for long before it finally found it’s time. But it was quite a wrong time as it clashed with big movies Ishqiya and Rann (January 29). It just could not get any attention. That apart, Road To Sangam got rave reviews all over.
Director: Amit Rai
Cast: Paresh Rawal, Om Puri,
Story: The film is about a god fearing Muslim mechanic called Hasmatullah who was given the job of repairing an old lorry. He is oblivious of the fact that the lorry was the vehicle which carried the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi as it was taken to Triveni Sangam.

2) Thanks Maa

This movie too released amidst too many other hypes movies like Road, Movie (March 5). And never got any of the news space it deserved. It went on festivals around the world including Pusan Film Festival, International Film Festival of India, Edinburgh International Film Festival etc.
Director: Irfan Kamal
Cast: Barry John, Master Shamas Patel, Mastar Salman, Mastar Fayaz, Baby Almas
Story: The film deals with child abandoned. The story goes about a child and a search for his family. Heartrending tale of how the boy goes abound finding the mother who left his by the streets right after birth.

3) Lahore

Released on March 19 this movie suffered the fate of having no stars in the cast. Though extremely positive reviews the movie never did business. The movie won two National Awards this year – Best film by Debut director and also Best Supporting actor for Farooq Shaikh.
Director: Sanjay Puran Singh
Cast: Aanahad, Nafisa Ali, Sabyasachi Chakavarthy, Farooq Shaikh, Sushant Singh
Story: Lahore is a sports film propagating Indo-Pak relationships. The protagonist is a cricket player who gets into kickboxing to avenge the death of his brother. He trains to be fit for international tournaments in matter of months and goes on to teach everyone a lesson in sportsman spirit.

4) The Japanese Wife

The Japanese Wife is essentially a Bengali film but the love story is appealing enough to be watched by anyone irrespective of the language they speak. The subtitles help. It however didn’t release in too big a scale and did not reach out to all corners of the country.
Director: Aparna Sen
Cast: Rahul Bose, Raima Sen, Moushumi Chatterjee, Chigusa Takaku
Story: The story revolves around small town Bengali school teacher who falls in love and subsequently gets married to his Japanese pen friend – over letters. And they never meet! Yet the two keep their loyalties to each other.

5)City of Gold

This film was made in two languages – Marathi and Hindi. While the film is called Lalbaug Parel in Marathi, it’s called City of Gold in Hindi. It happens to be return of Mahesh Manjrekar to direction after five years. One of the highlights of the film includes the huge cast of 60 plus people – and everyone gets a bit to do.

Director: Mahesh Manjrekar
Cast: Seema Biswas, Satish Kaushik, Kashmira Shah, Karan Patel, Siddharth Jadav, Shashank Shinde, Sameer Dharmadhikari
Story: The story of this film is based on true settings of 1982 Mill strike. It depicts the birth of underbelly of Mumbai. It is the first time the strike, which is officially yet to end and is easily the longest running strike in the history, has been depicted on screen. The strike had rendered lakhs of people unemployed and that’s when the underworld suddenly got stronger with survival of fittest coming into full force.

There are more movies like Antardwand, Hide and Seek, the Great Indian Butterfly, Udaan and Tere Bin Laden which could have done better than what they did. The list never ends… but you could start somewhere. As I said… take your pick. Happy Dusshera!

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