The Alternate/ parallel Cinema
Some of the most acclaimed Alternate indian cinema movies. Most of the people dont even know about most of these movies. I was lucky enough to see all of these in the list and added only those.
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- DirectorShekhar KapurStarsSeema BiswasNirmal PandeyRajesh VivekThe story of the bandit queen Phoolan Devi who was sent to prison in 1983 and got free in 1994.Winner of 2 filmfare awards and 1 national award.
- DirectorShyam BenegalStarsAmrish PuriKirron KherSmriti MishraThe police are called to investigate the death of a woman who was killed during a riot by a stone thrown by an agitated person. She was known in the community as "Sardari Begum", a popular singer and courtesan in her time. This story chronicles her youth, her contacts, and her lifestyle.
- DirectorKiran RaoStarsPrateik Patil BabbarMonica DograKriti MalhotraThe lives of four people intersect in Mumbai: a washer-man who wants to become an actor, a banker-turned-photographer, a painter looking for inspiration, and a newly-married immigrant who journals her experiences on home video.
- DirectorSabiha SumarStarsKirron KherAamir Ali MalikNavtej Singh Johar1979. A village in Pakistan. A widow sees her 17 years old son being attracted to Islamist militants. It brings her past back.It is actually a pakistani movie...but deserves to be mentioned here in my opinion.Winner of 7 international awards.
- DirectorAparna SenStarsRahul BoseKonkona Sen SharmaBhisham SahniDuring a bus journey, a devout Hindu Brahmin woman protects a Muslim man when communal rioting breaks out.Winner of 5 international and 2 national awards.
- DirectorAnusha RizviMahmood FarooquiStarsOnkar Das ManikpuriRaghubir YadavShalini VatsaAn impoverished farmer's threat to end his life invites attention from politicians and media.Won 1 international award.
- DirectorDev BenegalStarsAbhay DeolSatish KaushikTannishtha ChatterjeeA young man's journey across the mythic Indian landscape becomes a life-changing odyssey.
- DirectorNavdeep SinghStarsAbhay DeolGul PanagRaima SenManorama, wife of an irrigation minister, tasks Satyaveer to find if her husband is cheating. As Satyaveer starts investigating, he gets trapped in a web of lies and must uncover the entire truth.
- DirectorNandita DasStarsInaamulhaqNassarShahana GoswamiChronicles the devastating impact on vulnerable Muslims in Gujarat after riots.winner of 5 international awards.
- DirectorNeeraj PandeyStarsAnupam KherNaseeruddin ShahVeerendra SaxenaA retiring police officer reminisces about the most astounding day of his career. About a case that was never filed but continues to haunt him in his memories - the case of a man and a Wednesday.One of the most spectacular movies of this decade.
- DirectorMani RatnamStarsArvind SwamyManisha KoiralaNassarA Hindu man and a Muslim woman fall in love in a small village and move to Mumbai, where they have two children. However, growing religious tensions and erupting riots threaten to tear the family apart.won 6 filmfare awards and 1 national award.
- DirectorMira NairStarsShafiq SyedAnjaanAmrit PatelYoung Krishna struggles to survive among the drug dealers, pimps, and prostitutes in the back alleys and gutters of India.Nominated for OSCARSand BAFTA.Won at Cannes festival and 8 international awards. Also won 2 national awards.
- DirectorNagesh KukunoorStarsAyesha TakiaShreyas TalpadeGul PanagTwo woman --different backgrounds, miles apart, and strangers to each other-- are linked by tragedy. Their new-found friendship is tested as one holds the fate of the other's husband in her hands.
- DirectorAnurag KashyapStarsKay Kay MenonRaj Singh ChaudharyRaja ChaudharyA law student witnesses deception, homicide, and crime after being elected as General Secretary of his college.
- DirectorJag MundhraStarsNandita DasRaghubir YadavDeepti NavalShoba T. Mathur works for the Central Government in India and her job is to create awareness against child-marriage and other social evils that prevail due to general misinterpretation of the Hindu Shastras that demean women, particularly in Dhabri, a village in the state of Rajasthan. She does succeed in recruiting a young housewife, Saanvri, the mother of a young girl, Kamli, and wife of rickshaw driver, Sohan. Saanvri goes around the village raising awareness, and incurs the wrath of the village elders, mostly members of the Gujjar family. When Saanvri persists with her efforts, five of the men severely beat-up Sohan, and gang-rape Saanvri. A devastated Saanvri and Sohan decide to get justice. They go to the Police Station, but the Police Inspector refuses to lodge a complaint until and unless he gets a Medical report. The doctor will not issue a medical report until and until he gets Court Order. Sohan and Saanvri, with Shobha's help do go through this process, and a complaint is finally lodged. Despite of this, the Gujjars are not arrested and continue to wander around, bragging about their experience with Saanvri. Saanvri's case then gets nation-wide attention, with the Prime Minister himself entrusting this investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation. The Gujjars are arrested and tried in Court, but are fully aware that this is nothing but a charade, for they have the backing of the local Member of the Legislative Assembly, Dhanraj Meena, who has hired a lawyer, Purohit, and has instructed him to ensure that the Gujjars are not held liable. Watch as Judge after Judge is transferred, even the Prosecuting Attorney is of a upper caste, and is under pressure from the Gujjar community. Faced with a corrupt police force, an even more corrupt Judicial system fueled more by wealth, influence, and caste rather than the rule of law, will Saanvri succeed in getting the justice she deserves?Winner of 3 international awards.
- DirectorMira NairStarsKal PennIrrfan KhanTabuAmerican-born Gogol, the son of Indian immigrants, wants to fit in among his fellow New Yorkers, despite his family's unwillingness to let go of their traditional ways.Won 2 international awards.
- DirectorAparna SenStarsShabana AzmiKonkona Sen SharmaRahul BoseAn exploration of impact of schizophrenia on a young woman and her family in today's Calcutta.
- DirectorDeepa MehtaStarsShabana AzmiNandita DasKarishma JhalaniTwo women who are abandoned by their husbands find love and solace in each other.Winner of 7 international awards.
- DirectorDeepa MehtaStarsAamir KhanNandita DasRahul KhannaIt's 1947 and the borderlines between India and Pakistan are being drawn. A young girl witnesses tragedy as her ayah (nanny) is caught between the love of two men and the rising tide of political and religious violence.Won 1 filmfare award.
- DirectorDeepa MehtaStarsLisa RayJohn AbrahamSeema BiswasSet in colonial India against Gandhi's rise to power, it's the story of 8-year-old Chuyia, who is widowed and sent to a home to live in penitence; once there, Chuyia's feisty presence deeply affects the lives of the other residents.Nominated for OSCAR. Won 13 international awards.
- DirectorKrishna D.K.Raj NidimoruStarsTusshar KapoorSendhil RamamurthyNikhil DwivediVarious residents and career-criminals face challenges in crime-laden Mumbai.
- DirectorVikramaditya MotwaneStarsRajat BarmechaRonit RoyManjot SinghExpelled from his school, a 16-year old boy returns home to his abusive and oppressive father.Winner of 7 filmfare awards.
- DirectorNagesh KukunoorStarsJohn AbrahamAnaitha NairGirish KarnadA man meets with assorted characters in a nursing home after being diagnosed with cancer.
- DirectorVenod MitraStarsArjun RampalIrrfan KhanKonkona Sen SharmaA poor road worker sets off a chain of events that bring karmic balance to seven very troubled strangers. KARMAYA simplifies the complexities of the karmic mechanisms that bind present experiences to past life actions. It weaves through the lives of a dirty road worker, a servant girl, a tea seller, a stockbroker, an old drunk, an odd job man, a hermaphrodite and the young parents of a newborn baby girl but one of these also has committed the murder of a young girl and karma will make them pay for it. Clashing the many layers of the wealth and poverty within Indian society and merging the religious Hindu doctrines with people's drive to amass wealth and not wisdom, each character is dragged along by the others actions until the troubled storylines zenith the girl's killer is found.
- DirectorTigmanshu DhuliaStarsIrrfan KhanMahie GillRajesh AbhayThe story of Paan Singh Tomar, an Indian athlete and seven-time national steeplechase champion who becomes one of the most feared dacoits in Chambal Valley after his retirement.
- DirectorIrfan KamalStarsMaster ShamsMaster SalmanMaster JafferA homeless petty thief attempts to find the biological mother of an abandoned baby.
- DirectorN. ChandraStarsOm PuriNandita DasAmitabh DayalNaive, simple-minded, and illiterate Bhaskar Sarnaik (Amitabh Dayal) comes to Bombay from his far-off village, to look for his missing brother, Raghuvir. He comes in contact with Sub-Inspector Gokhale (Om Puri), who feels sorry for him, and not only offers to find his brother, but also employment at an Irani Restaurant. Bhaskar does find his brother - in the morgue - but decides not to tell his mother as this may break her heart. He decides to stay on in Bombay and undergoes training to become a police officer. A short time later he is also a Sub-Inspector working closely with Gokhale. He is wounded in an encounter, and his mother comes to look after, and gets him to marry Aditi (Nandita Das) from the same village, which Bhaskar does so. Then the police must hunt for Adi, a notorious hit-man. When Bhaskar comes face to face with Adi, he does not shoot him, and as a result Adi escapes. Adi then gives an interview on television that he is the child-hood friend of Bhaskar, and that he would never be shot at by Bhaskar. As a result, Bhaskar gets suspended from service, and becomes the subject of an intensive investigation by the Crime Branch, who are now convinced that Bhaskar is on the pay-roll of Adi and other underworld elements.
- DirectorVinay ShuklaStarsShabana AzmiMilind GunajiNirmal PandeyWhen an imminent drought threatens to ruin their crop, Rambhi and her husband Veeru move from their village to the city. Through threat, violence and blackmail, Veeru makes a career as a kind of mafia don in the corrupt political system, but it turns out he is no more than a puppet of an influential lawyer who has him killed when Veeru decides not to kill any more. The lawyer thinks he can turn Rambhi into yet another puppet of his plans, but she strikes back, taking revenge for her husband's murder and fighting the corrupt political system until she becomes a veritable mafia Godmother herself.Winner of 5 national awards and 1 filmfare award.
- DirectorDigvijay SinghStarsAnant NagMita VashishtNitya ShettyFor 12 year-old Maya, life is very simple in her village in rural India. From innocent pranks to small adventures in the nearby forest, she spends most of her time with her 11 year-old cousin Sanjay. However, their fraternal love will be shattered when Sanjay will fail to save her from a brutal ritual.Winner of 2 international awards.
- DirectorRajat KapoorStarsRanvir ShoreyNeha DhupiaNaseeruddin ShahA two-bit actor faces challenges after he is asked by Police to impersonate a look-alike gangster.
- DirectorShyam BenegalStarsShabana AzmiRajit KapoorRajeshwari SachdevGhazala (Shabana Azmi) has been married to Munirmiya (Srivallabh Vyas) for several years, and has given birth to a daughter, Salma (Rajeshwari Sachdev) Munir is unhappy that Ghazala has been unable to bear him any sons, and is forced to face his abuse, and then is subsequently thrown out of the house, in order to make way for him to marry again; Hasina (Surekha Sigri-Rege) is Ghazala's mom, married at a very young age, to an older man, faces the risk of cancer of the uterus; Educated, Arrogant and god-fearing Afsana (Nandita Das) has three children, and is upset with her spouse, Khurshid (Rajit Kapur), Hasina's son, for undergoing a vasectomy, and leaves him; Najma (Alka Trivedi) is an uneducated housewife, having given birth to seven children, five of whom have died so far due to malnutrition, and is the wife of Khaleej, Hasina's older son; Salma is the daughter of Ghazala, who is expected to marry at an early age, to a much older man, as there is no point in her undergoing further education, mainly due to her dad abandoning her.
- DirectorAditya BhattacharyaStarsIrrfan KhanVijay MauryaRazak KhanTen years ago, small time crook Aftab Angrez made a hit-man's dream debut in the Mumbai underworld with a shocking, high-profile killing. Much to his bad luck, the credit was attributed to someone else. Now back in Mumbai, with the help of two long-retired gang-mates, he sets out to regain that long lost glory. A bitter-sweet tale about lovable losers, identity crises, dashed hopes, and many misfired bullets that is riddled with laughs.
- DirectorPrashant BhargavaStarsNawazuddin SiddiquiMukkund ShuklaSeema BiswasIn the old city of Ahmedabad, amid India's largest kite festival, a family duels, spins and soars like the countless kites in the skies above.
- DirectorGurbir Singh GrewalStarsJimmy ShergillKulraj RandhawaKanwaljeet SinghAfter the Indian Government ordered troops into the Soni Darbar in Amritsar, angering Sikhs worldwide, leading to the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during 1984, followed by violence against the Sikhs, and instructions to Police to hunt down and apprehend all suspected terrorists. Karnail Singh was one such suspect, who claims that he has had no hand in any terrorism activity, but is nevertheless pursued by the Police, leaving his widowed mom, Kartar, and sister, Parsan, to fend for themselves by running a Dhaba and being subjected to harassment at the hands of Inspector Ujagar Singh, while the village Mukhiya wants Parsan to get married to a much older Narang Singh. Parsan's problems are resolved when Indian Army Captain Nihal Singh intervenes, and marries her, even though her mom, beaten senseless by the Police, passes away on the day of the marriage. Months later, Nihal must re-locate to Siachen, leaving behind a pregnant Parsan. Once in Siachen, he gets news that Parsan has been attacked and is hospitalized. Since Siachen is isolated due to a heavy snowstorm, he can only return home after several days, and is told that Parsan has passed away, and his new-born daughter has been abducted by his neighbors, Sukhwant Kaur, and Mandeep Singh. Nihal's attempts to locate the couple are all in vain, and things get worse when the Station House Officer is transferred and the new incumbent, his arch-enemy, Ujagar, refuses to locate his daughter. Nihal confronts Ujagar, arguments and fisticuffs ensue, resulting in Ujagar's death. Nihal is arrested, stripped off of his uniform, tried in Court, found guilty, and sentenced to 20 years in jail - and may never be reunited with his daughter.
- DirectorNishikant KamatStarsParesh RawalKay Kay MenonIrrfan KhanA moving portrayal of the 2006 train bombings in Mumbai, this Indian drama follows the interconnected stories of several strangers.Won 3 filmfare awards and 2 international awards.
- DirectorTapan SinhaStarsChhabi BiswasOindrila TagoreRadhamohan BhattacharyaRahmat a middle-aged fruit seller from Afghanistan, comes to Calcutta to hawk his merchandise and befriends a small Bengali girl called Mini.Winner of 1 international award.
- DirectorShyam BenegalStarsVinay AnandIla ArunPankaj BerryThe film, which is about the last five years of the Indian leader Subhas Chandra's life, also includes his life's story in flashback sequences.Won 1 national award.
- DirectorRituparno GhoshStarsAjay DevgnAishwarya Rai BachchanAnnu KapoorAll he wanted was to see her just once. Manu was from a village in the backwoods. Neeru was the girl next door, his lost love.Won zee-cinema award.
- DirectorRituparno GhoshStarsAishwarya Rai BachchanPrasenjit ChatterjeeRaima SenBinodini is a young widow who lives with a woman and her son, Mahendra, who had once refused to marry her. Their lives are thrown into disarray when there is deceit and adultery between Binodini, Mahendra, his wife and his friend.Nominated for 2 international awards.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsPinaki SenguptaSmaran GhosalKamala AdhikariFollowing his father's death, a boy leaves home to study in Calcutta, while his mother must face a life alone.Nominated for Bafta awards. Won 11 international awards. Included in the TIMES magazine's All-time 100 greatest movies list.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsKanu BannerjeeKaruna BannerjeeSubir BanerjeeImpoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.Nominated for BAFTA awards. Won 7 international awards and 2 national awards. Included in TIMES magazine's All-time 100 greatest movies list.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsUttam KumarSharmila TagoreBireswar SenEn route to Delhi to receive an award, a Bengali film star reevaluates his success through his fellow passengers, dreams, and past experiences.Won 3 international awards and 1 national award.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsSanjeev KumarSaeed JaffreyShabana AzmiIn 1856, two obsessed noblemen ignore everything while playing chess and fail to notice British rule extending into their Indian province.3 filmfare awards winner.
- DirectorSatyajit RayStarsAnil ChatterjeeChandana BanerjeeAparna SenBased on popular Indian stories of the great writer Rabindranath Tagore, these short films reveal definitive moments in the lives of three young girls.
- DirectorAnurag KashyapStarsKay Kay MenonPawan MalhotraAditya SrivastavA film about the investigations following the 1993 serial Bombay bomb blasts, told through the different stories of the people involved --police, conspirators, victims, middlemen.
- DirectorMani RatnamStarsShah Rukh KhanManisha KoiralaPreity G ZintaA radio broadcaster's intense attraction to a mysterious woman opens the door to a tidal wave of powerful emotions and desires.Winner of 6 filmfare awards and 1 international award.
- DirectorBimal RoyStarsBalraj SahniNirupa RoyRatan KumarIn the hope of earning enough money to pay off his debts and save his land, a poor farmer becomes a rickshaw puller in Calcutta and faces many difficulties.Winner at CANNES film festival. Also won 2 filmfare awards and 1 national award.
- DirectorNagesh KukunoorStarsNaseeruddin ShahJackie ShroffJuhi ChawlaThe story of a documentary movie-maker who films the reformation story of three hardened criminals within the prison walls - and in the process, finds redemption in her own life.Won filmfare award.
- DirectorGovind NihalaniStarsOm PuriSmita PatilAmrish PuriA newly appointed police rookie deals with corruption, romance, and brutality.Winner of 5 filmfare award and 1 national award.
- DirectorMahesh DattaniStarsShabana AzmiPrakash KovelamudiLillete DubeyA violinist and a vocal singer, their children; a businessman, his wife and their daughter accidentally meet on a bridge spanning the banks of the Godavari river in Andhra Pradesh, India. Fast forward twenty years, the children grow up and the bridge becomes a symbolic one, reuniting the lives and deaths of the six that met on that fateful day. Music, love, compassion are a common thread that weaves life that culminates in a fusion concert where tradition interlaces with modern, in costume, music, instruments but timeless values. The multi layered plot is simple. Girl's mother is supportive of the boy's aspiration to get a band together. The boy's dad, a wealthy landowner wants his son to manage his vast estate, rather than scrounge for gigs in the city. The boy chooses to chase his dream. The aspirations of the vocalist and violinist are realised through the children.Won 1 international award.
- DirectorGoutam GhoseStarsShabana AzmiShafiq SyedOm PuriSomra, son of Jitni, lives in Manpur, a small railway station near Gaya in Bihar. Somra is obsessed with kites. Mathura, a petty criminal, has a clandestine, yet understood and accepted, relationship with Jitni. The idealist railway official Rabbani makes futile attempts to change a situation in which politicians, criminals and bureaucrats are ail linked. Shady dealings unfold in the constant heat, against a backdrop of flying kites.
- DirectorMehreen JabbarStarsNandita DasRashid FarooqiSyed Fazal HussainA 7 year old Pakistani boy and his father belonging to the untouchable Hindu caste accidentally cross the border and spend years in an Indian jail while the mother on the other side doesn't know what has happened to them.A pakistani movie and a winner of 5 international awards.
- DirectorJag MundhraStarsAishwarya Rai BachchanMichael WatsonMiranda RichardsonBased on the true story of Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a Punjabi woman, who was abused by her husband for 10 years. After killing her husband in self-defense, Ahluwalia is imprisoned as those close to her fight to set her free.
- DirectorMahesh ManjrekarStarsSanjay DuttNandita DasSachin KhedekarThakur Avadh Narayan Singh rules Shekhapur village.Due to his fear villagers don't dare to go against him for his wrong doings.His son Bhola and Bacchu are also to follow his part who spend their time in drinking and on girls.Rudra is a poor farmer living a happy life with is wife Paro and three children Durga,Luv and Kush.Bhola and Bacchu once go to attend Mujra and cant get their way with the woman.On their way they see 9 year old Durga and rape her.While he evidence are all against them the Sr Doctor prepare's his report and Inspector Ramnarayan Bhardwaj also finds evidence to arrest Bhola and Bacchu.The lawyer fighting the case bribe's the Sr Doctor and Ramnarayan Bhardwaj to tamper the evidence.Paro then convinces Rudra to take matters in his own hands as law cant give them justice.
- DirectorGovind NihalaniStarsJaya BachchanAnupam KherSeema BiswasDibyanath Chatterji, his bank-employed wife, Sujata, and only child, a son, Brati, live a middle-class existence in Calcutta, West Bengal, India, circa early 1970s. Sujata is a quiet, devout Hindu, religious, and compassionate woman, and Brati has finished his school and is now attending college. His parents are proud of him, and keep track of his progress. Then their world is shattered during the early hours, when they are informed by the police that Brati has been killed. Dibyanath and Sujata go to identify Brati's body, mourn, lament inconsolably. They know now that their lives will never be the same again - for by the police they will be called the mother and father corpse No. 1084. Sujata struggles to understand Brati's passing, meets his friends one by one, comes to know that Brati had a girlfriend, Nandini Mitra, and that's when she finds out that Brati was part of a rebel group often referred to as "Naxalbari", a militant leftist group. As she delves deeper and deeper into Brati's former life, she begins to understand her son's struggle, and decides to continue to further this. What Sujata does not know is her and Dibyanath's lives are in danger, and they well turn up dead and end up as numbered corpses in a police morgue.
- DirectorNagesh KukunoorStarsRohan DeyJayant KripalaniNandita DasThe movie chronicles the arrival of a (Hindu) student to a strict all-boys Christian boarding school in India and his assimilation into the school. The change is quite dramatic to the protagonist and there are a lot of events that would look extremely abusive to the viewer.
- DirectorMani RatnamStarsKeerthana ParthiepanSimranMadhavanA little girl is told by her parents that she is adopted. Determined to find her real mother, she begs to be taken to Sri Lanka, where her mother works with a militant group of activists.Winner of 6 national awards and 2 filmfare awards. Also won 3 international awards.
- DirectorOnirStarsJuhi ChawlaRahul BoseRadhika ApteFour traumatic and life-changing stories in various parts of modern secular India.
- DirectorMira NairStarsNaseeruddin ShahLillete DubeyShefali ShahA stressed father, a bride-to-be with a secret, a smitten event planner, and relatives from around the world create much ado about the preparations for an arranged marriage in India.Nominated for BAFTA and GOLDEN GLOBES. Won % international awards.
- DirectorVeena BakshiStarsApoorva SharmaBenjamin GilaniRandeep HoodaBased in a small village in Goa, "The Coffin Maker" is about Anton Gomes who comes from a family of accomplished carpenters and takes up coffin making when difficult circumstances render him jobless and penniless. Cynical and disillusioned Anton exists. Till one day Death challenges his life.
- DirectorRichie MehtaStarsRupinder NagraNaseeruddin ShahSeema BiswasWhen Amal impresses an eccentric millionaire with his humility and humanity, he unknowingly becomes the old man's beneficiary.Winner of 3 international awards.
- DirectorSaeed Akhtar MirzaStarsBhisham SahniDina PathakMohan GokhaleAn old couple, Mohan Joshi (Bhisham Sahni) and his wife (Dina Pathak), sues their landlord (Amjad Khan) for not maintaining their 'collapsing' apartment building. For this, they hire two cunning lawyers (Naseeruddin Shah and Satish Shah), while Rohini Hattangadi is the opposition lawyer. The court case drags on for years and the lawyers milk the old couple dry, while they become rich. Back home in the society, the old couple is ridiculed for fighting the landlord, but they fight on nevertheless. In the end, when the judge comes to check the condition of the chawl, the landlord's men prop up the place, thus convincing the judge that all is well. Finally, Joshi gathers all his strength and pulls down the temporary supports put up by the men causing the building to collapse on himself.
- DirectorSaeed Akhtar MirzaStarsNaseeruddin ShahShabana AzmiSmita PatilA man from Mumbai (then Bombay) is angry about various issues in different circumstances.Won 1 filmfare award.
- DirectorSaeed Akhtar MirzaStarsPawan MalhotraMakrand DeshpandeAshutosh GowarikerAn unemployed Muslim youth aspires to become a big-shot criminal but mends his ways with the help of his educated brother-in-law.Won 1 national award.
- DirectorSaeed Akhtar MirzaStarsDilip DhawanAnjali PaigankarShreeram LagooArvind Desai is the only son of a rich businessman who deals in luxury handicraft products. His feelings for his father are mixed. While he hates his dominating nature, he admires his power and lack of scruples.Winner of 1 filmfare award.
- DirectorSaeed Akhtar MirzaStarsKaifi AzmiKulbhushan KharbandaSurekha SikriThe delicate relationship between a 15-year-old girl and her grandfather is used to describe how the growing political tensions between Muslems and Hindus in 1992 led to the destruction of a medieval Muslim mosque and subsequently, violent rioting in the streets of Bombay. Naseem (urdu: sahar) means Morning breeze, and charts the story of a young school going girl Naseem in the months leading up to the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992. She shares deep and loving bond with his ill grandfather who represents the era of communal harmony between Hindus and Muslims in India, as he fondly recalls the times he spent in pre-Independent Agra. As communal tension erupts in the city of Bombay, Naseem get increasingly bewildered by changing dynamics at her school and in the neighborhood, while her grandfather watches helplessly at a city getting deeply divided over the Babri Masjid issue.
- DirectorAjay PhansekarStarsNaseeruddin ShahDilip PrabhawalkarTara DeshpandeAfter accidentally killing a young mobster, a guilt-stricken police officer searches for the parents who never came forward to claim their son's body.
- DirectorFaruk KabirStarsVarun BhagwatVirendra GiriVikram GokhaleTwo impoverished youth take to crime, are held in a juvenile home, and become gangsters after being discharged.
- DirectorShyam BenegalStarsShabana AzmiSmita PatilNaseeruddin ShahForbidden love, fraying loyalties and flagrant hypocrisy emerge when sanctimonious politicians drive a madam's brothel from the heart of Hyderabad.One of the best masterpieces of the Great Shayam Benegal.
- DirectorMahesh BhattStarsAnupam KherRohini HattangadiSoni RazdanAn old couple lend a room on rent after recent death of the bread earner of the family, their only son. A budding actress starts living with them, who is in love with a local politician's only son. The movie shows what later ensues.Won 3 filmfare awards and 1 international award.
- DirectorAparna SenStarsJennifer KendalDhritiman ChatterjeeDebashree RoyAfter marriage of her niece, Rosemary, Anglo-Indian school-teacher Violet Stoneham lives a lonely life in her single room flat located at 36 Chowringhee Lane in Calcutta.Won 3 national awards . Nominated for bAFTA award. Also won 2 international awards.
- DirectorMani RatnamStarsArvind SwamyMadhooPankaj KapurA woman from a village in Tamil Nadu marries a sophisticated city dweller and moves with him to Kashmir, where all is rosy - until he gets kidnapped by militants.