IN TIERS, EACH IN YEAR ORDER. My adoptive dad was born in India, at Dharamsala, and his father was a professor of Indian history. I would have loved to play cricket for India, though my hero, Imran’s cousin Majid Khan (whose dad was a student of my grand-dad and played for India) played for Pakistan.. Oh and my wife’s ancestors came from India.


Not on Mubi: Movie Now (Anjan Dutt)

~~

MY FAVOURITES:
Apu trilogy (Ray)
Charulata (Ray)
Subarnarekha / The Golden Thread (Ghatak)
Meghe Dhaka Tara / Cloud-Capped Star (Ghatak)
Nainsukh (Dutta)
Pakeezah/ The Pure One (Amrohi)
Ekti Nadir Naam / The Name of a River (Singh)
Ghatashraddha / The Ritual (KasaravallI)
Thampu / The Circus Tent (Aravindan)
Nirjan Saikate / The Desolate Beach (Sinha)
Kaagaz Ke Phool / Paper Flowers (Dutt)
Pyaasa (Dutt)
Agraharathil Khazuthai / Donkey in a Brahmin Village (Abraham)
Jalsaghar/ The Music Room (Ray) 
Khandhar / The Ruins (Sen)
Siddeshwari (Kaul)
Baiju Bawra / Baiju the Poet (Bhatt)
Ankur/ The Seedling (Benegal)
Aranyer Din Ratri / Days and Nights in the Forest (Ray)
Tamaash (Singh, Singh)

__

Great job by Apursansar as manager of India in our 2009 first mubi world cup, reaching the final. A country of well over 1 billion people, extraordinary cultural and scenic diversity, the world’s #1 film poducer, which with its growing economic clout, should finally get proper credit for its cinematic riches. Satyajit Ray, a polymath (like the Nobel-prize winning writer Rabindranath Tagore) is in my opinion among the handful of finest directors there has been worldwide, Ritwik Ghatak is another with great masterpieces to his credit, and The Name of a River, a tribute to him, is a hidden treasure. There is far far more to Indian cinema than escapist kitschy Bollywood musicals (though the best classic musicals are a marvel too), there have been serious intellectual and politically motivated directors aplenty.

~~

LISTS:

by me: Satyajit Ray 

Apursansar: Apursansar’s Indian Film Canon

Laali: Cinema of Prayoga: Indian Avant-Garde Cinema
Literature in Indian Cinema

Kolar: Indian Bengali Cinema

Tuggingonmoustaches: Girish Kasarvali’s Favorite Indian Films
Adoor Gopalkrishnan’s Favorite Indian Films
Malayalam Cinema
Marathi Cinema
Pre-Independence Indian Cinema

L’claSSiks: Indian Parallel Cinema

Amy: Tabu Ranked

IN TIERS, EACH IN YEAR ORDER. My adoptive dad was born in India, at Dharamsala, and his father was a professor of Indian history. I would have loved to play cricket for India, though my hero, Imran&#8217;s cousin Majid Khan (whose dad was a student of my grand-dad and played for India) played for Pakistan.. Oh and my wife&#8217;s ancestors came from India.
Not on Mubi: Movie Now (Anjan Dutt)
~~
MY FAVOURITES: 
Apu trilogy (Ray) 
Charulata (Ray) 
Subarnarekha / The Golden Thread (Ghatak) 
Meghe Dhaka Tara / Cloud-Capped Star (Ghatak) 
Nainsukh (Dutta) 
Pakeezah/ The Pure One (Amrohi) 
Ekti Nadir Naam / The Name of a River (Singh) 
Ghatashraddha / The Ritual (KasaravallI) 
Thampu / The Circus Tent (Aravindan) 
Nirjan Saikate / The Desolate Beach (Sinha) 
Kaagaz Ke Phool / Paper Flowers (Dutt) 
Pyaasa (Dutt) 
Agraharathil Khazuthai / Donkey in a Brahmin Village (Abraham) 
Jalsaghar/ The Music Room (Ray) 
Khandhar / The Ruins (Sen) 
Siddeshwari (Kaul) 
Baiju Bawra / Baiju the Poet (Bhatt) 
Ankur/ The Seedling (Benegal) 
Aranyer Din Ratri / Days and Nights in the Forest (Ray) 
Tamaash (Singh, Singh)
__
Great job by Apursansar as manager of India in our 2009 first mubi world cup, reaching the final. A country of well over 1 billion people, extraordinary cultural and scenic diversity, the world&#8217;s #1 film poducer, which with its growing economic clout, should finally get proper credit for its cinematic riches. Satyajit Ray, a polymath (like the Nobel-prize winning writer Rabindranath Tagore) is in my opinion among the handful of finest directors there has been worldwide, Ritwik Ghatak is another with great masterpieces to his credit, and The Name of a River, a tribute to him, is a hidden treasure. There is far far more to Indian cinema than escapist kitschy Bollywood musicals (though the best classic musicals are a marvel too), there have been serious intellectual and politically motivated directors aplenty.
~~
LISTS:
by me: Satyajit Ray
Apursansar: Apursansar&#8217;s Indian Film Canon
Laali: Cinema of Prayoga: Indian Avant-Garde Cinema 
Literature in Indian Cinema
Kolar: Indian Bengali Cinema
Tuggingonmoustaches: Girish Kasarvali&#8217;s Favorite Indian Films 
Adoor Gopalkrishnan&#8217;s Favorite Indian Films 
Malayalam Cinema 
Marathi Cinema 
Pre-Independence Indian Cinema
L&#8217;claSSiks: Indian Parallel Cinema
Amy: Tabu Ranked

ESSENTIAL INDIAN FILMS