100 Essential Indian Films

Rohit K. Dasgupta is program director and lecturer in global communications and development at Loughborough University. He is the author of Digital Queer Cultures in India (2017) and editor of Queering Digital India (2018) and Friendship as Social Justice Activism (2018).Sangeeta Datta is a filmmaker, educator, and cultural commentator. She is the author of Shyam Benegal (2002) and Tagore: At Home in the World (2016) and coeditor of Rituparno Ghosh: Cinema, Gender and Art (2016). Datta is also the director of Baithak Arts, a not-for-profit company which promotes and celebrates the rich legacy of South Asian arts.

Starred review: Media academic Dasgupta and documentarian Datta have lovingly assembled an impressive list of 100 Indian films worth seeking out. Of course there are Bollywood smashes such as Lagann (2001) and Sholay (1975), but the duo’s picks span all genres. They cherry-pick the best of the best, showcasing terrific movies throughout Indian film history. Sweet romantic comedies such as 1965’s Guide and 2013’s The Lunchbox, the 2016 wrestling biopic Dangal, the gritty 2012 Gangs of Wasseypur, and 1975’s vigilante thriller Deewaar, as well as meatier work like 1964’s Charulata (from Bengali auteur Satyajit Ray), are just some of the remarkable movies waiting to be discovered. Dasgupta and Datta give plenty of room to the backstory, plot, and impact of these films, making for an insightful and informative book that never feels rushed. Westerners whose perception of the Indian film industry begins and ends with splashy Bollywood musicals are in for a delightful surprise here, as this is an outstanding survey of a wildly inventive and frequently fascinating area of world film.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionFilms A – Z Appendix: Films by English TitleBibliographyIndexAbout the Authors