If there’s one class of content that has benefitted the most from the explosion of streaming and the proliferation of OTT platforms, it is the unsung regional cinema of the country. The Covid-19 induced extended lockdown has proved to be an additional boon for our country’s rich regional movie output. The combination of both has served to spread the allure of Indian language movies far and wide.
Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Oriya, Gujarati, Assamese, Marathi — almost every regional language movie has reaped the fruits of streaming on an OTT platform. Viewers who wouldn’t otherwise have gone to the theatres to catch a regional language movie have watched these movies on streaming platforms, more so in the lockdown.
Celebrities too have taken the time to watch highly recommended regional movies. Telugu film Mahanati was appreciated by Deepika Padukone, who posted on social media about the film, and urged everyone to watch the film. Anushka Sharma gave a shout out to Malayalam gem, Kumbalangi Nights, posting on her Instagram Stories, “What a lovely film. Such beautiful direction and brilliant cast”.
Kumbalangi Nights also received lavish praise from Mike McCahill, well-known critic of The Guardian, who wrote, “Kumbalangi Nights is instead characterised by a thoughtful silence: it transports us to one of this planet’s quieter, prettier spots, and never feels the need to overcompensate with score, action or frantic jabber, allowing scenes to present as reflective or stilled, like the Kumbalangi waterways”. Sigh, what a lovely description for a lovely film!
Malayalam movies Kapella and Helen, Assamese movies Village Rockstars, Bulbul Can Sing, and the compelling Aamis (Ravening), have all reached and been appreciated by a worldwide audience. Gujarati masterpiece Hellaro was watched and admired by a diverse demographic of audiences, of all cultures and languages. Marathi movies such as Photograph and Court, Punjabi flick Sufna and others like them have spread far and wide to global adoration.
All credit is due to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, for streaming these movies into homes across the globe, and giving a much wider audience to India’s regional cinema than it could have ever dreamed of.
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