Netflix has a fairly large library of Hindi movies. However, most Hindi movies on Netflix belong to this decade and it’ll be hard for you to come across classic titles from the golden era. So here’s a list of the best Hindi movies on Netflix; one’s that you might have missed but ought to watch, and those that could do with a rewatch.
That said, the streaming platform has done a good job of accumulating some lesser-known, but brilliant independent Hindi films. You will also find a number of Hindi box-office hits and timeless titles that never get too old to rewatch.
Best Hindi movies on Netflix:
Editor’s note: We’ll be updating this list of the best Amazon Prime originals regularly as new ones are announced.
Garbage (2018)
A product of Director Qaushiq Mukherjee’s (more popularly known as Q) imagination, Garbage is a dark and twisted, yet important narrative about how the Indian society treats women. The story revolves around two main characters — a young woman who finds herself in a precarious position after her sex tape leaks on the internet and a taxi driver who secretly imprisons a tribal woman. The two characters cross paths in the beach city of Goa and the film juxtapositions their respective lives, leading viewers into a place of uncomfortable realizations.
Game Over
Game Over was originally shot in Tamil and Telugu but was also dubbed in Hindi by Netflix. The psychological thriller casts Taapsee Pannu in the lead. Pannu plays a wheelchair-bound woman who suffers from Nyctophobia (fear of darkness). She’s also dealing with post traumatic stress and keeps reliving a violent incident from her past. Her worst fears are realized when a gang of intruders invade her home. However, something sinister is brewing as she keeps waking up in the same spot after being murdered multiple by her home invaders.
Chopsticks
Chopsticks is a feel-good Hindi movie on Netflix starring Abhay Deol and Mithila Palkar. Deol plays a con man named Artist who is well versed with the underbelly of Mumbai. Palkar dons the role of Nirma, an introverted and under-confident girl. Their worlds clash when Nirma’s car gets stolen and someone refers her to Artist for help in retrieving it back. As the duo begin their hunt for the vehicle, they start admiring each other’s contrasting personalities.
Rajma Chawal
Named after the most popular North Indian meal, Rajma Chawal is a comedy film starring Rishi Kapoor, Anirudh Tanwar and Amyra Dastur. The Netflix movie explores a father-son relationship after the death of the matriarch in the family. Raj Mathur (Kapoor) and his son Kabir (Tanwar) move to their old family home after the death of Kabir’s mother. The youngster resents his father for the move and denies his friend request on Facebook. To keep in communicating with his son, Raj decided to pose as Tara (Dastur) and starts speaking to his son through the fake account. What follows is a series of hilarious and heartwarming events.
Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal
What happens when feminism turns into a deadly force? Four exasperated Delhi women decide to take matter into their own hands and make a man feel what they’ve been feeling for years — unsafe and disrespected. This Netflix Hindi movie is directed and written by Aditya Kripalani (Tikli and Laxmi Bomb) and has won favor from critics for its uneasy yet powerful message.
Lust Stories
Lust Stories is a Netflix original Hindi movie which features four different stories directed by Anurag Kashyap, Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee and Karan Johar. It also has a stellar cast with the likes of Radhika Apte, Manisha Koirala, Vicky Kaushal, Neha Dhupia and Sanjay Kapoor appearing in separate stories. The movie explores the themes of love, lust, loss and taboo relationships.
Haraamkhor
This Hindi movie on Netflix tells the story of a forbidden relationship between a school teacher (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and his teenage student (Shweta Tripathi). Siddiqui plays Shyam, a teacher in a village who takes advantage of his student Sandhya’s (Tripathi) circumstances. Since Sandhya comes from a broken family with an drunk for a father, she is instantly taken by Shyam’s mature advances. She tries to look for stability in the relationship, but things go very wrong when two of her classmates discover the secret affair.
Masaan
Masaan is probably one of the most well-made, offbeat Hindi movie of this decade. It features brilliant performances from Vicky Kaushal, Richa Chadda, Shweta Tripathi and Sanjay Mishra. The film won two awards at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The plot of Masaan is set in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, where moral prejudice and cast differences reign supreme. The first narrative is that of a college teacher (Chadda) who is ridiculed by her orthodox peers for getting caught in the act of sex in a hotel room. The second narrative is that of a young man (Kaushal) who cremates dead bodies for a living and falls in love with an upper-caste Hindu girl (Tripathi). The film, in its entirety, follows the predicament of these central characters and how their lives are disrupted by inherently damaged societal values.
Another grim tale based on caste discrimination in rural India, Article 15 is the story of a police officer (Ayushmann Khurrana) who wants to break prejudiced perceptions in a village community. He is stationed at Laalgaon village where he comes across a strange case of missing girls. He soon discovers that the village cops are hand-in-glove with a rich and influential local family to suppress the investigation.
Soni
Soni is an original Hindi movie on Netflix which revolves around the life of a young policewoman in Delhi. Together, she and her superintendent, Kalpana, take on a growing crisis of violent crimes against women in the city. However, their partnership suffers a blow when Soni is transferred for alleged misconduct on duty. Her estranged husband comes back to cause add to her problems. The film was very well received by critics for the performances by the two lead characters as well as for its commendable direction.
The Blue Umbrella
This Hindi movie on Netflix is perhaps one of the best film adaptations of a Ruskin Bond novel. It also won the National Film Award for Best Children’s Film in its time. The story is set in a small hill station. It’s the tale of a little girl called Binya and her umbrella. One day, the girl gets a beautiful blue umbrella as a gift from some foreigners. A local shopkeeper gets obsessed with Binya’s umbrella and tries to buy it from her. She refuses, setting off a chain of events that eventually land the umbrella in the shopkeeper’s possession.
Waiting
Waiting parallels the lives of two people waiting for their respective spouses to wake up from a comatose state. One of them is an aged man (Naseeruddin Shah) who awaits his wife’s recovery. The other is a young woman (Kalki Koechlin), whose husband suffers a tragic accident and is battling for his life. The two meet in the waiting room of the hospital and the movie weaves a beautiful narrative about how adversity makes people grow and brings them closer together.
Angry Indian Goddesses
A group of girlfriends get together in Goa for a friend’s engagement. From life, to sexuality, to harassment, these women are on a serious girl-bonding vacation. But their night of mayhem and partying goes south when one of them is gangraped and killed. The cops’ patriarchal attitude doesn’t help things and the women take it upon themselves to avenge their friend’s death. The film is bold, daring and was one of the first of its kind to represent the trial and tribulations of modern Indian women. It sure is an enlightening watch for all genders.
Dev.D
This Hindi movie is Anurag Kashyap’s modern take at the classic Bengali romance novel Devdas. Abhay Deol plays the scorned lover who was barred from marrying the love of his life Paro (Mahi Gill). Dejected, he takes to alcohol and womanizing. That’s when he meets Chanda (Kalki Koechlin), a student turned sex worker. Dev.D is still highly regarded for its outstanding music and screenplay. It’s definitely one to save for that rewatch list.
3 Idiots
Possibly one of the most popular Hindi movies to date, 3 Idiots is not just hilarious, but extremely emotionally stirring. At the time of its release, the movie made $90 million in just a few weeks after its opening. 3 Idiots tells the story of three friends (Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan, and Sharman Joshi) who attend India’s premiere engineering college, IIT. What follows is a comical commentary on India’s educational institutions and the pressures faced by their students. What you get is three hours worth of laughter, emotion, coming-of-age realizations and most of all true friendship.
