If you’re someone that enjoys short, crisp stories that can be watched without feeling like you’re a couch potato, then this list of Hindi and other language anthologies will surely give you your next binge-session content. take a look.
1. I am
I am is an anthology based on four real stories. Where Afia is about sperm donation and surrogacy, Abhimanyu is about child abuse, Omar is about gay rights and Megha is about the Kashmiri Pandit exodus. You can watch this on Disney + Hotstar.
2. Ajeeb Dastaans
This consists of four short stories as well, Majnu, Khilauna, Geeli Pucchi and Ankahi. The project is a collaboration between Karan Johar and Netflix. Each story has underlying themes of love, mystery, casteism and betrayal. Watch it here.
3. C/o Kancharapalem -Telugu
C/o Kancharapalem depicts the lives of four couples and how they fight against social norms like age, class, religion and caste to be with each other. You can watch the film on Mubi.
4. Paava Kadhaigal – Tamil
Paava Kadhaigal has been directed by Sudha Kongara, Gautham Menon, Vetrimaaran and Vignesh Shivan. It is a compilation of four love stories wherein situations which involve caste, pride and honour are shown to influence each of the narratives. You can catch it on Netflix.
5. Bombay Talkies
Directed by Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap Bombay Talkies is an anthology which has four stories within and talks about sexuality, irony and parental influence. You can watch it on Netflix.
6. Sillu Karuppatti – Tamil
Sillu karrupatti is a romantic anthology written and directed by Halitha Shameem. It consists of stories about four couples, from different age groups and different stages of lives. Where one couple re-connects after 12 years of marriage, the other meets and fall for each other over multiple cab rides. You can watch this on Netflix.
7. Three Daughters
Three Daughters or better known as Teen Kanya has been directed by Satyajit Ray, and is based on stories by Rabindranath Tagore. The film has three short stories in it and has won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali, Selznick Golden Laurel for Best Film and Best Director & Best Indian Film of the year at the 25th Annual BFJA Awards.
8. Bioscope – Marathi
Bioscope is an anthology of four stories directed by Gajendra Ahire, Viju Mane, Girish Mohite. Each of them are based on poems or literary works by writers such as Mirza Ghalib, Sandip Khare, folk poet Loknath Yashwant, and Saumitra. You can watch it on Amazon Prime Video.
9. Unpaused
Released in December, 2020, Unpaused is a compilation of four stories that has been directed by Raj & DK, Nitya Mehra, Nikkhil Advani, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Avinash Arun. All the stories depict lives of people who’ve been been impacted by COVID-19. So the underlying themes are about the loneliness, and love in these times. You can catch it on Amazon Prime Video.
10. Lust Stories
I guess we all know of this one. Lust Stories, as the name suggests, is a collection of short stories that talks about sexuality, and lust as an emotion. Whether that’s between a couple where orgasming is one way street or in a love triangle. it is available to watch on Netflix.
11. Dus Kahaniyaan
Dus Kahaniyaan released back in 2007 and has been directed by Sanjay Gupta, Apoorva Lakhia, Meghna Gulzar, Rohit Roy, Hansal Mehta and Jasmeet Dhodhi. And as the name suggests, the anthology consists of ten stories, surrounding love, infidelity and college love. You can catch it on Zee5..
12. Ghost Stories
Ghost Stories is another project by Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Anurag Kashyap. Though, this is a collection of four horror stories. You can watch it on Netflix.
13. III Smoking Barrels
Released in 2017, III Smoking Barrels consists of three short stories surrounding socio-political conditions of North East India. It has used six spoken languages within the film and has won the Silver Palm Award at the 2018 Mexico International Film Festival for Best Narrative Feature. It is available to watch on Netflix.
14. Kerala Café – Malayalam
Kerala Café was directed by ten people, the stories are centered around a café where different customers are shown to visit. Each of them bring different narratives and life experiences with them. From themes about sex trafficking to infidelity, the ten stories have it all.
15. Feels Like Ishq
A collection of six romantic, light hearted love stories that give the audience a glimpse of young love, Feels Like Ishq is a good watch for a cosy, monsoon afternoon. You can watch it on Netflix.
Which one will you be watching first?