Cinema
Films that stay with me
Ten films from different languages and decades, and what each one taught me. A personal shelf, always open to additions.
- 1,717 films logged
- 414 watched in theatres
- 57 first day, first show
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Bengali1955
Pather Panchali
It taught me that a film doesn't need a plot twist or a hero to break your heart. Watching Apu and Durga run through the fields to see a train, I understood how much joy fits into a poor childhood, and how quickly life can take it away. Every time I sit in a village home for fieldwork, some frame from this film comes back to me.
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Italian1988
Cinema Paradiso
This is the film I'd show someone to explain why I love cinema. It's about a boy and a projectionist, but really it's about growing up, leaving home, and finding out that the place you left kept a piece of you. The last scene still gets me every time.
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English1994
The Shawshank Redemption
Hope is a quiet thing. Andy doesn't shout or rebel; he just keeps going, one small step at a time, for years. I come back to this film whenever work feels slow and pointless. Patience isn't weakness.
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Tamil2003
Anbe Sivam
This film changed how I think about god. Not in temples, but in the person who helps a stranger without asking anything back. Kamal Haasan and Madhavan arguing on a long journey is some of the best conversation I've seen on screen. Every viewing teaches me something new about kindness.
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Korean2003
Memories of Murder
It taught me how frustrating it is to want an answer and not get one. The detectives are flawed, the system is broken, and the truth stays out of reach. That final look into the camera stayed with me for days. As someone who works with data and evidence, I found it strangely personal.
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Kannada2011
Paramathma
Not every film has to make complete sense. Some just have to feel right. Paramathma is wandering, poetic and very Yogaraj Bhat, and Appu plays a man still searching for what he wants. I liked it because I recognised that searching. Its songs still play in my head.
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Malayalam2013
Mumbai Police
A thriller that kept me guessing until the very end, and then made me rethink everything I'd watched. Beyond the twist, it's about who we really are when memory and labels are stripped away. Malayalam cinema took a brave risk here, and I respect that.
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Kannada2018
KGF: Chapter 1
Pure mass, and I'm not ashamed to love it. What I really loved was the feeling of watching a Kannada film fill theatres across the country. For years we were told our cinema couldn't travel. KGF proved otherwise, and as a Kannadiga, that felt personal.
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Arabic2018
Capernaum
The hardest watch on this list, and the most important for me. A child with no birth certificate, who officially doesn't exist, fights for some dignity. In public health we talk about the “invisible” in statistics; this film shows you one of them, face to face. I couldn't look away, and I shouldn't have.
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Tamil2024
Meiyazhagan
Who are “you”? Who am “I”? This film asks that gently, through one long night of two people talking. It reminded me that kindness without expectation is one of life's simplest pleasures, and that going home is never just about a place.
What I'm watching now is on Letterboxd ↗