Aren’t we all just suckers for good movies?
Urban life and culture revolve around a good amount of time around movies and movie-related stuff. On romantic dates or friendly day-outs, we plan for a movie at the theatre; for a house party with friends, we often end up with a re-watch of our old favourite; even for a night-in all by oneself, a laptop and a good watch usually top our lists. Everybody has their own choice of genre as to which type of movies they like to watch. For some it is horror or thriller, some of the romantic movies and some others prefer science or epic fantasies.
Movies are perhaps the most widely accessed source of inspiration for art and creativity. While it is important to watch the ones with deeper meanings or the ones with far-reaching significances, it is equally important to indulge in light and feel-good watches once in a while; and contrary to the popular conception – they are definitely not always without a heart-touching story.
Here are eight feel-good, a slice of life movies from both Hindi and English languages that you can watch over the weekend:
- BEFORE SUNRISE
Unlike your regular boy-meets-girl romance, Before Sunrise is a beautiful story woven with heart-to-heart conversations between the lead characters Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) after they meet on a train and decide to spend the day roaming around the city of Vienna. The plot is very minimalistic and doesn’t unfold to bigger turns of events, but the movie is unpredictably soul-stirring. The exchange of ideas and perspectives on life, death and love, revealing more than they would have done under normal circumstances and the final uncertainty of their next meeting leaves the audience in the same kind of satisfaction yet anticipation.
The movie had two more sequels about the couple’s future days but this one remains to be a refreshing watch with its honesty and simplicity.
Source: https://goo.gl/7a35Bj
- WAKE UP SID
Wake Up Sid is one of the leading coming-of-age movies in Bollywood which has a young guy Sidhharth (Ranbir Kapoor) leaving his father’s house and financial support to pursue his dream career in photography and ends up being flat-mates with an aspiring writer from Kolkata, Aisha (Konkona Sen Sharma). She helps him in the process of realising his priorities and understanding his own responsibilities and capabilities in life.
The movie is not a love story, nor does it have a “forever after”. With both the characters somewhat settled in their own lives and yet coping with their new-found identities in the end, their life goes on; like every one of us.
Source: https://goo.gl/kZqP1E
- CHEF
Actor-Director Jon Favreau hops into the shoes of a professional chef in this heart-warming tale of hope and family bonding. Over a difference of opinion with his former employer, he quits the job of a head chef in a leading restaurant and goes on to pursue his dream of a food truck. He lets his son join him on the tour and rekindles an emotional bond with him all the while getting famous for his tacos and burritos.
With good acts from Favreau and the rest of the cast, and a cameo by none other than Robert Downey Jr., this movie shows us how you are never too old to go back to your dreams and the emotions you left behind while running a race for life.
Source: https://goo.gl/fUkQRW
- YEH JAWANI HAI DEEWANI
A modern-day drama full of love, friendship, adventures, weddings, colourful exotic locations and playlist-worthy songs – this movie is all that you need on a Saturday afternoon to feel better about life. With an ordinary storyline, the movie still pulls a chord or a two with the dreamers and romantics.
Assumed as yet another clichéd love story at the box office, it slowly picked up to be one of the highest grossers of the year, much helped by the refreshing performances by the actors (Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Kalki Koechlin and Aditya Roy Kapoor). The audience did not come expecting anything more than entertainment for a couple of hours, but they went back with smiles on their faces.
Source: https://goo.gl/nQ1p5A
- HOLIDAY
A love story through and through, yet not really a conventional one – Holiday is one of Nancy Meyer’s best romantic comedies. Bored of their existing lives and heartbroken in their relationships, two women – Amanda (Cameron Diaz) and Iris (Kate Winslet) exchange their residences for a month looking for peace of mind. But they happen to find love in the most unexpected person, in the most unexpected way.
A simple movie with complex and totally relatable emotions, the movie is as feel-good as it gets; and it also has a happy ending!
Source: https://goo.gl/A9vXP2
- ZINDAGI NA MILEGI DOBARA
The second movie directed by the talented Zoya Akhtar, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara has become a cult-classic movie among the modern day movie-goers. With three childhood friends catching up on a long-due trip to Spain just before the wedding of one of them, the movie brilliantly explores life and its dilemmas in a way that has not quite been seen before. A stellar performance by the lead cast – Farhan Akhtar, Hrithik Roshan and Abhay Deol brings out three very real, humorous, emotional and conflicted human beings while they indulge in three different adventure sports – each chosen by one of them.
We see them overcome their fears, deal with their uncertainties and face their doubts and finally come out as better people, to some extent. Probably worth a million times watch, ZNMD never stops to inspire the mind and heart, young or old.
Source: https://goo.gl/kZ7nnb
- THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
The story of how Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins), a successful banker is falsely accused of murdering his wife and her lover and is sentenced to life imprisonment at the Shawshank Prison; how he befriends Red (Morgan Freeman) and becomes a very unconventional prisoner; and how he finally manages to achieve freedom in the end is nothing short of a masterpiece.
Not exactly what you would call a light-watch, yet this movie is one of the best of those movies which will leave you happy yet moved in the end. The climax, with all its jaw-dropping twists and turns, still punches a feel of clean victory extremely hard. No wonder the movie tops the IMDb list of all-time best movies.
Source: https://goo.gl/JwBaQv
- QUEEN
The final one on the list is the king or we should probably say the queen of feel-good movies in recent times in Bollywood. Ditched by her fiancé right on the day of marriage, a shy and timid Rani decides to go on her honeymoon to Europe all by herself. Being all lost and confused by a totally different continent, culture and language, soon she finds her feet, makes a bunch of awesome friends and gains a much-needed sense of liberty and independence that her life back in India never allowed.
Kangana Ranaut killed it on screen, perfectly portraying the butterfly effect of Rani, where she evolves and grows without clinging on to any negativity. A story of a young woman stretching her emotional boundaries in unfamiliar situations and fighting for her self-respect in the most subtle manner, Queen is the movie we all needed very badly.
Source: https://goo.gl/gcE8sN