Indian Christian Cinema: 10 Movies You Should Watch
Indian Christians have often been ignored or caricaturized in Indian media due to a lack of awareness around the Indian Christian community. This is more true in the North than the South, where Christians often are just a sliver of the population. The situation in the South is better, as a larger Christian community and better representation in the media and entertainment sector has allowed for a more nuanced representation of Indian Christians. This is a list of 10 Indian movies I’ve enjoyed that feature Indian Christian protagonists and explore the cultures and lifestyles of India’s diverse Christian communities. The emphasis here is more on representation rather than explicit Christian themes, though a few of the movies do have both. These movies are not listed in any particular order.
1. Kumbalangi Nights
Release Date: 2019 \\ Language: Malayalam \\ Genre: Feel Good, Thriller
This movie follows the lives of 4 dysfunctional brothers, with a love-hate relationship, as they try to navigate the ups and downs of young adulthood. The brothers lost their father as a child and their mother struggled with mental health issues before abandoning them to devote herself full time to a Pentecostal mission. The brothers consist of Saji, who has anger management issues, Bobby, a deadbeat who makes a genuine attempt to straighten out after falling in love, Bobby, a mute artist, and Franky, a high school student embarrassed by his lack of a normal family.
The movie contains subtle Christian themes and deals will concept of masculinity and the struggles that young men living on society’s margins often encounter. The movie is also notable for featuring a Black woman in a major role. This is the first time an Indian movie has shown a Black female play a nuanced role..
2. Massey Sahib
Release Date: 1985 \\ Language: Hindi \\ Genre: Drama, Historic
Massey Sahib is an adaptation of Joyce Carry’s 1939 novel ‘Mister Johnson’. The movie follows the tribulations of Francis Massey, an Indian Anglican civil servant employed by the British colonial government during the 1920s in what is now Madhya Pradesh state in Central India. The movie is an incredibly rare and nuanced look at the world Indian Christians straddled while living under a British colonial government.
Francis Massey is a unique character. In some ways he’s an incredibly industrious man who is constantly striving in for better in a society that regards him as inferior. But he’s also naive and impulsive and it’s this unique combination that results in him being used by Indian and Britishers alike until he one day finds that while after helping everyone else climb to the top he’s left at the bottom.
3. Sarvaam Thaala Mayam
Release Date: 2019 \\ Language: Tamil \\ Genre: Drama, Feel Good
Sarvaam Thaala Mayam was a great movie, but it’s also notable for the attention it gave to Tamil Nadu’s Dalit Christian community. Though 70% of India’s Christians come from lower caste backgrounds the majority of Christian representation of Indian Christians come from more well off cohorts (Syro-Christians, Mumbai Goans, Anglo-Indians).
The movie follows the life of Peter Johnson, the son of a mridangam craftsman. Mridangam’s are a traditional drum used in classical Tamil music. He is totally apathetic to it all, until he hears a classical performance, after which he begs an orthodox brahmin mridangam master to teach him. Though initially reluctant, he takes him on as a mentee. Though Peter must now contend will all forms of anti-Christian and anti-Dalit discrimination in a space dominated by higher castes.
The movie also focuses a great deal on music and was inspired by the non-fiction book “Sebastian & Sons: A Brief History of Mridangam Makers” by T.M. Krishna which focuses on the relationship between the mostly Dalit mirdangam craftsmen and the mostly brahmin mridangam players.
4. Ave Maria
Release Date: 2018 \\ Language: Malayalam \\ Genre: Drama, Pro-Life
Ave Maria is a Malayalam language movie but it takes place in Tamil speaking pilgrimage town of Velankanni, famous for its shrines and churches dedicated to ‘Our Lady of Velankanni’ (Arokkiya Annai). The film follows a friendship formed between a secular taxi driver, with a seedy lifestyle, and Maria, a devout upper class woman, considering an abortion, due to an extremely unusual and unfortunate turn of events.
Maria initially convinces herself that she can negate the evil of her planned abortion by visiting the pilgrimage town and helping three people in need, but God has different plans for the both of them. P.S. This is not a love story, they do not fall in love and live happily ever after if that’s what your thinking.
5. Love per Square Foot
Release Date: 2018 \\ Language: Hindi \\ Genre: Romance, Comedy
Love per Square Foot revolves around a planned marriage of convenience between two upwardly mobile young professionals. Sanjay, a software engineer from a North Indian Hindu family, and Karina, an accountant from a Goan Catholic family. Karina finds herself grudgingly pulled into an arranged marriage with Samuel, a wealthy Catholic man, who thought nice enough, is too conservative and traditional for her liking. Though she dreams of a more independent life, she grudgingly accepts her marriage with Samuel as she feels she has no other option. That is until she meets Sanjay and the two enter into an unusual marriage of convenience that focuses mostly on their insane attempts to buy their own home in the ultra hot real estate market of Mumbai.
The movie deals with several themes including inter-religious marriage, the role of the extended family in modern society, and the impact unaffordable real estate has on young adults.
6. Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyoon Aata Hai
Release Date: 1980 \\ Language: Hindi \\ Genre: Drama, Political
Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyun Aata Hai (Why does Albert Pinto Get Angry) follows the political awakening of a quick to anger Mumbai car mechanic of Goan Catholic ancestry. Of lower middle class background he naively believes that if he emulates the advice and rhetoric of his upper class customers, who maintain an extremely hostile attitude to the city’s working class and poor, he till can move up in life. However when his father, a factory worker, experiences abuse first hand its sets him on a journey to where he learns it’s Mumbai’s rich, not it’s poor, that are in the wrong. He begins to grow increasingly hostile to the exploitative nature of the country’s capitalist and upper class.
This movie won the 1981 Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie and was remade into a 2019 movie with the same name. That movie is also pretty good, but not as good as the original, in my opinion.
7. Ee.Ma.Yau
Release Date: 2018 \\ Language: Malayalam \\ Genre: Drama, Tragedy
Ee.Ma.Yau follows the events that transpire in a small fishing village after Vavachan, an elderly Christian man dies suddenly after falling and hitting his head against the floor while drunk. Right before he dies though his adult son Eeshi jokingly promises him a grand funeral after hearing his father go on a drunken ramble about how he always wanted a big funeral. Shocked by his passing Eeshi attempts to fulfill his father’s wish as best he can considering his modest rural working class background.
Unfortunately his attempts to do so can be described as one step forward, two steps backs. The movie is a harsh portrayal of how reality can destroy even the most genuine of human desires.
8. Minsara Kanavu
Release Date: 1997 \\ Language: Tamil \\ Genre: Romance
A movie that deserves recognition for being a rare portrayal of a Christian discerning religious life. The movie centers on a young woman named Priya Amalraj who plans on becoming a Roman Catholic nun, much to the objection of her widower father who desires to see her marry. Shortly after she meets Thomas Thangadurai, a young man who returns to India after studying in West. He quickly falls in love with her, and attempts to come up with a plan to make Priya drop her plans to become a nun, after which he intends to confess his love.
The movie also contains some great representation of Catholics nuns and the important role they play in Indian society and same amazing Catholic Tamil music that you should definitely check out, even if you don’t want to watch the movie. Especially the song Anbendra, sung by Anuradha Sriram.
9. Angamaly Diaries
Release Date: 2017 \\ Language: Malayalam \\ Genre: Action, Comedy
Angamaly Diaries follows the life of Vincent Pepe and his friends who work as ‘muscle for hire’ for local businessmen trying to settle business disputes through alternative means. They live in the town of Angamaly in Kerala, which is a Christian majority pilgrimage town, known for spiritual tourism. The story follows Vincent’s attempts to lead a straight life by opening a pork business, but he quickly falls into old habits, and accidentally kills a rival gang member in a fight. Something he never intended to do.
This movie spends a lot of time focusing on the culture of Angamaly, especially the importance of feast days and the regions unique cuisine. It’s climax fight scene is actually notable for being a single continuous shot that takes place during a feat day parade.
10. Finding Fanny
Release Date: 2014 \\ Language: Hindi \\ Genre: Comedy
Goa is often shown to be the Miami of India, a state of non-stop parties, beaches, drugs, and looser morals. Finding Fanny is a rare example of a Hindi film attempting to show a more cultured and idyllic side to the province, with an emphasis on it’s large Roman Catholic minority.
The movie is a road trip comedy centering around an elderly man named Ferdinand Pinto, who receives a decades old love letter, that was never mailed to his youth era sweet heart Stefanie Fernandes. With the help of Angie, a young widow, her mother-in-law, and an eccentric artist and her child hood friend Savio, they all set out across Goa to try and find Stefanie and see if love is still possible for Ferdinand. The movie, focuses on the Portuguese-European heritage of Goan Catholics, which I know many will appreciate. In some cases this is played up quite a lot (a sort of exoticism, except for Indians it’s Europe that’s exotic). However it was based on a lot of research done by the director who spent time living in a Goan Catholic village in order to understand the culture, which is above and beyond for most director’s who portray Indian Christians.
