I spent three evenings last month scrolling through Netflix India looking for a Hindi movie to watch with my family. Forty minutes of scrolling. The recommendation algorithm kept showing me the same 8 titles regardless of what I searched for.
Eventually I gave up and asked a friend who watches more movies than anyone I know. She gave me a list of 6 films in two minutes. All of them were already on Netflix. None of them had been recommended to me by the algorithm.
This list is that kind of recommendation — from someone who actually watched these films, not from an algorithm optimised to show you whatever Netflix is promoting this week.
Tumbbad (1988 — Available on Netflix)
If you have not watched Tumbbad yet stop reading this article and go watch it right now. Come back after.
Tumbbad is the most visually stunning Indian film made in the last 30 years. It took its director Rahi Anil Barve over a decade to complete. The production design, the colour grading, the practical effects — nothing in this film looks like any other Indian film you have ever seen.
It is a horror film rooted in Indian mythology about greed and its consequences. The central metaphor — a creature that represents humanity’s insatiable appetite for wealth — is more relevant in 2026 than it was when the film released. It runs 104 minutes and does not waste a single one of them.
Best watched: At night, with headphones, without interruption.
Drishyam 2 (2022 — Available on Netflix)
The original Drishyam was about a man who may or may not have committed a crime and the lengths he went to protect his family. Drishyam 2 picks up seven years later and is somehow better than the first film.
What makes both films work is Ajay Devgn’s performance — quiet, controlled, giving away nothing. The script respects the audience’s intelligence. It does not explain its twists before they happen or over-explain them after. It trusts you to keep up.
Most sequels exist to make money. Drishyam 2 exists because the story genuinely had more to say.
12th Fail (2023 — Available on Netflix)
This is the film I have recommended most to people over the last year. It is based on the true story of Manoj Kumar Sharma who grew up in extreme poverty in Madhya Pradesh and eventually cleared the UPSC exam — one of the hardest competitive examinations in the world.
What stops it from being a standard inspirational film is the honesty. It does not pretend the journey was heroic at every step. There are failures, compromises, moments of genuine despair. The romance subplot is handled with unusual sensitivity for a Bollywood film.
Vikrant Massey gives the performance of his career. If you grew up in a small Indian town and had parents who sacrificed everything for your education, this film will hit differently.
Andhadhun (2018 — Available on Netflix)
A blind pianist witnesses a murder he was not supposed to witness. That is the setup. What follows is one of the most entertaining thrillers Indian cinema has produced.
Andhadhun works because it keeps escalating. Every time you think you understand where the story is going, it turns somewhere unexpected. The screenplay is genuinely clever — not twist-for-the-sake-of-twist clever but logically consistent clever where the surprises make sense in hindsight.
Ayushmann Khurrana has made a career of picking scripts that other actors would pass on. This is his best work.
Lunchbox (2013 — Available on Netflix)
Not every good film needs to be a thriller or an action film. Lunchbox is a quiet, slow, beautiful film about two lonely people in Mumbai who begin exchanging letters through a mistaken lunchbox delivery.
Irrfan Khan passed away in 2020 and every film he left behind feels more precious now. His performance here — a widower approaching retirement who has stopped expecting anything good to happen — is the kind of acting that makes you forget you are watching acting.
Watch this on a Sunday afternoon when you have nothing urgent to do.
What Netflix India Is Getting Wrong
One honest observation: Netflix India’s recommendation algorithm consistently promotes recently added content over better older content. Tumbbad and Lunchbox have been on the platform for years and routinely get buried under newer mediocre releases.
The search function is your friend. If you know what you are looking for, Netflix India has a genuinely impressive library of Indian cinema. If you rely on the homepage recommendations, you will mostly see whatever Netflix spent money promoting that week.
