Indian Films That Won Cannes Awards Over The Years Streaming on OTT

Indian Films That Won Cannes Awards Over The Years Streaming on OTT Cannes, France, has hosted a prominent film festival since 1975, inviting artists from all over the world to showcase their work.

After a canceled 2020 edition and a scaled-back gathering last year, the Cannes Film Festival rolled out the red carpet on Tuesday, May 17, 2022. Cinema has always managed to strike a chord with audiences, not only in India but around the world. Several worldwide forums have praised the stories, artists, and directors of these outstanding Indian films on numerous occasions.

List of Indian Films That Won Cannes Awards Watch ON OTT

As film fans prepare for the 75th edition of the famed Cannes Film Festival, we’ve compiled a list of some Indian films that have received international acclaim at the festival over the years and are streaming on OTT platforms of India.

1- Masaan

Masaan, a remote location, tells two heartbreaking stories: one about Devi, whose life is sentenced after she is found in the act, and another about a man who is captured in the act. And there’s the story of Deepak, a lower-caste kid who falls in love with an upper-caste girl. Will Devi and Deepak find the rainbow at the end of the tunnel, respectively? Richa checks into a sleazy lodge to meet up with college classmate Piyush Agarwal in order to learn more about the bees and birds (Saurabh Chaudhary).

Their romp is cut short when a badass cop (Bhagwan Tiwari) assaults the location and blackmails them. Deepak (Vicky Kaushal), a kid from the untouchable Dom caste, is shown in a parallel track. Despite being a brilliant student, he can’t help but feel marginalized because, like his father and older brother, he is compelled to work on the Ganges Ghats, burning funeral pyres. When Deepak falls for Shaalu, his entire world changes (Shweta Tripathi). Despite their fears that the caste system will divide them, this pair steals passionate kisses beneath the Peepal tree and nurses starry-eyed dreams.

Masaan, an Indo-French collaboration that garnered awards at Cannes earlier, stars Neeraj Ghaywan, an Anurag Kashyap alumnus, as the storyteller. The movie moves at a leisurely pace, occasionally tugging at your heartstrings. The haste with which young people in India’s heartland feel compelled to learn about Facebook, forbidden fruit and freedom has been brilliantly recorded.

2. The Lunchbox

Millions of lunch boxes are delivered daily around Mumbai, India, by the famed Dabbawallahs. They pick up containers packed by housewives and bring them to the husbands’ offices utilizing public transportation.

A Harvard University research revealed that only one in a million lunchboxes is delivered to the wrong individual, according to one of the delivery men in the film. The story of an odd friendship that develops as a result of a misdelivered lunchbox is told in this exquisite and emotionally moving drama written and directed by Ritesh Batra. Irrfan Khan plays Saajan, a lonely accountant who is about to retire.

He is a widower who keeps to himself at work and is regarded as a grumpy old man by the local youngsters, whom he orders to be quiet with their street activities. He has arranged for a lunchbox to be brought from a nearby eatery. He opens it one day and eats some unusually delicious meals. The Lunchbox is a powerful story about love, sorrow, and longing. It’s a lovely depiction of the life lesson that “occasionally the wrong train will deliver you to the correct stop.”

3- Salaam Bombay

The filmmakers gathered a group of Bombay street kids and interviewed them about their lives while exploring the streets, train stations, bazaars, and red-light districts where many of them lived.

A screenplay that was a combination of numerous lives evolved from these talks. The children were then enlisted in a daily session for weeks, not to learn “acting” (which they already understood from hundreds of overacted Indian cinema melodramas) It’s amazing how well Nair develops this street world and explains its laws without seeming to force her story on us.

One of her secrets is location shooting; not a single scene in this film was shot on a set or in a studio, and several situations, such as a funeral procession, were shot with hidden cameras to catch the audience’s unscripted behavior. It also made a place in the list of Indian Films That Won Cannes Awards.

4- Pather Panchali

With the premiere of Satyajit Ray’s debut film, Pather Panchali, in 1955, a powerful and influential new cinematic voice was born. This naturalistic but poetic evocation of a number of years in the life of a family, inspired by Italian neorealism, introduces us to both little Apu and, just as importantly, the women who will help shape him: his independent older sister, Durga; his harried mother, Sarbajaya, who, with her husband away, must hold the family together; and his kindly and mischievous elderly “auntie,” Indir—all vivid, multifaceted characters.

Pather Panchali, which received the Best Human Document award at Indian Films That Won Cannes Awards, is an immersive cinematic experience and a film of elemental strength, with magnificent imagery informed by its youthful protagonist’s continual feeling of discovery.

5- Boot Polish

Boot Polish is a project close to his heart, as it is produced by the acclaimed actor-director. It was, nevertheless, an unusual RK production. The studio’s signature imagery – Prithviraj Kapoor praying, followed by the logo of Raj Kapoor and Nargis striking a loving position – gives way to a less familiar sight: an illustration of two youngsters hand in hand, pointing towards a rising sun in the distance.

Before the film’s title, the opening titles reveal the names of the kid actors – Baby Naaz and Rattan Kumar. The children’s aunt is far from sympathetic (though the film does allow us to reflect on how she, too, is driven by dire poverty), but there is a quirky early scene where, before sending them out to beg, she hums the tune they should use to coerce money out of people’s pockets – and, much to our delight, this woman’s harsh voice becomes imbued with sweetness and melody for a few seconds. Beautiful music in support of a deplorable purpose. It is the film that also made history by getting a name in the list of Indian Films That Won Cannes Awards.

Also Read:

• List of The films Nominated for Oscars 2023
• Film actors who received Dadasaheb Phalke International Awards 2023 on OTT.