Film

Aiyyaa

Aiyyaa is a breezy romantic comedy about a dreamy Marathi woman with a hyperactive sense of smell who falls for a Tamil artist. Director Sachin Kundalkar crafts something genuinely odd and charming—a film that delights in its characters' eccentricities rather than punishing them. It's warm, occasionally surreal, and unafraid to be gently weird. For anyone who loves movies that smile at their own strangeness.

TMDb rating2.4

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English Vinglish2012

Gauri Shinde's gem about a housewife finding herself in New York. Like Aiyyaa, it centers a woman's interior life—her dreams, her voice, her worth—with tenderness and humour. Rani Mukerji is luminous here too.

But It's a quieter film, less overtly romantic. Some find it slow; others find that the point.

English Vinglish poster

Wake Up Sid2009

A young, directionless guy meets someone who changes his life. It has the same easy warmth, the same trust in small moments between people, the same sense that love is about being truly seen rather than swept away.

But The male lead and his privilege can grate. It's also very much of its moment—early-2010s Bollywood glamour that hasn't aged evenly.

Wake Up Sid poster

Khosla Ka Ghosla!2006

A Delhi family comedy-drama that finds humour in how people actually talk, think and behave. Like Aiyyaa, it's rooted in real regional specificity and character quirks rather than broad Bollywood gestures.

But The plotting is baggy in places. It sometimes feels like four ideas competing for the same film.

Khosla Ka Ghosla! poster

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Chandni Bar2001

Both films centre a woman's relationship to her body and desire—but Chandni Bar asks what happens when that desire becomes a commodity. Aiyyaa celebrates a woman's interior world; Chandni Bar shows what happens when the world doesn't celebrate back.

Madhuri Dixit in a brutally dark role: a woman navigating exploitation and survival in Mumbai's underbelly. It's visually audacious, genuinely harrowing, and the inverse of everything Madhuri represents in Bollywood fantasy—which is precisely why Aiyyaa's Meenakshi would never imagine it.

But It's graphically violent and explores sexual coercion unflinchingly. It's heavy in ways that romance comedies are designed never to be. Not easy viewing.

Chandni Bar poster
More like this (8)

Band Baaja Baaraat2010

Two Delhi entrepreneurs fall in love while planning weddings. It has Aiyyaa's gift for making ordinary people extraordinary, and for finding romance in partnership and respect rather than grand gestures.

But The climax leans into some conventional Bollywood beats after a very unconventional build-up. It can feel like the film second-guesses itself.

Band Baaja Baaraat poster

Rang De Basanti2006

A young woman gathers a group of friends for a documentary project; everything spirals into something larger. It has real characters with real flaws, genuine chemistry between the ensemble, and an unashamed belief in the possibility of change.

But It's nearly three hours, and the tonal shift in the second half isn't for everyone. Some scenes feel overwrought in retrospect.

Rang De Basanti poster

Piku2015

A woman navigates her demanding father, her own ambitions, and an unexpected connection with someone who sees her clearly. Quirky, funny, anchored by two actors who genuinely enjoy each other's company.

But The digestive humour is relentless and specific—if that joke doesn't land for you, it's a very long film.

Piku poster

Kahaani2012

A pregnant woman navigates Kolkata, searching for her missing husband. Like Aiyyaa, it's a regional film that trusts its setting as a character. It's also thrilling, clever, and has an ending that earns its audacity.

But The third act makes a significant tonal shift. For some, it elevates the film; for others, it feels like two movies stitched together.

Kahaani poster

Barfi!2012

A deaf-mute man and an autistic woman fall in love in pre-Partition Darjeeling. It's visually gorgeous, genuinely moving, and refuses to treat its characters' differences as tragic—just as part of how they move through the world.

But It can feel saccharine if you're not in the mood for it. Some find the whimsy excessive, the sentiment unearned.

Barfi! poster

Margarita with a Straw2015

A young woman with cerebral palsy navigates desire, independence and identity. It's tender and unflinching, funny and serious, and centred entirely on a character learning who she is and what she wants.

But It's slower than Aiyyaa, more introspective. Some sequences of vulnerability might sit uncomfortably if you prefer lighter romance.

Margarita with a Straw poster

The Trouble with Angels1966

Both films trust their female leads to be eccentric and difficult, and both insist—quietly, firmly—that this is a feature, not a bug. Both are fundamentally about the right to be yourself.

A 1960s American film about two girls sent to Catholic school who drive their headmistress to distraction. It's lightweight, funny, and genuinely subversive—the girls win by being themselves, not by conforming.

But The humour is period-specific and sometimes feels quaint. It's cotton-candy compared to modern comedy's bite.

The Trouble with Angels poster

Yi Yi2000

Both films centre the lives of ordinary people with extraordinary inner worlds. Both trust you to find beauty in how people actually live—in glances, silences, the gap between what we feel and what we can say.

Edward Yang's sprawling Taiwanese family saga. It's three hours of life unfolding—births, deaths, love, disappointment, the ache of not being understood. Achingly beautiful, full of small perfect moments and big emotional truths.

But It's slow, meditative, and deliberately unhurried. It makes no attempt to entertain you in conventional ways. Some find it a masterpiece; others find it a test of patience.

Yi Yi poster

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