Film

Ajeeb Daastaans

Name: Ajeeb Daastaans
Genre: Drama, Romance
Released: 2021
Cast: Konkona Sen Sharma, Shefali Shah, Aditi Rao Hydari, Abhishek Banerjee, Nushrratt Bharuccha

Four unconnected short stories, four different directors, one shared nerve: the moment a marriage, a friendship or a workplace cracks and something ugly or tender leaks out. Caste, class, disability and queer longing all get their turn. Uneven by anthology design, but Geeli Pucchi alone is worth the ticket. Good for an evening when you want something to argue about after.

TMDb rating

6.1

If you liked this

Lust Stories2018

The spiritual sibling — same producers, same short-story-portmanteau structure, same appetite for the things Indian cinema usually leaves unsaid about sex and marriage. Konkona Sen Sharma turns up here too, directing this time.

But Also uneven by nature of the format, and a couple of the four segments are noticeably weaker than the rest.

Modern Love Mumbai2022no page yet

Another anthology built from short stories, gentler and more romantic in temperament, but with the same interest in how the city's class lines run straight through people's love lives.

But Softer-edged and more sentimental — if you wanted Ajeeb Daastaans's discomfort, this trades a lot of it for warmth.

Masaan2015no page yet

Neeraj Ghaywan's own feature, made years before he directed Geeli Pucchi, and it's the fuller version of everything that segment does with caste, shame and quiet defiance — set in Varanasi, devastating and precise.

But It's slower and sadder, a proper feature drama rather than a tight short — commit to the mood before you press play.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Carol2015

Same engine as Geeli Pucchi — queer longing that has to travel through a class gap before it can even be spoken — but rendered in Hollywood's most polished, restrained register instead of Mumbai's office corridors.

A department-store shopgirl and an older, wealthier married woman fall for each other in 1950s New York — every glance loaded with the same class-and-desire tension that makes Geeli Pucchi sing.

But Glacially paced and very controlled — if you want Bollywood's emotional volume, this whispers instead.

Bulbbul2020no page yet

From the same production stable, a folk-horror fable about a woman's rage finally finding a form. Gorgeous to look at, furious underneath, and thematically a cousin to Ankahi's quiet suffocation.

But The horror trappings and period setting are a big tonal swerve if you came for realism.

Paatal Lok2020no page yet

A crime series that keeps circling back to the same question Ajeeb Daastaans asks: what caste and class actually cost the people living inside them, told with real teeth and no easy villains.

But It's a full crime procedural commitment, several hours long, and considerably more violent.

Gully Boy2019no page yet

Ranveer Singh as a Mumbai slum kid rapping his way out of the class ceiling everyone around him has accepted. Loud, joyful, and still clear-eyed about what doesn't change.

But Much more upbeat and mainstream Bollywood in shape — music-driven where Ajeeb Daastaans stays quiet.

The White Tiger2021no page yet

A servant's-eye view of Indian class hierarchy that starts sardonic and ends somewhere much darker — Adarsh Gourav is superb, and it shares Khilauna's nerve about what desperation makes people do.

But Its narration is chattier and more cynical in tone, closer to satire than the film's straighter drama.

Sheer Qorma2021no page yet

A short film about a queer daughter bringing her partner home to a devout Muslim family during Ramzan — tender, brave, and doing for faith and sexuality what Geeli Pucchi does for caste and desire.

But It's a short, so the resolution comes fast, and distribution can be harder to track down than the bigger titles here.

Made in Heaven2019no page yet

A wedding-planner series that uses each event to crack open a different family's class anxiety, closeted secret or old wound — glossy surface, genuinely sharp underneath.

But Runs a full season, and the glamour of its wedding-industry setting is a very different texture from the film's intimacy.

The White Ribbon2009

Khilauna's most disturbing idea — a child as silent witness to adult cruelty — gets its most austere, unflinching treatment here, decades earlier and in a completely different register of seriousness.

A pre-WWI German village where something is clearly wrong beneath the surface, and the children are watching more than anyone realises — shot in a stark, gorgeous black and white.

But Cold, deliberately withholding, and nearly two and a half hours of dread with very little release.

The Tribe2014no page yet

Ankahi builds a marriage around a deaf woman's isolation and unspoken need — this film takes that premise to its formal extreme, forcing the audience itself into her position of watching without hearing.

A Ukrainian film set entirely in a deaf boarding school, performed entirely in sign language with no subtitles, no voiceover, no music — you read the story purely through bodies.

But Deliberately alienating and often brutal; the lack of subtitles is a real barrier some viewers won't want to cross.