Menu
© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 42 movies from Public Service Broadcasting Trust
An impressionistic sketch of ‘the public’ as created by our cinema and its relationship with cinema itself.
Jan 2009
As a call from the periphery of sanity, the film is a series of dream narratives, and accounts of spiritual possession as experienced by women 'petitioners' at the shrine of a Sufi Saint in North India.
Sep 2011
Bajrangi Bhaijaan explores how ideas of masculinity in India are tied to Salman Khan fandom. It tries to understand what eco-blockbuster-manufactured machismo has on the Indian male already struggling with his identity in a globalized world. The story of a Salman Khan look-alike Shan Ghosh, and his two fans Balram and Bhaskar
Sep 2014
Lovely Villa explores the relationship between architecture, everyday life, family, desire and the idea of ‘home’. Director Rohan Shivkumar grew up in the titular apartment block, located in Borivali —an affluent coastal suburb of Mumbai. The building was designed by Charles Correa to house different communities within one edifice, as an articulation of the ideal environment for the Indian middle classes. Rohan, whose parents lived in the colony for over 40 years, explores its architecture with the aid of found materials, including old photographs and drawings, as well as personal narratives both factual and semi-fictional.
0
Documentary about actress Sharmila Tagore. Introduced to film acting at age 13 by Satyajit Ray, Sharmila Tagore evolved into one of the most iconic actors and stars of the 60s and 70s India. straddling the worlds of classical and popular cinema with grace and poise. The Film journeys through her film career and life stories, while reflecting on her choices and resolve that made her an independent and phenomenal woman.
Sep 2019
A film about home and belonging, tracing the filmmaker's personal journey to understand what it means to be a Muslim in India today.
Jan 2005
The story of a camera that perished in a Tsunami. The Film shares special moments that the Filmmaker experienced with his camera, a special bonding over a period of four years, creating cinematic imagery, relating, exploring, seeking and interpreting notions of his reality. It is a memory of a camera which perished in the tsunami, along with its last filmed footage – elusive images, evoking multiple possibilities, seeking parallels and new perspectives.
Aug 2011
The many facets of the land and the life of a farmer from Kuttanad, tucked away between the sea and the backwaters and hidden in the shadows of coconut palms
Jan 2012
A celebration of the work of singer/composer Shankar Mahadevan with interviews from various Indian celebrities.
Story of the filmmaker's journey with Uma, a certified scuba diver, exploring the underwater world and the threat to coral reefs of Gulf of Mannar, India. Born in a traditional family in Tamil Nadu, 53 year old Uma, a homemaker, has been trying to bring attention to this alarming environmental issue through her paintings. It is, in fact, these corals that inspired Uma to learn how to swim, dive and paint in her 50s.
Feb 2019
In a far suburb of Bombay, residents from slums are moved into high-rise apartment complexes with the promise of a better life. While these complexes are built allegedly to house the poor, they have been seen as moves to free prime slum land for commercial development. The complexes soon degenerate into places worse than slums. The film lets the viewer experience the living conditions of places hidden away in a 21st century metropolis.
Nov 2011
This documentary is the first public documentation of the concept of love jihad. Filmed in Meerut following a televised moral policing event termed Operation Majnu, the film tracks the birth of a language of television news which has today become a norm of sensationalism and witch-hunts.
May 2007
Tales from Napa is the remarkable story of a little village that resisted the forces of Hindu fundamentalism during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, India. Set in the village of Napa, the film investigates the role played by local Hindus and Muslims and their social institutions in maintaining the peace, in the context of a history of economic interdependence, communal harmony and syncretism.
Jan 2011
Vipin Vijay's Palace of the Winds is a poetic essay about that "Holy Little Box," the radio, conceived of as a ghostly transmitter of Indian cultural artifacts.
Jan 2003
The ten anthologies and eight long poems of the Sangam age are the oldest and most distinguished body of secular poetry extant in India, of which women poets were a very strong presence.
Oct 2012
Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s films map the history of the region from the inside. This Documentary looks at how the filmmaker dealt with human conditions at the most elemental level with a sensibility that makes his films universal in appeal.
Oct 2015
From the vast coastlines of Tamil Nadu, to the arid lands of Rajasthan and the lush greenery of Sikkim, the camera joins local children on the journeys of their daily lives: to and from school, in their classes and after-school play, and doing chores. The children are shy but face the camera directly to talk about their families, their teachers, and their own feelings. Their gazes imply straightforward doubts about the adult world, which the director captures, in taking a sincere look at the meaning of education.
In the world's only deaf-mute village where silence reigns, tension mounts as Misra Khatoon approaches childbirth. The villagers surround her home and beat drums seeking a response from the newborn.
Oct 2024
Until recent years, the Santhali tribe of India did not have its own written language. Their stories and myths were preserved and passed on verbally through the generations. Each narration has a different form, much like the rocks of a nearby hill that come in various hues. While a woman from the community narrates a tale about the origin of creation and how their first house was built, the village prepares for an annual ritual.
Kaushik Mukhopadhyay assembles and pairs discarded and broken household gadgets into unexpected cyborg-like creatures that occupy the space between machine, toy and home. His objects are quirky, humorous and noisy which tend to break down sometimes. The Film brings to light these narratives of unexpectedness, embodying fragments of political, personal and art history.
Aug 2018