Five Films In The Genre of 'Hope': 'Sarpatta Parambarai,' 'Jawan' And More
Indian cinema is full of stories that refuse to give up — on people, cities, or dreams. These are the ones that offer the most hope.
What is a “hopeful” film today? It could be anything: a feel-good family dramedy, an underdog sports epic, an against-the-odds love story, a horror comedy, a mythological bromance, even a political thriller.
The genre is incidental; hope lies in the eyes of the beholder. Sometimes, even a tragedy can be hopeful if it says something important about the world we live in. To quote the brooding hero of The Shawshank Redemption (1994): “Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” On that note, here’s a list of my favourite “hopeful” Indian movies — movies that, for better or worse, will never die.
Tu Hai Mera Sunday (2016)
A feel-good tragedy, if there was ever one. Milind Dhaimade’s charming little film about five adults from different walks of life struggling to find space for their Sunday football routine is a quintessential modern Mumbai story. But it’s also about male friendships, the city as a deromanticised character, belonging, loneliness and love — all themes that combine to make the film weirdly hopeless and hopeful at once. There’s the whole “we make do with what we have” vibe — but that’s the point of a film that refuses to sugarcoat the limitations of the metropolis. It’s bittersweet and therefore rousing, in a sort of everyday-worries way.
12th Fail (2023)
Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s biographical drama about a poor Chambal-based youngster who beats every conceivable roadblock possible to crack the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) exams and become an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer bleeds with optimism in every frame.
Vikrant Massey’s performance is a case study of reel meeting real. His journey as an actor informs the character’s journey, and the result is a rare movie that drives viewers to tears with its capacity to trust and believe. The documentary about the film (Zero Se Restart) is just as drenched in hope — almost a foolish, dying idealism that storytellers no longer hold within them.
Jawan (2023)
Jawan may not be everyone’s massy cup of tea, but the film represents hope both within the plot and outside of it. There’s something about the superstardom of Shah Rukh Khan in this age of methodical fame; the grassroots patriotism in an era of manufactured faith; the single-screen emotions in the time of multiplex feelings; and a narrative questioning the cracks in a nation instead of selling them as exotic scars.
Beneath the whistles and swag, we see an actor who’s still living his childhood dream: double roles, action stardom, needle stops and commercial messaging. Sometimes that’s all one can ask for.
Sarpatta Parambarai (2021)
Pa. Ranjith’s visceral, restless and socially charged boxing drama is arguably one of the greatest Indian sports dramas of this century. The boxing is a medium, but that doesn’t make it a lesser format of living. So much is at stake outside the ring that the wonderfully shot and choreographed action inside it becomes the visual subtitles to a world bursting with suppressed hope.
I can’t think of a more electric big-screen experience, which is ironic, considering that the film
was a pandemic OTT release. And still, the impact is undeniable.
Superboys of Malegaon (2025)
Reema Kagti’s movie distills the distinctly Indian love for filmmaking into a sweet-and-sour cocktail of friendship and cultural identity in small-town India. The language of the story is hope — in a Muslim-majority setting, in an environment where male friendships are beset by egos, in a part of India that escapes to the movies so that life becomes more bearable. In the last 10 minutes, a sweeping story about storytelling becomes an intimate story about catharsis. There’s a sense of hope about how art happens to us while we’re busy making other plans.
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