🎬 Are quiet Hindi films getting a chance again?

Last Tuesday I went to a small Hindi film at a multiplex in Kukatpally. 14 people in the hall. No big star, no fight, no item song. A man spends almost a whole minute peeling an orange. I'll admit I checked my phone twice. Then the orange scene ended and something small happened between him and his sister. I was suddenly in it, and the popcorn stayed untouched in my lap for the rest of the film. A few years ago a film like that would've been called slow and left alone. My cousins would've walked out. I used to be one of them. I wanted noise, 3 hours of it, for the ticket price. Now I notice I want something quieter some weeks, maybe because work is loud enough already. Maybe it's just me, though. The bigger films were still full that same evening. My wife thinks streaming has changed things. At home you'll sit through a slow scene while the tea boils. In a theatre you've paid and you want your money's worth of noise, she says. She might be right. At home last month I paused a slow film for 10 minutes to eat dinner. I'd never do that in a theatre. So I probably judge the two places differently. I still like the loud ones, I'm not saying drop them. Saw one last month and enjoyed every dumb second. It just feels good that both kinds seem to find people now. If you've seen a quiet one lately, tell me the name. My feed keeps showing me the same 5 big releases. I'll go again this weekend, probably alone, probably with no popcorn.

Noticed myself being far more patient with slower pacing at home compared to a theatre, paused a quiet character drama last month just to make tea without any of the urgency I would feel doing that during an actual theatrical release.

Kumbalangi Nights is the one I'd send you to. It's a Malayalam film, mostly 4 brothers messing about in a house. Barely any plot, and I still watched it twice in one week. I used subtitles. Your wife has a point. I watch slow stuff in bed at 10 pm and couldn't do it in a hall. Do tell me what you think of it once you're done, I'm curious.