movies & series that hit different
most of my favorites are mollywood (malayalam cinema) 'cause am from kerala and we don't mess around when it comes to movies.
mollywood (the goated ones)
- manichithrathazhu (1993) - the greatest psychological thriller ever made in any language. imdb
- joseph (2018) - slow burn that stayed with me for days. imdb
- uyare (2019) - parvathy at her absolute best. imdb
- lucifer (2019) - mohanlal walks in slow motion and the entire theater loses its mind. (no, not that netflix series - this is a mallu movie. don't get confused.) imdb
- ennu ninte moideen (2015) - a love story so tragic it makes titanic look like a romantic comedy. imdb
- cbi series - all of 'em. sethurama iyer is the og detective. sherlock who? imdb
- vaazha 2 (2026) - laughed like an idiot for the first half, cried like a baby by the end. it just hits every part of life. imdb
- thudarum (2025) - mohanlal and shobana together again. a taxi driver, his ambassador car, and a crime that spirals out of control. imdb
- manjummel boys (2024) - based on a true story and somehow still felt unbelievable. the cave scene had me holdin' my breath the entire time. imdb
- bangalore days (2014) - three cousins, one city, and a whole lot of growin' up. peak feel-good malayalam cinema. imdb
bollywood
- 3 idiots (2009) - aal izz well. every indian kid watched this and questioned their entire education system. imdb
- taare zameen par (2007) - aamir khan made an entire country cry over a kid's drawin'. the ishaan awasthi erasure in schools is still real. imdb
- pk (2014) - an alien askin' the questions everyone's too scared to ask. aamir khan really owns this genre. imdb
hollywood / international
- se7en (1995) - the ending still lives in my head rent free. brad pitt screamin' in that field? yeah. imdb
- inception (2010) - nolan said "let me confuse everyone for 2.5 hours" and we all thanked him for it. imdb
- avatar (2009) - james cameron really said "let me invent new technology just to make a movie about blue people" and it worked. imdb
- titanic (1997) - the door was big enough for two. am never lettin' that go. imdb
- miracle in cell no. 7 (2013) - a south korean film about a mentally disabled father and his daughter. absolutely gutted me. imdb
- the miracle / mucize (2015) - a turkish film about a disabled teacher in a remote village. destroyed me emotionally in the best way possible. imdb
- how to train your dragon (2010) - an animated movie with no business bein' this emotional. toothless is the best character in cinema history and am not debatin' this. imdb
- the shawshank redemption (1994) - hope is a dangerous thing, but this movie makes you believe in it anyway. imdb
series
- breaking bad (2008-2013) - a chemistry teacher becomes a drug lord and somehow you root for him the entire time. the greatest character arc in television. period. imdb
- la casa de papel / money heist (2017-2021) - the professor's plans have plans. first 2 seasons are perfect. after that? we don't talk about it. imdb
- game of thrones (2011-2019) - peak television for 6 seasons. then they speedran the endin' like they had a flight to catch. imdb
q&a nobody asked
why so many malayalam movies?
born and brought up in kerala, so mollywood is literally in my blood. it's genuinely one of the best film industries out there. most of the movies i go to theater for are malayalam.
what genre do you like?
thrillers and emotional dramas mostly. if a movie can make me laugh and cry in the same sittin', it's automatically on this list.
will you update this list?
whenever somethin' hits different, yeah.
do you think i missed somethin'? tell me here - just drop the movie name and why it slaps. no promises i'll add it tho.