Not directly relevant but whenever I consume Indian media, I’m struck by how utterly foreign it feels. I watch a Chinese show? I see where it comes from. Mexican? Through line found. French? I understand the satire. Indian social norms and cultural development seem either so idiosyncratic or novel that they sincerely take me out. They, as a people and a nation, befuddle me in such a unique way. This isn’t a critique, just someone looking from the outside with curiosity and confusion.
Chinese media: everything is perfect in an uncanny valley sort of way
Mexican media: drugs, Jesus, boobs, or cartels
French media: like a student film with a budget
Indian media: this guy just punched a car so hard it turned into a transformer, then he turned into a transformer, then they fought and now everyone’s dancing
You’re seeing India as a whole, but you gotta split it into pieces. It’s a melting pot of ethnicities that exist disharmoniously. Unlike China where the Han Chinese pretty much wiped out most of their extended family over the course of centuries by way of brutal warfare and discrimination, India managed to retain some familial morality where everyone lives together while hating each other.
It’s a similar, yet different path of evolution.
China - There is no war in Ba Sing Se.
India - Bloody bitch bastard bloody
USA - Murika, fuck yeah!
And yes, I am talking out of my ass.
Mostly through friends but occasionally Netflix. Between film buffs and immigrant families, it’s a smorgasbord. Picking something out for myself, I’ll check justwatch first to determine whether I need to look elsewhere and dbzero has guides on elsewhere. Check their wiki to find far more information than I can offer. Over a 5.1 or under a 3.0 on imdb and the genre are about all that I check, so I’m not great at recommending anything to watch. I did enjoy pee mak as a Scary Movie styled comedy, though.