The National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has been the backbone of parallel cinema in India since the 1970s. While some of their productions like Gandhi or Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro are household names, many of their most profound, award-winning films remain hidden gems.
Here are 10 rare but exceptional Hindi movies produced by the NFDC that every cinephile should watch.
1. Mirch Masala (1987)
Director: Ketan Mehta
Cast: Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri
Set in colonial India, this is a powerful feminist tale of resistance. When a tyrannical tax collector (Subedar) lusts after a village woman, she takes refuge in a spice factory. The ending is one of the most iconic and visually stunning moments in Indian cinema history.
2. Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro (1989)
Director: Saeed Akhtar Mirza
Cast: Pavan Malhotra, Ashutosh Gowariker
This film is a gritty look at the life of a small-time crook in the backlanes of Mumbai. It explores how communalism and socio-economic despair trap young men in a cycle of crime. Pavan Malhotra’s performance as "Salim the Lame" is electrifying.
3. Ek Din Acha
nak (1989)
Director: Mrinal Sen
Cast: Shriram Lagoo, Shabana Azmi, Uttara Baokar
On a rainy day, a retired professor goes out for a walk and never returns. The film doesn't focus on the "mystery" of his disappearance, but rather on how his family reconstructs his identity through his absence, revealing secrets and cracks in their relationships.
4. Pestonjee (1987)
Director: Vijaya Mehta
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi
A rare, intimate look at the Parsi community in 1950s Bombay. It follows the friendship between the quiet Piroj and the flamboyant Pestonjee. It is a slow-burn masterpiece about envy, marriage, and the disillusionment of middle-class life.
5. Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda (1992)
Director: Shyam Benegal
Cast: Rajit Kapur, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Pallavi Joshi, Neena Gupta
Based on Dharmvir Bharati’s novel, this film uses a "story within a story" format. A narrator tells three stories of women he knew, and as the film progresses, the lines between these stories blur, creating a complex meta-narrative about love and social class.
6. Mammo (1994)
Director: Shyam Benegal
Cast: Farida Jalal, Surekha Sikri, Rajit Kapur
This is the first of Benegal’s "Muslim Trilogy." It tells the heart-wrenching story of a woman who is uprooted during the Partition and struggles with citizenship and bureaucracy decades later when she tries to visit her family in India.
7. Kamla Ki Maut (1989)
Director: Basu Chatterjee
Cast: Pankaj Kapur, Supriya Pathak, Roopa Ganguly
Unlike Chatterjee's usual light-hearted comedies, this is a dark psychological drama. When a young girl in a neighborhood commits suicide, a family is forced to confront their own past indiscretions and moral hypocrisies.
8. 27 Down (1974)
Director: Awtar Krishna Kaul
Cast: M.K. Raina, Rakhee Gulzar
A visually poetic film shot in high-contrast black and white. It captures the life of a man who grows up on trains (his father was a railway employee) and finds himself unable to escape the "tracks" laid out for him by society and family.
9. Raghu Romeo (2003)
Director: Rajat Kapoor
Cast: Vijay Raaz, Maria Goretti, Sadadiya Siddiqui
A dark, surreal comedy about a naive waiter who is obsessed with a fictional TV soap character. He ends up kidnapping the actress to "save" her from the show's villains, leading to a bizarre and tragic series of events.
10. Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro (1989)
Director: Saeed Akhtar Mirza
Cast: Pavan Malhotra, Ashutosh Gowariker
This film is a gritty look at the life of a small-time crook in the backlanes of Mumbai. It explores how communalism and socio-economic despair trap young men in a cycle of crime. Pavan Malhotra’s performance as "Salim the Lame" is electrifying.
10. Party (1984)
Director: Govind Nihalani
Cast: Manohar Singh, Vijaya Mehta, Amrish Puri, Rohini Hattangadi
This film is a biting satire on the urban intellectual elite and the hypocrisy of the upper class. Set almost entirely during an evening party, it peels back the layers of pretentious artists and socialites who discuss social revolution while remaining detached from reality. It is a brilliant, dialogue-driven masterpiece.
Many of these films have been digitally restored and are available on the NFDC’s "Cinemas of India" platform or as an add-on channel on Amazon Prime Video.
