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3 Movies Which Will Keep You Hooked Until Panchayat Season 4 Arrives! (Photo Credit – Prime Video)

After three much-loved seasons, viewers are now waiting with bated breath for the arrival of Panchayat Season 4, which premieres on Amazon Prime Video on June 24, 2025. If you love the rustic charm and simple storytelling that define Panchayat, some other heartfelt village-centric films have similar warmth, realism, and relatable characters. Here are three beautifully crafted movies you can stream on Ott right now to fill the gap until Phulera’s next chapter arrives on your screen.

3. Village Rockstars (2017) Streaming On – Netflix IMDb Rating – 7.2/10 Directed By – Rima Das

Plot: The heartwarming Assamese language drama follows a ten-year-old girl named Dhunu (played by Bhanita Das), who lives in poverty in rural Assam. After seeing a group of boys performing at a local event, she dreams of forming a rock band of her own. Defying societal norms and with the support of her single mother,...

A lot of what has gone into the exceptionally lucid Rima Das’s enormously cogent sequel to Village Rockstar, seems casual, at least as far as the visuals are concerned.

But look closer. Every frame in Village Rockstars 2 has a careful thought, a ruminative construct behind it. This is the kind of art where we can easily miss the trees for the forest.

Eight years have passed since we first met Dhunu in the unforgettable Village Rockstar. Dhunu still dreams of playing her rickety guitar with a band on stage and making a decent income out of her passion for music. Regrettably, that scourge called life has caught up with her. There isn’t much music here, but there are slabs of it, yes. But the joy of playing on stage is rapidly waning.

Innocence is no longer a shield from the whiplashes of daily living. Not when you belong...

It’s not always that sequels are so greatly adored in film festivals, but “Village Rockstars 2” (2024) by Rima Das comes as that special film which not only had its world premiere at the Busan International Film Festival 2024 but also won the celebrated Kim Jiseok Award at the same festival. Recently, it also had its European premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival 2025, and in between it was also screened at Mami (Mumbai Film Festival) 2024, Dharamshala International Film Festival 2024, International Film Festival of Kerala 2024, and Pune International Film Festival 2025.

The first thing “Village Rockstars 2” does successfully is shake off the negative presumption that injudiciously forms a certain kind of discriminatory approach towards film sequels. Even while extending the storyline, “Village Rockstars 2” maintains its independent stature and retains its artistic integrity to continue the story of Dhunu, seven years after the events of the first film.

Dhunu (Bhanita Das...

After winning Kim Jiseok Award at the Busan International Film Festival, Rima Das’ Village Rockstars 2, a sequel to the internationally acclaimed feature Village Rockstar, will make its European Premiere at the prestigious Berlinale International Film Festival 2025

~Rima returns to the festival with Village Rockstar 2 after Bulbul Can Sing which won Special Mention at Berlinale 2019 in Generation 14 Plus~

Teaser https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXid0Qg5ViI&feature=youtu.be

Mumbai, 17 December 2024: Village Rockstars 2 written-directed-produced by Rima Das to make its European Premiere at Berlinale International Film Festival 2025 in Generation 14 Plus Competition category. The festival will be held from 13-23 Feb, 2025 in Berlin.

This is Rima’s second feature to be selected at Berlinale after Bulbul Can Sing won Special Mention at Berlinale 2019 in Generation 14 Plus. Rima Das also had the honour of being the Jury Member at Berlinale 2020 in the same category.

The film had its World Premiere...

French fantasist Michel Gondry (The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Science of Sleep). will return to Berlin with his latest animated feature, Maya, donne-moi un titre (Maya, Give Me a Title), screening in the Generation Kplus sidebar of the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival. Described by Gondry as a “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya” the film features the voices of Maya Gondry and French star Pierre Niney. It will have its international premiere in Berlin.

Berlin unveiled the first eight features and seven short films for its Generation Kplus and 14plus sections on Tuesday. They include 10 world premieres and range from minimalist chamber plays to opulent dance films. The festival will announce the full Generations lineups in early January. The 75th Berlin International Film Festival runs Feb. 13-23, 2025.

Here are the 2025 Generation titles unveiled so far:

A natureza das coisas invisíveis (The Nature of Invisible Things | Die...

The Belin Film Festival has unveiled its Panorama lineup, including new works by Denis Côté, Ira Sachs, Michel Gondry and Shatara Michelle Ford, among others.

Sachs’ movie, “Peter Hujar’s Day,” stars Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall. Set for an international premiere in Berlin, the film portrays a 1974 conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz, set against the backdrop of the New York art scene of the time.

Côté’s film, “Paul,” is a documentary about a man struggling with depression and social anxiety who found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes.

Gondry’s “Maya, Give Me a Title” is described by the festival as a “stop-motion love letter to his daughter Maya brings to life a poetic and amusing journey that invites you to dream and laugh.” It features the voice of “The Count of Monte-Cristo” star Pierre Niney.

Ford’s “Dreams in Nightmares,...

Following the rather significant impact of the initial film, both in festivals around the world and within India, self-taught filmmaker Rima Das decided to shoot “Village Rockstars 2“, presenting Dhuru’s situation 7 years after the events of the prequel. The film premiered in Busan where it won the Kim Jiseok Award.

Village Rockstars 2 is screening at Busan International Film Festival

Still in a small rural village in Assam, Dhunu lives with her ailing mother, trying to juggle work in the fields, taking care of her mother, and trying to pursue her dream of becoming a professional guitarist in her rock band, while her formed bandmates seem to have forgotten about their common goal. With her mother getting worse and worse, in her effort to take care of her children neglecting completely herself, and her brother frequently getting drunk and pestering her mother to sell their land in order for him to buy a motorcycle,...

Indian filmmaker Rima Das returns to the Busan International Film Festival with the world premiere of “Village Rockstars 2,” a highly anticipated follow-up to her 2017 festival darling. The film is vying for Busan’s prestigious Jiseok award.

The original “Village Rockstars” captivated audiences with its tale of 10-year-old Dhunu’s quest to own a guitar and form a rock band in her remote Assamese village. It played at Toronto and San Sebastian and won the best film prize at India’s National Film Awards. Other accolades included those at the Cairo and Mumbai festivals. It was India’s entry for the Oscars.

The sequel, which fast-forwards seven years from the original, finds teenage Dhunu at a crossroads between her childhood dreams and the harsh realities of adulthood. Das recalls the moment that sparked the sequel: “The final scene of ‘Village Rockstars’ stayed with me – Dhunu in a field at a beautiful sunset,...

Flos: Foreign Language Oscar Submissions

Rima Das and I first met in 2016 when I gave the Cannes Producer Workshop Tour of the Marché. Then she was making ‘Man with the Binoculars : Antardrishti’. We met again in Tallinn at the Black Nights Film Festival where her film ‘Village Rockstars’ was playing. Since that time, she has made her third film, ‘Bulbul Can Sing’ which premiered in Toronto in 2018 and showed again at the AFI Fest this fall when we caught up again and had a long discussion of her short career which has succeeded to such an extent that ‘Village Rockstars’ was submitted by India for Academy Award consideration for Best Foreign Language Film.Dhunu is played by Bhanita Das in ‘Village Rockstars’

Village Rockstars premiered at Tiff 2017 (Toronto Ff), played in San Sebastian, Goteborg and more than 70 other festivals.

The Hollywood Reporter aptly describes it as “A film that...

In the wetlands of northeast India, a group of kids had a dream to make it big as a rock band. Their instruments weren’t real, but that didn’t matter. Their dream was real.

“Children can dream no matter where they come from,” director Rima Das told TheWrap’s Steve Pond at a Q&A on Monday following a screening of her film “Village Rockstars,” India’s entry into the Oscar foreign film race.

The children’s dream and one camera were the only ingredients necessary to make “Village Rockstars,” a story following 10-year-old Dhunu, a young girl (played by Bhanita Das) with a dream to get a guitar and start a band with some friends. Her dream remains strong despite the world around her. Dhunu’s village is constantly hit with heavy floods and her widowed mother (Basanti Das) constantly battles adversity to support the family.

Also Read:...

CinemaYes, there is a steady layer of pain and deprivation in this child's journey, but we are not allowed to trespass and rightfully so.Sankeertana VarmaWhen the women in the village scold Dhunu and threaten her with punishment for hanging out with boys, it angers her mother. She questions why no one is bothered that she does both a man’s and woman’s work in her household. She says this three times—‘I do everything.’ There is a pain in her voice, an uncharacteristic helplessness. And there is no one to answer; or rather there is no answer. Rima Das’ Village Rockstars (Assamese) is filled with many such poignant moments of silence—at times peaceful, at times deafening—where the message waits for you to find it, rather than handing itself to you. If you don’t like reading between the lines, then this film might not be for you.

The Film Federation of India has chosen Rima Das’ “Village Rockstars” as the country’s entry to the Oscars foreign-language category. The film follows a 10-year-old growing up in straitened circumstances in a flood-prone village in the state of Assam, with ambitions of starting her own rock band.

“Rockstars’ premiered at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival. It has played the global festival circuit since and has won multiple awards including best film, best film on gender equality and the young critics award at the Mumbai Film Festival; best artistic contribution at Cairo; and best original score at Buenos Aires.

At India’s national film awards “Village Rockstars” won best film and best editing for Rima Das, best child actress for the lead Bhanita Das, and best sound for Mallika Das.

Variety reviewer, Maggie Lee wrote: “In “Village Rockstars,” tucked away in an Indian backwater, a moppet has rock ‘n’ roll dreams,...

CinemaWhile Fahadh has been nominated for ‘Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum’, Keerthy has been nominated for her performance in ‘Mahanati’.Digital NativeDigital NativeThe Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (Iffm) is scheduled to take place from August 10 - 22. On the jury are Simi Garewal, Nikkhil Advani, Sue Maslin, Jill Bilcock, Andrew Anastasios and Geoffrey Wright who will be selecting winners under these categories – Best Film, Best Indie Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Supporting Role and Best Director. A majority of the films competing for the awards are from Bollywood, such as Padman, Hichki, Padmaavat, Sanju, Secret Superstar and Raazi. Two Tollywood films, Mahanati and Rangasthalam, are also in the competition for the Best Film award. The nominees for the Best Actor award are Ranbir Kapoor (Sanju), Varun Dhawan (October), Fahadh Faasil (Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum), Ranveer Singh (Padmaavat), Akshay Kumar (Padman), Manoj Bajpayee (In the Shadows), Soumitra Chatterjee (Mayurakshi) and Shahid Kapoor (Padmaavat). The heroines vying for the Best Actress award are Keerthy Suresh (Mahanati), Rani Mukerji (Hichki), Vidya Balan (Tumhari Sulu), Deepika Padukone (Padmaavat), Alia Bhatt (Raazi), Bhanita Das (Village Rockstars), Tillotama Shome (Sir) and Zaira Wasim (Secret Superstar). In the Best Director category, the nominations are Rajkumar Hirani (Sanju), Shoojit Sircar (October), R Balki (Padman), Siddharth P Malhotra (Hichki), Advait Chandan (Secret Superstar), Dipesh Jain (In the Shadows), Ere Gowda (Balekempa), Suresh Triveni (Tumhari Sulu), Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Padmaavat), Rima Das (Village Rockstars), Meghna Gulzar (Raazi), Tabrez Noorani (Love Sonia) and Rohena Gera (Sir). Samantha Akkineni has been nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for her performance in Mahanati. A galaxy of stars, including Freida Pinto, Rani Mukerji, Vicky Kaushal, Ram Charan, Richa Chadha, Rajkumar Hirani, Ali Fazal, Simi Garewal and Malaika Arora, will attend this year’s Iffm. Legendary actors Shashi Kapoor and Sridevi, who passed away recently, will be honoured with special screenings of their iconic films Siddhartha and Chandni, respectively. Also read: Marathon hearing on Section 377 concludes, Sc reserves verdict (Content provided by Digital Native)...

Set in rural Assam, where the backwaters of India can almost leave you desperately moving your entire life in a wooden boat, Dhunu (Bhanita Das) – a young girl on the brink of puberty wishes to form a rock band. Even though she defies multiple norms set by the repressive, culturally appropriate elders of the village – the ones that want her to stop climbing trees like a boy while learning supposedly ‘womanly-ethics,’ her imagination and sincerity make us vouch for her. Supported by a single mother who is as important as the little girl in this quiet tale with cardboard dreams, Rima Das’s Dhunnu feels like a character made out of her own soul.

“Village Rockstars” runs as part of the 9th edition of the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival, that runs at 15 cinemas, across London, Birmingham and Manchester, from 21st June to 1st July, with 27 films, including features and short films,...