5 Movies and TV Shows I Wish Had Come into My Life Earlier Than They Did
I’m back at it again with another listicle for no other reason than my love for making these.
Sometimes I watch a show and think, Why did nobody tell me this? If only I had this with me when I was younger, life would be so much easier. Let me stop myself right there. No, life would not have been easier. I think life (mine, at least) has a way of finding new challenges whose solutions we do not know.
That doesn’t change the fact that when I could not get answers from the people around me, I have always turned to shows and movies, art and books. And one or the other has always had an answer for me. And maybe, if younger me had this list with her, it wouldn’t have been so bad.
Here are 5 movies and TV Shows I wish had come into my life earlier than they did.
Sex Education (2019–)
Language: English
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Where to watch it: Netflix
This one’s a no-brainer. It is difficult to write about everything this show has taught me.
For all those who don’t know, Sex Education is a British show, created by Laurie Nunn. It follows the lives of students from Moordale Secondary School, as they stumble their way through their teenage and young adult years.
This is the only show I have ever watched that has diversity in the true sense of the word. It has characters of multiples races, genders, and sexualities; there are disabled characters, neurodivergent ones, and mentally ill ones; there is every type of sex, love, and friendship represented with so much nuance and care. Every character is written with dimension and depth.
But mostly, it is the kindest show I have ever watched. For the first time, someone told me that sex and attraction should feel good; that growing into who you are is not a bad thing — that it can be exciting and beautiful; that a person assaulting you on the bus has nothing to do with your smile. It showed me it was okay to be scared and that communication and storytelling can change the world.
I think young me could have benefited from learning about intersectionality and the color it adds to the world. She would have benefited so much more from the kindness.
Shakuntala Devi (2020)
Language: Hindi
Genre: Drama, Biography
Where I watched it: Amazon Prime
I know, this one’s a bit of an odd-ball in this list. Shakuntala Devi, as the name suggests, is a 2020 biographical film about the Indian mathematics genius, Shakuntala Devi. This woman was so good at math that she recognized a calculation error made by a computer. She was called the human-computer for that reason.
This, by the way, is not what the movie is about. I mean, it is about Shakuntala Devi and a good part of it looks into her success as a mathematician. The main chunk of the movie, though, is about being a woman, a mother, a wife, and a genius in one body. What is self-worth for a woman, it asks, and what do she taught to attach it to? Of all the things that have taught me about womanhood, this is the only one that felt true.
Does genius and what the world expects out of femininity and womanhood ever go together? I have always felt that it doesn’t, and this movie had the courage and the honesty to admit it. It would have felt good to have this feeling justified at a young age. It also provides solace in the end: Nobody really fits the mold set for us, everyone is groping in the dark, and creating our own definition of womanhood is all we have got.
Devi wanted to be a mother and she had a very supportive husband who encouraged her love for math. Somehow, by the end, she was still struggling to be considered enough. The impeccable Vidya Balan plays this eccentric, intelligent character with so much tenderness that this is no longer just a biography of Shakuntala: this is the story of every woman in South Asia.
Made in Heaven (2019–)
Language: Hindi, dubbed in Telegu and Tamil
Genre: Drama
Where I watched it: Amazon Prime
Made in Heaven is an Amazon Prime India Original web series. It follows Tara (Shobita Dhulipala) and Karan (Arjun Mathur), two wedding planners in Delhi. Each episode contains the story of one wedding and tackles the various issues around Indian and South Asian ideals of marriage, love, sex, and companionship. It deals with issues like dowry, marriage in old age, and impotency. There are also the overarching stories of Tara and her husband’s infidelity, and Karan’s life as a gay man in India.
In a culture where marriage has a chokehold on people and their daily lives, this show questions if marriages are truly made in heaven.
This is the one show that comes close to Sex Education in terms of the number of issues spoken about. I wish this show had come into my life earlier than it did. This is one of the first Indian shows I watched that had a gay character in the lead. We finally had a show that spoke about queerness in the Indian context. It is yet to go beyond the narrative of equal rights and talk about the more complex issues like compulsive heteronormativity, but it does partially talk about internalized homophobia, which is a good start.
Megamind (2010)
Language: English
Genre: Superhero Comedy, Animated
Where I watched it: Netflix
Megamind, directed by Tom McGrath, is the story of a hyper-intelligent alien supervillain who becomes depressed after he defeats his arch-nemesis, Metro Man. To feel alive again, he creates another superhero using Metro Man’s DNA. Eventually, Megamind has to become a hero himself to defeat the monster he created.
I only watched this movie last year, but oh, do I love it. Megamind believes himself a villain, and so does everybody else. The dilemma he faces when he has to change is a crucial one to tell young people, I believe. In a world of cancel culture and severe accountability, there is nearly no space to make a mistake, recognize it, apologize, and attempt to change.
Are we allowed to set aside all the bad things we did before and change? How painful is it going to be to rebuild ourselves from scratch once we realize we were wrong?
This movie gives people the important permission to grow and improve, no matter what it looks like to people outside, no matter how bad our faults. It showed me that we can do good despite our mistakes — it is never too late.
Dear Zindagi (2016)
Language: Hindi
Genre: Coming of age, Drama
Where I watched it: Netflix
Dear Zindagi, directed by Gauri Shinde, is the story of Kaira (Alia Bhatt) who struggles with insomnia and has intense anxiety at work and in relationships. It doesn’t help that she has to return to her childhood home in Goa. Her family is your quintessential educated Indian family who show care and concern but are flawed as human beings always are. Exhausted with the feeling of uncertainty and unhappiness, Kaira seeks help from psychologist and therapist Dr. Jehangir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan).
This is the only movie I have ever watched that has therapy as its main character. I came out of this movie feeling lighter, happier: as if I had been to therapy myself and it had actually worked. Shah Rukh Khan’s incredible portrayal of Dr. Khan made me wish for more therapists like him: light-hearted and knowledgeable, with an understanding that he too is not flawless.
It showed me that trauma doesn’t always have to be visible and that you can be from a supportive, loving family and still be hurting. Your pain is still valid.
Mostly, these shows and movies uncoil the confusions I had as a child, and extend the kindness I didn’t have. Eventually, at an older age, I learned from these movies how to forgive myself. I learned that asking for help is not a bad thing, and that marriage is not an end goal. It showed me that womanhood is as complex as I had thought it would be, not as shallow as everyone else insists it is. That kindness and storytelling can change the world.
