Zenish Mehta

Zenish Mehta’s name pops up in some of the more offbeat corners of Indian cinema—think Cargo (2019) with its trippy, lo-fi sci-fi vibe. That film spins you into a world where the afterlife feels like a bureaucratic call center, and Mehta’s touch is all over the weirdly charming world-building. Then there’s The Astronaut and His Parrot (2022). That one? Honestly, it’s a whole mood. An astronaut, stuck and running out of time, starts chatting with a parrot over the radio. Sounds bonkers, but somehow it’s touching, almost meditative. You kinda end up rooting for both the bird and the dude stuck in space. And then—Stolen (2023). Now, this one’s a sharp left turn into gritty, tense territory. It’s about a kidnapping, but not your run-of-the-mill thriller. There’s a lot of messy, raw emotion, and the camera lingers on stuff that most mainstream movies would skip. The way Mehta brings real, bruised humanity to the screen—yeah, it’s not always comfortable, but it sticks with you. Put all that together, and you get a filmmaker who’s not afraid to zig where others zag. Sci-fi, survival, crime—he bounces around genres but always with this slightly odd, deeply personal stamp. If you’re into movies that aren’t afraid to get a little weird or stick a finger in the emotional wound, Mehta’s stuff is absolutely worth a look.