1. GRIEF AS MADNESS: There have been countless films where grief ultimately translates into a severe psychotic disorder, generally represented in the form of the characters spiralling into madness. Shutter Island & Gali Guleiyan are excellent examples of it, where the grief of loss & guilt leads the protagonist down a path of inescapable mental illness. Antichrist & Possession are other examples of it, where the portrayal is more visceral & discomforting, bordering on evilness. The descent into psychosis has been shown with meticulous detail.

2. WHEN GRIEF BECOMES DEPRESSION: It’s difficult to say when grief seeps so deep inside your being that you begin to identify yourself with it. That’s probably the point when it translates into depression, attaching itself to your body like an unfamiliar guest. Many films have explored this side of grief in different ways - the most notable one for me being Three Colors : Blue. I also really like films like Pieces Of A Woman, Melancholia, A Ghost Story, The Lunchbox, Masaan & Drive My Car. Possibly one of the most interesting portrayals of this happens to be in Taste Of Cherry, where the grief has just turned into abject hopelessness & despair, & the film is about this man coming to terms with his depression.

3. WHEN GRIEF CHANGES YOU AS A PERSON: Sometimes grief doesn’t just translate into depression, it takes the form of much more unprecedented forms that altogether change you as a person. The Whale shows grief taking the form of an eating disorder, A Short Film About Killing offers a disheartening, discomforting look into the relationship of violence with grief, & Manchester By The Sea shows what happens when grief completely consumes your life, eating you up day by day as you give it the power to do it under the weight of guilt.

4. GRIEF OF BETRAYAL: Thappad shows that sometimes grief is accompanied with betrayal from a loved one, & it can compel you to self-reflect, reevaluate your whole life, including your very identity. The reason this grief has a more piercing effect, is because it’s burdened under the weight of not just betrayal but also loss. When you face betrayal, you aren’t just hurt by their actions but also by their sudden loss in your life, & you simultaneously have to make sense of these 2 overlapping griefs. You can also find traces of this idea in films like Lootera, Killers Of The Flower Moon, Geeli Puchhi and Haider.

5. THE GRIEF OF REPRESSED TRAUMA: This is one of the most common representations of grief, because it offers the most ideal template for storytelling. It gives us a pathway to tell stories about succeeding against all odds, stories of perseverance, stories of overcoming grief. One of my favorite films on this subject is Nomadland, where a woman adopts a completely new lifestyle in order to overcome her grief, where she also finds strength in a community of people on a similar journey. All About My Mother, After Yang, Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, these are some other favourites of mine where grief drove the characters on unique journeys, either in order to make sense of their grief or of the death itself.

6. WHEN GRIEF SENDS YOU ON A JOURNEY: This is one of the most common representations of grief, because it offers the most ideal template for storytelling. It gives us a pathway to tell stories about succeeding against all odds, stories of perseverance, stories of overcoming grief. One of my favorite films on this subject is Nomadland, where a woman adopts a completely new lifestyle in order to overcome her grief, where she also finds strength in a community of people on a similar journey. All About My Mother, After Yang, Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close, these are some other favourites of mine where grief drove the characters on unique journeys, either in order to make sense of their grief or of the death itself.

7. GRIEF AND REVENGE: If there’s one theme that cinema has been obsessed with besides violence, it’s revenge. Sometimes it was explored with nuance, often times not. But it continues to find its way into films around the world in one form or another. Mostly, the revenge stems from grief. The murder of a loved one propels the hero into a perpetual state of agony, ultimately translating into a desire for revenge. From Agneepath to Badlapur, Lion King to Prisoners, The Godfather to Baahubali, grief & revenge have had a co-dependent omnipresence in cinema.

8. SHARED GRIEF OF A COUPLE OR A FAMILY: What’s common between Hereditary, Talaash, Pieces Of A Woman, The Sky Is Pink? These are films where grief punctured the very fabric of a family. These are films about the collective grief of a couple / various members of a family, where the grief sometimes brought them closer, but more often than not drew them apart. Sapta Sagaradaache Ello Side A is another interesting example where the shared grief of a couple didn’t come from a death but a rather odd but tragic injustice. Rang De Basanti is a rare film where the grief is shared not by the family, but by the friends of the deceased, putting the spotlight on a relationship that’s often overlooked when it comes to grief.

9. FINDING HUMOUR IN GRIEF: Attending the funerals of your loved ones teaches you one thing, when you’re the one experiencing the loss firsthand, the emotional experience of being there is very different. You realise that not all of it is just sorrow. Most of it is sorrow, but a lot of it is also an unexpected sense of joy that you find in reminiscing about the memories & the good times with others who’re grieving. Some of it is also pure laughter, as you try to hold on to any and every moment where the realisation of the loss doesn’t weigh on your mind like a rock. Ee.Ma.Yau. , This Is Where I Leave You, Ramprasad Ki Terhvi, are some films that delve into this shade of grief really well.