Movies like Ilayaraja
If you like "Ilayaraja" you are looking for emotional, realistic and melancholic movies about / with poverty, family drama, loan shark, survival, sacrifice, desperation and working class themes of Drama genre shot in India.
Find your next favorite and similar movies in two steps:
1. Identify all themes of interest from this film (block below).
2. Look for them in the presented list.
Ilayaraja (2019)
446
Original name: ഇളയരാജ
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 141 min.
Story:
Vanajan hails from a modest household and lives with his ailing father, wife and children. One day, he finds himself at a crossroads when his moneylender makes him an unusual offer.
Style:
emotional, realistic, melancholic, tense, intense
Plot:
poverty, family drama, loan shark, survival, sacrifice, desperation, working class, moral dilemma, small town, slice of life, empathy, redemption, intimate, hopes, slow burn, house, malayalam
Movie in categories
Most similar movies to Ilayaraja
The list contains related movies ordered by similarity. Recommendation engine sorted out realistic, emotional, melancholic and tense films with plots about intimate, family drama, slice of life, small town, moral dilemma, slow burn and empathy mostly in Drama, Thriller and Family genres. Some movies like Ilayaraja: Dhumketu (2025), Pekamedalu (2024), Collision (2019), Between Two Dawns (2021), Imprisoned (2015). The matching attributes are highlighted in bold.
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 131 min.
Story:
Megh is a married person, who works as manager of a tea estate in North Sikkim. In a certain crisis he became jobless and struggles to make ends problems of his life because there are not many options for livelihood around in the hills. He fights to ...
Style:
emotional, realistic, scenic, melancholic
Plot:
struggle, resilience, empathy, poverty, hopes, unemployment, perseverance, family bonds, slice of life, sacrifice, parenting, recovery ...
Place:
kolkata
Similarity:
95%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
Young married couple from heartlands face ideological divide. Varalakshmi, grounded homemaker values steady income. Laxman, jobless husband seeks shortcuts for entrepreneurial dreams.
Style:
realistic, melancholic
Plot:
domestic drama, middle class, unemployment, gender roles, aspiration, sacrifice, social commentary, small town, slice of life, intimate, entrepreneurship, working class ...
Similarity:
90%
Genre: Drama
Country: Denmark
Duration: 117 min.
Story:
'Collision' centres on a married couple, Leo and Olivia. As they are facing a crisis in their marriage, their nine-year-old daughter, Liv, becomes a messenger between her mother and father. The film explores the break-up of a family and ...
Style:
emotional, bleak, realistic, intense, tense ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
daughter, parent child relationship, marriage crisis, family drama, loss, desperation, custody battle, parents, social issues, grief, moral dilemma, hopes ...
Similarity:
88%
Genre: Drama
Country: Turkey, Romania, France, Spain
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
After a worker is severely injured in their family business, Kadir is forced into making a moral decision, which will have an impact on his dreams, his family, and the life of injured worker’s wife
Style:
captivating, thrilling, psychological, realistic, emotional ...
Plot:
moral dilemma, family relations, family drama, family business, family problems, male female relationship, eccentric family, life is a bitch, relationships, job, love affair, social problems ...
Time:
2020s
Place:
middle east
Similarity:
86%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Costa Rica, Colombia
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
A young girl gets involved in a family drama when she starts a secret friendship with a prison inmate.
Style:
emotional, psychological, tense, intense, realistic
Plot:
prisoner, family drama, prison, family conflict, confined, young girl, secret relationship, taboo, prison life, moral dilemma, female protagonist, empathy ...
Place:
costa rica
Similarity:
83%
Genre: Drama
Country: France
Duration: 103 min.
Story:
Karine, a housekeeper of 34, is the full-time mother of 17 year-old Ziggy. When the company that employed her is taken over, subject to the laws of capitalism, Karine will have to choose between being true to herself, or lie to protect herself and ...
Style:
emotional, realistic, melancholic, tense
Plot:
moral dilemma, motherhood, female protagonist, parent child relationship, empathy, social realism, domestic drama, moral ambiguity, single mother, capitalism, housekeeper, working class ...
Similarity:
82%
394
Genre: Drama
Country: Germany
Duration: 87 min.
Story:
Follows the lives of an unemployed drunk and his son as they struggle to adapt to each other.
Style:
emotional, melancholic, independent film, bleak
Plot:
unemployment, family drama, alcoholism, father son relationship, poverty, character study, intimate, social realism, parenting, working class, empathy, slice of life ...
Time:
21st century
Similarity:
82%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 137 min.
Story:
An unemployed graduate faces the dilemma of securing a government job and saving his father after the family meets a medical crisis.
Style:
emotional, melancholic, compassionate
Plot:
father son relationship, unemployment, family crisis, family bonds, social commentary, sacrifice, job seeking, desperation, social realism, poverty, ethical dilemma, working class ...
Similarity:
77%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 122 min.
Story:
Follows three characters from diverse backgrounds in their mid twenties. How consequences arise because of their flaws and what struggles they go through?
Style:
emotional, realistic, tense, melancholic
Plot:
young adult, coming of age, self discovery, personal growth, relationships, slice of life, identity crisis, intimate, realism, regret, friendship, urban ...
Similarity:
71%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 134 min.
Story:
A twelve-year-old bright schoolboy, Sivanandhan, his mother, sister, and with his friend Sekhar works during his school holidays carrying banana stalks, a task he dreads. As he navigates life's challenges, poverty, friendship, and the ...
Style:
emotional, melancholic, realistic
Plot:
coming of age, poverty, childhood, social realism, village life, friendship, resilience, sibling relationship, mother son relationship, determination, labor, slice of life ...
Similarity:
67%
1K
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 142 min.
Story:
Juliet and her daughter Aparna live in Kerala, while Juliet’s husband Nandan works abroad. Nandan decides to move back to Kerala, and it changes the lives of the mom-daughter duo.
Style:
emotional, heartfelt, realistic, melancholic, contemplative
Audience:
adult
Plot:
mother daughter relationship, family drama, female protagonist, parenting, getting home, healing, estrangement, emigration, homecoming, reconciliation, forgiveness, intimate ...
Similarity:
66%
118
Genre: Drama
Country: Sweden
Duration: 83 min.
Story:
Goran just got out of high school and doesn't know what he wants to do with his life. Should he stick with his small time gangster friends and make some cash, or listen to Zeko in the fast food stall who thinks you should go to school forever? ...
Style:
realistic, melancholic, independent film, crime drama
Audience:
teen drama
Plot:
moral dilemma, youth, self discovery, responsibility, mother son relationship, coming of age, temptation, realism, peer pressure, family drama, bittersweet, slice of life ...
Place:
croatia, eastern europe
Similarity:
61%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 114 min.
Story:
The lives of six individuals across the city change just as the city is reeling under floods. Will they all make it safely to the other side?
Style:
emotional, realistic, bleak, inspirational, tense ...
Audience:
adult
Plot:
city life, family drama, urban, survival, deafness, social issues, sacrifice, motherhood, natural disaster, realism, resilience, slice of life ...
Similarity:
59%
4K
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 150 min.
Story:
A middle-class family battles financial hurdles and personal setbacks while pursuing their dream of owning a home in the bustling city.
Style:
realistic, heartfelt, emotional, sentimental
Plot:
middle class, family drama, aspiration, city life, family bonds, city, slice of life, working class, sacrifice, social issues, perseverance, hopes ...
Similarity:
56%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 146 min.
Story:
During a train journey, A ticket examiner narrates four tales of extreme parental sacrifice, exploring familial bonds through illness, estrangement, unexpected connections, and emotional turmoil, to a young woman
Style:
emotional, poignant, anthology, sentimental, realistic
Plot:
parenthood, sacrifice, family bonds, family drama, storytelling, train travel, empathy, grief, loneliness, estrangement, loss, reconciliation ...
Similarity:
55%
Genre: Drama, Family, Thriller
Country: Greece, Germany
Duration: 118 min.
Story:
A middle-aged fisherman living with his wife and daughter on Greece’s northern border, who is drowning in debt, starts to smuggle migrants across the border lake, in exchange for a hefty fee. Until a tragic incident strikes the family, pushing the ...
Style:
melancholic, tense, bleak, emotional, contemplative ...
Plot:
illegal immigration, desperation, social realism, family drama, human trafficking, family tragedy, moral dilemma, grief, loss, debt, poverty, small town ...
Similarity:
53%
72
Genre: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
Shot mainly in South East London, it’s about Micky Mason, a skilled manual worker who, since the Crash, can find nothing but menial zero hours jobs. He takes a course of action that is completely out of character, but it’s the only way he can ...
Style:
realistic
Plot:
character study, struggle, working class, resilience, blue collar, unemployment, survival, empathy, family drama, social realism, social commentary, economic crisis ...
Place:
london
Similarity:
53%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 141 min.
Story:
A hardworking lorry driver who works at an old paper mart learns about the presence of a bomb and does everything he can to stop it from exploding.
Style:
tense, thrilling, captivating, tension, suspense ...
Plot:
bomb, problem, bomb threat, driver, truck driver, threat, moral dilemma, social realism, working class, humanism, empathy, anti war ...
Place:
india
Similarity:
53%
Genre: Drama
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 97 min.
Story:
A story combined by the lives of three night clubs girls in. Porsche is a once-famous aging night club girl; May is forced to work in a night club in order to pay her step-father's debt; and GiGi needs a huge amount of money in order to help ...
Style:
melancholic, realistic, tragic, period drama
Plot:
nightclub, nightlife, friendship, sacrifice, survival, desperation, debt, cabaret, character study, branding iron, working class, urban ...
Time:
80s
Similarity:
53%
Genre: Drama
Country: Taiwan
Duration: 112 min.
Story:
Set in the late 1980s, this family drama is about an 11-year-old boy who befriends his landlord, nicknamed Old Fox, and learns from him how to survive in a rapidly changing world as well as things his poor father would never be able to teach him.
Style:
realistic, emotional, melancholic, period piece
Plot:
grownups, family drama, life lesson, coming of age, child protagonist, family bonds, working class, resilience, character study, poverty, intergenerational friendship, bittersweet ...
Time:
80s
Similarity:
52%
1K
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 127 min.
Story:
In a rapidly urbanizing village, Muthiah, an electrician turned habitual drinker, struggles with his marriage and work. His hatred for North Indian workers leads to conflict with his neighbor, Sunil. Tragedy, guilt, and kindness ultimately transform ...
Style:
realistic, melancholic, tense
Plot:
village, social realism, family drama, humanity, loss, prejudice, redemption, tragedy, guilt, moral dilemma, empathy, slice of life ...
Similarity:
49%
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 120 min.
Story:
PENDULUM SWINGS follows a man into a dark place in his life - a place at which he arrives through a combination of bad decisions and forces beyond his control. When he finally hits bottom, he is presented with an opportunity to climb out of his ...
Style:
emotional, reflective, serious, melancholic, realistic ...
Plot:
compassion, redemption, empathy, second chance, character study, recovery, moral dilemma, morality, healing, resilience, self destructing, humanity ...
Similarity:
49%
6K
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Country: India
Duration: 93 min.
Story:
The life of a failed musician, sunny takes a dramatic turn as he smuggles himself back from Dubai to Kerala in midst of a global pandemic and shuts himself from the society.
Style:
emotional, intense, melancholic, realistic, bleak ...
Plot:
pandemic, desperation, character study, survival, regret, redemption, isolation, homecoming, secrets, getting home, resilience, hopes ...
Time:
2020s
Place:
india, dubai
Similarity:
47%
Movie in collections
Genre: Drama
Country: Iran
Duration: 85 min.
Story:
A once thriving reception hall has been reduced to catering to the funeral business and the somber rituals of death. The owner, Soleimani, is a sour, lonely and unloved old man who treats his workers with contempt, inflicting small cruelties ...
Style:
realistic, psychological
Plot:
empathy, character study, humanism, working class, resilience, slice of life, social realism, dignity, mortality, solidarity, hopes, melancholy ...
Place:
iran
Similarity:
47%
Genre: Drama
Country: China
Duration: 121 min.
Story:
A moment of impulsiveness turns Gao Zhilei into a "stay-at-home" individual, but he never expected his life to take a turn in the opposite direction. A series of changes compel him to take on his responsibilities as the head of the family. ...
Style:
emotional, realistic, melancholic, motivational
Plot:
responsibility, self discovery, family drama, personal growth, sacrifice, redemption, male protagonist, midlife crisis, second chance, parenting, resilience, intimate ...
Similarity:
47%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 160 min.
Story:
A man leading a happy life with his loving wife and two children suddenly starts getting forgetful and lost. Then, he is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease leaving his family devastated.
Style:
psychological, heartbreaking, emotional, captivating, realistic ...
Plot:
father son relationship, alzheimer's disease, memory loss, family drama, student, family relations, changing lives, lifestyle change, kids and family, family problems, lifestyle, grief ...
Place:
india
Similarity:
47%
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 108 min.
Story:
Three distanced, discordant brothers strive to put aside their differences as they reunite after decades at their ancestral home to give their dying mother a peaceful send off, but soon are at loggerheads as the house brings up painful memories of ...
Style:
emotional, serious, intense, realistic
Plot:
brothers, family drama, dying mother, sibling rivalry, bereavement, domestic drama, painful memories, estrangement, memory, grief, family secret, parent child relationship ...
Similarity:
46%
2K
Genre: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min.
Story:
1982, a film inspired by true events at the onset of the crack epidemic in Philadelphia, tells the story of a father and his efforts to protect his gifted daughter from the insidious epidemic which has literally come home via her drug-addicted ...
Style:
crime drama, emotional, realistic, heartbreaking, period piece ...
Plot:
addiction, poverty, drug addiction, father daughter relationship, family drama, parenting, substance abuse, single father, social issues, protection, urban, sacrifice ...
Time:
80s
Place:
philadelphia
Similarity:
44%
94
Genre: Drama
Country: Malaysia
Duration: 99 min.
Story:
Tells a story about a special child, Ashraf or Jibam, who is a little dull of his mind, but has a hidden privileges.
Style:
emotional, heartfelt, realistic, melancholic
Plot:
innocence, child protagonist, compassion, empathy, acceptance, family drama, underdog, mental disorder, relationships, slice of life, intimate, family values ...
Similarity:
43%
1K
Genre: Drama
Country: India
Duration: 145 min.
Story:
Stranded on her way home, Sruthi hitches a long ride with KK who turns out to be her dad's buddy. Sruthi's mother seems to be reassured hearing that KK is with her daughter now. However her husband is troubled on hearing the news. ...
Style:
tense, dread, suspense, intense, psychological ...
Plot:
family drama, social commentary, moral ambiguity, confrontation, character study, ethical dilemma, mistrust, unsettling, coming of age, family honor, road trip, small town ...
Similarity:
43%
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