Delivered with humour and discomfort, Jyoti Dagra’s solo performance Maas examines the politics of beauty and its intersections with social media, the public and the private gaze, and our capitalist society’s conception of female beauty. By Prerna S.

Released 15 years ago, Zoya Akhtar’s Luck By Chance (2009) was a stinging critique of the shabbiness and the showmanship of the Hindi film industry, where one of the industry’s own looked within and held out a mirror for all to see. By Sneha Bengani

Tejaswini Apte-Rahm’s The Secret of More (2022) tells a provocative tale of urbanization in early 20th-century Bombay. By Akankshya Abismruta

In Hope for Sanity, a collection of columns filled with nuggets of wisdom, empathy, and advice, decorated former policeman Julio Riberio emerges as a “conscience keeper” for our nation. By Karan Madhok

Fiction by Aarushi Agrawal: ‘She couldn’t believe this was happening to her—these conspiracies, these trending hashtags, all playing out in real life. There was no need to engage. By now, Vaani and Aaqib were walking as briskly as the woods would allow.’

Jerry Pinto’s The Education of Yuri (2022) is an atmospherically saturated, layered accordion, sounding an adventure in scale that simultaneously encompasses the chronicle of a young boy’s coming of age, and a time capsule of Bombay of a bygone era. By Paromita Patranobish

At the recent Van Gogh 360° event in Mumbai, Bushra Satkhed found inspiration in the trouble artist’s keen eye for the beauty in life.

Inspired by her visit to monasteries in Ladakh, to the ghats of Ganga at Varanasi, Kedarnath, temples of south India, Kanheri caves at Mumbai and more, artist Shruti Goenka created a series of artworks peppered with elements of spirituality in the series “Antarman—A Journey Within”. By Bindu Gopal Rao

Held in Mumbai, the exhibition Woman is as Woman Does presented moving homages to feminist artivism and archives of alternate ‘doings’, across the years since India’s Independence. By Anna Lynn

Aakash Prabhakar—who directed and acted in the Indian reimagining of Mark Bartlett’s play, Cock—speaks to Chintan Girish Modi about the complexities of adaptation, casting, identity politics, and the human discomfort with ambiguities.

Photo Gallery: Infrastructural concerns and safety negligence have led to multiple major fires in Mumbai in recent years. But there are fires that often go unreported, small flares that alert the Maximum City of the rising infernos to come. By Altamash Kadir

Modern Love (Mumbai)’s greatest realization lies in the offering of the city’s palette: an architectural marvel in the Sea Link, an underlying bedrock in Thane, a warm enclosure in cutting chai. The city is steeped in the love its characters exude towards themselves and others. By Raunaq Saraswat