Contemporary OTT narratives like Panchayat and Nirmal Pathak Ki Ghar Wapsi are revisiting the rural through the lens of an urban outsider, in an evocation of Sri Lal Shukla’s acclaimed 1968 novel Raag Darbari. By Ananya

Rural India takes centre-stage again in Season 2 of Panchayat, a series that follows the thread of comic absurdity to stitch up a progressive lens on village life. By Karan Madhok

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

Vivek Agnihotri’s controversial film The Kashmir Files is more drama than documentary, an awkward retelling of recent history that propagates more than it educates. By Dhani Muniz

A poignant, nuanced comedy drama, Badhaai Do (2022) tests the complexities of a lavender marriage in a small Indian city. By Ankur Choudhary

Despite its ambitions to be a crime drama at the grandest scale, The Great Indian Murder (2022) falls into a trap of stereotypes and cliches, offering only an amalgamation of old ideas wrapped in a shiny new box. By Karan Madhok

SonyLIV web series Rocket Boys is a rare exception among recent dramas, where an entertaining story of post-Independent India also holds up a mirror of truths. - By Atulya Pathak

The sixteen-year wait between Bunty Aur Babli and its sequel projects the face of a new, millennial Indian generation and their aspirations—even for the latest brand of the film’s con-artists. By Toonika Guha

‘The ground is shifting… It is symptomatic of a tension, a threat.’ Writer, academician, and filmmaker Anubha Yadav spoke about the process behind her book Scripting Bollywood: Candid Conversations with Women Who Write Hindi Cinema, feminism in the Hindi film industry, and much more. By Shibani Phukan

It’s impossible to watch the biopic Sardar Udham without identifying how the past still haunts India’s present, how old imperialism continues in the form of the new state. By Karan Madhok

In House of Secrets: The Burari Deaths, Leena Yadav moulds the story about a tragedy into an active question of self-reflection for the larger society. - By Atulya Pathak

In his 2021 short documentary, Amal Shihabudeen poses questions of belonging and identity to the uneven balanced faced by migrant labourers in Kerala.