In an uneven year for Bollywood, Nivedita Dey picks seven of the finest releases—films that combatted themes of patriarchy, politics, disability, religious fanaticism, and more.

Age and youth, love found and love lost, a city of excess and a city of scarcity—Sarthak Parashar examines the many contrasts balanced by Payal Kapadia in the acclaimed All We Imagine As Light (2024).

Indians have long held a close respect for the rhythm of nature, working in close consort with the environment. But recent big-ticket government projects have ignored ecological concerns, threatening India’s rich biodiversity and causing severe damage to forest lands. By Vipin Labroo

Essay by Tansy Troy: ‘As arresting now as when first sculpted, Navjot’s contemplation of the feminine form is no less contemporary, no less urgent to consider than when she created the red-and-blue lady thirty years ago.’

In a famous verse, Kabir wrote, “The river that flows in you also flows in me.” Inspired by this grand uniting spirit of humanity, transgender artists of the Aravani Art Project presented their artwork in front of the Ganga in Varanasi. By Karan Madhok

Extract from the work of Mir Taqi Mir: Mir’s poetry abounds in bawdiness, the pain and enjoyment of life, instances of homosexuality, Sufi themes, close and wise observation of the world, and insistence on man’s dignity. Translated by: Shamsur Rahman Faruqi

Poetry by Tabish Nawaz: ‘I breath to fluidize the gravels / but they fall back / like the debris in a city / bombed for months.’

Ronald Ross was once immortalized in Amitav Ghosh’s historical novel. Nivedita Dey rediscovers a memorial dedicated to Kolkata’s forgotten, Nobel laureate physician.

Set against a backdrop of religious abuse and suffocating intolerance, Sohali Rauf’s Blasphear is a sharp commentary on the ideas of nationhood, and how its intangible forces act as blind shepherds, leading the masses down paths they cannot question. By Amritesh Mukherjee

Poetry by Sambhu R.: ‘Our reflections walk out of mirrors, / ashamed to take on / the semblance of our sinister shapes’

With a major national robotics win, two Mumbai teenagers take their creation to the World Robotics Olympiad. Their accomplishment could pave the way for more future leaders from India in the fields of science and technology. By Bushra Satkhed

Poetry by Ankush Banerjee: ‘Before anaesthesia shatters / the bough of your body, before the / moon overhead is a mouth of darkness, you / pray they fill the space between dislocated hip / & future with what you heard but / could never hold’