Tusshar Sasi

A pair of identical twins with clashing personalities, a perplexed mother, an absent father, a lover who’s a dancer, and a snake-like villain. No, this isn’t the setup for a ’70s masala potboiler. It is Anurag Kashyap’s latest directorial, Nishaanchi. And why not? If anyone outside of Farah Khan can claim to be a true disciple of the Salim–Javed brand of Bollywood masala, it’s Kashyap. The difference is that Kashyap didn’t grow up in town-side Bombay. His films, including this one, carry the flavors of the heartland while staying rooted in Bollywood idioms. Despite kitsch not being his forte, Nishaanchi is his most formulaic film since Mukkabaaz. The question is whether his 2-hour 56-minute gamble pays off.

“It’s a culture that you see in the cities. You know, it’s something the rich people are into. It’s a disease.” You’ve probably heard these lines from people dismissing queer life as a mere lifestyle choice for the wealthy. Director Rohan Parashuram Kanawade’s Marathi-language film Sabar Bonda laughs at these judgments. At one point, in the wee hours, we see a strange man hop over to Balya’s house on a bike. His parents wonder why the guy never shows up during the day. He promises they’ll wrap it up quickly, and when Balya denies, he speeds away like it never mattered. It’s easy to see why this is a very real experience for many queer people in rural India.

There’s a point in Tango Malhar where it stops feeling like a promotional piece for the Argentinian dance form it’s named after. That moment arrives when siblings Malhar (Nitesh Kamble) and Rani (Kriti Vishwanathan) are secretly filmed while passionately practicing tango in a secluded building. In Saya Date’s film, this scandalous act carries the potential to ignite controversy, challenging the sanctity of familial bonds. Where will the story go from here? That question becomes the film’s most compelling suspense. Tango Malhar opens with Malhar, a 20-something autorickshaw driver, grooving to Indian hip-hop on his earphones. He lives with his widowed mother and school-going younger sister in a cramped city home. Early in the film, we see Rani’s love for dance and her brother’s latent rhythm. A man of few words, Malhar is still searching for purpose when tango unexpectedly enters his life.

All it took for Raam Reddy was one film and a non-professional cast to get noticed by film pundits globally. Century Gowda, in his stunning debut Thith,i remains an unforgettable figure in modern Indian cinema. Nearly a decade later, Reddy is back with his second feature. It’s called Jugnuma (The Fable in English). Far more refined in scale and featuring some of the country’s finest actors, the film is nothing like the filmmaker’s maiden outing. If Thithi’s rural Karnataka setting felt as if it were made by someone who grew up in those surroundings, Jugnuma radiates an anecdotal quality. Set in the Himalayan foothills, Reddy’s new film takes us to 1989 amid apple orchards, wildfires, an Indigenous community, and a blue-collar clan in awe of their employer. Jugnuma opens with a man named Dev (Manoj Bajpayee) brushing his teeth in the morning. He interacts with his family (in English) and the staff (in Hindi). Within minutes, he heads straight to the outhouse, straps on a pair of wings, and leaps off – inviting no adverse reactions from anyone. So, if normal mortals take a morning stroll, Dev takes off to fly in the open sky.

How does artificial intelligence interact with a developing economy, particularly at its lowest rung? Humans in the Loop hits like the casual threats you hear in corporate offices: “Everyone’s replaceable. This is the AI era,” echoing memories from when computers began replacing paper and people. The immediate question then, as I recall, was: “Who will operate them?” Okay, let’s face it. There is no running away from technology. It will only get sharper and smarter, but will human beings grow more intelligent alongside it? In Aranya Sahay’s quiet yet powerful feature, we meet a sharp woman whose natural intellect is tested as she struggles to earn a livelihood. Set in India’s rural Jharkhand, the film opens with Nehma (Sonal Madhushankar), who belongs to the Oraon tribe, failing a CAPTCHA test in a village recruitment drive. She fidgets her fingers, applying human logic as she identifies traffic lights, taxis, and zebra crossings. It is important to mention her caste identity in light of her marital status (or its legitimacy at all). Nehna’s ex-husband, Ritesh (Vikas Gupta), seeks custody of their children, one of them a toddler. A regular job is the only way Nehma would stand a chance against the upper-caste man who lives in the state capital, Ranchi.