Top 20 Indian films to watch in 2024

My Top 20 Indian South Asian and South Asian Diaspora films to watch out for in 2024 This list honours 18 women film directors and producers1LAAPATAA LADIES by Kiran Rao Hindi Most delicious comedydrama about two brides who get mixed up after their weddings Feistily feminist earthy Was at Toronto International Film Festival FF Producers Aamir Khan Kiran Rao Jyoti Deshpande woman director two women producers Expected release March 12LSD2 Love Sex Aur Dhokha 2 by Dibakar Banerjee Hindi Dibakar is a most thoughtful courageous yet entertaining filmmaker this is a muchawaited sequel to his LSD of 2010 and is produced by Ekta Kapoor woman producer3 GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS by Shuchi Talati English Absolutely gorgeous finely observed original debut feature set in a boarding school Teenage Mirarsquos Preeti Panigrahi coming of age rebellion is hijacked by her mother Anila Kani Kusruti who never got to come of age Kusruti is luminous at Sundance FF the film won the Audience Award and Special Jury Award for Acting for Preeti Panigrahi World Cinema Dramatic Woman director woman producer Richa Chadha with others4VIDUTHALAI LiberationPART 2 by Vetri Maaran Tamil Vijay Sethupathi Soori and Gautam Vasudev Menon star in this sequel to Viduthalai1 which explored how indigenous people fought back oppressive police Both films were selected at IFF Rotterdam5AMAR SINGH CHAMKILA by Imtiaz Ali Punjabi Diljit Dosanjh Parineeti Chopra star in a film on the popular raunchy Punjabi singer who was shot dead young Music by AR Rahman Produced by Netflix India6THANGALAAN by Pa Ranjith Tamil Chiyaan Vikram and Parvathy Thiruvothu star in this period film on the British exploitation of tribals and land grab in order to mine gold Produced by Studio Green andNeelam Productions7 MALAIKOTTAI VAALIBAN by Lijo Jose Pellissery Malayalam Top Malayalam star Mohanlal leads this lavish historical actioner very ambitious for Pellissery now in theatres8KOTTUKKAALI by Vinoth PS Tamil Selected in the Berlin Film Festivalrsquos Forum section it stars Anna Ben and Soori his family ldquoexorciserdquo her as shersquos in love with a man of the ldquowrongrdquo caste 9 ULLOZHUKKU Undercurrent by Christo Tomy Malayalam Debut fiction feature by Tomy Curry amp Cyanide The Jolly Joseph Case docu Netflix Parvathy Thiruvothu plays a pregnant widow with a secret lover waiting for her unloving husbandrsquos funeral to get over during the Kerala floods Produced by RSVP MacGuffin Pictures selected by Film Independentrsquos Global Media Makers programme10BARIR NAAM SHAHANA A House Named Shahanaby Leesa Gazi Bengali British Bangladeshi Gazirsquos film is about a teenage Bangladeshi girl married to a much older man in the UK via a lsquotrunk call weddingrsquo who returns home to escape marital rapemdashand finds her own voice Jio Mami Mumbai FF Woman director woman producer superb BangladeshUK coproduction11 RI by Achal Mishra Ladakhi Gorgeous monochrome hybrid docufictionessay set in Ladakh shot at twilight when itrsquos bluemdashpoetic meditative Dharamshala IFF12 CHALCHITRA EKHON Kaleidoscope Now by Anjan Dutt Bengali Fictionalised tribute to auteur Mrinal Sen on his birth centenary tracing Duttrsquos enduring relationship with the master beginning with when he acted in his Chalchitra in 1981 Kolkata IFF Starring Anjan Dutt and Sawon Chakraborty13PARAMA A JOURNEY WITH APARNA SEN by Suman Ghosh Bengali Documentary on the feisty intellectual and stylish Aparna Sen prolific actress and director as they revisit places in Kolkata where she shot her films IFF Rotterdam 14SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki Bengali Bangladesh Farooki directs a partly autobiographical fiction starring himself and actresswife Nusrat Imrose Tisha Busan IFF Streaming on Chorki Women producers are Anna Katchko Nina Lath Tisha 15 PARADISE by Prasanna Vithanage Malayalam Sinhala Yet another Indian couple Roshan Mathew Darshana Rajendran holidays in Sri Lanka during the economic crisis a theft triggers events that spin out of control Busan IFF IndoSri Lanka coproduction 16THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS by Fawzia Mirza English Urdu Mirza is a selfconfessed South Asian Muslim Pakistani lesbian filmmaker and this Canadian film that was at the Toronto IFF is a campy family drama that crisscrosses time zones set in Canada and an ultracool Karachi in the 1960s All riffing off the song Mere Sapnon ki Rani from Aradhana 1969 Woman director woman producers Andria Wilson Mirza and Fawzia Mirza17 VAAZHAI Bananas by Mari Selvaraj Tamil Story of labourers employed on banana plantations including children A Hotstar Original film18 NOCTURNES by Anirban Datta and Anupama Srinivasan In the Himalayas a woman researcher and local assistant study moths especially at night to decode their mysterious messages At Sundance FF it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft Woman director19 A FLY ON THE WALL by Shonali Bose Bosersquos good friend Chika Kapadia invites her to spend time with him in Switzerland where he undertakes legally assisted suicideas well as to film him Expect poignant reflections by a director who has reflected considerably on death Woman director and producer20 ANDRO DREAMS by Meena Longjam Manipuri North East Straightforward docu but it records the resilience of Laibi Phanjoubam 60 who has been running an allwoman football club in Andro village Manipur since decades and her promising young football player Nirmala Opened the Indian Panoramarsquos documentary section Woman director producerMeenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival National Awardwinning critic curator to festivals worldwide and journalistReach her at meenakshisheddemiddaycom