Sabar Bonda, Dhadak 2, Agra and more
Like every year, 2025 was dominated by self-important movies with big-name actors aiming for blockbuster status. And like every year, there were films – many of them by first-time directors – with more modest ambitions, greater integrity and the willingness to take risks.
Here is a selection of 2025’s boldest, most compelling and repeat-worthy films that were released in cinemas.
Sabar Bonda Rohan Kanawade’s directing debut is a gorgeous gay romance that plays out in a village in Maharashtra. The Marathi film explores the feelings that resurface between Anand and Balya following the death of Anand’s father. The Scroll review praised the film as a “quiet, unhurried and tender tale of personal upheaval taking place in unconventional settings”.
Bad Girl Varsha Bharath’s Tamil movie is a memorable funny-sad-angry chronicle of womanhood. The film observes Ramya between the ages of 15 and 32 as she lurches from one relationship to another alongside battling her mother. From the review on Scroll: “Ramya is so relatable that she walks in our midst. Rarely has a heroine been this exasperating, and this honest.”
Available on JioHotstar.
Lokah Chapter One: Chandra Dominic Arun’s terrific superhero movie proved yet again the Malayalam film industry’s skill with churning out politically sharp and progressive crowd-pleasers. Among the reasons Lokah Chapter One: Chandra became a huge hit were an independent and powerful heroine, a powerful origin story, subversive politics and universe-building done right, Scroll wrote soon after the film’s release.
Watch on JioHotstar.
Su From So Several first-time filmmakers hit pay dirt in 2025. Among them was JP Thuminad’s Kannada-language Su From So.
The rambunctious comedy follows the unintended consequences of a fake ghost sighting in a village. Tucked into the humour is a strong message about tolerance and the treatment of women. “Our intention was to make a film that was entertaining, engaging and had a quality of goodness to it,” producer Raj B Shetty told Scroll.
Dhadak 2 Shazia Iqbal’s Hindi remake of Mari Selvaraj’s searing Tamil-language Pariyerum Perumal is one of the few Bollywood films to squarely confront the injustices of the caste system. From the Scroll review: “There has not been a mainstream movie like this in recent times, weaving into its caste-crossed romance revelations about Dalit identity, debates about reservations in colleges and the importance of legal protections against caste atrocities.”
Watch on Netflix.
Bison Kaalamaadan Mari Selvaraj too had a film out this year, a powerful, symbol-rich sports drama about a kabbadi player’s mission to overcome the insecurity and inferiority created by systemic oppression.
“Like the wrestling, tagging and raiding involved in kabaddi, the movie too is packed with moves and countermoves,” Scroll said in its review. “Bison Kaalamaadan initially appears to be a straight-forward tale of caste discrimination, but there’s a lot more going on.”
Watch on Netflix.
Homebound Caste and Islamophobia are the twin drivers of Neeraj Ghaywan’s Oscar-hopeful Hindi-language second feature. Two young men – one Muslim and the other Dalit – try to earn a living while navigating the fault lines of Indian society. The coronavirus pandemic pushes them into a crisis.
“The pandemic supplies expected scenes of poignancy, but it is in the build-up to this situation that Ghaywan’s rage is most strongly felt,” the Scroll review said.
Watch on Netflix.
Alappuzha Gymkhana Naslen stole the show in Lokah Chapter One: Chandra and he’s in excellent form in the sports drama Alappuzha Gymkhana too.
Naslen leads a group of teenagers who take up boxing so that they can get into college through the sports quota. Per the Scroll review: “The Malayalam comedy has many scenes that showcase the sport. But Khalid Rahman’s hugely enjoyable movie is equally about friendship, self-realisation and the true meaning of victory.”
Available on Sony LIV.
Kantara: Chapter 1 The prequel to Kantara (2022) traces the origins of the folklore that protects forests and gives people the strength to fight oppression. From the Scroll review: “Well aware that the element of surprise – that first sighting of mortals driven to uncommon courage after being possessed by spirits – can’t be replicated, Rishab Shetty examines the human aspects of the encounter between tribals and their supposed rulers.”
Available on Prime Video.
Jarann This horror film stars the redoubtable Amruta Subhash as a woman trying to protect her daughter from an evil force. Scroll observed: “The highly mobile face that can switch expression without warning, the ability to summon complex emotions, the power to create empathy – Subhash’s protean talent gets the platform it deserves in Jarann.”
Available on ZEE5.
Sister Midnight Radhika Apte was back on Netflix this year (in Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders). She also played a wily widow in Saali Mohabbat. But her talent was most memorably explored in British director Karan Kandhari’s horror comedy Sister Midnight.
Made in 2024 and released in India this year, the film sees Apte as a “flower of the night, wild and growing in all directions as she chafes at Mumbai’s super-dense crush load”, according to the Scroll review.
Available on Prime Video.
April May 99 Rohan Mapuskar’s Marathi feature debut is about a life-altering summer vacation. In a village in the Konkan, three boys who are struggling with their studies get lessons in academics and life from the visitor Jaie.
From the Scroll review: “April May 99 is like travelling in a time machine back to the joys of childhood vacations where nothing of importance seemed to happen even though a great deal was churning under the surface.”
Available on Prime Video.
Stolen Karan Tejpal’s white-knuckle thriller examines a pressing dilemma: should you help a stranger? A pair of brothers learns the hard way that empathy is downright dangerous, especially when the person is need is from a marginalised community.
“There are several dark places where the three characters finds themselves, but perhaps nothing is scarier than the open roads on which they are hounded by bloodthirsty mobs,” the Scroll review noted.
Available on Prime Video.
Sthal Made in 2023 and released this year, Jayant Somalkar’s Marathi feature debut is a sharply observed critique of arranged matchmaking. The Scroll review noted: “The heroine in Sthal is almost a commodity, to be traded like the bales of cotton lying around her home. What Savita (Nandini Chikte) feels about being repeatedly paraded before strangers and asked the same banal questions is not known, since nobody asks her.”
Agra Kanu Behl’s Agra “distils the dysfunctional family chronicle, the psychosexual drama and the housing dream movie into a provocative tale of urban horror”, Scroll observed in its review. Uuncompromising and unrelentingly unsettling, the film is a singular study of masculinity under severe strain.
Feminist Fathima Fasil Muhammed’s film is a powerful exploration of oppression and rebellion in a conservative Muslim family in Kerala. In an interview, Muhammed told Scroll that his directorial debut is “a challenge to people who don’t want to change with the times”.
Available on ManoramaMAX.
Ata Thambaycha Naay! Shivraj Waichal’s film is the stirring chronicle of a real-life miracle: the efforts by a group of sanitation in workers in Mumbai to complete their education with the help of a visionary government official. The movie is “hugely uplifting but sensibly grounded too”, Scroll said in its review.
Available on ZEE5.
Humans in the Loop More than humankind’s ability to bend artificial intelligence to its will, Aranya Sahay’s feature debut is the moving story of Nehma, an Adivasi woman, and her efforts to create a bond with her rebellious daughter. “The most compelling and thoughtful scenes occur when Nehma is in confrontation mode, facing the unknown and the known,” Scroll said in its review.
Available on Netflix.
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