After nearly a decade of hyper-nationalist bombast and “mass” cinema, social realism is returning to Indian screens with renewed urgency. This month’s Homegrown Watchlist highlights four films and series that turn toward working-class struggles, caste and gendered violence, and the struggles of everyday Indian life.
After nearly a decade dominated by chest-thumping patriotism and spectacle-driven “mass” cinema, social realism is finding its way back onto Indian screens. Filmmakers are returning to the grain of ordinary Indian life: to working-class struggles, the violence of institutions, the weight of caste and gender, and the fragile intimacies that survive amid political and economic upheaval. These intimate, character-driven stories are shaped by labour and caste realities, gendered violence, institutional decay, and the moral ambiguities of modern life. They are more interested in lived experience than nationalist mythmaking, and in asking difficult questions rather than offering catharsis. For this month’s Homegrown Watchlist we are looking at three films and a series that reflect this shift:
Anubhav Sinha’s courtroom drama ‘Assi’ follows schoolteacher Parima (Kani Kusruti) after a brutal rape, tracing the ensuing courtroom battle led by her advocate Raavi (Taapsee Pannu) as influential perpetrators manipulate the judicial system. As Parima fights to reclaim her dignity, the film also observes the emotional toll on her husband Vinay (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) and son Dhruv (Advik Jaiswal), exposing how sexual violence corrodes families and communities. Hard-hitting, if heavy-handed, ‘Assi’ is an uncomfortable but essential watch.
‘Assi’ is playing in cinemas now.
‘Accused’ follows Dr. Geetika Sen (Konkona Sen Sharma), a respected gynaecologist whose life begins to disintegrate after allegations of workplace sexual misconduct push her into a vortex of institutional scrutiny and public suspicion. As the inquiry intensifies, the rupture destabilises her marriage to Dr. Meera (Pratibha Rannta), turning their home into a site of suspicion and emotional fracture. Instead of sensationalising this story, Anubhuti Kashyap builds a tense character study that foregrounds moral ambiguity. The film interrogates power, perception, and the fragility of credibility, offering a rare psychological study told from the accused’s perspective.
‘Accused’ releases on 27 February 2026 on Netflix.
‘Paro Pinaki Ki Kahani’ frames a familiar love story within the stark socio-economic realities of Mumbai’s permanent underclass. The romance between vegetable vendor Paro (Ishita Singh) and sewer cleaner Pinaki (Sanjay Bishnoi) blooms from their shared labour, dignity, and social deprivation. Rudra Jadon’s direction foregrounds the systemic violence of caste hierarchies, human trafficking, and patriarchal control without reducing their story to a moral play. Ishita Singh’s performance anchors the film with emotional clarity, proving that affect need not depend on scale. Despite its modest production, the film’s observational detail and moral urgency offer a compelling critique of ignored urban underclasses.
‘Paro Pinaki Ki Kahani’ is playing in cinemas now.
The second season of Sudeep Sharma’s ‘Kohrra’ continues the critically acclaimed Punjabi Noir police procedural’s ongoing attempt to look beyond postcard Punjab, tracing the shadows beneath its fields and families. Building on the social realism of the first season, the second season opens with the murder of an NRI woman in her brother’s barn, pulling officers Dhanwant Kaur (Mona Singh) and Amarpal Garundi (Barun Sobti) into a web of caste tension, patriarchal inheritance battles, and the exploitation of migrant workers from Bihar and Jharkhand. As the investigation widens, hidden resentments within families surface, alongside memories of insurgency-era violence and the precarity of farm and brick-kiln workers. Mona Singh delivers a standout performance as a stoic cop carrying private grief, matched by Pradhuman Singh Mall’s affecting turn as her broken husband. The textured milieu, lived-in dialects, and emotionally grounded character arcs makes Kohrra Season 2 a resonant, compelling watch.
‘Kohrra Season 2’ is currently streaming on Netflix.
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