For that, we must turn to a quieter corner of the cinematic landscape. This is a more accepting, empathetic, and effectively more ambitious space. The best Indian films of 2023 don’t just represent who we are as a people right now, but also who we are capable of becoming. They’re cautionary tales and tragedies, fables and fantasies; these are the best Indian movies of the year, in alphabetical order.

Agra

Mohit Agarwal in a still from Agra.

When director Kanu Behl broke onto the scene many years ago with the searing drama Titli, it seemed like we were entering a new era in Indian cinema. It has taken him nearly a decade to mount his sophomore feature, the even more disturbing Agra. Just as we’ve settled into a hellscape dominated by hyper-masculine blockbusters with little room for anything else, Agra provides an unvarnished peek inside the mind of a creature who, in many ways, has been birthed out of this very culture. In a world of Animals, however, the film offers empathy (but crucially not forgiveness) for its unhinged protagonist, played by newcomer Mohit Agarwal.

Kaathal – The Core

Mammootty in a still from Kaathal – The Core.

Also read – Kaathal – The Core: Jeo Baby must kill his inner crowd-pleaser; it’s the only thing separating his films from true greatness

Director Jeo Baby’s new film couldn’t be more different — temperamentally and tonally — from Agra. Although it’s equally empathetic, and even more complex, the movie’s determination to remain optimistic in the face of great suffering is like a balm in these terrible times. A deeply affecting tale about same-sex love and a ruptured marriage, Kaathal serves as a reminder that great filmmaking is still possible in the mainstream.

Maagh – The Winter Within

Zoya Hussain in a still from The Winter Within.

Featuring a stunning central performance by Zoya Hussain, director Aamir Bashir’s second feature film is a livid counterpoint to the more popular filmmaking about Kashmir that we’ve become attuned to. While director Vidhu Vinod Chopra took a centrist stance on the conflict in his film Shikara, and He Who Must Not Be Named defiled it with his irresponsible lens, Bashir’s sombre drama presents the political reality of Kashmir through the point of view of a woman who is essentially reduced to collateral damage. It’s a humanist tale that remains unflinchingly confrontational from beginning to end.

Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam

Mammootty in a still from Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam.

Coincidentally, Mammootty is responsible for two of the best male performances in Indian cinema this year. Malayalam Next-Gen pioneer Lijo Jose Pelliserry’s magic realist drama gave the acting icon plenty of opportunity to showboat in a dual role as a curmudgeonly Malayali and a confused Tamilian. Ripe with symbols, metaphors and allegories, Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam can best described as a melding of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s themes and Wes Anderson’s visual style.

Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar

Abhinav Jha and Tanaya Khan Jha in a still from Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar. (Photo: Mubi)

Also read – Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar movie review: Poetic and profound, the best Hindi film of the year

The latest in the Darbhanga New Wave pioneered by director Achal Mishra, filmmaker Parth Saurabh’s Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar is a searing drama about a couple in crisis, a country in the throes of the pandemic, and a generation with nothing to do and nowhere to be. The movie unfolds in unhurried scenes in which the two protagonists — Sumit and Priyanka — contend with the aftermath of their decision to elope, and is more interested in what happens after the conventional drama.

Rapture

A still from Dominic Megem Sangma’s Rapture.

A magic-realist fable about the othering of minorities, a hypnotic drama about loss-of-innocence, and one of the most hauntingly shot movies of the year, Dominic Megam Sangma’s second feature, Rapture, establishes him as one of the most original directors working today. Set in a village in his home state Meghalaya, the Garo-language film captures a community’s slow descent into madness and paranoia after a priest warns of an impending 80-day apocalypse. Told through the eyes of a young child caught in the middle of this mass hysteria, Rapture is at once a takedown of organised religion, and a cautionary tale about the perils of misinformation.

Sthal – A Match

Nandini Chitke in a still from Sthal: A Match.

This year’s equivalent of The Great Indian Kitchen, director Jayant Digambar Somalkar’s Marathi-language drama is an exquisitely structured and incendiary portrait of a young woman put up for sale in the marriage marketplace. She presents herself for the perusal of a revolving door of men, only to be rejected, humiliated, and treated like dirt. Unlike the similarly-themed Pokhar Ke Dunu Paar, Sthal is more crowd-pleasing in its sensibilities, and therefore ideally suited to becoming our next word-of-mouth hit.

While We Watched

Ravish Kumar in a still from While We Watched.

Also read – While We Watched: Tragic Ravish Kumar documentary is the best war movie of the year

Director Vinay Shukla’s documentary profile of the journalist Ravish Kumar works as a dystopian thriller, a character study about loneliness, and also a newsroom drama. It’s a deeply moving but ultimately tragic portrayal of the real-time disintegration of the social fabric that binds us, and an uncommonly insightful look at how the fourth pillar of democracy operates in an era where press freedom is under constant scrutiny (if not outright threat).