Suvo Pyne

After premiering at the 2024 MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s latest, Ghamasaan, struggled to find a commercial release—until its recent streaming debut on ZEE5. Headlined by Arshad Warsi and Pratik Gandhi, the film sees Dhulia ease into the comfort of his specialty. A crime drama set deep in the Hindi hinterland is right up the alley of the man who made Paan Singh Tomar. This cat-and-mouse chase between cops and gangsters is familiar terrain where Dhulia naturally revels.

From the M3GAN (2022) universe comes another AI-powered robot offering companionship, only to deliver wanton violence and fatal consequences. Where M3GAN featured the titular doll befriending a young child as a playmate, Kate Dolan’s Soulm8te presents an android designed to fulfill both romantic aspirations and carnal desires.

Growing up is a wonderfully frightening feeling. When you’re on the verge of adulthood, at the precipice of independence, that terror is unavoidable—yet it yields some of the most defining, enriching moments of our lives. Great coming-of-age tales capture that unyielding spirit of freedom with necessary reverence for that aforementioned fear. Imran J. Khan’s directorial debut, “Mustache,” is a magnificent example of such a portrayal.