Of Survivors, Perpetrators & God

3 films & series I loved

Dec 21, 2025

Lioness

There is a viscerality in Lioness that cuts deep, as it humanizes undercover operations and the toll they take on personal lives—on health, on love, on relationships. As we watch bodies fall on battlefields, we are reminded that each body is, in fact, a full universe. Lioness takes pains to delve into the trauma, agony, and moral ambiguity of combat. The one who emerges victorious is, in the end, merely a survivor—and nothing more.

Dhurandhar

Very few times, if ever, has commercial cinema integrated truly momentous events of our nation so seamlessly into its dramatic fabric. Its verisimilitude embraces grime, sweat, and blood. The fight scenes are brutal, and the way every character fits into the pulsating narrative is nothing short of bloody good.

More disturbingly, however, the film shows how violence is being steadily absorbed—normalized—as common currency in our world. When we begin adjusting our lives around a violent reality rather than resisting it, the bells are already tolling.

Knives Out - Wake Up Dead Man

There is so much to be in awe of in this film. I have always—perhaps forever—loved discussions of religion and spirituality: from Graham Greene’s sparkling Monsignor Quixote, where a communist and a priest embark on a cross-country ride; to the Father Brown stories, where faith is woven seamlessly into the fabric of crime-solving.

To see this sensibility carried into a film with such consummate humour, insight, and artistry feels like a benediction of sorts. The locked-room murder mystery is by itself good, but the transcendence achieved in moments like the one where a ray of light falls on Benoit at the instant of revelation is nothing short of poetry.