The 10 Best Indian Films of 2025 So Far

So far, 2025 has not been a year to write home about, in terms of storytelling, experimentation, or massive box-office success in cinema. Though, as with any trend, there are exceptions. Following are ten Indian films—across languages—that bucked this trend, with stories and perspectives that were original and provocative, and a visual language that was fresh and slick. 

With three Malayalam films, two Tamil films, two Kannada films, two Hindi films, and one Telugu film, this list charts out the diverse landscape of Indian storytelling—bringing in voices from commercial and independent cinema, telling specific stories with a universal resonance. 

Here are the best Indian films of the year so far in no particular order:

Ronth

Language: Malayalam

Director: Shahi Kabir

Writer-director Shahi Kabir taps into his years working in the police department, to produce yet another police procedural. Two policemen — Dinanath (Roshan Mathew), the rookie, and Yohannan (Dileesh Pothan), the hardened senior cop — are on nighttime patrol, coming across various small and large creases that they iron out, until the rug has been pulled from under their — and our — feet. A masterclass of rhythm and world-building, the slow burn catches full flame in the final act.

Dragon

Language: Tamil

Director: Ashwath Marimuthu

Right from its inventive, hilarious marketing campaign that made it appear like a Don (2022) redux to the fact that filmmaker Ashwath Marimuthu and lead star Pradeep Ranganathan were former college mates and friends in real life, Dragon seemed destined for something special. After holding its cards a little too close to its chest in the first half, the coming-of-age comedy hits you with a wallop of heart and emotion — curveballs, redemption arcs, laughs and tears all coming together in sync. Adding to the film’s charm is a pitch-perfect supporting cast (George Maryan, Mysskin and YouTuber Harshath especially stand out) — not since Nanban and VIP have engineering graduates across Tamil Nadu resonated with a film more.

Alappuzha Gymkhana

Language: Malayalam

Director: Khalid Rahman

It’s safe to call Khalid Rahman’s Alappuzha Gymkhana an anti-sports drama. This crew of boxing wannabes, who make up the film’s protagonists, want to become champions, but not because that’s some rite of passage. All they hope to do is get into a good college and try their hand at impressing the pretty girls there. It’s a joyous film that breaks all conventions of the sports drama, but in that stride, it ends up giving us a movie that punches above its weight with tonnes of vibe.

Tourist Family

Language: Tamil

Director: Abishan Jeevinth

Written and directed by debutant Abhishan Jeevinth, Tourist Family confidently wears its sweet vision of a kind world on its sleeve. Following a family of four — Dharmadas (M. Sasikumar), his wife Vasanthi (Simran) and two kids (Mithun Jai Sankar as Nithusan and Kamalesh as Mulli) — who depart Sri Lanka on a boat due to the economic crisis, finding and making a home in a suspicious but welcoming Tamil Nadu. The film turns hardened social issues into skipping exercises in love — neighbourly and familial.

Rekhachithram

Language: Malayalam

Director: Jofin T. Chacko

Right from the title font that reminds one of classic ‘80s Malayalam cinema (as though director Bharathan himself was the calligrapher) to the way the lost art of fan mail gets integrated into this crime, the love for cinema isn’t merely a flavour in Rekhachithram as much a part of its soul. The result is a stunning mix of crime and cinephilia in a sensitive film in which even the victim is treated with real dignity and love.

Court — State vs. A Nobody

Language: Telugu

Director: Ram Jagadeesh

The Ram Jagadeesh film, which follows the life of 19-year-old Chandu (Harsh Roshan), falsely implicated under the POCSO Act, makes for important viewing in today’s times. At the heart of this drama is a tender love story between Chandu and 17-year-old Jabilli (Sridevi), whose differing economic status creates an upheaval in their lives. While the film functions as an effective courtroom thriller with Priyadarshi Pulikonda’s turn as an upright lawyer, Court throws up several important observations — Jabilli’s fraying relationship with her mother (Rohini), for instance, serves as a brilliant reflection of her family’s internalised misogyny.

Superboys of Malegaon

Language: Hindi

Director: Reema Kagti

As a long-time Bollywood watcher, one is wired to look for a good cry. The final act of Superboys of Malegaon summons those tears without demanding them. It’s when the 1990s-set drama — inspired by Faiza Ahmad Khan’s 2008 documentary Supermen of Malegaon — transitions from a film about films to a film about friendship and the bridge that storytelling builds between the two. Kagti’s well-acted, poignant and neatly designed movie finds a socio-cultural sweet spot between amateur film-making and commercial myth-making. Its India is an ‘adapted’ one in search of mainstream validation, but in the end, all that matters is the big screen and the cathartic release it brings.

Mithya

Language: Kannada

Director: Sumanth Bhat

Sumanth Bhat’s Kannada feature is an unforgettable meditation on grief. Led by a brilliant Athish Shetty, the film tells the story of a young boy who is suddenly displaced from his hometown after a sudden personal tragedy. Too young to understand the death of his parents, but too old to start afresh in a new city, Shetty reflects the uncomfortable truth of Mithya’s adolescence with staggering depth. Like the various water bodies of Udupi, which get luscious homages in the film, grief washes over Mithya in waves. The grief bubbles into rage when he listens to the rattles of a fan, catches sight of his toddler sister Vandana, or hears about his parents’ temperament through insolent gossip in the village. With Mithya’s delicate coming-of-age, we’re also shown glimpses of the fragility of male pride. “All angry dads are alike, aren’t they?” Mithya’s friend observes at one point, passing on the film’s most important remark with zero fuss.

Follower

Language: Marathi, Kannada

Director: Harshad Nalawade

Follower is a Marathi and Kannada film, set in the borderlands between the two states of Maharashtra and Karnataka that is sensitive to the question: how are we radicalised? It follows Raghu (Raghu Prakash), a “keyboard warrior”— what many might call a troll — who posts about the mistreatment of Belgaum’s Marathi speakers, a minority. Inspired by director Harshad Nalawade’s formative years in Belgaum, the film does not offer easy answers to the pressing political questions of how we have mainstreamed hatred in the guise of vulnerability.

Stolen

Language: Hindi

Director: Karan Tejpal

A deconstructed survival thriller of sorts, Stolen writes its urban gaze and blind spots into its frantic story. Abhishek Banerjee delivers a career-best turn as a city slicker who gets entangled in a systemic web of heartland decay and eat-the-rich angst. His spiral, though, is not a usual one. The character even looks guilty and unprepared for stealing the camera’s attention away from the actual protagonist, a lower-caste woman whose baby is kidnapped from a railway station. It’s a film that could have easily succumbed to urban-saviour tropes, but Stolen humanises the genre by refusing to judge any of the Indias it straddles. Not to mention the fact that it’s a slick and damning indictment of the way we engage with such narratives.