In the action-packed Gandhari, a grieving mother (Taapsee Pannu) must rise above her trauma after her young daughter is abducted in a crowded railway station and a brutal attack leaves her temporarily blind. She must confront a shadowy child-trafficking nexus embedded deep within a town of shape-shifters and ancient lore. To save her daughter and the other missing children, she becomes a powerful force of vengeance. Directed by Devashish Makhija (Joram), the thriller brings Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba writer Kanika Dhillon and its star, Pannu, back together. “There’s a special kind of magic that happens when Kanika and I come together to work on a film,” Pannu tells Netflix. “With Gandhari, we’re venturing into new emotional depths.”
The film “dives deep into the essence of a mother’s unwavering love and ferocity,” Dhillon says. “Don’t mess with a tigress’s cub, because [the tigress] will destroy you.” Have you checked out Dhillon’s epic movie and want more Indian thrills? Read on to find your next fave watch.
Directed by Shashanka Chaturvedi (Ghotul) and written by Dhillon, this 2024 mystery thriller is set in the fictional hill town of Devipur, where Vidya (Kajol) is called to investigate a string of unsettling incidents involving Saumya (Kriti Sanon) and her husband, Dhruv (Shaheer Sheikh), the son of a local politician. Vidya senses there’s more to the couple’s troubled marriage than either will admit — especially when Saumya’s identical twin sister, Shailee (also played by Sanon), arrives in town. This unearths old rivalries and a history the family has worked hard to bury. As Vidya digs deeper into the sisters’ fraught bond and Dhruv’s growing list of secrets, she’s forced to contend with a sinister truth.
Have you ever wanted to delete your bad ex from your brain so you never have to think about them again? That’s the premise of the Indian film CTRL, which follows a young social media star whose heartache inspires her to remove every shred of online evidence of her cheating ex. But the app she uses to erase all trace of him is much more dangerous than she realizes. From director Vikramaditya Motwane (Sacred Games), the digital thriller CTRL stars Ananya Panday (Kho Gaye Hum Kahan) and Vihaan Samat (Mismatched).
“With the amount of time we spend on our devices, screen time is now redefined as screen life,” Motwane tells Netflix. “Are we actually in control of all the digital extensions of our life, or are we being controlled? That’s the [question] CTRL tries to explore.”
When a single mom’s abusive husband ends up dead, her next-door neighbor unexpectedly offers to help cover up the crime. But his perfect plan is thwarted when an eager cop shows up determined to get to the truth. Soon, they develop a love triangle that threatens to unravel the lives of everyone involved. Directed and written by Sujoy Ghosh (Kahaani, Badla), the Bollywood noir thriller Jaane Jaan stars Kareena Kapoor Khan (Laal Singh Chaddha), Jaideep Ahlawat (Bard of Blood), and Vijay Varma (Darlings).
Poisoned perfumes, tapped phones, spies falling into steamy love affairs with their colleagues … In a world of elite espionage, these tactics are par for the course (we assume). In Khufiya, a thriller based on a true story about the underbelly of India’s intelligence community in the late ’90s, a savvy counterterrorism agent is tasked with finding the double-crosser responsible for her lover’s murder. Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj (Maqbool, Haider), the slow-burn spy thriller stars Tabu (Haider), Ali Fazal (Mirzapur), and Wamiqa Gabbi (Eclipse).
In the follow-up to Haseen Dillruba, husband-and-wife fugitives Rani and Rishu have escaped to the Indian city of Agra after getting away with murder in their former home of Jwalapur. But they can’t live freely as lovers, not so long as the cops are still committed to solving the cold case. As Rani plans another escape, this time to Thailand, Rishu joins forces with a new man to lessen mounting police scrutiny. But, boy oh boy, nothing goes as planned — and soon, Rani and Rishu are on the run again. From director Jayprad Desai (Mukhbir: The Story of a Spy) and Haseen Dillruba writer Kanika Dhillon (Dunki), Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba stars Pannu (Dunki), Vikrant Massey (12th Fail), and Sunny Kaushal (Chor Nikal Ke Bhaga).
In this comedy thriller about white-collar crime, robotics executive Jayant (Rajkummar Rao) is being blackmailed by the company secretary, Monica (Huma Qureshi), who claims to be pregnant with his child. When she lures him to a hotel, he’s surprised to find two other company executives (played by Sikandar Kher and Bagavathi Perumal) who are also being blackmailed by Monica. To save their reputations, the three men devise a plot to kill Monica. But can this bumbling trio really hope to get away with murder? Directed by Vasan Bala (Jigra) and written by Yogesh Chandekar (Munjya), the neo-noir Monica, O My Darling is based on the 1989 Japanese detective novel Burutasu No Shinzou by Keigo Higashino. The film also stars Radhika Apte (Raat Akeli Hai).
