The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Murad is a young man from a Mumbai slum, driven by a father who wants him to take a steady job and a world that expects him to stay in his place. He starts writing rhymes, meets a street rapper and slowly finds a voice. Inspired by the real Mumbai hip-hop scene, in particular the rappers Naezy and Divine, Akhtar's film is a Bollywood-sized musical drama about class, ambition and what you do with a mic.

Why it’s here: It's a film about a kid who finds out his own life is material. What's punk is that the music comes from the gully, not from a studio, and the film is full of the real language of a neighborhood that gets ignored. What's pedagogical is how clearly it shows class as a map of who gets to be heard, and how making something is a way to be counted. Note: long, musical, standard Bollywood structure and some melodrama; some domestic conflict and a violent scene. Hindi and Urdu with subtitles. Good global-voice pick for a family with older kids, and an India film in a catalog that has books on it but few films. Close relatives: The White Tiger and Salaam Bombay! (suggested 10-22).

Based on a real 1990s case in Tamil Nadu: a man from the Irular tribal community is arrested by police on a false theft charge and disappears in custody. His wife, Sengani, goes looking for him, and a lawyer takes the case. A courtroom drama about caste, police violence and what it takes to make an institution answer.

Why it’s here: The film puts caste on screen as a legal system and not a metaphor. What's punk is how it centers a woman nobody would listen to and refuses to let the court be the hero. What's pedagogical is the case file: it shows how a lawyer builds evidence against a state. Pairs with Annihilation of Caste, Ants Among Elephants and Caste. Note: Tamil with subtitles, about 2h45m, and it shows police torture. The release drew a defamation complaint over a calendar image in one scene, and the filmmakers changed it.