RD Recommends: Freedom at Midnight, Ikkis and More

From long-awaited returns to buzzy new releases, the entertainment world is overflowing—in the best way. Your watchlist is growing, your TBR pile is teetering, and there’s more to choose from than ever. Consider this list your quick, curated guide to what’s worth your time right now.

Ikkis, released on 1 January

Sriram Raghavan’s latest film Ikkis is based on the life of Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal (played by Agastya Nanda) who was awarded a posthumous Param Vir Chakra for his heroic actions during the Battle of Basantar in the Indo-Pak War of 1971. This is no run-of-the-mill war drama, however. Raghavan skilfully blends a second story alongside that of Arun Khetarpal—that of his father, Brigadier (Retd.) M. L. Khetarpal (played by the late Dharmendra, in his final film role), who, in 2001, takes a trip to Pakistan to attend a college reunion in Lahore, and visit his ancestral village. The elder Khetarpal’s story becomes a powerful anti-war message told through the eyes of an ex-soldier, even as we see his son growing into the legend he would eventually be remembered as.

Freedom at Midnight (Season 2), On SonyLiv

Director Nikhil Advani’s series Freedom at Midnight is based on the classic 1975 non-fiction book of the same name, by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins. Both book and series focus on the last year of British rule in India, as well as the initial few months of India as an independent nation-state. Chirag Vohra’s performance as Mahatma Gandhi in the first season had been widely praised, and he returns for the second season alongside Sidhant Gupta who plays Jawaharlal Nehru, independent India’s first Prime Minister. The second season will follow the final few weeks of the British government in India, with the last episodes revolving around Partition and the ensuing violence.

Chapter III: We Return to Light by Anoushka Shankar

Image Credit: anoushkashankar.com

Like her father, the late sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar has produced full-length albums, blending classical sitar music with modern studio arrangements, the kind associated with the ‘world music’ genre. In 2023, Shankar embarked on a trilogy: three mini-albums drawing from her personal life to depict themes of strife, despondence and regeneration, respectively. Chapter III: We Return to Light is the concluding part of the trilogy, containing some of Shankar’s finest work in recent years. The track ‘Hiraeth’ will have you hitting the replay button, for it features slivers of the Raag Kirwani, which was also the basis for the iconic Bollywood song ‘Tum Aa Gaye Ho Noor Aa Gaya Hai.’

Absolute Jafar by Sarnath Banerjee, HarperCollins India

Sarnath Banerjee is a pioneer of the English-language graphic novel in India, with memorable works like Corridor, All Quiet in Vikaspuri and The Barn-Owl’s Wondrous Capers to his credit. In Corridor, Banerjee introduced an authorial alter ego called Brighu, described as a flâneur, a “post-modern Ibn Battuta”. Banerjee now introduces us to an older, world-weary Brighu in his latest work, Absolute Jafar. Amidst his anxiety about the digital dystopia we inhabit today, not to mention his own health, Brighu must also raise his son Jafar, the only child of an Indo-Pak romance that eventually unravels in Europe. Punctuated by Banerjee’s trademark wit and allusive humour, Absolute Jafar is a deeply personal work by an artist at the peak of his powers.

Blue is Like Blue by Vinod Kumar Shukla, Translated by Sara Rai and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, HarperCollins India

Vinod Kumar Shukla, one of the titans of Hindi literature, passed away on 23 December 2025, aged 88. In his novels like Naukar Ki Kameez and Khilega Toh Dekhenge , Shukla described the extraordinary, sometimes magical, aspects of everyday life with a compassionate gaze and an inimitable style that had no real ancestors. Blue is Like Blue is a selection of Shukla’s best short stories, translated into English by Sara Rai and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, which includes ‘College’, translated from arguably his best-known story Mahavidyalaya. In this unique, atmospheric story, a heron who enters a classroom only to retreat once he realizes what a shame it would be to interrupt a lecture.

Stories We Wear: Status, Spectacle and the Politics of Appearance by Shefalee Vasudev, Westland

Veteran journalist Shefalee Vasudev was the first editor of Marie Claire India and is now the editor-in-chief of Voice of Fashion. In this book, Vasudev deconstructs the language of appearance. How do our clothes reveal (inadvertently or otherwise) so much about ourselves, our lives, even our politics and artistic expressions? What signals do we transmit when we dress for a wedding or a funeral? What do pandits really mean when they say things like "Dress up for the job you want." Drawing from a variety of sources and interview subjects, Vasudev answers intriguing cultural questions like these in Stories We Wear. A must-read for those who like to delve into the sociology behind the fashion pages.

After Nations: The Making and Unmaking of a World Order by Rana Dasgupta, Penguin Random House India

It’s fair to say that the idea of nation-states has never been under as much stress as it is right now. Authoritarian and military regimes are on the rise around the world, decades-old agreements between major nations have been torn up, and the global free trade movement is in free fall following America’s tariff-driven trade war. With his latest work of non-fiction, Rana Dasgupta (the author of Capital and Tokyo Cancelled) considers the historical origins of the nation-state, examining the political circumstances that led to its development. At the same time, he also diagnoses the existing ‘points of fracture’ that are causing the system to weaken significantly—and hypothesises what a post-nations world might look like in practice.

Flesh and Code by Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire

The Joaquin Phoenix–Scarlett Johansson movie Her explored the idea of a man falling in love with a voice-operated AI assistant. The podcast Flesh and Code, hosted by Suruthi Bala and Hannah Maguire, is a deep dive into the real-life case of a man who fell in love with ‘Lily Rose’, an AI companion. Bala and Maguire, who previously collaborated on the podcast RedHanded, engage with this sensitive subject with compassion and curiosity—especially when Lily Rose's behaviour takes an alarming turn, prompting the besotted man to seek out the Russian programmer behind her creation. This is a well-produced, wide-ranging podcast about how AI-based technology is reshaping our cognitive world.

Home Cooking by Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway

Samin Nosrat is the popular author of Salt Fat Acid Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking (2017), which has sold millions of copies worldwide and spawned a documentary series. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Nosrat also became a mainstream podcaster with Home Cooking, a more freewheeling food series. In the new season of the podcast, Nosrat exchanges family recipes and food stories with her friend Hrishikesh Hirway (host of the music podcast Song Exploder). The pair show their fascination with the journey a recipe takes across centuries and continents.

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