Marvel's original black superhero

FILMS

Travel to the fictional, isolated African nation Wakanda in the first and most anticipated superhero movie of 2018. Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira), features Marvel's original black superhero with an almost all-black star cast, and starts up where Captain America: Civil War left off. Rapper Kendrick Lamar has written, performed and curated the soundtrack.

Rani Mukherjee is back with Hichki, under the Yash Raj banner, in a heartwarming tale of a teacher with Tourette's syndrome and her oddball students.

Watchlist: Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water received high praise when author Neil Gaiman said, on Facebook, that it's one of the best films he has seen since Pan's Labyrinth. Don't miss the brilliant black comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri starring Frances McDormand.

EVENTS

Art lovers and aesthetes rejoice. Head to Delhi for the India Art Fair, or soak in some culture with the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival (Mumbai). Revel in classical dance against the stunning backdrop of Khajuraho at its annual festival or celebrate Sufi music at the Sur Jahan World Peace Music Festival (Kolkata and Goa).

BOOKS

This Valentine's Day, tear away love's straitjacket with Eleven Ways to Love (Penguin Random House), a compilation of 11 essays that redefine the emotion, broadening it to include queer and transgender love, body image, disability and singledom. With a foreword by Gulzar, it features works by Indian authors and poets of note. Then there is poet-diplomat Abhay K.'s 100 Great Indian Poems (Bloomsbury), an anthology that ranges from Dilip Chitre to 12th-century Kannada poet Basavanna and Urdu pioneer Mir Taqi Mir. Kalpana Swaminathan's 60-year-old, silver-haired detective Lalli returns in Murder in Seven Acts: The Lalli Mysteries (Speaking Tiger), seven complex cases, all waiting to be solved.

Also for the bookshelf: The Free Voice: On Democracy, Culture and the Nation by Ravish Kumar, Prison Days by Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (Speaking Tiger) and The Boy on the Bridge by M. R. Carey (Hachette).

SMALL SCREEN

How long does it take to bury the truth, asks the trailer as it zooms out to reveal a looming Statue of Liberty and blood-splattered snowy terrain. Netflix's Seven Seconds is an icy, racially charged crime thiller by Veena Sud (who also developed The Killing), based on the Russian film The Major. Then there is Looming Tower (Jeff Daniels, Alec Baldwin), on the events leading up to 9/11, based on Pulitzer Prize winner Lawrence Wright's book of the same name.

Returning: Claire Danes as Carrie Mathison is back with Homeland, this time to save the US President.