Notes from the sidelines: Deepanjana Pal writes on Anora and Sthal

If these two indie releases, and their mainstream success, prove anything, it’s that it is time to head back to theatres. Buy that ticket; vote with your wallet

The year is 2025 and Anora, an independent film about a sex worker, made on a budget of $6 million, has won the Academy award for best picture. (It won a total of five Oscars, in fact, including Best Director and Best Actress.)

A still from Sthal. Set in rural Maharashtra and enacted by a brilliant cast of non-actors, it is an unflinching portrait of what it means to be young and have dreams that are for-ever clashing with one’s reality.

Director Sean Baker begins his tale with a lap dance in a strip club, and ends with a weeping sex worker in a rickety car. In short, not exactly a feel-good, family movie. Yet, for all its