Director Anonno Proteek Chowdhury makes a striking debut with “Noya Note” (New Money) — a socially charged drama about dignity and about deception. Writing both the story and screenplay himself, Anonno crafts a narrative that is deeply rooted in Bangladeshi society but broad in its human appeal.

Long after I was done reading The Illuminated (HarperCollins India, 2021), by Anindita Ghose, I kept thinking about Girl in White Cotton (2020) by Avni Doshi. If one had to choose any recent novel that captured the crevices of a vacillating mother-daughter relationship accurately, it would be these two.

Being accused of copying Humayun made me want to create something of my own, something that wouldn’t be considered mainstream, but nor would it be too out of the box. I wanted to reflect on realism.

The comic book giant Marvel has added a Native American and a Korean-American teenager to its list of superheroes.