Mahanati

Mahanati (2018) is a Telugu-language biopic you can watch online on iFILM — director Nag Ashwin's 176-minute portrait of Savitri, the actress who became the first true film star of the Indian subcontinent.

Keerthy Suresh plays Savitri across the full arc: a girl from a modest background who lights up 1950s Telugu hits like Maya Bazaar, falls into a complicated relationship with actor Gemini Ganesan, and then loses ground in ways that couldn't be undone. The story is framed around a journalist piecing her life together years after the fact — Dulquer Salmaan and Samantha Ruth Prabhu fill out a cast that holds up across a long runtime.

Keerthy Suresh won India's National Award for Best Actress for this role. For anyone who thinks they have no entry point into Indian cinema, Savitri's story provides one. Stream Mahanati (2018) online on iFILM.