> From the Ganges to the Himalayas — the documentaries that capture India's contradictions, and the iconic places they're set in. *Source : https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-about-india/* --- [Home](https://indianpointfilm.com/) › [Where to Watch](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/) # The Best Documentaries About India From the Ganges to the Himalayas — the documentaries that capture India's contradictions, and the iconic places they're set in. By Indian Point Film Editorial 9 December 2021 3 min read ![The ghats of Varanasi on the Ganges](https://indianpointfilm.com/images/covers/india-documentaries.webp) No country resists a tidy summary like India, which is exactly why it produces such good documentaries. A single film can hold a billion-and-a-half people, a dozen languages and four thousand years of history only by choosing a corner and going deep. The films below each pick their corner well — and as a bonus, they’re a tour of the country’s most iconic places without a drone shot in sight. As always, streaming rights move around; check [JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/) for where each is playing in your country. ## The Ganges and Varanasi No place on earth photographs quite like the ghats of **Varanasi**, where pilgrims bathe in the Ganges at dawn and funeral pyres burn through the night. The BBC’s **Ganges** series and Sue Perkins’s travelogue both follow the river from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal, and the city of Varanasi is where the spiritual weight of the whole journey lands. Watch before you go and the place stops being abstract. ## Delhi, Mumbai and the politics of the new India - **An Insignificant Man** (2016) — a fly-on-the-wall account of a new political party’s rise in Delhi, and one of the sharpest films ever made about Indian democracy. - **India’s Daughter** (Leslee Udwin, 2015) — a difficult, essential film about the 2012 Delhi case that put the country’s reckoning with gender front and centre. It was banned in India, which tells you something about its nerve. - **Invisible Demons** (Rahul Jain, 2021) — Delhi seen through its own choking air, a portrait of a megacity and the climate it’s making. For the way work and machinery grind on behind the postcard, Rahul Jain’s earlier **Machines** (2016) sits inside a Gujarat textile factory until you can almost feel the heat. ## Women, faith and the country’s contradictions **Writing with Fire** (2021) follows _Khabar Lahariya_, a newspaper run entirely by Dalit women, as it goes digital — a genuinely uplifting film that still doesn’t flinch. **The World Before Her** (2012) cuts between a Miss India boot camp and a Hindu nationalist camp for girls, two visions of womanhood in one country. And **Born into Brothels** (2004), set in Kolkata’s red-light district, remains a landmark even decades on. ## The Himalayas and the road north India’s mountains are their own genre. Trekking and climbing films set in the Indian Himalayas — Ladakh, Sikkim, the road to the high passes — turn the north into something between a pilgrimage and an expedition. If they leave you wanting thin air and prayer flags, that’s the point. ## Turning the watchlist into a trip Place Start with What it sets up Varanasi _Ganges_ (BBC) The Ganges from source to sea Delhi _An Insignificant Man_ Politics and the modern city Kolkata _Born into Brothels_ The human texture of the city The Himalayas a high-altitude trek doc The road north A good documentary is the cheapest first visit you’ll ever make. Once one of these has you reaching for dates, [hotels4travelers](https://hotels4travelers.com/) is a useful place to compare where to stay near the places these films are set — Varanasi, Agra, the hill stations of the north. And if you’d rather keep watching first, our [best travel documentaries](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-travel-documentaries/) guide spans the rest of the world, while the [best free documentaries](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/where-to-watch-free-documentaries/) round-up will keep you going for nothing. India doesn’t fit on a screen. But the right film gets you close enough to want the real thing — which is the only review that matters. 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[Find it on JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movies?genres=doc) Some links on Indian Point Film are affiliate links: if you buy or subscribe through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes our recommendations. ## Keep reading [![A travel map and passport](https://indianpointfilm.com/images/covers/travel-documentaries.webp)](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-travel-documentaries/) Where to Watch ### [The Best Travel Documentaries to Watch Before You Go](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-travel-documentaries/) The films to watch before you pack a bag — from the Himalayas to the Nile to the French Riviera. 25 Feb 2022 [![Streaming a documentary at home](https://indianpointfilm.com/images/covers/best-docs-netflix.webp)](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-on-netflix/) Where to Watch ### [The 25 Best Documentaries on Netflix Right Now](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-on-netflix/) A working list of the Netflix documentaries I keep coming back to and pressing on friends. 2 Feb 2022 [![A film projector in a dark room](https://indianpointfilm.com/images/covers/best-docs-mubi.webp)](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-on-mubi/) Where to Watch ### [The Best Documentaries on MUBI Worth Your Subscription](https://indianpointfilm.com/where-to-watch/best-documentaries-on-mubi/) MUBI's small, rotating slate is the opposite of Netflix — and for nonfiction, that's a feature. 9 Nov 2021