Westerners are aware of Bollywood if for no other reason than to avoid it. Furthermore they feel all films from India are Bollywood, but that isn't true. Some estimate that the total population is pushing one billion and contains many different languages. The language diversity is also reflected in cultural diversity. The main language Hindi, is where Bollywood begins. Although music plays an important role in the different languages there are many films without the stereotypical song and dance.
The languages also relate to one another. Often a successful film in one language will be re done in other languages.

"Court: State vs. a Nobody" (2025) is filmed originally in Telegu, but is available in English and other Indian languages. It is about an injustice rectified by a novice lawyer. We follow a young 17 year old girl attracted to a 19 year old boy. As westerners their courtship does not seem at all unusual, but the father of the girl is outraged. Part of his disgust relates to the lowly status of the boy. The father fearing for his own status hires a lawyer and the two fabricate a string of witnesses and the boy is locked up without bail and is about to receive judgement after an unfair trial. Some local men hear of a remarkable lawyer in another town. The well known lawyer is tied up and somehow a novice lawyer decides to step in and quickly prove to be very capable forcing another trial. The procedures does not go smoothly and at one point he despairs. His boss revitalizes his confidence. You can imagine how it turns out.
Ram Jagadeesh is both director and writer. This is his first effort at this level and demonstrates he has mastered a bit part of film making.
The producer, Prashanti Tiperineni has an unusual background. She started as a costume designer where she picked up some awards and 4 credits. She went onto to produce 5 producing credits. Some of her films including "Baahubali 2" (2017), "Awe" (2018) and "Hit" (2020).
Vijay Bulganin was in charge of music. He has 12 composing credits plus 3 for soundtrack.
Dineesh Purushothama was the cinematographer. He has 7 cinematography credits including a favorite from last year, "Maharaja" (2024). See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2024/07/maharaja.html
Priyadarshi Pulikonda played the novice lawyer. He has 71acting credits, 2 for directing and 3 for writing including, "Mallesham" (2019) and "Hi Nanna" ((2023). See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2024/01/hi-nanna.html
Sai Kumar played the prosecuting deceitful lawyer. He started in theatre and went onto have 173 acting credits including "Drishyam 2" (2021), "Vaathi" (2023), "Saripodhaa Sanivaaram" (2024). See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/02/drishyam-2-signifies-new-global-movie.html
"Court: State vs. a Nobody" is available on Netflix subtitled in English. They have 5 different audio versions. not including English
"Test" (2025) received a lot of negative reviews. One regularly read reviewer thought it was too long for a movie and too short for a series, but conceded there was a core of a story and a great cast. If you like tense films you will likely enjoy it.
There are three main roles that in the first part of the movie their characters are developed. Arjun is a cricket player once greatly admired for his abilities but has been declining. As described by others he was not motivated by fame or fortune, but love of the game. That love caused suffering for his wife and son. Kudmutha was a classmate of his and also the teacher of Arjun's son. She had a fertility concern. Her husband, Sara was a frustrated scientist who couldn't get enough money to finance his project. He had lied to his wife and now loan sharks were threatening him.
The loan sharks were involved with a scheme to make money with a gambling play on an upcoming Test match between India and Pakistan. Sara got the idea of kidnapping the son and forcing Arjun to help swing the bet against the favored Indian team. The test match takes five days and over that time Arjun and Sara push each other. It gets very tense as each man has a strong motivation.
S. Sashikanth is director writer and producer. He has 22 credits as producer including "Vikram Vedha" (2017). "Test" was his first effort as both director and writer.
Shakthisree Gopalan, the composer was the deciding factor in my decision to watch this poorly reviewed film. I enjoy her singing and realized she had started composing and writing lyrics, but this was her first venture in charge of the music of a feature film. She started singing in performances at an early age, especially Carnatic songs. She graduated as an architect and had the good fortune to be asked to do architecture for perhaps the greatest Indian composer, A. R. Rahman. That relationship led to some playback jobs, notably "Jab Tak Hai Jaan" (2012) and"Kadal" (2013). She has sung in Tamil, Telegu, Malayalam, Hindi and English. She has 61 credits for the music department. Other films she sang for included "Uyare" (2019), "Dharala Prabhu" (2019) and "Andhaaghaaram" (2020). See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2019/08/uyare-unexpected-gem.html
Viraj Vinh Gohil was the cinematographer He has 30 cinematography credits and 4 for camera and electrical department.
T.S. Suresh was the editor. He has 30 editor credits and 14 for the editorial department including "Ghajini" (2008) and "Tezz" (2012).
Madhavan played Sara the frustrated scientist. He had won national public speaking awards and is
fluent in English, Hindi and Tamil. He took part in a student exchange program to Stetler, Alberta, Canada, He has appeared in such films
as "Rang de Basanti" (2006), "Guru" (2007) and "3 Idiots" (2009) which were all exceptional movies. Another film was the American, "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" (2012). My first awareness of him was with "Kannathil Mutthamthal"
(A Peck on the Cheek) (2002), but I assumed it was a Bollywood film and
much later learned it was a Tamil film, opening another door for me. Other films include "Arbe Sivan" (2003), "Tanu Weds Manu" (2011),"Dhoka" (2022) and "The Railway Men" (2023). See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2023/11/the-railway-men.html
Nayanthara plays Kudmudha, the wife of the frustrated scientist. In 2022 she wad declared to be the highest paid South Indian actress. She has 83 acting credits and 2 as producer including "Jawan" (2023) and "Annapoori" (2023).
Siddharth played Arjun, the critical cricket player. In school he was a debating president and got to attend the World Debating championship. He has dubbed in several languages. He has 44 acting credits, 12 for the music department and 5 for producing including "Rang de Basanti" (2006), "Once Upon a Warrior" (2011), "Midnight's Children" (2012) and "Chashme Baddoor" (2013).
Nassar payed Ramasamy, one of the heavy gamblers. He can speak 8 languages. He has 512 acting credits, 5 for directing and 3 for writing including "Nayakan" (1987), "Chaachi 420" (1987), "Roja" (1992), "Bombay" (1995), "Fair Game" (2010), Article 15" (2019) and "Serious Men" (2020). See http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2019/09/article-15.html
"Test" is available on Netflix subtitled in English and several other European and Indian languages. It is available dubbed in English and several other languages.
Other Indian languages that have produced worthy films include Malayalam, http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2021/03/how-i-discovered-malayalam-cinema-and.html Kannada, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Urdu and Punjabi,
As usual I have bolded the first mention of films I have seen. They are
not necessarily a recommendation, but generally I found them worthy of my
time. If you follow the links you should be able to determine if a
particular film is worth following up.