The Lucky Ones

In 2002, sixteen-year-old Zara Chowdhary’s world shattered when a gruesome train fire claimed the lives of sixty right-wing Hindu activists, and anti-Muslim persecutions tore through Ahmedabad. Trapped under a three-month siege, Zara witnessed her neighbours transform into violent mobs — a massacre that propelled Narendra Modi to prime minister and pushed India toward radical Hindu nationalism. The Lucky Ones traces a multigenerational Muslim family from India's bloody origins to a crumbling apartment building where ordinary lives endure with grace and laughter. Both an unflinching gaze at a democracy failing its vulnerable and a fierce ode to a young survivor's rebellion, it is a testament to belonging on one’s own terms.