Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla’s A Worthless Man marked a watershed moment for Indian nonfiction, pioneering a vital new direction for documentaries with a political focus. Set in Delhi, A Worthless Man tells the story of one of India’s most exciting political debuts: the formation and rise of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party in the wake of anti-corruption protests in 2011 and its first election campaign two years later. In their fascinating portrait of the churn in Indian democracy, Ranka and Shukla draw from the aesthetics of mainstream filmmaking to craft A Worthless Man as a nerve-wracking heist thriller. The unvarnished truth that marked Kejriwal’s coming of age, from a fiery activist vowing to end political corruption to a tactical politician realizing that this goal cannot be achieved if he remains an outsider, made the film important and fascinating.

A decade later, Kejriwal is no longer an outsider, and indeed his current conservative politics are a far cry from the admirable idealism he displays in the film – now entangled in the very system he once set out to challenge. Nevertheless, the dissonance between the past and the present inspires a well earned nostalgia in A Worthless Man, immortalizing a moment in time that will undoubtedly be impossible to recreate.

The mark of a good documentary is that you forget that the events unfolding on screen are not fiction. An Insignificant Man achieves this and even surpasses it. Arvind Kejriwal becomes a character in a movie about his own life when, like David, he stands up to political leaders in his debut in the Delhi assembly elections. Directors Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla place themselves in the midst of the chaos in the capital and offer the audience a glimpse into how a political party is formed and how elections are run. The filmmakers made the best use of the access they were given and chose some impressive scenes that range from the absurd to the amusing to the downright hilarious. The real triumph of the film is the sharp objectivity it maintains throughout its 96-minute runtime. While the filmmakers capture Kejriwal in his most vulnerable movements; be it the suspicious, accidental death of one of his party workers or the easy moves they share while dubbing for their election ads, there is never a moment when it feels like they are deifying him. In fact, there are moments when the camera is turned on Kejriwal as his party members ask him about his choice of candidates.

The editing by Abhinav Tyagi and Manan Bhatt is clearly the strongest part of the entire documentary. The way they have kept the narrative consistent makes it feel like you are watching a tense thriller; they keep you riveted until the very last moment. Ola Flottum’s music is subtle, unobtrusive, but successfully elevates each sequence.

This small indie movie might be the most important thing you want to watch this weekend.