However, over the last decade, the film has undergone a massive critical reappraisal. It is now regularly listed on "Top 10 Underrated Bollywood Films" lists. Why?

To understand the , one must first understand the legend. For millions of Hindi-reading youth in the 1990s and 2000s, Mastram was a ritual. Sold clandestinely at railway station book stalls, his paperback novels (with their distinctive yellow-and-red covers) were a rebellion against the conservative society of the Hindi heartland.

Suddenly, the was being discussed in the same breath as Ankhon Dekhi and Masaan —films that capture the existential dread of the Hindi middle class. This rediscovery led to a spin-off web series, Mastram (2020) on MX Player, starring Jaideep Ahlawat, which directly references the 2013 movie Mastram as its spiritual prequel.