[10] Art critic Charlotte Jansen wrote in Tate's publication, Fifty Pioneers Defining Photography for the Twenty-First Century, that Basu's work is "beautiful but also apocalyptic, her photographs and films pulsate with psychotropic light".
Basu's work pivots around the "intricate issues of conflict, psychological warfare, class, youth, gender, love, peace, the concept of home, an undefined idea of patriotism, and the strength of the mind.
Blood Speaks: A Ritual of Exile deals with the Nepalese practice of Chhaupadi, which dictates that women who are menstruating, and those who experience bleeding after childbirth, must live in makeshift huts because they are considered impure and therefore untouchable.
When exhibited, the work includes two screen projections, photographs shown in LED-powered light boxes, a surround-soundscape and an immersive virtual reality installation—"The room deliberately evokes the oppressive environment inhabited by the women".
[20] Sean O'Hagan wrote in The Guardian that the book "casts light on an overlooked conflict between the Indian state and the Maoist People's Liberation Guerrilla Army, which is made up of volunteers from a beleaguered indigenous community.
Alona Pardo, curator of The Barbican, introduces Basu's work: "Fireflies, consists of a series of deeply emotive and powerful images of Poulomi invariably performing for the camera".
[22] The project consists of images that Basu intertwined with her mother, underscoring a matrilineal heritage and genealogy that speaks to the violence which is all too often bestowed on women's bodies, highlighting female oppression and the hetero-patriarchal cultural values that are also a shared trauma, and notions of care.
Whilst bruises and blood are subtly weaved into the show, these pockets of brutality are offset by a pervading sense of hope that women will break the cycle of abuse and forge a better world for themselves.Basu is a co-founder/director of Just Another Photo Festival, begun in 2015, which seeks to democratise access to visual media.