Membrane distillation (MD) has gained significant regard from industrial and academic perspective in recent years, thus the frequency of publications related to the field has greatly accelerated. New perspectives have boosted the research activities related to deeper understanding of heat and mass transport phenomenon, novel applications and fabrication of the membranes specifically designed for MD. New efforts for module fabrication and understanding and control of non-traditional fouling in MD have also been highlighted in the recent literature. The current review summarizes the important and interesting recent developments in MD from the perspectives of membrane fabrication, heat and mass transport phenomenon, nontraditional fouling, module fabrication and applications. The future research directions of interest have also been pointed out.