Cast: Akshay Oberoi, Pankaj Tripathy, Ragini Khanna

Rated: 6/10

This edgy, slow thriller is a reality bite on the life and times of the growing concrete jungle called Gurgaon. Stark, relentless, candid and tempestuous, the film comes with packed performances by all its characters, the acts of whom are by and large shaped by the culture — or should we say lack of culture — of an unforgiving and brash Gurgaon.

Director Shankar Raman is perfectly captures the crime-prone atmosphere in which a real estate magnate and his family grows up in. The son, played to the hilt by a gifted Akshay Oberoi, adds to the brooding ambience with his dark looks, deeply disturbing eyes and his monosyllabic existence. Patriarchal, unscrupulous, ambitious and angry, the boy has problem with his sister (Ragini Khanna is brilliant as a Haryanvi girl back from a foreign sojourn at daddy’s expense) who is the heir of the empire and not him.

Through an unfolding revenge story, Raman does well to explore the issues that dog society at large and Gurgaon in particular. Female infanticide, male chauvinism and crime have all been touched upon. Of particular mention is Pankaj Tripathi who plays the patriarch dogged by his dark past, his wife silently taking it all with a silent protest, his daughter who wants to live up to her father’s expectations despite wanting to desperately get out of the rut and, of course, the usual youth angst that shapes monsters out of young boys — Raman and the film touch the pulse of society in an inexorable way. A serious and dark but engaging film.
Source: Sunday Pioneer, 6 August, 2017