About

The five-month-old baby of impoverished tribal woman Jhumpa is stolen. Two brothers, Gautam and Raman, who witness the kidnapping, try to help her and become embroiled in the complexities of the investigation. Arrives in Australia direct from its Venice Film Festival premiere.

In the wee hours of a cold winter morning, two urbane brothers witness a baby being kidnapped from the clutches of a broken mother at a railway station in rural India. The younger brother, guided by moral duty, convinces the elder one to help the destitute mother and join the investigation. This perilous journey through the harsh hinterlands forces them to confront the violent rage of a disgruntled society that tests their resilience, their faith and, ultimately, their humanity.

Programmer's note: “Upper-class guilt” is the reason debut feature director Karan Tejpal says he made this action thriller, and his narrative unfolds brilliantly, with more twists and turns than the “Mad Max-esque” chase sequence in the climax of that film that had me holding my breath for almost two minutes. The inherent sense of entitlement most privileged Indians, including myself, wear as a badge of honor, at times, stings like a tight slap in the face multiple times through the film, the only Indian project selected for the prestigious Venice Film Festival this year. Brothers Gautam and Raman (played with such deftness and natural ease by Abhishek Banerjee and Shubham, respectively) serve as foils who are on the opposite side of the privilege spectrum, and the way in which they grow and learn from each other while on this road movie is an astonishing revelation that, sometimes, water can be as thick as blood.
—Jitin Hingorani

Australian Premiere