Starring: Vikrant Massey, Deepak Dobriyal, Baharul Islam, Darshan Jariwala, Ajeet Singh, Akash Khurana, Ipshita Chakraborty Singh
Director: Aditya Nimbalkar
This recent Netflix addition is inspired by true events that took place on the outskirts of Delhi a few years ago, a crime that remains shrouded in some unresolved mystery.
Prem Singh (Massey) is the trusted servant and aide of wealthy businessman Balbir Singh Bassi (Khurana) and often left in charge of the large mansion while his boss travels around the world. It very quickly becomes apparent that Prem is making the most of this luxury by indulging in some extremely gory activities that involve the abduction and murder of young children. The callousness of his crimes is somewhat explained by a traumatic childhood involving an abusive uncle and his schizophrenic handling of the situation is apparent in his casual phone calls with his village-based wife to ask after the wellbeing of his own kids.
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Inspector Ram Charan Pandey (Dobriyal), meanwhile, is under constant pressure from the inhabitants of the neighbourhood slum where children are going missing at an alarming rate. His apathy towards these distraught parents is shaken up when his own little daughter is nearly kidnapped by a masked Prem Singh. His wife’s (Chakraborty Singh) rebuke at his failure to keep even his own daughter safe jolts the police officer into action and sets him on the trail of nabbing Prem before he can wreak further damage. But the involvement of Bassi in the murky goings on at the deathly Delhi mansion brings him in direct conflict with his police chief boss Rastogi (Jariwala). Will Inspector Pandey’s newfound conscience take him all the way through to solving this intricate web of crime or will he get tripped up by a profoundly corrupt system?
This film offers a razor-sharp execution of a taut script, with each and every twist factored in with engaging detail. While some of the blood-soaked scenes will have the audience rushing for cover, the majority are handled with deft camera work. The true events this fictionalised tale is inspired by make much of the violence inevitable, for as the saying goes: truth is almost always stranger than fiction.
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Massey once again shines, embodying all the despicable traits of the murderous character that the script demands. His criminality is well supported by the reformed cop on his heels, whose moral turnaround is delivered quite convincingly. On the whole, this chilling thriller deserves credit for a haunting outcome.
