Distraught over his daughter's recent abduction, a Mumbai detective struggles to not let his emotions get the better of him while investigating a string of similar kidnappings in this Indian drama. The film has several intense moments as lead actor Adil Hussain chases literal shadows down dark alleyways at night and as first person point-of-view shots render a seedy nightclub that he comes across all the more unsettling. The film is also assembled in a curious fashion with flashbacks often blended in with the action and various scenes played out two or three times, creating a blurred sense of reality that acutely reflects the protagonist's fractured state of mind. In fact, as the film progresses, it becomes more and more doubtful that what we are seeing play out is actually what is happening. An interesting counterpoint comes with Hussain's wife, who is clearly delusional, talking to herself and carrying on as if her daughter had never vanished, and yet what is to say that Hussain is not delusional too? Certainly the final twenty or so minutes of the film seem more like fantasy wish fulfillment than reality and even the nightclub with all its neon signs feels like more an embodiment of everything that Hussain dreads as opposed to an actual place in the middle of the city's slums. There are no clear answers here and the film's attempts to show the kidnapped girls being groomed often come as a distraction to Hussain's plight. Frustrating as this may occasionally make the film, one does have to wonder if it would not be equally as a frustrating to lose a child forever. Food for thought.
