Awards and festivals

Film description

A courtroom drama and an analysis not so much of guilt and punishment, but of the imperfect justice system of today's Mumbai. When a sewage cleaner dies, a local singer and activist is taken to court – it is said that one of his songs inspired the cleaner to take his own life. In a slow pace, which results from both the specific practices of the police and the court, and the very rhythm of the city, grows a fascinating, Kafkaesque absurdity. Tamhane carefully creates an insightful picture of the (in)justice and the limitations of free speech and human rights, at the same time taking up the subject of cultural, religious, and linguistic differences, and the colonial past of India.

Patrycja Włodek