Director Gurvinder Singh, supported by the late and legendary Mani Kaul as Creative Producer, takes us into a little-seen image of modern rural Punjab; a story of landlords and landless farmers who are worn down by years of subordination and discontent. On a foggy winter morning a family wake up to the demolition of a house belonging to their community. The elderly father joins the community in a meek demand for justice from the landlord. The same day his son Melu, a rickshaw driver in the city, is participating in a strike by his union. Injured and alienated, Melu hesitantly drinks with friends in the night as they debate the meaning of their existence. Cycling through the city streets, Melu feels lost and wonders where to go. Back in the village, his mother feels humiliated at the treatment meted out by the landlords in whose fields she works. Gunshots are heard in the night and the village is tense. Singh's dispassionate direction of the characters, their faces, gestures, sounds, and conflicts evoke a sense of simmering personal disaster in the lives of these mostly silent witnesses.

Cary Rajinder Sawhney