Benighted World

SUPERFICIALLY, the lawlessness that runs rampant on Bombay's mean streets seems to be the central concern of Sudhir Mishra's Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin. In a larger sense, which reveals itself behind the violent passages and the rather quaint underworld lingo on the soundtrack, the film explores the emotional and moral complexities that mankind is heir to. Yet, the question refuses to go away: does the film have anything to say beyond the obvious—that Bombay's underbelly is not a particularly edifying sight, especially at night?

May be, it doesn't. But the film does exude a raw energy, and it emanates from the explosive collision between two disparate spaces—the amoral Bombay underworld represented by a short-tempered, trigger-happy don (underplayed to great effect by Ashish Vidyarthi) and the normal world of a well-to-do ad executive (Nirmal Pandey) who unwittingly precipitates a confrontation with the former. He spends the rest of the night on the run. But is he sure what he is running away from?

The mafioso and the yuppie are poles apart, yet they share something very basic: emotional confusion. The former flip-flops between his need to cling on to his power and his gnawing fear of a gory death, while the latter is torn between his wife (Tara Deshpande) and girlfriend (Smriti Mishra). No matter where they end up, both remain objects of pity. They are neither heroes nor villains.

Indeed, that's what makes Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin, Mishra's fourth feature, a compelling cinematic exercise. Especially impressive is the staccato editing that lends this drama of a single night its intense narrative rhythm. Yet, there's something that doesn't quite fall into place. The characters, notwithstanding their intriguing dimensions, fail to emerge as figures we care for, certainly not quite in the way the three principal characters in

Yeh Woh Manzil To Nahin or the protagonists of Dharavi did. Is it the excessive violence that is a way of life in the film's benighted world that prevents empathy? Or is it the failure of the lead actors to inject life into their roles? Whatever it is, it does come between Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin and its essentially niche audience.