We get repeat shots of vultures hovering around in circles in the sky, as if death is always around the corner. The image of a terrorized kid through that window shall haunt me for days to come. The stunning visuals in the film shall remain in my eyes for a long time.В InВ a hauntinglyВ lit set-up, the Police and dacoits are firing bullets at each other, spilling blood in the dark night and the camera flies over these two groups and pans into a window, through which we see a little girl haul in terror and my hair stood up in grief. Abhishek Chaubey succeeds in magnifying this epidemic of casteism and patriarchy and urges us to look in its eye and question our deeply entrenched prejudices.ДЄbhishek ChaubeyВ creates moments of utter disbelief that pierceВ the conscience with their evilness. Our social fabric has been infested with caste and in these characters, it grows like cancer, eventually killing oneself and a few others along with them. ThisВ isВ a metaphor for a country rotting in the middle of вЂ sarkaari вЂ bullets and вЂ sarkaari vaade ( promises ). In another moving scene, Sonchiriya is almost dead and is sitting helplessly for death to take over, as there are bullets firing from all-around. In an outstandingly conceived scene we see two female characters, aВ woman and a girl being dragged by men and abused and humiliated years of barbarism is captured in a frame. All they do to infuse this stinging shock is play out the shameful realities of our social fabric and one cannot miss the lack of humanity in it.

The treacherous journey from the ravines to the hospital has to dodge the вЂ sarkaari вЂ bullets and also the deeply hurtful bullets of societal atrocities, in the form of a severely patriarchal family, ruthless casteism and the never ending circle of revenge.ДЄbhishek Chaubey and his writer Sudip Sharma team up to create a film that is a gargantuos cinematic shock for a 23 year old urban man. This overbearing guilt makes it even more important for Lakhna to help Sonchiriya get to the hospital and save her life. Both these men harbour a deep guilt for something they do unintendedly.

Manoj Bajpayee plays the leader of the gang, Mann Singh and Sushanth Singh Rajput plays Lakhna, a young compassionate man who believes surrender is the way forward.

This simple arc is punctuated by numerous hurdles in between. The arc of the story is as simple as trying to take Sonchiriya to hospital and eventually taking her there. The screenplay of the film is marked by several events that are shocking and moving, in equal measure, as the above-mentioned characters embark on a journey with an objective to at least, help Sonchiriya reach the hospital.

Sonchiriya movie review