TL;DR – A fascinating exploration of the interception of power, corruption, and serving the community, and how all of that can be shaped by self-interest.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Warning – Contains Scenes that may cause distress.

Sector 36 Review –

Corruption is one of the worst sins that a public official could do because their job is to uphold the people under their care, and when they obfuscate that sacred oath for money, power, or friendship, everyone suffers. Corruption can happen anywhere, but what happens when you target the most vulnerable members of society who have even less of a voice than ever? Well, you have a recipe for disaster.   

So, set the scene, in Section 36 of Delhi, works Sub Inspector Ram Charan Pandey (Deepak Dobriyal), a thoroughly corrupt police officer. Who is more interested in lecturing people on the Third Law of Motion than actually helping people. But when a girl’s hand turns up in the sewers, it puts into focus that there is a killer on the loose, not that the police want that. But that is what Prem Singh (Vikrant Massey) is doing, focusing on the most vulnerable members of society. He would have continued to get away with it, given the police’s incompetence, but one day, he tries to take the daughter of someone important, and ignorance is no longer an option.  

What I liked about this film is that we explored two very different aspects of character and motivation. Inspector Pandey was perfectly happy to sit on his hands and do nothing, take the kickbacks, and then pontificate if someone dared to push back against him. However, when the rubber hit the road, and it affected his own family, he was positioned with a choice. Continue to do nothing or to stand up against the powers that he had helped get rich off? You would always hope that someone in a position of power like that would have a backbone, but it was fascinating to watch someone grow one when it actually counted.

Meanwhile, we have our serial murderer Prem, who is the most fascinating character in all the film, thanks in part to the performance by Vikrant Massey. This might be one of the most menacing characters that I have seen on the screen in quite a while, given how he slips between being earnest, charming, and ruthless. It is clear that he is taking big swings in his performance, and it is deeply uncomfortable at times. But what was interesting was the layers that we found with the character, which were slowly stripped away as the movie progressed.

At the heart of this film is an exploration of the abuse of power, where childhood friendship is used as a cover to do some genuinely deplorable things, which is even before we get to the central subject matter covered in the film. The way power is so easily used to protect the powerful was chilling to watch, mainly because even in my own country, it has happened, and indeed, it is likely still happening. [SPOILERS] I don’t think this film would have worked as well as it did without how it ended, which honestly shocked me, and I am glad they [almost] committed to it. [/SPOILERS] 

From a production side of things, everything looked fantastic, with a real eye for composition appearing in places. The musical score was all over the cello, which is my favourite instrument, and I very much appreciated that choice. The supporting cast was all great, and I want to shout out Varun Bhiletia, who had a challenging job playing Ali. While there were a lot of race and class touchstones that an Indian audience would be able to glean a lot easier, I think anyone should be able to follow what is going on. It was also an interesting choice to set the film in the 1990s, which I think helped because it reduced communication opportunities for all involved.   

In the end, do we recommend Sector 36? Well, it deals with some challenging subjects, which is probably going to hold back a lot of people from watching this. However, I was fascinated by the performances, and the narrative did keep me engaged from start to finish. If you liked Sector 36, we would recommend to you Rebel Ridge.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you watched Sector 36?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 

Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Sector 36
Directed by –     Aditya Nimbalkar
Written by – Bodhayan Roychaudhury
Music by – Ketan Sodha, Savera, Dhunkey, Gourov Dasgupta & Kanishk Seth
Cinematography by – Saurabh Goswami
Edited by – Sreekar Prasad
Production/Distribution Companies – Maddock Films, Jio Studios & Netflix
Starring – Vikrant Massey, Deepak Dobriyal, Akash Khurana, Darshan Jariwala, Mahadev S Lakhawat, Ajit S Palawat, Kacho Ahmed, Subir Bisawas & Baharul Islam with Arindol Bagchi, Varun Bhiletia, Tanushree Das, Trimala Adhikari, Vijay Wanchoo, Monu Khatri, Prtisha Srivastava, Ipshita Palawat, Ihana Kaur, Krishiv Nanda, Shachin Lakra & Raghav Kalra
Rating – Australia: MA15+;