Joram

Devashish Makhija's 2023 Indian film follows Dasru, running with his three-month-old daughter. He was working on a Mumbai building site when a reckoning from his past reaches him and leaves him no option but flight. The film uses the chase as a pretext. Dasru belongs to a family from forest country; the clearing of that land for mining and what happens to those who resist is the real subject. The policeman pursuing him also begins to question his own position as he learns more. Manoj Bajpayee leads and carries almost the whole film with a baby. The violence is sudden and sparse; the narrative puts no one entirely in the right. Who it's for: viewers of independent Indian cinema and narratives of displacement. Who it's not for: viewers expecting a hopeful close; the film points to no way out.