Laal Kaptaan

Eighteenth-century India. One of the warrior ascetics known as Gossain sets out to settle the account for a betrayal done to him years before. His face is smeared with ash, his hair matted, a sword in his hand. He crosses Bundelkhand from one end to the other. To find the man he is after he has to deal with other hunters and with men who rob the roads. Navdeep Singh's Indian film carries the shape of the western into Indian history. Saif Ali Khan takes the lead, made completely unrecognisable for the part. The telling does not present revenge as a victory; the longer the road runs the less clear it is what the man is after. The landscape is dry and wide. The film failed at the box office, but it is visually ambitious work.