Sector 36 Review: Dark Psycho-Thriller, Shows Mirror To The Flawed System

Sector 36, streaming on Netflix, directed by Aditya Nimbalkar and starring Vikrant Massey and Deepak Dobriyal in lead roles, is loosely based on the 2006 Noida serial murders and is an edge-of-the-seat psycho-thriller that shows a mirror to the flawed system in the country that at times fails to deliver justice to the downtrodden.

What would have been a major challenge to present one of the most broadcast events of modern Indian history, the Nithari Killings, which remained in the headlines for almost two decades, has been handled carefully with composed direction and efficacious writing. The makers have managed to come up with a movie that shows what would have happened in the lives of many victims and also the perpetrators with taking enough freedom to make necessary plot twists that story demanded.

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The major talking point of Sector 36 is Vikrant Massey. His transformation into a psycho thriller is inimitable and unparalleled. First, you see Massey as a pure common man. If it’s not him, who else a director wants to show as a common man who, with a certain advantage on his side, enacts the role? Then the roleplay begins, and the common man who was talking on phone with his wife back in the village changes to someone else.

There, Vikrant Massey’s ability to convince you as a talented actor reaches its zenith. He is so convincing as a psycho killer. In 12th Fail, you saw him as an inspiring and aspiring young man who set the country and the inspirations of many on fire with the stunning performance. And in Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba, he was a lover boy and a conman. But here, he is ruthless and never shows restraint or repentance of what he is doing – such a psycho killer who shows no remorse.

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The character detailing in the script has somehow helped Massey bloom, which may be because of the availability of the alleged crimes Surinder Koli committed in Nithari. Prem, Massey’s character, is obsessed with KBC and is confident enough to think that he may also win the competition one day. There is also the detailing of the no-remorse element that helps Massey to act without limits. When he talks about how he killed one of the victims, Massey takes the level of acting to the likes of Mohanlal, Kamal Haasan, Irfan Khan, and Vijay Sethupathi. In a long scene with Deepak Dobriyal (the police officer who is investigating the killings) and Baharul Islam (a senior police officer), he goes on and on and on. But, looking at him till he completes his monologue, you don’t see an actor there, but only a phenomenon.

Deepak Dobriyal, in a role that can be called something similar to the protagonist, is also different in this movie. You will see an elevation for Dobriyal from the side kick roles he has been doing so far. He is able to give necessary intensity and depth for the character who was once part of the system that let everything happen to the not-so-privileged and then turns to become someone who is out there to protect their rights. You would wish for more screen time for Dobriyal as the movie ends. Dobriyal, as a typical North Indian police officer, slowly helps the story branch out to go deeper on what is happening to the underprivileged.

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The system – socio-economic-political – is an important character in this movie, and the presentation is exemplary as well. When showing the helplessness of the common man in front of the dysfunctional system, the movie also shows the other from the point of view of the people who are handling it. There is one moment Dobriyal’s character refuses to file an FIR. At the same time, as the complainant leaves the station, he starts to discuss the helplessness of the police force, who are also tangled in the personal and inadequacies of the facilities they have been provided.

The movie goes further deeper with the general apathy towards the have-nots from the system. Dobriyal’s senior officer (Darshan Jariwala) advises him to drop the cases of people from a ‘migrants’ settlement’ and asks him to focus on the missing case of a rich kid. His conversation goes like this: “They (migrants) don’t go missing, but they are being sold. You work on productive cases, real crime… and real culprits (means the rich kid’s missing case).”

Sector 36 Crew:

Direction: Aditya Nimbalkar

Writer: Bodhayan Roychaudhury

Producer: Dinesh Vijan, Jyoti Deshpande

Cast: Vikrant Massey, Deepak Dobriyal, Akash Khurana, Darshan Jariwala, Baharul Islam