'Sector 36' movie review: Ho-hum take on Nithari killings

The petrifying Nithari killings of 2005-2006 in Delhi have already inspired a few fictionalised versions. The latest is the JioStudios-produced ‘Sector 36’, which is, to understate, not easy to watch.

A study in bleakness, you can gape at it in a deadpan sorta way or ask yourself a few questions even as you admire the acting chops on display in this rather meandering crime chiller. Does every serial killer need a whimpering backstory? Can too much gore desensitise you to the point of chafing at the screen? Suppose the psychopath is a good-looking bloke who banters casually with the investigating officer about his multiple crimes. Does it make a difference to how you react to his bone-chilling devilry?

While the movie begins well enough, the dread starts to wear off as the tale loses its sting quite quickly into the proceedings. The awkward jumps in the screenplay between its main characters — corrupt SI Ram Charan Pandey (Deepak Dobriyal) who has a change of heart after the crime nearly hits home and psychopathic house-help Prem (Vikrant Massey), who is a chop-happy game-show addict and unapologetic cannibal, is distracting. The uneven pacing is no help either. 

Curiously enough, the bizarre (and long) confession by Prem is both the highlight of the movie as well as the point where interest begins to curl into a sort of guilty boredom. Guilty because isn’t one supposed to feel a mix of dread, horror, and pathos when you learn that over 24 children were raped and murdered? What you feel instead is a sense of ennui. That said, Massey is unsettlingly creepy though a little over-the-top at times. Dobriyal is spot-on and together they make this dark tale somewhat watchable.