

Sriram Raghavan's 43-minute anxiety attack before he became Bollywood's crime king.
A rookie policeman thinks he has murdered a gangster in a shootout, but realises he could have killed just a lookalike.
Direction
Raghavan's student-film promise, already signature tight framing.
Writing
Twist structure that foreshadows his later Johnny Gaddaar mastery.
Editing
Brutal runtime discipline — 43 minutes, zero fat.

Director
Sriram Raghavan
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Raghavan made this at FTII Pune with classmates; cinematographer CK Muraleedharan later shot PK and Sanju.
Pre-Ram Gopal Varma's Satya (1998) influence shows, but Raghavan's puzzle-box structure already diverges from Mumbai noir realism.