Anek movie review: Another unsettling, thought-providing socio-political drama by Anubhav Sinha

Director: Anubhav Sinha

Casting: Ayushmann Khurrana, Andrea Kevichüsa, Shovon Jaman, Kumud Mishra

Till now, Northeast India has been rarely and poorly presented in mainstream Bollywood movies. And Anubhav Sinha has chosen precisely that neglected background of Northeast India to introduce his latest conscience-pricking drama, Anek.


Anubhav Sinha, the director of Anek, tried to portray peace as a subjective hypothesis – peace for one doesn’t necessarily render peace for all.

Joshua, a covert operative agent, is assigned to bring about a circumstance that would compel the rebel leader Tiger Sangha to join the negotiation deal for a peace treaty waiting for a long time. The story proceeds with the entry of Aido, a boxer whose dream is to get placed on the Indian national team. Will Joshua succeed in his task, and will peace finally triumph over everything else?

Review: Anek is set up in Northeast India with a layered narrative to display how to negotiate peace with a separatist group. Ayushmann Khurrana, as Aman, portrays the role of a covert policeman who eventually finds that everything can’t be categorized as black and white as he used to think. As the movie proceeds, the character of Aman finds himself in conflict to decipher the true meaning of peace.

In this movie, the director tried to raise the issues of Northeast discrimination and alienation from ‘mainland’ India. Through the conversational dialogues and performances, Anek draws subtle parallels between the Northeast and the rest of India.

Anek is undoubtedly another conscious-keeper creation by Anubhav Sinha that compels you to think about justice and equality based on religion, gender, castle and now region. While the subject is exciting and unique, the representation could have been done with more subtlety. In contrast, the movie is a tad slow in the first half but comparatively fast-paced in the second half. Due to a weak narrative, the film leaves the audience with so many unsettling questions.

Final Note: Can you identify all the states of the Northeast on the Indian map if their names were removed? Anek will make you think!