Directorial debut is worthy of praise and a national award, according to DEVANSH PATEL

NOT since Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra's Rang De Basanti and Sriram Raghavan's Johnny Gaddar has there been a film of such relentless cinematic energy and sprawling narrative intensity as Faruk Kabir's Allah Ke Banday.

At a full-throttle pace and exciting from beginning to end, the director grabs hold of your attention and doesn't let go.

Here's why.

As all great crime films do, Allah Ke Banday grounds its vast narrative on two compelling characters, Vijay (Madan Deodhar/Sharman Joshi) and Yakub (Varun Bhagwat/Faruk Kabir), who live in Mumbai's biggest slum, Bhool Bhulaiya.

Both are trying to make their dream come true - that is, to rule the entire slum by wiping out their adversaries. While Vijay is the thinker, Yakub doesn't assume, he puts things into action. Both boys have taken up arms as their way of living and taking care of their ailing mother from the commission they earn by doing various juvenile crimes.

We get a sense of what life is like in and around the slums - guns are passed out to kids like candy and that's when you realise, as the film painfully shows, dreams and desires are not always enough to overcome a lifetime of deprivation.

But as fate has it, the young Vijay and Yakub are caught up in a web of treachery and torture and put behind bars in what's considered to be the most dreadful juvenile prison ever.

To add to their anguish, the prison's corrupt warden (Naserruddin Shah) makes their life a living hell. As Vijay and Yakub spend time in the prison, they learn that it is just another bunker of the drugs and arms trade.

Ambitious in their own smart ways, both decide to start their own trade from inside the cell. After 11 long years, they are released. Thus begins a journey from adolescence to adulthood, chivalry to crime and dreams to reality.

The film has a creative intelligence and swaggering viewpoint that gives this brutal slum-life saga a jagged eloquence.

It is a tough film that draws you in.

The story is enhanced by the effective use of cinematic techniques and inventive editing, including split screens, accelerated movement and occasional pauses of the action. The visceral music pumps its way through our veins for the entire 130 minutes, colouring the violence.

In Allah Ke Banday youth is not a time of innocence and idealism, but rather a time of learning how to navigate the mean streets and survive by any means necessary. Yet, for all of Vijay and Yakub's ruthlessness, we also get to see how their violence is rooted in a deep sense of insecurity.

Even though they play 'the bad' characters in the film, they are resolutely human, which is why it never sinks into soapbox denunciations about the dangers of criminality.

What debutant director Faruk Kabir (who also makes his acting debut in the film) conveys is the very fact that he understands that violence is at its most shocking when it is grounded in characters and situations in which we have an emotional stake.

When we witness violence in Allah Ke Banday, it is like a reckoning.

Yet, the film is not all about violence. In fact, one of its primary pleasures is the breathtaking way in which it captures the experiences of its characters - the small details of their daily lives and the way in which the slums are a place of great culture, excitement and diversity, even if the streets are at times a war zone.

Kabir isn't a director you need to watch out for. He is a director you need to pin up because such gems are rare to find in Indian cinema.

Child actors Varun Bhagwat and Madan Deodhar should be given a standing ovation, for they truly deserve nominations in the 'best supporting actor' category for Allah Ke Banday come the awards season next year.

A mesmerising performance that leaves you thunderstruck. Joshi and

Kabir also perform their roles with panache and passion, signifying that characters are more important than actors.

That's why we recall Vijay and Yakub more than Varun, Madan, Sharman or Faruk.

Supporting roles by Atul Kulkarni, Naseeruddin Shah, Ruksar and Anjana Sukhani fit well in the script as any jigsaw pieces would to any puzzle.

If one of the moral responsibilities of the movies is to put you in places where you'd never go and live lives you'd never live, then Allah Ke Banday is great movie-making and it is a rare film that manages to be seductively entertaining without ever compromising its authenticity and power.

To sum up, Allah Ke Banday is an intoxicating shot of cinematic adrenaline. If the first five minutes don't suck you in, it's time to scoop out your eyes and get new ones. This one truly deserves a national award.