The thriller is said to be inspired by a series of murders that took place in 2006 in Noida, near Delhi. The killer found his victims in the slums, and pleas for help from the impoverished parents of missing children were ignored by the police. When his own daughter gets targeted, inspector Ram Charan Pandey (Deepak Dobriyal), finally comes out of his corruption-ridden nonchalance to start the investigation on the disappearance of children from in and around Sector 36 area of NCR. As he delves deeper into the muck, it feels as if he’s opened the gates to hell. Nothing is what it seems. A routine investigation gets stymied at every turn and then turns into a farce, making a mockery of the tragedy.

Child abuse is a serious issue. It’s also something that the government machinery often turns a blind eye to. Especially when the children targeted belong to the marginalised bracket. No one cares for them. Their only epitaph is an entry into an obscure file. Sector 36 tries to make us accept that reality. By ignoring such incidents, the society at large becomes complicit in the crime. The film doesn’t make for an easy watch. The various murders which occur are visceral to the extreme. The scenes are designed to shock you and they succeed. At the time of watching the film at least, you want to rid the world of such evil. Because that’s what such criminals are – pure evil taking on the human guise. You shudder at the proceedings when you think of the fate of victims who have actually suffered such atrocities. Cinema is often cited as an escape from reality but sometimes it’s also a mirror which reflects the blackness which exists in society. And this is as dark as it can get. Perhaps to give respite to the viewers, the ending has been tweaked to offer a tiny ray of hope. But even that feels like the promise of a false dawn.

The absorbing plot is further enhanced by the acting of the two leads. If one rooted for Vikrant Massey in 12th Fail, one begins to loathe and fear him from frame one. The casual menace that he exudes as the main accused Prem Singh takes your breath away. There’s absolutely no remorse in his eyes over what he has done. The scene where he opens up about his misdeeds is a sort of catharsis for him. Like a tap gone loose, he babbles on and on as we listen transfixed. He’s a generational actor who lives and breathes for his craft and surely doesn’t want to be slotted to purely heroic roles. In contrast to Vikrant Massey, we have Deepak Dobriyal, who has the habit of internalising every character he essays. He’s one of the few actors who can make silence speak. He did it as the accused Captain Javed Khan in Shaurya (2008) and he does it here as well. He’s speechless as he listens to Prem’s rant but the expressions which flit across his face say it all. His frustration at being stalled by his seniors is real and so is his obsession with finding out the truth at any cost. He’s the unlikeliest of heroes and you want him to root out the evil.

Like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (1983), which was a dark satire on truth and its various versions, Sector 36 also points out that instead of criminals, it’s the innocent who get punished. Watch it for the harsh reality it depicts and the superb acting displayed by Vikrant Massey and Deepak Dobriyal.