Dilli Dark Review | A Refreshing Caricature Piercing Racial Prejudices

The film is as rooted in its geography as it is in the intangible identity of a Delhiite. As much as India longs to be secular, progressive, a mosaic of identities, it resists the very grammar of plurality. Delhi lives not just as a city바카라�but as a pattern, an architecture of repetition. Circles going around in circles, concentric and absurd바카라�a metaphor, yes, but also a psychological terrain. The motif is hammered into the narrative, not by accident, but by obsession. It insists you feel the claustrophobia of a city that never quite moves forward, only loops. Dilli Dark does not flinch from this hypocrisy. It doesn바카라�t romanticise Delhi바카라�s diversity; it makes you sit in its discomfort. The capital, in all its metro-card-flashing, smog-breathing, endlessly surveilled infrastructure, is supposed to be a confluence of cultural communities flowing in for work, survival, belonging. And yet, the city maintains its elitism, its guarded 바카라�Delhi-ness바카라�.

Michael Okeke (Samuel Abiola Robinson), a Nigerian by birth, now settled in Delhi, is on a fractured quest to make sense of this sprawling, mercurial city. He makes countless attempts at blending with the chaos of Delhi markets, memorising the national anthem, conversing with locals, and even learning the shape of its profanities. Yet, beneath his attempts to claim a Delhiite identity, hostility lingers palpably; the city바카라�s veins pulse with deep-seated prejudices. These are not mere figments of paranoia but real, visceral stereotypes바카라�cannibalism, drug dealing, notions of uncleanliness that cling stubbornly to the African diaspora in India. The film does not shy away from admitting that stereotypes, however flawed, reflect a certain slice of reality but Michael strives to rewrite this narrative imposed upon him.

This colonial complex does not merely haunt Michael바카라�s journey; it reverberates through the experiences of many바카라�be it migrants from India바카라�s own states or those who cross continents to call Delhi home. Debu (Shantanu Anam) introduces himself not as a Delhiite but a Kolkata native바카라�a loaded distinction. He attempts to justify his non-vegetarianism to the landlord by stating his Bengali identity, which Michael has no option to. Debu emerges as Michael바카라�s sole ally, as his outsider status mirrors Michael바카라�s own, despite being different in degrees. Citing their shared skin tone as a bridge over an otherwise impassable divide바카라�Debu attempts to forge brotherhood. He reassures Michael by reiterating that he바카라�s not alone, and that, 바카라�Dilli mein sabki equally lagi hui hai바카라�, and 바카라�Dilli mein kuch bhi hona gaali hai바카라�. Michael, however, sees with piercing clarity that no matter how much he tries, Delhi will never fully accept him바카라�not even in the liminal spaces of imagination, where he meets Neha바카라�s (Saumya Jakhmola) parents talking to him in Yoruba.

Michael works as a delivery boy for a cocaine dealer, believing in his own sacred gospel of the 4 Cs: cellphone, cocaine, cash, and clients. He labels its irony as 바카라�people buying white shit from a black ass바카라�. He roams around on Delhi streets wearing a mask바카라�not to hide, but to exist easier. And as the title suggests, the multi-fold Delhi stretches its arms in the dark to cradle what it rejects during the day. There바카라�s a piercing line by Michael that lingers: 바카라�Even a police officer pissing beside a drug dealer are just two dudes pissing on the wall when it바카라�s dark outside바카라�.

Mansi, also called 바카라�Maa바카라� (Geetika Vidya Ohlyan), is perhaps the most sacred and the most profane offering in this universe. A godwoman fully aware of her fraudulence, yet impossibly devout in her delivery바카라�a cocaine-flecked messiah who knows she바카라�s no saviour. The ashram swells around her, full of disillusioned seekers who exalt her as oracle but demand no truth. She is impossible to look away from. Charming, witty, unbothered by danger, Mansi admires Michael from the moment she sees him. Perhaps she sees in him a similar exile바카라�a man who doesn바카라�t fit and doesn바카라�t apologise.

Mansi바카라�s ashram emerges as a sanctuary where Michael can simply be Kevin, or Michael whichever iteration of self he chooses to embrace. Michael and Mansi바카라�s alliance is quiet, unsentimental. They connect not through performance but through shared camouflage. And the audience is never told clearly, if either of them are conning or being conned, or if this duplicity is simply the cost of being civilised in a city that itself feels fraudulent. The spectacle of Michael darting around in Ravan바카라�s theatrical attire, eliciting gawks from his old neighbors, is both comical and tragic. The ever-present 바카라�log kya kahenge바카라� echoes when Debu warns of the scandal it would cause to see a godwoman with an African man, and indeed the neighbors rally to reclaim Mansi, perceiving danger in the breach.

Michael바카라�s obsession with the story of Razia Sultan, relayed to him by Debu, adds a romantic and historical hallucination to his otherwise brutal present. He becomes enamoured by the tale of Jamal-Ud-Din-Yaqut, a man of Nigerian descent who loved Razia Sultan. This echo of ancestry and longing becomes Michael바카라�s mirror. It is no surprise that Indian daily soaps and Bollywood have deeply permeated African popular consciousness over the years. Many who cherish an iconic film like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995) as much as they cherish a daily soap like Anupama (2020). This film thus, feels like a tender tribute to African viewers바카라�offering Bollywood, or Indian cinema at large, an African hero in the lead role, which Michael himself interrogates the existence of. Delhi won바카라�t offer him identity, so he scripts his own. He casts himself not just as a lover, but as a legend바카라�stepping into a mythic romance where he replaces Dharmendra in a Razia Sultan (1983) of his own making; and finally he does, as Dilli Dark brings him to the forefront of Indian theatres.

There are laughable moments within the film where Michael is made to be a spokesperson of an MBA institute or even made to pose with Mansi for photographs, to show the diversity in her disciples. Yet, Michael becomes a hollow cardboard cut out for diversity rather than being actually included in the society, whether it is having a difficulty getting a work visa or finding a decent home in Delhi. The bankability of the 바카라�other바카라� positions the outsider as spectacle, a lens through which India can congratulate itself for its supposed inclusivity, even as the same outsider remains excluded in the intimate, lived-in layers of Indian society. When Michael watches the documentary on the Siddi tribes settled in Gujarat, he glimpses a rare celebration of identity, starkly contrasting with the alienation and caricatured narratives imposed on him.

Much like Shakespeare바카라�s jesters, Das Roy introduces a vagabond character who intermittently punctuates the film with absurdity and clever humour바카라�seemingly excessive, yet purposeful, much like the Fakir with the mirror in Delhi 6 (2009), through whom both the audience and the protagonist are nudged toward introspection. The caricatures of advertising tools in this film, like the product 바카라�Fair and Awesome바카라� or even the walls on Mansi바카라�s ashram that promote Nasha Mukti Kendras or Bawaseer clinics, are clever and comical texts. Playing on the lyric 바카라�Hum kaale hain to kya hua, dilwale hain바카라�, from an older Bollywood song, there is a peculiar catchiness to Dilli Dark Anthem바카라�written by Das Roy himself and sung by Aaroh바카라�as it speaks to the identity of a Delhiite.

Cinematographer Kartik Parmar바카라�s camera obsessively circles around Michael in moments of deep thought or simply the Sisyphean act of applying for jobs바카라�mirroring Delhi바카라�s dizzying whirl. In a rare moment of clarity, Michael confronts the stark reality: not even Mansi is truly his ally. No one is. Electricity pulses through Dilli Dark not merely as a functional necessity but as the intangible spirit of Delhi itself. The power cut first works against Michael, spoiling his refrigerated food and unleashing his landlord바카라�s wrath; yet, it later shrouds him from the violent eruption of local fury as he becomes the scapegoat for drug trafficking. The city becomes a co-conspirator, aiding his frantic escape from the very Delhi that promised opportunity, but shackled him in alienation. As the film comes to a close, Michael바카라�s escape to join the Afro-descendent Siddi tribe in Gujarat circles back to a profound yearning바카라�the quest for acceptance in a place where the dissonances of Delhi no longer echo so loudly. This feels reminiscent of Delhi 6바카라�s (2009) ending, wherein a similarly enraged mob traps Roshan (Abhishek Bachchan) amidst a communal riot sparked by the 바카라�Kala Bandar바카라� (Black Monkey)바카라�a symbol of fear, ignorance, and blind belief. The city offers him a brief respite, a chance for rebirth, much like Michael바카라�s escape in Dilli Dark.

There is an inherent madness woven into Dilli Dark바카라�s fabric바카라�a deliberate, self-aware design where every narrative flaw morphs into a creative choice. The film erupts in theatrical bursts, time-traveling to a recreated 1240 AD Delhi, and venturing through surreal realms that evoke the dizzying, almost hallucinatory experience of inhabiting this sprawling metropolis. Dilli Dark in its limited runtime, commands its place alongside seminal Delhi-centric films such as Oye Lucky Lucky Oye (2008), Khosla Ka Ghosla (2006), Delhi 6 (2009), and Titli (2015) 바카라�works that refuse to reduce the city to a romanticised backdrop, instead laying bare its fractured infrastructure, the tenuous grasp on personal freedom, and the daily struggle for survival.