India, Nov. 21 -- There is often a tenderness to slice-of-life stories set in non-metropolitan India. People lean on each other; the light is tinged with gold.

Expect none of that in Agra.

This a world that is breathless, brutal and relentless.

The second feature film by Kanu Behl, 45, has made news for how few screens it has been given (a number that is slowly rising, with rising interest in the movie). It has made news for premiering at Cannes, as Behl's first film Titli did, in 2014.

What it should be making news for is how it strips all pretence away and stares directly at the repression, rage and violence tied to sex, in the minds of sex-starved and space-starved Indian men.

Behl felt a little bit of this himself, as a teenager....