India, May 22 -- Ankush Saikia's Rough Streets begins in 1984 in Shillong in the Nongrim hills with Chandan, aged nine, returning from school to hear of the news of prime minister Indira Gandhi's assassination. His parents, Bengali migrants originally villagers from Sylhet who came up the Khasi hills, are no strangers to communal violence and they are worried. Chandan is seemingly well integrated into the local community with his best friend being Donny Rymbai. It is a friendship that plays out throughout his formative years bringing with it several dividends as well as its share of political repercussions, especially when Chandan gets unwittingly involved in a murder plot.

Saikia's portrayal of an adolescence set amidst the picturesque ...