Shaheen Parkar (MID-DAY; June 20, 2017)

Naseeruddin Shah’s long-forgotten 2011 film, Michael, has finally seen the light of the day. The psychological thriller, which was produced by Anurag Kashyap, could not get a theatrical release in India since it had no buyers. However, the Ribhu Dasgupta-directed project has released on video-streaming platform, Netflix.

Ribhu, who directed the Amitabh Bachchan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vidya Balan-starrer TE3N last year, tells mid-day, “Michael was my directorial debut, so it’s special. Despite doing the festival rounds and receiving rave reviews, it did not get a theatrical release. I am glad that the production studio (Viacom18) has put it out on Netflix. Finally, people can see it.”

After Neeraj Pandey’s A Wednesday (2008), leading man Naseer had great hopes pinned on Michael, given that its authentic script would allow him to display his histrionics. Shot in Kolkata, the film puts the spotlight on a tainted cop’s relationship with his son. It premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, traveled to the Shanghai Film Festival, and even received accolades from Venice Film Festival director Marco Mueller. Mahie Gill, Purav Bhandare and Sabyasachi Chakraborty also feature in the film.