This is not your old-fashioned Bollywood film, with colored saris unfurled in green fields with dancing waves of wheat while romance blooms back at home in spite of interference from the older generation: when those musicals are good they are very good indeed.

Instead, this is a gritty modern take on misunderstood romance, on living an attitude rather than a reasoned existence. The story is brilliantly filmed in many ways, with lots of electric neon color, the stunning visuals backed by a modern beat, a trio of moon dancers tossed in at one point for ironic counterpoint. I thought the young actress Kalki Koechlin was sensationally effective as a young woman on the run from her past, but the lead, Abhay Deol, although magnetic, can only carry moody angst so far, and after almost two hours of sulky, unshaven drugged-out, drunken staggering, Id had enough--how many times do I really want Abhay to get drunk or stoned or beat up?. It is fascinating to see the Bollywood product evolving in modern ways, but although sincerity was evident from this film, it went on about an hour too long: someone get the scissors!