Indian independent cinema’s impressive global streak continues with Yashasvi Juyal’s The Ink-Stained Hand & The Missing Thumb, a formally rigorous and intricate love-loss-longing mesh.

Juyal’s debut feature will be premiered at the ongoing Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the competition section. Juyal’s previous short films include The Last Rhododendron and Rains Don’t Make Us Happy Anymore.

The Ink-Stained Hand & The Missing Thumb takes place in a town called Nagina. It’s 2003, a time in which time itself moves slowly and to a different beat.

The lovers Santosh (Dheeraj Kumar) and Rajji (Bhumika Dube) work at a highway toll booth, avidly consume a television science programme anchored by Professor Pluto (Sudarshan Juyal) and contemplate their future. Rajji has barely recovered from Santosh’s sudden death when he turns up at her doorstep.

Is the revenant a ghost with unfinished business, a grief-stricken Rajji’s waking dream, or a symbol of the creeping urbanisation that is altering their surroundings?

The experiences of Santosh, Rajji and others in the town unfold within boxy, intimate compositions created by the 4:3 shooting ratio. The cinematography, editing, colour palette and production design all evoke a world that is real in its texture but magical in its possibilities.

A self-taught filmmaker, the 29-year-old Yashasvi Juyal grew up in Dehradun. He spent a few years in Mumbai as...

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