Films like Jigarthanda, targeted at Twittery youth, fight a mighty fight to bridge that divide, striving to make commercially viable entertainment with truckloads of auteurist artistry. If nothing else, you have to respect the man on the unicycle.

Part of the problem is surely the generic revenge-oriented plot, which plays out between two warring kingdoms. This may still have worked in live action, but in this animated form (and with hardly any expressions on the characters’ faces), the excitement is muted. Scenes that should have been shaped with the peaks and valleys of high drama end up flat as a plain.

A worthy film based on fact, but lacking the zing of good fiction.