Kamal Swaroop’s Om Dar-Ba-Dar was ready for release in 1988 but never made it to the cinemas. Over the last 26 years, it has been shown at festivals across the world and become a cult classic for being the antithesis of Indian cinema. The absence of a narrative, surreal montages, bizarre dialogue and a jarring soundtrack make Kamal Swaroop’s Om Dar-Ba-Dar seem like the two-hour long hallucination of a drug-addled mind. But the chaotic jumble that makes up this film is entirely deliberate.

Does writing about a movie which was made 26 years ago and is getting released now has to qualify in the context of reviewing a film? A movie which has already being hailed as a cult classic; one of the main proponents of a certain kind of voice in cinema. For a more clear definition (just for now ), we can call it absurdist cinema.