Somewhere in the crowded, labyrinthine arteries of Delhi — amid the horns, the heat, the air pollution, and the dizzying pace of everyday survival — exists Michael Okeke. He's young, educated, and a Nigerian émigré. To most people brushing past him, he might as well be a curiosity or a threat — anything but just another man trying to make a living. But in Dibakar Das Roy's debut feature Dilli Dark, Michael Okeke is the embodiment of a question we are too self-aware to ask: What does it mean to be an outsider in a country that prides itself on being hospitable, inclusive, and global, but barely looks a Black man in the eye without suspicion or cynicism?

If you can't tell already, Dilli Dark is not your typical Indian immigrant story. In fact, it's exactly the opposite — a mirror image. In Dilli Dark, Dibakar Das Roy flips the script of the familiar Indian immigrant story and forces us to confront the way we treat immigrants in India, especially those who don't or can't blend in easily. Michael — played with charming authenticity by Nigerian actor Samuel Abiola Robinson — is an MBA student by day and a drug courier by night.

It sounds sensational on paper, but Das Roy presents Michael's arc with striking emotional clarity. His story is that of a young man caught between two lives, neither of which guarantees him a sense of belonging. For him, this duality is both a survival tactic, and a metaphor for the kind of doublethink that fuels the Indian middle-class dream of a good life at any moral cost.

"I think we all lead double lives, one life that we aspire to, and the one that we truly are living in," Dibakar Das Roy says. "I wanted Michael Okeke's character to be a metaphor for all outsiders in Indian society. The image of an African man walking through the crowded streets of Delhi seemed to me to be the most perfect visual encapsulation of an outsider."

In Dilli Dark that image cuts deep. Michael isn't just another Nigerian student in New Delhi: he embodies everyone India routinely pushes to the margins — migrants, Dalits, people from the Northeast, queer folks, and the visibly nonconforming. Das Roy knows what it feels like to be judged on sight. "Having been bullied for being dark-skinned myself," he says, "our complicated relationship with the colour of skin has always irked me greatly."

That discomfort simmers through every scene of Dilli Dark. Das Roy is not shy about his critique of the seemingly all-pervasive colourism in Indian society, and why should he be? In a culture that idolises light skin, sells fairness creams on national television as the end-all solution to personal and professional obstacles, and recasts even historical figures with lighter complexions, subtlety would be a disservice.

That sharp, decisive moral clarity also informs Das Roy's satire. "Satire is always great because it can make a point through humour," he says. But he's also quick to acknowledge the dilemma of satirising a hyperreal society: "We are living in what you may call a 'post-satire' world where reality is fast becoming funnier than fiction."

Even so, the film's foundation is rooted in that very same real-world hyperrealism. "A lot of my film is based on real incidents, including a sequence which is shot in cinema verité (meaning "truthful cinema" in French, is a documentary filmmaking style that focuses on capturing real-life events as they unfold, often in uncontrolled environments)," Roy says. That collision between the bizarre and the believable — between absurdity and authenticity — is where the film finds its most biting social commentary.

And then there's Delhi — in all its grimy gutsy glory. The city isn't just a backdrop in the film — it's a provocatrix. Crowded, chaotic, indifferent. "Delhi in this film is a representation of the collective Indian psyche at this point of time," Roy says, "where there is mistrust of outsiders, and our differences, once celebrated as 'unity in diversity', are now being weaponised — be it differences in language, diet, sexuality, caste, faith, and so on."

What makes Dilli Dark essential viewing is that it doesn't just address these contradictions in the national mythology of India — it also dissects the other hypocritical myths we build to avoid confronting them. This is a country that likes to imagine itself as colour-blind, caste-blind, cosmopolitan. But Das Roy is no longer buying it. And neither should we.

Watch the official trailer of 'Dilli Dark' here:

Dilli Dark is currently showing in select cinemas across the country.

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