Sector 36

Sector 36 is 2024 Indian Hindi-language crime thriller film directed by Aditya Nimbalkar and written by Bodhayan Roychaudhury. Produced by Maddock Films and Jio Studios, it stars Vikrant Massey, Deepak Dobriyal and Akash Khurana. It is based on the 2006 Noida serial murders in Nithari Village. It premiered on Netflix on 13 September 2024 to mixed reviews from critics.
The film opens up with Prem Singh, the house help of a wealthy and powerful businessman Balbir Bassi who is seen chopping a dead girl's corpse and the scene cuts to Sub Inspector (SI) Ram Charan Pandey who is a corrupt officer and is irritated with the daily cases of children missing from the nearby slum and stops registering FIR's as per the orders of his seniors.
One day a rotten skeleton of a human hand is found in the drains of the slum but SI Ram Charan dismisses it by calling it an animal's hand and providing some money to the boy who discovered the hand. Later Prem kidnaps the boy, and chops his body into pieces after killing him. He has a friend Chote Lal with whom he runs a business of organ trafficking and both of them share the money they earn from the business.
In a flashback, a child Prem is seen abused by his uncle (who is a butcher), who raped him daily but one day Prem attacks him, chopping him into pieces.
Bassi residing in Karnal, visits his house in Delhi (which is guarded by Prem) and had informed Prem to bring Chumki to home. Chumki is reported missing after that night and SI Ram dismisses Chumki's father angrily after a conflict. That night Prem tries to kidnap Ram Charan's daughter but Ram Charan manages to save her, now realizing that the cases of missing children are real kidnappings and he promises to his wife that he will bring the truth out.
A wealthy household's child is kidnapped leading to a nation-wide manhunt and the child being found in only two days depicting how low-profile cases are not cared about but when it's a high-profile case, everybody comes to action exposing the dark reality of the system.
SI Ram Charan registers an FIR of Chumki's disappearance and reaches Bassi, who brushes off Chumki's father saying he is a pimp of his own daughter after which Ram Charan beats Chumki's father and asks him to leave. Ram Charan's senior officer warns him to not involve Bassi in anyway in the case. He finds Chumki's mobile phone with the auto-driver, who had dropped her at Balbir's residence. He learns that Prem had given the mobile to the auto-driver to throw it off but he didn't and that Prem is directly involved in this case leading to his temporary suspension for not following the orders of his senior.
After returning to duty, Ram Charan takes Chote Lal into custody and he confesses that Prem had made Chumki disappear. His senior officer Rastogi now under pressure that Ram is near to the truth, bribes off Ram's junior officer Shravan Kumar Pathak to hand over Chote Lal to assassins and when Ram Charan finds that Chote Lal is missing he thrashes Pathak as his carelessness resulted in the disappearance of an important witness but is calmed down by his senior officer and with the testimony provided by the auto-driver, Ram arrests Prem Singh and interrogates him and to his shock, Prem reveals everything as to how he kidnaps kids, rapes them, chops them off after killing them, eats some of the meat, throws some and does organ trafficking and earns money (which he sends to his family), regarding to Chumki, he admits raping her after killing her (because she refused his advances) and chopping her after that, leaving Ram Charan and his senior in shock but when asked about Bassi's involvement in all of these he denies to answer. Ram Charan beats him off and asks why he did all of these to which he answers that the kids he kidnaps are of no use to the society and their lives don't matter. Ram Charan arrests him and finally the truth is uncovered as to how 25 minors were kidnapped and brutally assaulted and killed in the residence of Bassi, leading to his arrest and public outrage, with Bassi blaming it all on Prem. As a result, Bassi is acquitted but Ram decides to expose the truth about Bassi as well.
Ram Charan visits Prem in jail and tells him that the money he sent to his family actually never reached them and that Bassi has blamed all the crimes upon Prem which shocks Prem and he confesses about Bassi's involvement. Ram Charan then visits Prem's village and finds a CD, that Prem had couriered to his wife with the title 'Sada Bahar Tarane' (transl. Evergreen Songs), and plays it on his laptop and sees the MMS tapes of Bassi (and something more which is only reflected on Ram Charan's paranoid face) and leaves but is brutally assassinated as he returns to Delhi by the same assassins who murdered and chopped off Chote Lal and the assassins destroy the CD.
Shravan Kumar Pathak succeeds Ram Charan as SI and now Ram Charan is also reported in the missing persons list. Six months later, the assassins are arrested and a box is delivered at the residence of Ram Charan's junior officer, Bishnoi. He finds a CD inside, titled 'Aur Bhi Sada Bahar Tarane' (transl. Even More Evergreen Songs).
The film was announced in June 2022. The principal photography of the film commenced in June 2023.
The film had its world premiere at the 15th Indian Film Festival of Melbourne on 18 August 2024. It premiered on Netflix on 13 September 2024.
The music of the film was composed by OAFF—Savera, Dhunkey, Gourov Dasgupta and Kanishk Seth while the background score is composed by Ketan Sodha. The lyrics were written by Dhunkey, Yashwardhan Goswami, Farhan Memon and Sameer Rahat.
Sector 36 received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 47% of 19 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.1/10.
A critic from Bollywood Hungama gave 3.5 out of 5 stars and wrote "Sector 36 is not for the faint-hearted and works due to its theme, dramatic moments and brilliant performances by Vikrant Massey and Deepak Dobiryal." Vineeta Kumar of India Today gave 3 stars out of 5 and said "A crime thriller like Sector 36 is not for all. It is gory, cold and sends shivers down your spine". Deepa Gahlot of Rediff.com gave the film 2.5/5 stars and warns "Sector 36 goes for gruesomeness and shock; watching it needs a tough heart or a quick averting of the eyes." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV rated 2 stars out of 5 and said that "A portrait of a psychopath is never easy to pull off. Sector 36, inspired by the 2005-2006 Nithari killings, attempts the task without achieving much success". Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave 2.5 stars out of 5 and stated that "Vikrant Massey, in a 360-degree turnaround from the sincere student of 12th Fail, works at making his Prem believable, his unctuous smile and creepy banter hiding his real self: this is not a man you would want waiting for you on a dark street."
Shilajit Mitra of The Hindu stated in his review that "At once vague, violent and exploitative, this Netflix crime thriller based on true events, though impressively shot, inspires no confidence". Nandini Ramnath of Scroll.in says in her review that "As a barely disguised dramatisation of a gory crime, Sector 36 doesn’t disappoint. Brutalised bodies, scattered guts, trails of blood – Aditya Nimbalkar’s movie based on the Nithari serial murders of 2006 is designed to shock."
Rishabh Suri of Hindustan Times writes in his review that "It’s the typical, done-to-death montage of news articles. I strongly feel it hampers the film's flow, and doesn't go with the overall mood, but to each his own."