Last night, as part of the #WeAreOneFilmFestival on YouTube, I watched Prateek Vats's remarkable #EebAllayOoo, a film about monkeys and men and the thinness of the line separating them. A superbly self-assured film that feels raw as an open wound.
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Monkeys occupied Delhi long before politicians did, and #EebAllayOoo explores the complicated relationship citizens share with them: they are both considered troublesome as well as worshipped (like many an animal in India). They need to be chased away, not harmed.

The film is about an unformed, unemployed man who has gotten a [prestigious] 'government job' as a monkey-scarer. Anjani is told he has to screech and squeal at the monkeys (Eeb, Allay and Ooo are all specific sounds monkeys react to) but he is too unsure to have a voice.

It is also the story of Delhi itself, and of people paddling relentlessly to stay afloat. Anjani lives with his pushy elder sister and brother in law, a security guard reluctant to carry the gun he has just been issued, despite the pay raise it comes with.

The sister (Nutan Sinha, a standout even in this disarmingly natural ensemble) is pregnant and entirely opposed to the gun. In this film about faith and how easily it gets appropriated, she believes the gun is an ill omen and wants it out of her sight.

Vats looks at Delhi the way an insider or a troublemaker would: the film's lens is a furtive one, rarely celebratory, and never explanatory or bothering with context. It plunges us into a cold capital, beautiful but beset by beasts.

Delhi is a rare megacity with a centre flatter than its sides. Young Anjani, determined to build a better mousetrap, must turn rat himself. To this end, he once puts up posters of langurs right across the unattainably expensive heart of Delhi, a brilliant visual juxtaposition.

The film's verisimilitude, the realness of its texture is so astonishing and immersive that I felt transported back to December in the capital, blowing into cupped fists to conjure some heat. This rings so true, in fact, that the film's flights of fancy seem almost unneccessary.

As befitting a film about monkeys, #EebAllayOoo made me itch. Characters -- like the delightful gun-loathing brother-in-law, or the fantastically confident monkey-chaser mentoring our hero -- got under my skin.

#EebAllayOoo is less satire, more a form of protest poetry. Anjani, played by Shardul Bhardwaj, has a face as blank as verse. The animals are the ones with the luxury of expressiveness: teasing, snarling, nonchalant.

If this was a review, I would headline it Monkey Baat.