Ek Chaalis ki Last Local: An unusual date with mystery – Darshana Sreedhar
Ek Chaalis ki Last Local (The last local at 1:40) is a Hindi film
directed by Sanjay Khanduri in 2007 set in Mumbai, starring Abhay
Deol and Neha Dhupia as lead actors. Apart from being a box office
success, it also won international laurels when it bagged the Silver
Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival for “Excellence
in Film Making” in 2010, and the Lion’s Best Debutant Director
Award of 2007. The film explores the adventurous and tumultuous
happenings in the life of Nilesh (Abhay Deol) as he awaits the local
train at 4.10 am, after having missed the eponymous Ek Chaalis Ki
Last Local, the last train from Kurla to Vikroli. Even when the distance
between the two stations is not more than nine kilometres, Nilesh is
taken by surprise when auto-drivers refuse to ply their vehicles in
the wake of an unanticipated bandh, coupled with the reluctance of
the police constable who huddles him off from the station premises
seeing him as a potential threat. His impending wait for the next two
and a half hours holds unexpected twists in his life, as he gets himself
embroiled in situations he thought could happen only in ‘other’
places, as something ‘Dilliwalas’ (being one himself) would never
have to deal with in real life. Here the last train at 1.40 am becomes
the marker of how coincidences and missed possibilities await Nilesh
Rustogi as his paths criss-cross lives of several others, to ultimately
win the bounty which comes to him by accident.
In stark contrast to films like Dombivali Express (Marathi