As the holy month of Ramzan coalesces with the festival of Holi, a small unknown film comes along to remind us that there is nothing really to choose between ‘Rahman’ and ‘Hanuman,’ that they are in fact two sides of the coin.

Of course, getting there is far more difficult than just pontificating on the oneness of mankind. Director Avinash Das, whose spunky fearless Anarkali Of Arrah was the surprise of its year, springs a charming heartwarming surprise again. This time, he rinses his rumination in mellow molecules of harmony.

This is a small film with long legs. Pithy and pungent, it takes us into two adjacent lanes in Lucknow where Hindus and Muslims coexist… until a politician, Ajay Tiwari, descends with his vote-bank politics.

What ensues is heartily amusing and profoundly grievous. Nothing that Das and his writer Punarvasu tell us here is startling or revealing. We all know...