Subhash K Jha celebrates Sudhir Mishra’s 2005 centerpiece Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi that starred Shiney Ahuja, Chitrangda Rao, and Kay Kay Menon. We also hear from Mishra, who says, “I was born to make Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi,” and delves more into the creation of a film that he says changed him.

Death, says one song in this remarkably dense and evocative film, is akin to love. It sure seems like death for Vikram (Shiney Ahuja) every time Geeta (Chitrangda Rao) looks at her idol-lover Sidharth (Kay Kay Menon). And death sure feels like a renewal and assertion of life every time Sudhir Mishra makes a new film. His outstanding understanding of the complex polemics and politics that motivate the mysteries and contradictions of modern Indian society has given us great pieces of alternative art in the past, including the unusual thriller Iss Raat Ki Subah Nahin, where the characters ran around...