Apaharan (2005)

Ajay Shastri wants nothing more than to join the police, but in his corner of Bihar a posting costs a bribe, and his father, a stern Gandhian professor, refuses to pay it. A run of humiliations pushes Ajay into the world of Tabrez Alam, a politician-gangster whose men kidnap for ransom with the protection of the system. Ajay proves very good at the work, and every success puts more distance between him and the father whose respect he still craves. Prakash Jha draws on the real kidnapping wave of 1990s Bihar and makes the strained father-son relationship the heart of the film. Nana Patekar's sly, frightening Tabrez won him the Filmfare award for best villain, and the film won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay. It is often paired with Jha's earlier Gangaajal as his portraits of crime and politics in Bihar.