Remember those days in school when a female classmate had a crush on a teacher and we used to laugh about it? Sikhya Entertainment's latest film Haraamkhor starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Shweta Tripathi looks at the dark side of this aspect with a narrative tinged with humour. Set in a small town in North India, Haraamkhor revolves around a relationship between Shyam (Nawaz), a school teacher and his student Sandhya (Shweta Tripathi), who is also the object of a classmate's affection.

When a first-time director dares not to opt for the easy way out, the act has to be deemed a happy augury. Shlok Sharma's Haraamkhor is a courageous film. It tackles a twisted and thorny theme with commendable sensitivity. However, a few of the crucial creative choices that the debutant makes - the shaky handheld camerawork, the abrupt tonal shifts and the fragmentary narrative - do not come off in their entirety.

How far can one go to show their dark side? Director Shlok Sharma brings you an engaging chase with his erotic drama 'Haraamkhor' that will leave you surprised. 'Haraamkhor' is visually good with a slow narrative but still manages to strike the right chord. The story revolves around a school teacher Shyam Tekchand (Nawazzuddin Siddiqui), who lusts after his student Sandhya (Shweta Tripathi) but she is deeply in love with Shyam.

Sandhya (Shweta Tripathi) is a ninth student, living in a far flung village with her police officer father. Her mother has abandoned her long ago, while her father is having an affair of his own, leaving her to her own devices. In this sense of abandonment, she carries out a sexual relationship with her much married teacher Shyam sir (Nawazuddin Siddiqui). Wilting under the guilt of this relationship while also reluctant to accept the new woman in her father's life, Sandhya keeps in making more mistakes.

In this debut feature, a familiar sordid tale unfolds in a North Indian 'kasba': a bright-eyed pubescent girl falls for an older man, and takes the relationship into a space we barely acknowledge, let alone depict in our movies. Sandhya's (Shweta Tripathi) rocky personal life leads her into finding solace in her school teacher Shyam (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), and as we watch these two do the mating dance, a minor girl and a man who is married, but has a glad eye, a feeling of queasiness assails us.

Now this is the sort of movie that takes some getting used to, before you can fully dive into the experience. And I say this not merely because there isn't much clarity in terms of the film's setting - we're supposed to be in a village alright (what kind, and where exactly, remains sort of unknown). The timeline roughly relates to the '90s. When else would a kid be playing, what looks like the video game, Tetris, in a hand-held plastic device?

In the opening scene of Shlok Sharma's Haraamkhor, a young girl in a typical small town school uniform is crouching on a rock staring towards a dusty open plain down below. This shot repeats later in the film. Is she seeking out something or looking for someone? After the two-hour viewing, I am still unclear.

The film unfolds through the eyes of two prepubescent boys Kamal and his notorious friend Mintu. Kamal loves Sandhya and Mintu suggests bizarre ways to help Kamal woo the girl. The two rightly suspect that something's brewing between Sandhya and Shyam and thus end up following the two everywhere. Meanwhile, completely unaware of the boys' intentions, Sandhya, abandoned by her mother and concerned for her standoffish father, finds solace in Shyam.