Devashish Makhija's cinema investigates and indicts vicious power structures, gender play, and speaks urgently, and uncompromisingly about the bleak realities of marginalisation and dispossession. He has made several terrific shorts including Taandav, and two features , Ajji and Bhonsle, both which seem to exist in worlds despairingly close to each other. His work refuses any easy complacency for the viewer . We had a freewheeling conversation with him about what went into making Ajji and Bhonsle, negotiating the thorny realities in his films, and more.