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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Berlin is a Hindi-language spy drama set in 1993 Delhi—not in Germany. Its story follows a deaf and speech-impaired man accused of murder, the interpreter brought in to communicate with him, and an espionage mystery unfolding as the city prepares for Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s visit. Director Atul Sabharwal has called the film a “love letter” to a period he feels has not been thoroughly documented, framing it through personal memories and deliberate period detail rather than presenting it as a documentary.
What is Berlin about?
The film places its mystery in Delhi in 1993, after the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Ashok, played by Ishwak Singh, is arrested on a murder accusation. Pushkin, played by Aparshakti Khurana, is brought in as an interpreter to communicate with him while authorities prepare for Yeltsin’s visit. A café called Berlin is connected to the case.
Rahul Bose plays an official whose character is identified as Jagdish in Scroll’s account and Sondhi in Cinema Express and The Indian Express. Those reports do not agree on the name, so it is best not to treat either as definitive.
The film premiered in India at the Mumbai Film Festival in 2023. The Indian Express also reported a screening at the Habitat Film Festival in May 2024. These are historical screening details; they do not establish where the film can be watched now.
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Why is a Delhi story called Berlin?
Berlin is the name of a café in Delhi, not an indication that the plot takes place in the German capital. Cinema Express describes it as a German coffee house at Connaught Place. The title links an everyday Delhi setting to the film’s Cold War atmosphere and its characters’ suspicions and shifting loyalties.
Sabharwal has described the title as more than a place name: “It’s also a state of mind,” he told Scroll in an interview published April 3, 2024. The phrase reflects the film’s interest in secrecy and uncertainty, rather than relocating its story from Delhi to Europe.
What does Sabharwal mean by a “love letter” to an undocumented time?
“Berlin is a love letter to a time gone by, which hasn’t been thoroughly documented,” Sabharwal told Scroll. He connects that framing to his childhood in Agra, attending an Army cantonment school, trips to Delhi, and an early familiarity with Russian books published in the Soviet Union. He has spoken of imagining conversations in cafés near diplomatic offices and setting personal memories against the historical atmosphere of the era.
That is the director’s account of his inspiration, not a claim that the film documents actual events or reconstructs every detail of 1993 Delhi. Its spy plot is a work of fiction shaped by memories, research and visual references.
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Sabharwal said the idea began after he saw deaf staff working at a Mumbai café and wondered what it would mean if one of them were an aspiring spy. The short story that grew from the idea was called The Decipherer and centred on Ashok.
For the feature, Sabharwal shifted the point of view to Pushkin. In Cinema Express, he explained that telling the story from Ashok’s perspective would have meant making a silent film; the interpreter’s perspective offered a way to make communication itself part of the drama while giving the audience access to Ashok’s meaning.
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How does sign language shape the performances?
Singh plays Ashok, while Khurana plays Pushkin, the interpreter who conveys Ashok’s communication verbally. The actors studied sign language for their roles. Sabharwal has described their tasks as distinct: Singh had to express Ashok through signing and performance, while Khurana had to communicate the meaning of Ashok’s words to others. That arrangement makes interpretation—not just dialogue—central to how information reaches the viewer.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How did the filmmakers create the 1990s atmosphere?
Locations and visual design
Sabharwal told Scroll that the production combined real locations with other sites standing in for places in the story, and digitally treated some locations to suggest the period. He cited Delhi’s exposed-concrete buildings and anamorphic widescreen photography as elements of his visual approach.
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For reference, he studied black-and-white photographs by Helga Paris and Sibylle Bergemann and films from Eastern Europe. “Kieslowski’s Blind Chance was one very specific reference,” he told Scroll. Sabharwal also said his research led him to notice a green bias in some European film stocks and the use of tube lights; that is his description of particular visual influences, not a rule about all European films.
Research and period props
Sabharwal said German researcher Nina Poppe examined Cold War archives and sent him photographs. Cinema Express also reports that he drew on the Indian films Sparsh and New Delhi Times, as well as spy and surveillance movies. His earlier work on the television series Powder brought him into contact with surveillance manuals through interviews with Narcotics Control Bureau officers; this is not evidence that he interviewed spies for Berlin.
The Indian Express reported that green-and-yellow Delhi buses were brought from Mumbai to recreate the period. At a festival screening, the outlet said viewers praised the costumes, locations and sound design. That is a report about that screening, not a measured consensus among audiences.
How does the film handle suspense?
Sabharwal’s stated approach is to control how much the audience knows and when. At a festival conversation, as reported by Ananya Ganotra in The Indian Express on May 7, 2024, he said: “Suspense is about holding back, not revealing too much and patiently letting the viewers figure out.” In a story built around interpretation and espionage, that emphasis puts the audience in a position similar to Pushkin’s: assembling meaning from what is said, withheld or uncertain.
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