I don’t agree that the “narrative” was deficient, yes, the screen play/character development could have been stronger and camera work less gimmicky, but overall I felt that the narrative had plenty of panache and enough subtext to hold the audiences interest during and after the movie.Credit is definitely due to the excellent editing and performance by Khandelwal, which filled the gaps.
On a different note, I don’t think that the movie was intended to be Avant Garde in any way; if anything, it is more in line with french new wave cinema. Different does not equate to Avant Garde. Movies such as Shaitan, LSD, Dev D and Peepli Live have their own vocabulary and should be judged within the context of the Indian socio-cultural milieu, which they attempt to represent.