Narendra and Amit are brittle and fragile men.

Narendra is deeply insecure about his masculinity, suspicious of nobility, sincerity and ordinary happiness. He has very narrow emotional bandwidth. He is a good pretender but is terrified of embarrassment. Narendra's self-obsession is mostly channeled into sartorial finesse. He believes that his many enemies stand between him and the ultimate, almost phallic, consummation of power, approbation, and acknowledgement from the world.

Amit is more ideological and more aspirational. He is a zealous Savarkarite with a rationalised idea of bloodshed. He is parochial, xenophobic and likes strategy. He is suspicious of education and the educated. He knows austerity, loyalty, vengeance and backstage management makes him happy. Amit thinks institutions and morality come in the way of effective, swift conclusions.

Both men hate women and harbour fantasies of violence. They are not religious but believe in personal and cultural purity. They are afraid of self-reflection because it comes with the risk of facing deep-seated demons. They despise the idea of scrutiny, and of course, have an unhealthy obsession with power that now sits like deadwood over their stunted conscience.

In a way, both of them are very Indian.