Film: 'Jashnn'; Cast: Adhyayan Suman, Shahana Goswami, Anjana Sukhani, Humayun Saeed; Director: Raksha Mistry and Hasnain S. Hyderbadwala; Rating: ***

Rejoice! The Bhatts are back with a film that rips a hole in the heart and lodges itself deep into your consciousness...for a bit at least.

It's hard to move away from the territory of trauma that Bhatt perennially creates for his characters. His protagonists suffer because they allow themselves the luxury of feeling and hurting in an utterly self-centred way.

In a marked departure from the sacrificial mother figures of our movies, the film's central character Nisha (played with gut-wrenching brutal honesty by Shahana Goswami) is shown to be a rich man's mistress not because of her kid brother but because, as she roars in one of the narrative's soul-piercing highest-pitched sequences, she has gotten so used to luxuries she can't stand in queue for buses any more.

'Jashnn', like Mahesh Bhatt's 'Jannat' before it, wallows in the transparent hunger of today's lifestyle and how far individuals are ready to go in pursuit of the next thrill.

At its heart, 'Jashnn' is a simple story about four troubled people tied together in a baffling labyrinth of complicated emotions.

As Adhyayan Suman, rising to the challenge of playing the author-backed role of Aakash -- 'didi's ladla' and destiny's unfavoured wannabe Michael Jackson -- says to his spunky girlfriend (a never-say-why girl who moves in with her guy in his garage music room): 'Your brother was supporting my sister. Now you're supporting me. What a family we are!'

Bhatt's people are never afraid of facing the truth about themselves, no matter how ugly. And it can't get any uglier than the sequence where Akaash -- angry, embittered, cornered and moneyless -- steals from a woman's purse in a bar to pay for his drinks.

There is a redemptive counterpoint to this hideous moment of compromise. There always is. And when it comes in 'Jashnn', you feel like applauding our young hero's proclivity to look life in all its garish shades straight in the eye.

In what could be considered the best re-launch since Mallika Sherawat in the Bhatts' 'Murder', Adhyayan gets a role with a graph and grip that most newcomers fantasise about.

Adhyayan surrenders himself completely to the bum musician's inner world, emerging with emotions that lie buried too deep for tears, fears and jeers.