A cop chasing shadows, a murder mystery splattered with more expletives than evidence, a narrative drawing from the margins of society — streaming has long leaned on these crutches to prove it is braver than the Bollywood it claims to outgrow. Seeing them all stitched into one story should feel like deja vu.

And yet, ‘Janaawar: The Beast Within’ turns that predictability on its head. Rooted in Scheduled Tribe experience, the plot’s brutality is softened by an eye for beauty — cinematography moving between dread and lyricism with unhurried grace. But as the camera lingers on the forests of Chhand, what also resounds is absence — of marginalised voices, leaving the otherwise sure-footed stride with a telling limp.

The story follows Sub-Inspector Hemant Kumar (Bhuvan Arora), a tribal police

See Full Page