T-Series has debuted the first trailer for Anek, the hotly-anticipated second film from director-star duo Anubhav Sinha and Ayushmann Khurrana. An action-thriller set in the North East region of India, Anek aims to continue both Sinha and Khurrana’s winning streak of socially relevant mainstream cinema. The filmmaker previously directed Khurrana in the acclaimed dramatic thriller Article 15.

Anek, which roughly translates to “multiple” in Hindi, attempts to answer tricky questions about patriotism and national identity. It arrives at a particularly volatile time in India, which like many countries around the world has witnessed its share of divisive politics. The North East region, which comprises eight states, has historically been underrepresented not just in films but also in national discourse.

Khurrana plays Joshua, an undercover cop who is sent on a mission to the North East, after a particularly influential separatist group shows signs of activity. Joshua enlists a local woman to infiltrate the group and gather intelligence. We watch as she experiences casual racism, and declares that because she belongs to an outcast community, she wants to prove to her people that she’s as much an Indian as anybody else from other parts of the country.

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Image via T-Series Films

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While Anek is a Hindi language film, it’s still not a “Bollywood” film. Bollywood is a (reductive) term mostly reserved for mainstream song-and-dance potboilers that have long defined Indian cinema for Western audiences. The country has so much more to offer. For instance, two of the biggest hits of the year have come from the South Indian film industries. The period epic RRR is a Telugu language film, while the crime drama K.G.F: Chapter 2 is a Kannada language film.

Khurrana is among the most popular and acclaimed actors in the country; he’s known for a series of hit films on a variety of taboo topics. For instance, he was last seen in the trans love story Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui. His first film with Sinha, Article 15, dealt with the thorny subject of caste discrimination. Having started out in music videos and performed several director-for-hire gigs in the early stages of his career, Sinha had a creative awakening of sorts some years ago, when he directed the film Mulk, which examined religious intolerance. He followed it up with Article 15 and then Thappad, which was about domestic violence.

Despite his rather diverse filmography, Anek is Khurrana’s first action film. The trailer teases several gritty shootouts, as Joshua attempts to unmask the identity of the mysterious separatist leader Johnson. Sinha also appears to be winking at his own past work, particularly with the car scene towards the end of the trailer, in which Joshua has a confrontation with another character about the idea of national identity. It resembles a memorable scene in Article 15, in which the filmmaker highlighted the absurdity of caste-based discrimination in a heated exchange.

Also starring J.D. Chakravarthy, Kumud Mishra, Andrea Kevichüsa and Manoj Pahwa, Anek will be released in Indian theaters on May 27. You can watch the trailer here and read the film’s official synopsis down below:

An untold story of an undercover cop set against the geopolitical backdrop of North East India. An action-thriller about a rebellion, an uprising. An Indian, who wants nothing more than peace for the nation.