[1] Koyelaanchal unveils itself through Saryu Bhan Singh, an ex-owner turned Mafioso of the region, who through his sheer brutality and blatant defiance of the law of the land, forces the people and the authorities to acknowledge him as their ‘maalik’.

Things get a bit difficult to handle for Saryu Bhan Singh when an upright District Collector Nisheeth Kumar takes charge of the region and starts asking him questions that no one dared ask him before.

Caught amidst labor revolts and naxal uprisings, the last thing Saryu Bhan Singh wanted was to make enemies with the top government officer in his region.

What happens hereafter tells a thrilling and heart-rending story of how the real power doesn't always flow through the barrels of guns but through the tender touches of a child, the love of a mother and the heartfelt prayers of the hopeless millions.

[2] Film Critic Subhash K. Jha gave it 3 stars and said that Koyelaanchal has a plot that reads like pulp fiction but feels like a slice of ugly Indian history.