‘Black river’ refers to the tar roads that connect the rich India with the poor India. The protagonist, Buva, a taxi driver who transports passengers between these two Indias, lives in the famous Bombay BDD chawl, is influenced by Swami Samarth Ramdas—probably the only human being representing evolution at all three levels: body, mind and spirit. Buva attempts to live like him, but his passengers and his neighbours create circumstances that trap him into a web of death and deceit, murder and riots.