Film: Raman Raghav 2.0
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, Sobhita Dhulipala, Amruta Subhash
An opening rider in Raman Raghav 2.0 establishes the film’s connect (as well as disconnect) with the infamous serial killer of 60s Mumbai: Raman Raghav, who had left a trail of 41-odd murders behind him. “This film is not about him,” the disclaimer states. Indeed, the film is about a contemporary copycat killer. But then, it is not just about the new-age Ramanna either.
Whodunnit? Whydunnit? Howdunnit? Raman Raghav 2.0 is actually neither of the above. Yes, there are many murders that keep you riveted, but they are not an end in themselves. They are more a contrivance, as is the cat and mouse game between the killer Ramanna (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and the cop Raghavendra Singh Ubbi (Vicky Kaushal).
The killings (right from the one at the start till those in the end) are devices through which Anurag Kashyap explores the crime vs law binary.
He brings the two together, coalesces and fuses them.
The pivot of the film is the portrait of the serial killer. The creature of Mumbai mythology and folklore is brought alive with added shades of the dark. Glowing cat eyes, a scar running down his forehead, at times wearing his own sister’s earrings, moving around with an iron car-jack in hand, scouting furtively for victims, hiding in slush and rising nonchalantly from it plastered with muck. Nawaz is brilliantly frantic and frenzied as the cold-hearted, demented, voyeuristic pervert. For him, killing in the name of nation or religion is just not as evolved as killing purely for the heck of killing, which is what he is himself practising.
Brute force
Nawaz packs in such a brute force in his lean frame and mean presence that everyone else gets automatically shoved to the periphery. But, despite Nawaz’s overpowering presence, Vicky stands in good stead as a reckless, trigger-happy, drug-addled cop keeling dangerously close to Ramanna’s side of darkness.
More than the story itself, it is the quirky telling that is the key. Structured around eight chapters, vividly shot in the slums, pulsating with raucous music, Raman Raghav 2.0 is a taut thriller, full of energy and brimming over with tension.
Such is the dizzying momentum that you even stop caring about some missing pieces of the jigsaw. Clear-cut, uncomplicated Raman Raghav 2.0 takes you on an entertainment high.
Namrata Joshi
