Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016) Review!!

Synopsis – Set in present day Mumbai the story follows the life of a serial killer Ramanna who is inspired by an infamous serial killer from the 1960s, Raman Raghav. His strange obsession with Raghavan, a young cop keeps growing as he closely follows him without his knowledge and often creates situations where both of them come face to face.

My Take – Anurag Kashyap is one of the most well known names in the Indian film industry, who along with his outspoken views on any current issue, is known for his unique film making skills. And like any other film maker, he has had major missteps (in the form of the multi budgeted Bombay Velvet) and major success (the long delayed Black Friday and the two part Gangs of Wasseypur). Ever since this film roared at Cannes, I have been waiting impatiently for the movie to hit theaters. Character actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui has been steadily rising up the ranks, and I adore the way Anurag Kashyap weaves intricacies to his characters. And of course my own love for psychological thrillers played an important factor. So is the film any good? Yes and No. While this will not be included in the best works of Anurag Kashyap it still is a good watch. Bolstered by interesting characters, good acting, witty dialogues this had all the makings of being great but is hampered by a flabby script which could have been trimmed, honestly out of the eight chapters the first five could have used some cutting. However the last three chapters are phenomenal and can hang with the best of Anurag Kashyap‘s work, dealing with deeper themes especially the theme about legacy and leaving something of yours behind even after death really struck a chord with me.

However their is a thin line between making a film about a serial killer and glorifying his actions. Here director Anurag Kashyap seems to be unsure which side of the line he’s standing on. Inspired the real life Indian Jack the Ripper of the 60s – Raman Raghav, this film’s central character definitely shares the same inhuman sentiments that shackled Raman Raghav’s soul to darkness. The story follows a serial killer Ramanna aka Raman (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and a drug addict cop Raghavan aka Raghav (Vicky Kaushal), who is hunting and chasing him. The film revolves around Raman and his “nemesis” Raghav, detailing their apparent contradictions but deeper identifications but here ends the movie for all narrative purposes. Raman is portrayal of an emotionless serial killer, who goes about his business quite nonchalantly. But there is more to him than that, he has a perception of Raghav in his own twisted head and most of his actions in the movie are guided by the same. Raghav is again not your typical angry young cop, he has too many issues especially his drug abuse & his misogynous attraction towards Simmy (Sobhita Dhulipala). With growing pressures to find Raman as the bodies keep piling up, Raghav’s world begins to split apart. The movie begins with a disclaimer that it isn’t about the real Raman Raghav but in spirit he is present throughout the movie. This movie is obviously not the run-of-the-mill cop hunting serial killer story, rather there is a reversal of role with respect to that. Unlike most Bollywood fare, the cop here is as bent as a sickle and by the end of the film the audience is left wondering who is the more diabolical of the two – the psychologically disturbed Raman or the chain smoking, coke-snorting Assistant Commissioner of Police Raghav. The actual interaction between the two title characters comes towards the end. Yet, the viewer never gets the feeling that the scenes involving the two are not related. The Tarantino inspired chapter wise narration is fresh and gives your poor heart a heads up about the upcoming story. Each time a new chapter flashes, my heart skipped a beat. The characters are just so mind blowing! You don’t sympathize or empathize with a single one of them. But, the depth of their characters will startle you. Who else can think of portraying a character which has more than 50% screen space as a full fledged junkie? The nuances of each character’s traits will reassure that it’s an Anurag Kashyap movie. Instead of doing what most film-makers would and giving us something to balance out Raman, Kashyap gives us even more darkness in the form of Raghav. Though it takes some doing in a film built around a brutal murderer, Raghav actually turns out to be the most distasteful character here—snorting cocaine on the job, making his girlfriend undergo three abortions, and some other things. The film sets police and criminal up as mirror images of each other: not a novel idea), but one that’s taken to a surprising, pitch-black conclusion by co-writers Kashyap and Vasan Bala. As the film progresses we start realizing that though we don’t like Raghav as a person but we still want him to chase down Raman, obviously we never develop any sympathy for him. Raman is no Hannibal Lecter or Dexter; he has no sophistication, only survival skills. His weapon of choice is a metal pipe, which he drags along the ground. Raman doesn’t have any motivation to kill—it’s just something he starts doing, discovers it comes easy and continues with. He’s a terribly unreliable narrator—something the quirky Siddiqui has fun with—but the one thing that rings true is when he tells the police that he developed a habit years ago of walking on the black portions whenever the road before him was particoloured. It’s easy to imagine all those years of sticking to black and avoiding light warping his mind. So we still want the Rat to get killed by the Cat, aren’t we? Raman and Raghav both of us are approaching each other, so whom we want to win?

Yet, just like the 2001 supernatural thriller Aks by director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (of Rang De Basanti & Bhaag Milkha Bhaag fame), which had a very similar theme going for it, this film is bogged down by its clumsy screenplay. The murders, which are probably the most important aspect of the film, are done very poorly akin to 80’s B grade Hindi films. Also the way Raman operates it makes the police seem extraordinarily dumb, as someone who has watched his fair share of Hitchcock and murder mysteries a lot of the events don’t make any sense, there’s just too much evidence which was ignored. The plot was surely designed to show how the people on both sides of the law are not really so different but an immature script lets the film down. Serial killers are not mad, their motives are not absurd and their philosophies not as lame as the film shows. In the end, the killer is almost given his own podium to justify his killing through the purity of its absurd motives. Since he does not kill for money, or by hiding behind the garb of religion or any such material motive, he is the pure, he is the unblemished and he indeed is the lord of death. After seeing the film, it seems that had the makers lifted the story of the real Raman Raghav verbatim, that would have made for a better film. At least it would have had a coherent psychological framework. There are quite a few well-etched sequences, the one where Simmy reminds the double standards of Raghav with respect to murders and his own personal life, the final scene between Raman and Raghav. However what holds the film together are the superb performances. Nawazuddin is one of the finest actors we have currently and this movie proves that we blessed to have him. As a sinister, a serial killer with no motive, he cab haunt you for days. This is the kind of role that defines an actor and Nawazuddin gives a stellar performance. Squatting on his haunches as he recounts how he preys on his victims, or when he gloats about his exploits to random strangers, Nawazuddin almost seems to melt into his role. He does steal the show, but I would like to commend Vicky Kaushal‘s work. Gone is the sweet, innocent, lovable Deepak of ‘Masaan’. In Deepak’s place, we have Raghav a coke-snorting cop who has no qualms about bludgeoning a man to death only to clean his cocaine-dusted footprints. He is the most complex character in the film and maybe is as bad of a guy as Raman but wearing a cop’s uniform, it’s hard to root for this cop in the cat and mouse game as each ends up offending the viewer time and again. Sobhita Dhulipala had a limited role due to the needs of the story but is able to do justice to it and Amruta Subhash has a small yet memorable role. Vipin Sharma and Ashoke Lokhande make a lasting impression. Here, like his earlier film (Ugly), director Anurag Kashyap reveals each new character to be more craven and grasping than the last. Now, with this film, he gives viewers a choice between mesmeric, unmotivated evil and banal, calculated evil. He knows most will side with the former—and that’s when he has you exactly where he wants. On the whole, ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ is not for everyone but if you are a fan of Anurag Kashyap’s brazen style of story-telling, you might forgive the clumsy second half and still come out happy! It falters, but Nawazuddin and Vicky make it worth a watch.