Raman Raghav 2.0 reviews - Page 2

Critic's Rating: 3.5/5

Avg Readers' Rating: 3.5/5

CAST:Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, Sobhita Dhulipala, Anuschka Sawhney

DIRECTION:Anurag Kashyap

Hack is the new black

A blank screen, accompanied by the sound of human flesh being repeatedly thumped with a blunt object, is the IV drip of horror that this film chooses as its background score. Based on a serial killer, Raman Raghav 2.0 elaborately constructs impressive tableaux in which ineffable brutality follows. To keep the anxiety levels high, a detailed build-up sometimes culminates to naught. But on other occasions, a victim is brutally slayed, stoned or eviscerated with a car jack.

The mercurial maniac occupying one half of the title is Raman (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who has many aliases and even more quirks. Having wasted half a dozen people mercilessly, he strongly believes he's little different from a cop, only that he doesn't possess the license to kill. The act of eliminating, he confesses, gives him an unparalleled high. The one hunting down our serial sociopath is a young ACP, Raghuvendra Singh (Vicky Kaushal), a drug-addled cop emotionally mangled by a string of abusive relationships.

The film traces Raman, the blood-tainted flaneur, his horrific encounters, and even his casual ones " a particularly sickening one being a meeting with his sister and her family. The seemingly mundane visit takes a dark turn in which no brutality is off-limits for this monster. It makes one protectively cringe for the potential victims that Raman subsequently meets. The cops hunting him are close on his heels. But after questioning him once, when he surrenders and admits to the murders, he's let off the hook for being mentally unstable and incapable of the heinous acts. Unlike the average butcher-buster, the money here is not on the chase, but on the murders, both spontaneous and premeditated.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui's career graph has had many spikes. From the rustic ganglord in Gangs Of Wasseypur to the man with much rage against a mountain in Manjhi: The Mountain Man, he's played them all with thespian prowess. Slipping into the skin of a lunatic here, he internalises his character's state of mind so well that it could well be his best performance to date. Each time his shifty eyes lock on an object of his interest, it is enough to convey the unimaginable. Vicky Kaushal, sadly, isn't the killer performer here. While he is competent, he doesn't command the kind of attention for someone playing a role of authority. The female characters, played by Sobhita Dhulipala (Miss India Earth 2013) and Anuschka Sawhney, have little writing invested in them and seem like cardboard props.

For director Anurag Kashyap, this film falls into a comfort zone that he thrives on with devilish delight. While it strays away from stomach-churning gore, aside from a furtive glimpse of a corpse's rotten foot, for instance, the unseen is enough to ignite one's imagination.

Indian slasher films (the few that have managed to be produced) have been typical fare: solely focusing on the act and the investigation that leads to the capture of the offender. But Raman Raghav 2.0 offers access to the dark mental alleys of its troubled hero, so much so that his parallel world and sick mind achieve a twisted logic. This one's certainly not a date film. But hey, a jolty squeeze on the upper arm can do much for your love life.