<div>Director: Anurag Kashyap<br />Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, Sobhita Dhulipala, Amruta Subhash<br /><br />Unabashedly dark and disturbing, Anurag Kashyap's Raman Raghav 2.0 is a pulsating thriller that delves into the recesses of the mind of a serial killer.<br /><br />With its drama placed in the larger context of the climate of violence in a big Indian city, the film tells the story of a deranged and depraved contemporary criminal who models himself on Raman Raghav, a real-life serial killer who stalked the streets and slums of Bombay in the mid-1960s.<br /><br />The central character, Ramanna (Nawazuddin Siddiqui in scintillating form), kills without remorse – and often without reason – even as he taunts the Mumbai crime branch with a blow-by-blow confession that the policemen find hard to digest.<br /><br />The cop on Ramanna's trail is a 30-year-old man Raghavan (Vicky Kaushal, completely believable), who is wracked by his own inner demons.<br /><br />His relationship with his father is uneasy, he is unable to sleep, is addicted to psychotropic substances and is dangerously trigger-happy. In terms of temperament, there isn't much that separates the cop from the crook.<br /><br />Kashyap, who has co-written the film with Vasan Bala, turns this shocking crime drama into a flashy genre film bolstered by a throbbing musical score, a frenetic editing rhythm and outstanding performances not only by the two principal actors but also by members of the supporting cast.<br /><br />Much of the film has been shot in the seediest parts of Mumbai, because that is where Ramanna operates. His weapon of choice is a car wheel wrench that he uses to bludgeon his victims.<br /><br />As the manic marauder goes about his twisted life driven by a perverse philosophy, policeman Raghavan, who is obviously no less crooked in his ways, finds himself sinking deeper and deeper into a quagmire of moral degradation largely of his own making.<br /><br />Raman Raghav 2.0 is a film in which the lines dividing good and evil are completely erased. The tale unfolds in a moral vacuum in which murder and mayhem thrive without any hindrance.<br /><br />Kashyap puts a complex spin on this nihilistic tale by drawing into its scope allusions to communal riots and state-perpetrated violence in order to create a political and social context for the utterly senseless violence that the two characters – the outlaw and the lawman – unleash.<br /><br />In this dehumanized scenario, women are the most vulnerable and that reality is driven home principally by the character of Raghavan's girlfriend Simmy Naidu (played impressively by first-timer Sobhita Dhulipala).<br /><br />She is an independent-spirited woman who lives life on her own terms, but is constantly driven into a corner by the man in her life.<br /><br />The other women who pop up in Raman Raghav 2.0 are all victims of the ugliness that the men represent. Ramanna's own sister (Amruta Subhash) pays the price for seeking a better life, while Simmy's maid gets sucked into the vortex of the Ramanna-Raghavan catfight for no fault of her own.<br /><br />It isn't an easy film to watch although much of the violence that it depicts is kept off-screen. But the deft manner in which it uses the cinematic resources at its disposal – which, of course, is influenced in part by the film's limited budget – makes it an immersive cinematic experience.</div>
<div>Director: Anurag Kashyap<br />Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, Sobhita Dhulipala, Amruta Subhash<br /><br />Unabashedly dark and disturbing, Anurag Kashyap's Raman Raghav 2.0 is a pulsating thriller that delves into the recesses of the mind of a serial killer.<br /><br />With its drama placed in the larger context of the climate of violence in a big Indian city, the film tells the story of a deranged and depraved contemporary criminal who models himself on Raman Raghav, a real-life serial killer who stalked the streets and slums of Bombay in the mid-1960s.<br /><br />The central character, Ramanna (Nawazuddin Siddiqui in scintillating form), kills without remorse – and often without reason – even as he taunts the Mumbai crime branch with a blow-by-blow confession that the policemen find hard to digest.<br /><br />The cop on Ramanna's trail is a 30-year-old man Raghavan (Vicky Kaushal, completely believable), who is wracked by his own inner demons.<br /><br />His relationship with his father is uneasy, he is unable to sleep, is addicted to psychotropic substances and is dangerously trigger-happy. In terms of temperament, there isn't much that separates the cop from the crook.<br /><br />Kashyap, who has co-written the film with Vasan Bala, turns this shocking crime drama into a flashy genre film bolstered by a throbbing musical score, a frenetic editing rhythm and outstanding performances not only by the two principal actors but also by members of the supporting cast.<br /><br />Much of the film has been shot in the seediest parts of Mumbai, because that is where Ramanna operates. His weapon of choice is a car wheel wrench that he uses to bludgeon his victims.<br /><br />As the manic marauder goes about his twisted life driven by a perverse philosophy, policeman Raghavan, who is obviously no less crooked in his ways, finds himself sinking deeper and deeper into a quagmire of moral degradation largely of his own making.<br /><br />Raman Raghav 2.0 is a film in which the lines dividing good and evil are completely erased. The tale unfolds in a moral vacuum in which murder and mayhem thrive without any hindrance.<br /><br />Kashyap puts a complex spin on this nihilistic tale by drawing into its scope allusions to communal riots and state-perpetrated violence in order to create a political and social context for the utterly senseless violence that the two characters – the outlaw and the lawman – unleash.<br /><br />In this dehumanized scenario, women are the most vulnerable and that reality is driven home principally by the character of Raghavan's girlfriend Simmy Naidu (played impressively by first-timer Sobhita Dhulipala).<br /><br />She is an independent-spirited woman who lives life on her own terms, but is constantly driven into a corner by the man in her life.<br /><br />The other women who pop up in Raman Raghav 2.0 are all victims of the ugliness that the men represent. Ramanna's own sister (Amruta Subhash) pays the price for seeking a better life, while Simmy's maid gets sucked into the vortex of the Ramanna-Raghavan catfight for no fault of her own.<br /><br />It isn't an easy film to watch although much of the violence that it depicts is kept off-screen. But the deft manner in which it uses the cinematic resources at its disposal – which, of course, is influenced in part by the film's limited budget – makes it an immersive cinematic experience.</div>