Raman Raghav 2.0

Raman Raghav 2.0

Director : Anurag Kashyap

Music : Ram Sampath

Cast : Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, Sobhita Dhoolipala

Rating : 2.5/5 - It's all about embracing your inner animal

Review By zulfi. 

‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ is a criminal biography of a character and his search for the salvation of not his doings but his own existence. It is undoubtedly the darkest movie from the legendary filmmaker Anurag Kashyap. The movie states at the start that it isn’t based on the real life Mumbai based serial killer of the same name in the 60s, and follows the character in only imitating a certain part of his biography. However, the rest is a completely different psychic take on the protagonist’s life cycle. Raman is in search of that remaining ‘Raghav’, who completes him and he meets him at the most unlikeliest of times.

            In a pre title sequence, the movie starts with a scene at a drug peddler’s hovel where amidst the pendulating lamp shots, a pair of murders occur. The scene is obscure of detail and keeps the viewer unsure of what really happened. The opening scene shouldn’t be missed as it explains the whole plot. The titles come amidst an alternate glaring and darkness filled imagery of the central characters and a techno pumped score (Ram Sampath) introducing Raman (Nawazuddin Siddique) and the man, who is after him, an young IPS officer named Raghavan (Vicky Kaushal). In an anticlimax, which suddenly looks to deflate the whole essence, Raman comes to the police and admits his crimes, of killing many people, most of them slum-dwellers for apparently no reason. The police don’t buy it. Raghavan doesn’t believe him, so does the commissioner. Raman plays his cards openly laying them on the table and bluffing them wholly as in the next sequence of scenes, we get introduced to the daily routine of this completely disturbed, yet philosophical character.

            He seeks out his long forgotten sister, who has a very understanding husband and an innocent school going son. She lets him in her house tentatively and in a post assessment of her situation, she regrets taking the wrong step, which leads up to the house arrest of her whole family by the random thinking psychopathic Raman. In a fit of mild temper, he casually kills his sister and her family, leaving the cops realize the mistake they had done in letting him go. He escapes their snares a few times. But then there is the other side of the coin. Raghav. Working for the law, he indulges in a crazy self destructive lifestyle of drugs and women. His girlfriend has had three abortions thanks to his reluctance to father children. But then he blames her for playing the guilt game. He is disturbed clearly in his priorities. While going after Raman, who he had let slip from his fingers a couple of times, we see him making a pathetic example of his life with his dwindling relationship with his parents and his perilous relationship with foreign drug peddlers. In a fit of his reckless consequence of choices he brings a girl from the nightclub to his girlfriend’s place for sex. It is timed when Raman is coincidentally planning on hitting the young cop’s girl. In an unforeseen circumstance, a crime happens, which precipitates the fitting climax.

            Now, Raman is in search of his Raghav. Why does he need him? It’s more properly in order to complete him. He wants a substantial meaning in his mad craze of crushing people’s heads, which is his signature mark. the raghav, which he meets is his equivalent in his psyches, it’s just that he (raghav) doesn’t know it himself yet. They are both insomniacs, creatures of the night and darkness. Both want to revive dark personal issues they have within themselves or within their families. They are self destructive. The only thing that Raman finds pity is in his twin soul, because the latter doesn’t have that pat on his back and the expert guidance to recognize his inner animal. And that is the whole gist of the movie. Embracing his inner animal.

            Raman has embraced his inner beast and in fact he is at peace with it. He doesn’t regret over his actions. In one of the most effective scenes which explains Raman, he lays his eyes on a lady, who is feeding her son and he tries to approach her like a hunter towards its prey. There is a hunger in his eyes to satisfy the animalistic part in him. In the initial interrogation scene with the cops, Raman with supreme overconfidence bluffs them with his true story. He doesn’t care about their reactions. He explains his inner workings but he smears an underlying lie that he is surrendering for sustenance and shelter. But there is only a single point which doesn’t hide his true colour when he openly envies the cops for having the license to kill and be provided for it. He hopes that sort of adjustment for himself. There is a pathological psychic element in him as he flits from one issue of discussion to another with no apparent reason and misinterprets every move of his sister in a wrong way, which even includes the salacious manner. But then again there is another facet to this criminal. In a candid controversial conversation he makes with his soulmate, Raman makes a great point for the greater evils of the world. He rightly quotes the fact that riots in the world happen for satisfying that inner animal instincts in the humans under the shroud of communal and religious causes.

            Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays the part of bloodthirsty and cruel Raman with that lust for violence overflowing in his eyes. Many of the close-ups of Nawazuddin Siddiqui highlight the long scar, which is his physical identity and his insomniac, dark circled eyes, which are the spiritual identity. He displays the callousness he exhibits while he kills his sister’s family with such casual ease that it disturbs the viewer right off the hinges. In one of the scenes where he is roaming dragging the long car jack, which is his weapon, he settles the jocular curiosity of a man who jibes him for his earrings with such a simple utterance of strong swear words, that it shows how strong the fellow is in his wrong convictions. Vicky Kaushal plays the lanky, ecstasy snorting cop with such a well muddled moral compass, it is hard for the viewer to either route for him as the hero against the dangerous Ramanna, and also treats his girlfriend with such a derisive levity, while she tries to pull him into her love. The lady characters aren’t well explained because they don’t need to be explained. It’s about the character study of the title names.

The movie however has the snags when it doesn’t convincingly show the crime scenes when the victims go too easily under without putting up much of a fight. Though Nawazuddin is a terrific actor where his acting chops and screen presence are concerned, he doesn’t have the vitality while doing the chase sequences. However Anurag Kashyap isn’t concerned with these minor issues. He shows the bigger picture in the plot and in the spirit with which his movie is full of. The central issue of the movie isn’t an unexplored one. ‘Kill Bill’ has the same spirit when it supplies the relationship of Bill and the Bride, which is more concerned with Bill asking of her respecting her inner mettle, which is her assassination acumen. But ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ goes realistic in that concept. It tries for Raghav to let go of his inhibitions and bask in his true soul.

Though the movie is made of a great collage of music and fine performances of the central leads, the very concept which may be novel and unexplored is its undoing. I am a big fan of Anurag Kashyap and his every work is evidence of his great legendary thinking, but he goes overboard in making a movie which is very controversial and extremely dark. It is dark not only because of its disturbing protagonist and his tutelage of Raghav, but it is grimmer when it flippantly throws derisive dialogue regarding abortions and male-female relationships. Though his movies generally aren’t preachy, there is a passive message of letting go of even the inhibitions against your evil characteristics, which can be a bit misconstruing and a little jarring. For all the discussions, Raman Raghav 2.0 is a director’s marvel while moralistically it is controversially offbeat.