Our choice of venue was curtailed to Fame ShankarNag in Bangalore, a
cinema that was once a single screen highlight that is now in tatters.
Our feeling on leaving the cinema was not as acute but not very
different about Raman Raghav 2.0. Anurag Kashyap has never shied away
from showing the basest emotions that a human being is capable of, love
and its infinite shades included. It works in Raman Raghav 2.0 only
because he has two very talented actors backing up his slightly weak
spined screenplay - Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vicky Kaushal.
Given the way 'Bombay Velvet' was received, the expectation behind
Anurag Kashyap's next was always going to be a factor in the way Raman
Raghav was going to be received. A lot of us would have expected Anurag
to have gone all out, but there is a certain amount of restraint that
comes through in his handling of the screenplay. His leads though, have
no such restraints in their portrayal. 'He said my eyes used to glow in
the dark' says one and 'how can you stay with someone who puts anything
into his nostrils, his veins?' says the other.
Vasan Bala's screenplay with Anurag Kashyap - walks through streets of
Mumbai - grime, sweat and ripe(with decay) colours painted roughly on
the screen. While the actual Raman Raghav 2.0 terrorized Mumbai with
random killings, the contemporary Sindhi Dalwai takes inspiration from
him only to paint his own gory graffiti in Mumbais slums. Duality is an
interesting dynamic - crime and punishment, criminals and policemen,
God and the Devil - Anurag Kashyap works with Venn diagrams showing us
where a circle stops and where another begins and where they intersect
but perhaps pulls back too soon - to use his own cinematic language. We
are at times left languishing for more of the whys and wherefores even
though some may argue open- endedness being paramount.
Siddiqui - bright eyed, unkempt and thoroughly scary pulls off another
top tier performance yet never goes over the top keeping everything
under the surface. A short run up of his, helmet clad and dragging a
tyre iron quite literally sends us backing into the seat knowing whats
going to happen next. Vicky Kaushal on the other hand, as has been the
discussion since his performance is a surprise package. A police launda
who cannot bear to keep himself away from any kind of high, his
neurotic and taut performance complements Siddiquis frightening
psychosis but we end up feeling we see too much of (a weakly
scripted)Raghav when we want to see more of Siddiqui.
Ram Sampath has scored the movie and the constant thrumming in the
background helps set the mood for the bashing-in-of-the-skull and
assorted goings on off screen. The camera handled by Jay Oza helps us
waltz through the muck and blood always keeping a perspective of
Siddiqui and Kaushal on screen even when they aren't physically present
in the frame.
Incisive as the acting and story set up is, we still come away wanting
more - two factors contribute to this. The editing could have been a
little more sharper, condensing the story to what it should be and the
screenplay should have been tighter when it came to the why's which is
where the editing might have contributed as well. The hype behind Raman
Raghav 2.0 and the trailers promised devilishness of the kind we were
used to from Anurag Kashyap in Ugly, Gulaal et al. What we realise is
that his latest is not so Ugly.
Our rating - Three and a half stars out of a possible five.
Our rating - Three and a half stars out of a possible five.
