Movie Review – Raman Raghav 2.0

Can he ever make a bad movie?

Anurag Kashyap. What a man he is. Can he ever make a bad movie? ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ is not really a film which stands out in his filmography but its one of the gems I’ve watched it in recent times. Every time I watch his movie, I can’t help but be astonished. ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ is no different. ‘Dev D’ is considered as his best work and I too swear by it because that’s when I was getting to this type of films in Hindi cinema but when I watched ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ I felt like Anurag Kashyap has grown so much in stature. I guess I need to revisit ‘Dev D’ again as I don’t remember much but my recent watches, ‘Ugly’ and ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ were nothing short of phenomenal and equivalent to ‘Dev D’ in terms of stature.

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‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ was released internationally as ‘Psycho Raman’. Wonder what’s the funda behind it. It loses it sheen through such a simple giveaway title. It’s not such a spoiler because Kashyap’s movie anyways is gonna be psychotic but ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ has so much character just like the way the opening credits are given where its mentioned about a psycho killer and how its not a film about him. Also, it made me wonder there was already a part one. These are typical Kashyap gimmicks which are so much fun. All this gets lost in a title like ‘Psycho Raman’ which is straightforward and dull.

The movie has a somewhat chirpy opening. Not happy chirpy but vibrant one. We see a great looking Vicky Kaushal dancing his ass out and picking a girl in a dance pub. The happiness lasts only till that. When he goes out to score drugs, she sees a gun in his hand. Not sure whether the next scene was supposed to be a suspense but I was able to guess that he killed a person there. When we think that he is some sort of goon, we get to know that he’s a cop when he arrives at the crime scene next day. So that’s how fucked up the situation is and how it’ll be.

Vicky Kaushal was terrific in this movie. I am running short of adjectives to describe his performance. This film also has him in his best look yet. It’s not easy to grab attention when you have a performer like Nawaz bhai but when the whole world thinks it’s a movie about Raman, Vicky comes as Raghav and outperforms Raman. It’s like a once in millennium happening when someone beats Nawaz in performance. May be when the opening credits said, “it’s not a film about him”, it also meant that it’s not a film about just Raman? (Nawaz) who knows? but appears so. That’s what great makers do. They make us ponder upon stuffs. And Vicky Kaushal outperforms Nawaz not by winning him but being more miserable and pathetic. That’s even tougher and such a rarity. No one can be hated more than Nawaz when he’s doing a psycho role but here Vicky makes us hate him more than Nawaz. That last closing of the door shot especially, he absolutely has no remorse. In fact, the whole of last chapter is where he wins over Nawaz bhai. The way he has done drug scenes like a pro and not like a man who’s possessed is an absolute gem. Generally, around the world, these druggists terribly overdo stuff. Mostly its seen as a romantic depression but here it felt real.  

It’s amazing that this 2.0 version is not really was his initial script. He wanted to make a period film but since he would not be able to get financing (thanks to the ‘Bombay Velvet’ debacle, which was too classy for anyone to understand), he chose to rewrite script as such. It makes me wonder how can an altered version be this good. Or may be its good that he altered it. I can’t really tell. The period film could have been equally amazing too.

There are a number of chapters in the film, analyzing it one by one would take an essay and its not a film to be reviewed after a single watch like I generally do. So overall there were certain amazing things that I’d like to point out. First is the opening scene as I said above. The part where Ramanna (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) surrenders himself for the killings was an amazing idea. It looked like the Ludlum’s version of Bourne’s idea where he’d have mentioned that when you see your enemy do the least expected thing. A person would sit next to his enemy and say ‘hi’. I loved that idea. That’s the best way to get one off the hook. Ramanna does a similar thing here. Only in the next chapter we get to explore him fully. The ‘sister’ chapter is a great material to write and gave me some great ideas, maybe I’ll write a short/story with that idea. That’s where Nawaz bhai unleashes himself. Seriously, none could bring out a psycho’s mentally like Kashyap does. After that it’s a cat and mouse game. After a performance like in the ‘sister’ chapter, if an actor could beat what Nawaz did, just imagine his acting prowess. Vicky Kaushal exactly does that in the last chapter. Seriously, what an actor he is. Now I’m realizing why he has been hailed so much.

Throughout the film I had an uneasy feeling like when I was watching ‘Ugly’. All his films make us feel uneasy. But the uneasiness of ‘Raman Raghav 2.0’ was more in sync with ‘Ugly’. The film got me upset and got me dizzy for the night because the effect creeps slowly like how drug is infused. Seriously, Kashyap, what a man he is!

Movie Review – Fukrey

A witty tale of harmless youngsters

‘Fukrey’ has been in my list for quite some time. But I kept on postponing because it didn’t look like a serious film to invest time or in other words it didn’t look like a film which took itself seriously. But recently due to the readdiction of “Ambarsariya” I got some respect for the both the song and movie. Its such a tough song with difficult chords which was sung superbly by Sona Mohapatra. Thanks to the innumerous amount of times I viewed the song which had a sweet little story arc to it, I felt like watching the movie.

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I didn’t have much expectations out of the movie. All I expected was a time pass flick. The movie too started without much hope, with a couple of school kids breaking the school wall so as to make a mark. Vikas “Hunny” Gulati (Pulkit Samrat) and Dilip “Choocha” Singh (Varun Sharma) are seniors in their own class who dream about going to college. If ‘American Pie’ was about a guy’s gang trying to lose virginity. ‘Fukrey’ is about a group of boys wanting to enter the college. Seeing the title, I expected a much ‘A’ subject but the kids were mostly harmless.

Choocha poses a special gift where he has some weird dreams. Hunny decodes it and wins lottery every single time and that’s how they have their pocket money. Thankfully we don’t see much of their family. There couldn’t be much that could be done in that front than the cliched scolding of dad. So that thankfully is avoided. But the sardar, Lali Halwai (Manjot Singh) gets enough from his dad. There is a side track of a guitarist who wants to make it big, Zafar Bhai (Ali Fazal). That felt like a totally needless track. It neither could take the serious tone nor could mingle with the other guys. So, it doesn’t fit the template at all.

Anyways they all want to hit it big so that they could get their college admission. That’s when we get introduced to Bholi Punjaban (Richa Chadda). The character of Punjaban was loosely based on alleged pimp, Sonu Punjaban. Generally, the characters who get introduced around the interval block would either be double action of heroes or a big star or someone totally needless but her Richa Chadda does a fabulous job and her character is written superbly. As a pimp who’s hated by everyone in neighborhood, when she gets arrested, the way she looks at ministers PA and police officer with a smirk was some writing. It’s a sad end which any hero would dream of. Something like Rajni losing all the money in ‘Sivaji’. These are the things which make ‘Fukrey’ stand out. Not only Bholi but also the college guard, Pandit (Pankaj Tripathi) and the constant stealer (Ashraf Ul Haq). Those were ingenuine characters who create an impact.

All three of the kids do a fabulous job, even though Pulkit Samrat stands out. He’s a pleasure to watch. Plus, Priya Anand for once gets to play her young as a young and bubbly girl. Unfortunately, she always gets mature role and acts opposite to older heroes. Here it was nice to see her in a charming role, even though it was a small one. The film culminates superbly to a fun end with some heart. Like I mentioned about Bholi’s track.