Jul 15, 2016 03:47 PM
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The director Anurag Kashyap and the actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui are leading figures in India’s burgeoning independent film scene. This boisterous, bloodthirsty serial killer flick follows in the vein of their previous collaborations – notably the gang epic Gangs of Wasseypur – Indian-set genre pictures that provide a young local audience with a hip alternative to the more mainstream offerings of the Bollywood industry. Raman Raghav(Psycho Raman) was a real-life serial killer in the 1960s; however, this picture is about a copycat killer Ramanna(Siddiqui), and Raghavan(Vicky Kaushal), the Bad Lieutenant-style Mumbai cop who hunts him.
The theme of the killer cop has often been treated in Indian films, recently for example in Vetri Maaran’s tense socio-political thriller Interrogation. Here police execution is viewed through the distorting, larger-than-life lens of crime as filmed entertainment. Pumping up the adrenaline, Kashyap uses bright lights and a pulsating pace to deliver the excitement.
However, thanks to Siddiqui’s feral menace – his eyes are lightened so they have a tawny predator’s glint; his smile is a cruel grimace – this is a chillingly effective watch.
