Star Cast: Aaishvary Thackeray, Vedika Pinto, Monika Panwar
Director: Anurag Kashyap
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What’s Good: The starcast trying to shoulder a weak story!
What’s Bad: The length
Loo Break: Anytime you want
Watch or Not?: Anurag Kashyap fans – Yes!
Language: Hindi
Available On: Prime Video
Runtime: 2 hour 26 minutes
User Rating:
So when Anurag Kashyap dropped the first trailer of Nishaanchi, I was excited. Honestly, I had no doubt that it would be a great cinematic experience. I was excited till the point I entered the theater to watch that film. What followed next was almost 3 hours of disappointment, watching a good film fail, because of reasons best known to him! Any which way, the major takeaway or disappointment for that film was its climax, which ended on a cliffhanger and a promise to bring the sequel!
However, the sequel never arrived in the theaters. It arrived silently on Prime Video, and honestly, this is the most unnecessary sequel I have watched in recent times. So unnecessary, that I would really question why it was made! If you watch the first film, you will agree with me! And my only question after watching 15 – 20 minutes of this sequel was – Kya hai ye aur kyun hai ye!
I mean, what was the unaddressed narrative thread from the first film that necessitated another two hours of existential angst and slow-burn violence? The answer, painfully, is nothing, except for the unnecessary cliffhanger that needed to be resolved. But that cliffhanger was itself not needed in the first place!
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The real story of Nishaanchi is the tale of twin brothers, Babloo and Dabloo, both played by debutant Aaishvary Thackeray, navigating the streets of Kanpur. Babloo is the aggressive, swaggering criminal, while Dabloo is the timid, righteous brother. A lot of violence and crime, floating in the family after their father also turned a criminal and surrendered, takes the center stage of the film where politics and crime go hand-in-hand.
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Nishaanschi 2 starts 10 years later, when Babloo Nishaanchi, who renamed himself as Tony, in the last film itself, has ended his jail term. In the meantime, the love of his life, Rinku, is now in love with Babloo’s twin brother Dabloo! All of them have moved on in life and settled in Lucknow until the wrong brother arrives to disrupt this balance!
Aaishvary Thackeray needs to be celebrated as an actor for his twin role as Babloo and Dabloo. His control over the starkly contrasting personalities of Babloo, the sharp gangster, and Dabloo, the heartbroken one, is genuinely impressive. He anchors both films, particularly Part 2, carrying the emotional weight of a man seeking redemption and ably distinguishing between the twin brothers. You never realize that both of them are the same actor! And it is definitely a win for him.
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The heart and soul of this film is undoubtedly Monika Panwar as the mother. She is phenomenal, as the strong woman who carries the entire family and its tragedy, but refuses to surrender to the circumstances.
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Every seasoned actor, including Kumud Mishra and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, brings their best effort, trying to shoulder a flawed film that falls short in its narrative. Vedika Pinto’s arc should have been the strongest in this sequel but I miss her fire!
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The major drawback with Nishaanchi is its style, which is too close to Wasseypur. No doubt the film has enough moments to come out of Wasseupur’s shadow, but it doesn’t. Most of the film seems to be borrowed from Wasseypur’s grammar, and this is where the problem begins and never ends. The film is crammed with so many familiar gangster tropes, revenge motifs, and family betrayals that it feels like a thinly disguised remix of Kashyap’s Wasseypur Universe.
The second problem with Nishaanchi 2 is its pacing – it indulges you but in pauses. While the film attempts to deepen the emotional knots between the brothers, it takes too long to reach its destination, and the final climax involving Manjari’s long-suffering revenge feels very underwhelming after such a prolonged build-up.
Coming to the music, while it looks interesting as an album, it never helps the film elevate.
The runtime of Nishaanchi backfires the most. The two films could literally have been one tight script, and the audience might have enjoyed this gangster drama. But after investing more than 5 hours in two films, what they get is an uneven plot that doesn’t fully justify my massive investment of time in this film!
The film rides on Wasseypur syndrome but fails to pick up anything significant, and turns into Wasseypur lite! Too many scenes linger unnecessarily and slow down the overall momentum of the film, which is mostly crawling.
Nishaanchi 2 completes the story, giving viewers the full, chaotic arc of the twin brothers. While it delivers striking performances, its greatest enemy is its own length and its persistent inability to step out of the shadow of Anurag Kashyap‘s past.
2 stars.
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