Raman Raghav 2.0

Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal

Director: Anurag Kashyap

Producer/s: Madhu Mantena, Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane

Plot: Set in present day Mumbai the story follows the life of a serial killer Ramanna who is inspired by an infamous serial killer from the 1960’s Raman Raghav. His strange obsession with Raghavan, a young cop keeps growing as he closely follows him without his knowledge and often creates situations where both of them come face to face.

Rating: 3/5 Stars (Three stars)

Star Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, Vipin Sharma, Amruta Subhash, Sobhita Dhulipala, Ashok Lokhande

Director: Anurag Kashyap

What’s Good: Nawazuddin’s resounding performance and the director’s obsessive exploration of the mind of a serial killer.

What’s Bad: The film lacks a cohesive storyline to keep you engaged throughout the duration.

Loo Break: Only if it’s urgent!

Watch or Not?: Nawazuddin brilliantly embodies Anurag’s vision of a modern day Raman Raghav. Watch it for his casual and terrifyingly believable performance.

User Rating:

Raman Raghav 2.0 is actually a film idea extracted from a potential biopic set in the 1960s that the makers found impossible to make after the massive debacle that was Bombay Velvet. Anurag Kashyap and his writers decided to turn it into a script with a modern day setting, and thus came the idea of Raman (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) and Raghav (Vicky Kaushal) being two different people. While one is a drifting serial killer with blood as cold as the arctic, the other is a cop who is trying to solve his daddy issues by dousing himself with drugs and women. The Raghav narrative really looks like it’s going somewhere, but ends up being a bummer in the end.

Raman’s serial killing ways continue throughout the film, but his real purpose comes into the picture pretty late, and this more than anything, weakens the narrative. His obsession with murder slowly reveals itself as an obsession with Raghav. While a very compelling plot point, it fails to build the suspense as well as the director would have hoped to.

Raman Raghav 2.0 Review: Script Analysis

Raman Raghav 2.0 has delved beautifully into the intellect of a serial killer. Raman’s fascinating descriptions of his delusions, his deranged thinking and his extra-casual approach towards murder are wonderful to witness. His fascination with the real Raman Raghav has been nicely embedded into the script, with subtle allusions to real life incidents that had transpired in the life of the notorious serial killer from Bombay; be it the sexual assault of his own sister (Amruta Subhash), his initial release by the police or his love for chicken curry.

However, the script is bogged down by the lack of a well-bound story. You don’t know what to look forward to. The murders aren’t leading up to something most of the time. The scenes, although incredibly detailed and interesting, do not converge into a satisfying narrative.

Raman Raghav 2.0 Review: Star Performance

Nawazuddin Siddiqui yet again leaves our jaws hanging with his unbelievable performance. He just somehow steers all the attention towards himself in whichever scene he is in. He is the best choice for this role, and has done utmost justice to it.

Vicky Kaushal is good as a cocaine-addicted cop, but I did have trouble believing that an ACP from the Mumbai Police visits night clubs and dances with women before taking them home in his swanky SUV. His performance is true to his part, but the fact that the character is hard to believe sort of takes away his flair. His bouts of anger and regret in the second half are really worth appreciating.

Sobhita Dhulipala as Raghav’s estranged girlfriend impresses by embodying a complicated character, while Amruta Subhash does justice to her role of Raman’s sister.