(Nishaanchi)
Film: Nishaanchi
Cast: Kumud Mishra, Monika Panwar, Vineet Kumar Singh, Aaishvary Thackeray, Vedika Pinto
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Producers: Ajay Rai, Ranjan Singh
Music: Manan Bhardwaj, Nishikar Chhibber, Dhruv Ghanekar, Ajay Jayanti, Anurag Saikia, Aaishvary Thackeray
Cinematography: Sylvester Fonseca
Editor: Aarti Bajaj
Sound Design: Kunal Sharma
Sound Mixing: Dharmil Halvadia, Sreejesh
Anurag Kashyap’s latest, Nishaanchi is dark, intense and layered. True to the director’s forte, it’s a revenge drama packed with violent action, occasionally peppered with dark humour. It serves up a dish that has all of Kashyap’s hallmark flavours — violence, betrayal, love, lust and even a raunchy number to boot.
This time the drama shifts from Wasseypur to Kanpur. Set in 2006 and onwards in desi Kanpur, the film opens with a bank robbery, spearheaded by a trio (which is later revealed, as the film progresses, as two brothers and one of their girlfriends). (Nishaanchi)
Also Read: Adolescence: The Anatomy of a Teenage Tragedy
The story revolves around the two brothers and their mother, following their principled wrestler-father Jabardast’s (a fantastic Vineet Kumar Singh) violent death in an act of cold betrayal.
The twin brothers, Babloo and Dabloo, (both Aaishvary Thackeray), are diametrically opposite. Babloo, the elder one, is a reckless gun-toting ‘criminal’, with a razor-sharp aim (Nishaanchi?), who never loses his nerve (and smile) even while serving out a sentence. Dabloo, on the other hand, as a conduit to Babloo in the bank robbery, recites his lines from a paper to the victim as he initiates his kidnap. (Nishaanchi)
The women characters are (as usual with Kashyap’s films) liberating. Both the women — the mother Manjari (a superb Monika Panwar) and the girlfriend Rinku (Vedika Pinto) —- are assertive and give the men a piece of their mind (and matter) as and when necessary. (Nishaanchi)
“The narrative doesn’t follow a linear pattern but falls back on a number of flashbacks. The layers in the narrative are striking. It takes a cue from Kashyap’s soft corner for the society’s underbelly.”
The mother, especially, is the real gem in the story. She particularly grabs attention for her interesting character graph. A state and national-level shooting champion in her youth, Manjari recoils from doing household chores, but left with little choice, does it anyway with a steely magnanimity. We get a real sense of her character, when she helps Babloo in his aim to drop mangoes from trees (Nishaanchi?).
The narrative doesn’t follow a linear pattern but falls back on a number of flashbacks. The layers in the narrative are striking. It takes a cue from Kashyap’s soft corner for the society’s underbelly, Nishaanchi’s characters are simple and benign victims of their circumstances, defined in black and white. They don’t see the greys, but each of their steps is dictated by the greys in their lives which we, the audience, witness them. In this first part of the film, the string of the drama is being deftly held by the absolutely vile and cold-blooded Ambika Prasad (Kumud Mishra), as the clueless characters face the consequences exactly as Ambika intends them to. (Nishaanchi)
“Nishaanchi is an unfinished tale as we see ‘end of part 1’ in the end of the film. However, Kashyap has subtly left a hint as to who the real Nishaanchi is.”
Here, Kashyap leaves a hint that cards will eventually turn in the sequel when truth is finally revealed. Needlessly to say, how each of the characters react to the truth, will make for another intense and entertaining narrative. (Nishaanchi)
The actors are plain marvellous. So is the brilliant staccato cinematography and editing, the latter by Kashyap’s ex-wife. The music ranges from being gritty to soulful. Even the title card holds forth Kashyap’s signature.
Hence, as of now, Nishaanchi is an unfinished tale as we see ‘end of part 1’ in the end of the film. However, Kashyap has subtly left a hint as to who the real Nishaanchi is. How that drama pans out in the sequel is what we are waiting for. (Nishaanchi)
Image Courtesy: the quint, GQ India, letterboxd, Masala.com
