Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Nishaanchi’ sees the filmmaker having a lot of fun in a genre that might be called reality-kitsch

The story is built on staples of old-time Hindi cinema, from twins to a widowed mother to revenge for a murdered father. But instead of the traditional series of emotional highs, we get a leisurely paced film filled with a sense of how these events may unfold in the real world. The mix of grit and tongue-in-cheek humour is joyous and infectious. A longer review follows, and it may contain spoilers.

To get a sense of Anurag Kashyap’s new movie (or new half-movie, given that this is Part 1), I’ll describe the opening scene in some detail. The scene is about a bank robbery. What would you expect? Nail-biting tension? A pulse-pounding score? Fast cutting? In short, a jangly sense of the audience’s nerves being shredded? But here’s how Anurag sees it. It begins with a leisurely chat between a bank officer and the man who makes great poori-chana, and a cameo by Lijo Jose Pellissery. It moves on to a very comic stretch where a man in a mask reads out a set of threatening instructions. It moves on to the sight of a couple in a car, where the man gets out to have a leisurely conversation with a security guard, where he talks about Rajinikanth and Geraftaar. And then, the cops move in. Someone is arrested and taken to the police station, where we get a leisurely conversation about a dream. Everything happens in a flavourful, roundabout way, reminiscent of reading a juicy (and yes, leisurely) book on a long train journey.

You can read the rest of the review here:

https://www.galattaplus.com/anurag-kashyaps-nishaanchi-sees-the-filmmaker-having-a-lot-of-fun-in-a-genre-that-might-be-called-reality-kitsch/

You can watch the trailer / video review here:

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