Nishaanchi

Marking a buoyant return for Anurag Kashyap to the gangster drama genre, Nishaanchi serves up a campy broth with a generous sprinkling of retro Bollywood ingredients that dissolve into each other in unpredictable ways. Written by Kashyap with Rajan Chandel and Prasoon Mishra, Nishaanchi brims with raw action, earthy humour and gnarled emotions that frequently unleash full-blown violence. Notwithstanding its ups and downs, the film retains its crackle all the way through. Set in Kanpur in the years leading up to and beyond the turn of the millennium, the gritty film homes in on a family sucked into the world of crime by rage and retribution. The family of four suffers the repercussions of impulsive acts, including a life-altering tragedy, but is held together by a woman who is no Nirupa Roy. She is the antithesis of the silent, long-suffering mother of Hindi cinema’s chequered past.

Anurag Kashyap is back in the zone. The one which belongs to the nexus between small-town hoods, local netas-and-pehelwans, crooked cops, with men taking aim and putting one, not just right between the eye, but betwixt certain nether regions which have colourful descriptions in Purabiya.