Nishaanchi

What do we want from an Anurag Kashyap film in 2025? The shadow of the term “comeback film” looms large over Nishaanchi, the filmmaker’s first theatrical release since 2022’s bewildering Almost Pyaar With DJ Mohabbat. You step into the pulpy, promising world of Nishaanchi with one main question: Is Kashyap back? It’s a question that’s actually two: is this a good film—and is this the kind of film we want from Anurag Kashyap?

A pair of identical twins with clashing personalities, a perplexed mother, an absent father, a lover who’s a dancer, and a snake-like villain. No, this isn’t the setup for a ’70s masala potboiler. It is Anurag Kashyap’s latest directorial, Nishaanchi. And why not? If anyone outside of Farah Khan can claim to be a true disciple of the Salim–Javed brand of Bollywood masala, it’s Kashyap. The difference is that Kashyap didn’t grow up in town-side Bombay. His films, including this one, carry the flavors of the heartland while staying rooted in Bollywood idioms. Despite kitsch not being his forte, Nishaanchi is his most formulaic film since Mukkabaaz. The question is whether his 2-hour 56-minute gamble pays off.

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.