16th Annual NEW YORK INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL May 7 - 14, 2016
REVIEWS
india Nawazuddin Siddiqui Strikes Fear Into Our Hearts With ‘Raman Raghav 2.0′
Directed by Anurag Kashyap, this movie is roughly based on the Mumbai serial killer, Raman Raghav, who targeted mostly homeless people.
Nawazzudin Siddiqui never fails to impress his audiences. In his upcoming movie, “Raman Raghav 2.0,” this streak will most definitely continue.
Directed by Anurag Kashyap, this movie is roughly based on the Mumbai serial killer, Raman Raghav, who targeted mostly homeless people who slept on the roads. In the movie, Siddiqui will play Ramanna, a deeply disturbed and psychotic man who actually is inspired by the original killer and continues in his footsteps.
The trailer, which released on May 10, is petrifying, thanks to the subtlety yet obviousness of Ramanna’s madness. Ramanna is ruthless when it comes to picking his victims—from adults to kids to even dogs, no one is safe when he wields his weapon, a long pipe, after dragging it on the road beside him. The screechy sound of it is a warning that the person on the other side should run for their life, literally. The scene in which he gives the name ‘pocket’ to his victim—a little boy—because he can easily be picked off is particularly chilling.
Vicky Kaushal plays Raghavan, a police office who wants to catch this killer. However, Ramanna seems to be playing a cat-and-mouse game with him by following him around and even stalking his girlfriend. He refers to himself as “God’s very own CCTV camera.” If that’s not a true psychopath, I don’t know who is. Luckily, Siddiqui—who is clearly dominating each scene—sells his character’s craziness, especially in the last scene of the trailer which shows us a split side to his personality.
The real-life Raghav Raman, the mid-‘60s serial killer from Mumbai, bludgeoned his victims to death as they slept. He spent five years in prison for robbery, but he had also raped and killed his own sister. Unfortunately, due to lack of evidence, the police had to let him go. When he was finally caught after a massive manhunt, he confessed to killing 23 people, although it is suspected that the number is actually much higher—and that Raghav’s detachment to his victims caused him to forget how many people he killed.
Siddiqui is fantastic and delivers his dialogues and emotions with brilliance. Clearly, playing a character based on this man is draining in every sense of the word. Siddiqui said he started fearing himself as he prepared for the role and it was an intense role for him to play—no surprises there. If the trailer is this trippy, horrifying, and intense, we expect the movie to give us more of it—times ten.
