Nishaanchi review: Bold, Bustling, Brilliant!

Nishaanchi review: Bold, Bustling, Brilliant!

‘Nishaanchi’ is quintessential Anurag Kashyap - that imbibes his love for vintage Bollywood, the raw, and the rustic. In essence, like the name of one of its key characters – Its Jabardast.

As I start penning down my thoughts on ‘Nishaanchi’, the numerous montages of Anurag Kashyap’s filmography flash before my eyes. And I recollect my short article on the auteur on the occasion of his birthday on 10th September. ‘Nishaanchi’, which means Shooter or Sniper, is a shot at the filmmakers love for vintage Bollywood, the raw and rustic, soaked with a plethora of pop-culture references. It can also be interpreted as a birthday gift to himself!

In ‘Nishaanchi’, he creates a character out of Kanpur Dehat like what he did to the Mumbai (Bombay) underbelly in Satya as part of his tantalizing screenplay. Set in 2006, it chronicles the tumultuous journey of twin brothers – a strong Babloo and a meek Dabloo (both played by Aaishvary Thackeray) – caught in the whirlwind of crime and conscience, where love, loss and destiny test the strength of their bond in the bad lands of Kanpur.

Ticking off with a bank robbery that goes awry (Durgesh Kumar of Panchayat fame seen here as a security guard), ‘Nishaanchi’ straddles past and present, delving into the back stories (Aarti Bajaj’s prudent editing is evident), establishing the context of the revenge saga – one of the two brothers sucked in the world of crime at an early age, joining the devious Ambika Prasad’s (a brilliant Kumud Mishra) despite his mother’s objection (Manju, played by Monika Panwar), unaware of their history.

The premise is basic but the characters are so charmingly complex and lusciously layered in a milieu and dialect that is conjured by an astute understanding of the filmmaker and feels unmistakably lived-in. That’s where he scores over his peers who had started out with him but their approach feels so dated today. On the contrary, Kashyap and his sensibilities are aging like old wine. For a tedium that sinks in for the film’s length, ‘Nishaanchi’ exhausts you with sub plots, but never derails.

The plot resonates with Gangs of Wasseypur in its flavour and format, and also echoes with ‘Kaminey’, ‘Double’. His territory celebrates revenge and rustic flamboyance equally and he does it quite intricately with blending Hindi cinema with the numerous tracks – A Kushti felicitation gets deliciously quirky with the earthen lyrics where plenty of Bollywood movie titles are imbibed. Dialogues in the film are a riot (Don’t miss how Manju translates the Disc Shooter game in Hindi!), and so are its tracks that bring a moody quality to the multiple emotions cocooned in its narrative.

Kashyap extracts terrific performances from the cast ensemble – Aaishvary is phenomenally talented and in his debut, he approaches both his characters, so starkly diverse, with a remarkable finesse. Kumud Mishra brings in a quiet menace to his part, exhibiting the deft nature of his craft, but the underrated Girish Sharma, who plays his younger part, infuses a slimy quality to Ambika. Vineet Singh is brilliant in cameo, and Mohd Zeeshan Ayub is effective.