‘Nishaanchi’ (2025) Movie Review - Not Anurag Kashyap's Best, But Still Worth Watching

Anurag Kashyap is a fascinating filmmaker. Yes, he's gifted, but the source of attraction in his movies is not merely his filmmaking skills, but a feeling of madness. To say Kashyap is insane would not be an insult. Rather, it would be a big compliment. If the movie industry is a tide flowing downward, then Kashyap is the fish who dares to swim against it, continuously upward. There was a time when he used to resist the flow of the current with such furiousness that he gave birth to a new path, a new genre (the Anurag Kashyap genre). His rebellious streak yielded such gems as Paanch, Black Friday, No Smoking, Dev.D (it's still the best Kashyap movie), and Gulaal. Of course, when this fish tried to go with the flow, he made baffling projects like That Girl in Yellow Boots (an arthouse movie for people who think of "art house cinema" in conventional terms, i.e., as thin, pretentious, boring) and Bombay Velvet (an Anurag Kashyap big-budget extravaganza without Anurag Kashyap's magic). But every director experiences their share of critical and commercial failures. What matters is whether the director manages to rise from the ashes. Kashyap has not only risen from the ashes; he has also reinvented himself. After hitting stumbling blocks, he has been reborn with greater creative fervor (That Girl in Yellow Boots was followed by the staggering Gangs of Wasseypur, and after Bombay Velvet came the chilling Raman Raghav 2.0).
 

But now, we all know that Kashyap's early rebellious streak also came with a lot of personal mental health issues (blame everything and everyone from government authorities to the censor board). He was in a very dark place, and from that shadow came equally dark creations. Kashyap, though, claims to be fine now. He has admitted to being calm and at peace in interviews. That contentment, that serenity, can be found in Nishaanchi. The Kashyap who once explored the bleak depths of his characters' psyches to expose corruption and sin now treats them as toys for his entertainingly twisted games in this new film. Nishaanchi is all surface — its pleasures are sufficiently amusing, but also mild. It's a little more memorable than Choked and Dobaaraa, and it's not as delicious and explosive as Gangs of Wasseypur (whose ambitions it tries to mimic). Kashyap, in fact, is so relaxed and free from the baggage of proving anything or making a point that he deals with kitsch. Babloo and Dabloo (Aaishvary Thackeray in a dual role) are twin brothers who look alike but have different personalities. Babloo falls for Vedika Pinto's Rangeeli Rinku (Kashyap probably took this name from Sunil Grover's character in The Kapil Sharma Show), the daughter of the man he killed. After a failed bank robbery, when Babloo is caught and thrown in prison, Dabloo and Rinku grow close to each other. Manjari (Monika Panwar), meanwhile, fills the movie with mother sentiment. Given that this is an Anurag Kashyap film, the motherly sentiment is less melodramatic and weepy, and more angry and strict. There are also slimy villains, crooked cops, and a nepotism-loving wrestling academy.

The story, overall, is as unoriginal as they come, but Kashyap doesn't dismiss unoriginality casually. He finds ways to infuse vigor into the screen through his glossy aesthetic. Kashyap might be one of the few filmmakers who knows where to place the camera in a scene for maximum intensity. When a character is attacked in prison, the camera — hovering just behind his back — shakes, spins, and crashes to the ground with him. The result is a violent sequence that is both palpable and energetic. Even Rinku's stage performance is filmed with such intuitive precision that when the camera observes her from behind, keeping the titillated crowd in the background and slightly out of focus, the screen crackles with electricity. Speaking of Rinku, Pinto's performance carries a chaste sensuality. She glows with such pure radiance, such childlike innocence, that her sexuality feels like both a gift and a surprise. She has one of those faces that can shift from guileless to suggestive with just a smile (there's a stunning "mood shot" where she turns her finger into a gun and fires into the distance while sitting on a bike). No wonder Babloo notices her picture and falls in love with her instantly. It's almost impossible to believe that this is Thackeray's debut film. Sure, he falls back on clichés to separate Babloo's daredevilry from Dabloo's decency. However, he's almost terrific in the scene where he tells Ambika Prasad (Kumud Mishra) he will kill anyone who comes between Rinku and him.
 

Still, Kashyap's best work in terms of casting might be his decision to use Panwar as the mother of two kids. I never saw, never dreamed of seeing this actor in a role like this. And yet, she looks incredibly appropriate, as if she were born to play Manjari. Panwar displays familiar motherly instincts — soft and severe, cold and compassionate, kind and strict. She's the kind of mother you find in real life. In an '80s film, Manjari might have been a weepy, helpless victim. But in Kashyap's zany and crude world, she shoots, she swears, and she stands tall with a spine of steel. She has to be strong — otherwise, she'll be swallowed by lecherous men who see women as pieces of meat. One of them is Ambika, who behaves so sleazily that he ended up giving me the creeps (Girish Sharma plays the role of a young Ambika; he and Mishra grasp their character so accurately that we recognize Ambika in the past timeline just through his manners and speech).
 

Kashyap is not the kind of director or person who likes to please. He openly criticizes what's wrong and supports what's right. At his best, he discards conventions and audiences' expectations to focus on the work (or the version of his work) he would like to see on the screen. His fans expect a certain kind of film from him, but Kashyap is no Kevin Feige. In Nishaanchi, Kashyap further alienates his fan base by pulling the rug from beneath their feet. He opens the movie with shots of eccentricity: a man points a gun at his target while reading a warning from a piece of paper; another tricks a watchman and steals his rifle to carry out a robbery. Just when you think Kashyap is going to be quirky, he flips the switch. What follows is a tonal change so drastic it bruises your skin. When Ambika terrorizes Rinku and orders Dabloo to make tea, we suddenly leave the quirky world and enter a menacing territory. The effect is extremely jarring and disorienting, and you don't regain your balance before the interval point. This means the second timeframe (1996), too, feels baffling. On one hand, you have a character named Zabardast Pehelwaan (Vineet Kumar Singh) who not only lives up to his name, but also makes you wonder whether you're supposed to be laughing (I mean, just look at his name!). On the other hand, the scenes are so sober, so grim, that you're not really sure how to react to anything.

When Zabardast is stabbed in the chest and a loud, emotional music starts playing, a part of you thinks this is supposed to be a spoof, while another part sees how serious the scene is and remains quiet. The wrestling organization is run by a very patriotic Bhola Pehalwan (Rajesh Kumar), whose "patriotism" is meant to be a critique, which is something you can also say about that exchange between two sportsmen who discuss the futility of medals and talent in a system that supports its "own people," that favors ego massage over brilliance. The early Kashyap would have dispensed the message with more grit, more bite. Here, the criticism feels so toothless and light that it simply evaporates before your eyes (happy Kashyap should probably stay away from weighty topics). And although Nishaanchi finds its footing post-interval, it eventually comes across as one of those movies the director enjoys making, and cinephiles appreciate more in retrospect during post-viewing discussions or analysis. Kashyap has certainly given this material an interesting twist (I liked Rinku's response to Babloo's "you are a beautiful girl, you shouldn't be alone" line). He also, with the help of editor Aarti Bajaj and cinematographer Sylvester Fonseca, infuses the movie with unconventional rhythms and spectacular beauty — both of which jolt the film to life. Nishaanchi follows unusual patterns, and it doesn't affect the audience in the same way as a routine movie. Nonetheless, this is not really Kashyap's best outing. It's, however, quite interesting. If it's not clear, let me state it plainly: "I am really looking forward to Part 2 of Nishaanchi."

Final Score- [6/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times