20260524-20160624-0-52887915
Critic's Rating: 4.0
Story: Raman (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) reveres Raman Raghav, a pyschopath killer who terrorised the Mumbai in the 1960s. He is looking for Raghav; his other half. Raman finds his 'soulmate' in ACP Raghav, the cop investigating the murders committed by him.

Review: Director Anurag Kashyap treads familiar ground with Raman Raghav 2.0. It is overwhelmingly dark with deep macabre undertones. Kashyap gets the moral pendulum oscillating between his prime characters - one a cold-blooded murder and another who has all the makings of becoming one. He subtly draws parallels between the personalities of his men who stand on opposite sides of the spectrum. Raman beautifully puts it in one of the film's early scenes that after all, he and Raghav are the same people but the police uniform validates or criminalises their actions.

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Anurag sets his story in a drab corner of the city’s slums. That's where Raman finds most of his victims - a hapless housemaid, an uncle who abused him as a kid, his own sister. The references to the original serial killer's life is overwhelming. There is a scene in which Raman tightens the screw of his weapon as he cooks chicken curry and tells his sister's husband how he would rape her.

The film has its quirks laced with the unmissable dark humour but the writing lacks depth. The characters are uni-dimensional but Kashyap keeps the narrative lucid. Raghav, a coke snorting, careless cop is blamed by his girlfriend for the three abortions she undergoes. He has his cruel daddy issues to blame for his own warped behaviour.

Nawaz wears his nonchalance in style and gives a pitch perfect performance. Vicky Kaushal is sincere and does his best to match Nawaz. Shobhita Dhulipala (Miss Earth India 2013) shows promise in her limited screen space.

Though you can fault Raman Raghav 2.0 for its gore but Kashyap redeems with a simple logic - Ramasys, 'killing for insanity is better than killing in the name of religion?' The film is a difficult watch. It makes you queasy. It is crude, callous and keeps you in suspense all through.
Summary / Analysis

Spoiler alert! Please do not read the following plot summary if you have not seen the film.
PLOT SUMMARY

Raman Raghav was a deadly criminal in the 60s. He terrorized the city with his brutal killings. In 2015, Mumbai finds a similar psychopath in Ramanna. The tabloids label him as stoneman. The first few murders he commits is with a stone. On the night of his first murder, a cocaine addict comes looking for his supply. Just a few days later, Ramanna surrenders to the police. The man who interrogates him is the same cocaine addict. The cops don't buy his story and hence they lock him up, beat him and don't give him food. A bunch of boys find Ramanna a few days later and free him. The man loses his cool. He finds his next prey in his own sister. She lives in a lower middle class household with her husband and son. In the pretext of being hungry, she enters her home. When her husband angers her, he leaves home in a fit of rage. He returns as Ramanna the killer and attacks the family, killing them all. When Raghavan comes to investigate, he and his team finds an old picture of Ramanna and his sister and try to trace a link. Meanwhile Raghavan is in an open relationship with a woman named Simy. She undergoes three abortions for him, just because he cannot commit to her. Their relationship is dark and abusive and Raghavan is simply destructive. As Raghavan looks for clues in the murder, he finds himself Completely consumed by cocaine. Meanwhile, Ramanna is looking for his soul mate, his other half and finds him in Raghavan. He keeps a close check on Simy and ends up murdering her maid as well. Simy is shocked at Raghavan's callousness. After a night of over cocaine, he hooks up with a girl at Simy's place. Simy reacts and Raghavan kills him in a fit of rage. Ramanna surrenders to Raghavan and tells him how they are the two sides of the same coin. The film ends with Raghavan going after the girl who he hooked up with and is the only witness to Simy's murder.
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Trivia & Goofs

TRIVIA

1. Nawazuddin Siddiqui has said that playing Raman Raghav was mentally draining. According to him, once during shoot, he got unwell and was taken to a hospital. He was told later that even while he was almost half-unconscious in the hospital, he was repeating his dialogues from the film.

2. The movie is inspired from the real life serial killer Raman Raghav who operated in Mumbai in 1960s but is not exactly a biopic. It's very much contemporary and hence the title 2.0.

3. Nawazuddin Siddiqui was hospitalized thrice during the entire shoot of the movie.

4. The movie premiered at the Directors' Fortnight section at the 69th Cannes Film Festival.

5. The cocaine Vicky Kaushal's character snorts in the movie is actually a special powder made out of Glucon-D and corn starch. Vicky Kaushal practiced inhaling this powder to give his takes. He even had to consume more than 5-6 packets of cigarette in a day in the process of shooting.

6. Vicky Kaushal had locked himself in a room for five days to prepare for the role.

7. The movie was shot in 20 days because of a shoestring budget. Kashyap wrote smaller scenes to make the film look big. While normal Hindi films have 70 scenes, this has around 220. It helped in making the film look bigger as the locations kept changing.

FAQs
  1. What is the release date of 'Raman Raghav 2.0'?
    Release date of Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Vicky Kaushal starrer 'Raman Raghav 2.0' is 2016-06-24.
  2. Who are the actors in 'Raman Raghav 2.0'?
    'Raman Raghav 2.0' star cast includes Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vicky Kaushal, Vipin Sharma and Mukesh Chhabra.
  3. Who is the director of 'Raman Raghav 2.0'?
    'Raman Raghav 2.0' is directed by Anurag Kashyap.
  4. What is Genre of 'Raman Raghav 2.0'?
    'Raman Raghav 2.0' belongs to 'Drama, Thriller, Crime' genre.
  5. In Which Languages is 'Raman Raghav 2.0' releasing?
    'Raman Raghav 2.0' is releasing in Hindi.