When Raman Raghav was recommended to me and I said I'd watch it , my heart sank a little as my experience of Indian films are not good , Bollywood ones especially but thankfully this couldn't be further from a Bollywood movie if it tried .
Set in present day Mumbai the story follows the life of a serial killer Ramanna who is inspired by an infamous serial killer from the 1960s Raman Raghav. His strange obsession with Raghavan, a young Cop keeps growing as he closely follows him without his knowledge and often creates situations where both of them come face to face.
It's amazing how a film , with a low budget , set in extremely poor surroundings and in only twenty days , can look and sound so stylish .
Director Anurag Kashyap has somehow made a silk purse out of a sows ear and deserves a massive amount of credit.
This film is soooo stylish . From the great soundtrack to the delicious on screen graphics but at the same time the story and characters on show are just filth.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui is the star of the show . His performance as Raman is amazing and
as screen serial killers go , this is right up there . Apparently he was hospitalised three times during the shoot because of the conditions he was working in but the end product was worth it.
The scenes in the flat with his sister , nephew and Brother in Law were as scarily brilliant as you can get .
I wasn't quite as enamoured with the story of the cop. His, and his men's incompetence seemed a little over the top at times and considering Raman was happy to be caught , the never seemed to be particularly bothered.
I absolutely loved most of this film . The last quarter was the weakest part and you couldn't help but think it probably had a couple of chapters too many but that's not going to stop me seeking out Anurag Kashyap's other films and if they are anything like as good as this I'm in for a treat .
