Raman Raghav 2.0 (2016)

Raman Raghav 2.0 is special because it refuses the comfort of a “good guys vs. bad guys” thriller and instead drags you into a feverish Mumbai night where obsession and corruption feel like two sides of the same coin. Anurag Kashyap directs with a grimy, propulsive confidence, building suspense less through gimmicks than through mood—streetlight shadows, sudden silences, and the sense that danger is always just off-frame. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is chillingly watchable as Raman, turning menace into a kind of warped charisma, while Vicky Kaushal matches him with a raw, unraveling intensity that keeps the cat-and-mouse game crackling. It’s ruthless, violent, and emotionally abrasive—so it’s not for everyone—but if you can handle a hard-edged crime thriller that’s more hypnotic than heroic, it’s the kind of film that grabs you by the collar and doesn’t let go.

Raman Raghav 2.0 is clearly aiming for a grimy, nerve-jangling cat-and-mouse thriller where the real horror is how thin the line is between cop and killer. Anurag Kashyap brings raw atmosphere and Nawazuddin Siddiqui is unsettlingly magnetic, but the film often feels more interested in shock, ugliness, and moral rot than in saying anything fresh about them. The violence is harsh and intimate, and the treatment of women can feel shallow at best and actively exploitative at worst, which may leave you feeling like the movie is daring you to watch rather than rewarding you for it. If you want a smart, character-rich serial-killer story or anything remotely cathartic, this may just feel like a stylish slog; if you can handle bleakness and are here for pure discomfort and performances, it delivers that.