Following plaudit and standing ovation while premiering at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, gritty, Indian noir thriller, Raman Raghav 2.0, releases in cinemas worldwide on 24th June 2016, presented by Reliance Entertainment.
Embodying new age Indian cinema beyond Bollywood for an international audience, Raman Raghav 2.0 is helmed by celebrated auteur, Anurag Kashyap (Gangs of Wasseypur Parts 1 & 2, Dev D, That Girl In Yellow Boots), one of India’s most acclaimed crossover filmmakers with a cult, global following. Golden boy of contemporary Indian cinema, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, conveys the role of serial killer Ramanna with unnerving menace, while rising star, Vicky Kaushal, essays his nemesis, coke-addled police officer Raghavan. The narrative unfolds against the darker underbelly of Mumbai, providing the setting for a serial killer’s cold-blooded crimes to germinate.
Setting the tone of the film is the real life back-story of a notorious serial killer that plagued Bombay in the 1960’s. The city was a contradiction of glamorous nightclubs and jazz bars juxtaposed with suburbs of ramshackle shanties and huts, largely inhabited by migrant workers. It was against this squalid backdrop that a terrifying wave of murders took place in 1968. The work of a serial killer, almost all the victims were miserably poor men, women and children bludgeoned to death by a hard, blunt object with no discernible motive.
IPS officer Ramakant Sheshagirirao Kulkarni had just taken over as the DCP, CID, (Crime) in Bombay when he was handed the case. Frenzied paranoia had gripped the suburbs as vigilante groups kept watch at night, sometimes battering homeless beggars on mere suspicion. Two thousand cops took to the by-lanes and alleyways on patrol duty. When Kulkarni eventually found the killer, he turned out to be a nondescript-looking man aimlessly wandering the streets. He was spotted perchance by a sub-inspector who noticed that his shirt and shorts were stained with blood. The police interrogation and, later, his confession painted a disturbing picture of an unbalanced loner. His name was Raman Raghav. Set in contemporary Mumbai, Raman Raghav 2.0 recounts the horrific incident through the psyche of a modern-day serial killer obsessed with the crimes of Raman Raghav.
Synopsis:
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 police officer, keeps growing as he closely follows him without his knowledge and often creates situations where both of them come face to face.
Anurag Kashyap’s noir thriller, Raman Raghav 2.0, releases in cinemas on 24th June 2016, presented by Reliance Entertainment
