Nishaanchi: Part 1

Anurag Kashyap’s Nishaanchi: Part 1 is a welcome return to form, and the long-awaited spiritual successor to Gangs of Wasseypur that his fans have been waiting for.

We discuss the film’s complex approach to classic themes of revenge, betrayal, and jealousy, while also praising the central performances. Along the way, we commend Kashyap’s inimitable writing and inherent sympathy for the devil.

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Episode Transcript

(00:16):
Hi, I'm Akhara. And I'm Rohan Nahud.
Welcome to the long take. This week, we're discussing the
first part of Nishanti, directedand written by Anurag Kashyap.
It's like a throwback to like the Angel possible or to like
himself in a way. It's also like really long.
This is the first part, as was revealed when the movie came out
on the TV channel that is calledPrime Video.
Now with ads and stuff, I don't know.
What do you have ads as well? I was there.

(00:38):
I do. I refuse to.
I refuse to. Give in yeah, yeah, same.
And a most annoying thing I'm for you like starting with this,
but like this like pro dramatically done right, it's
like injured a sat down. And so it's like the first ad is
like 12 seconds, the second ad is 32nd and then third as like
one minute and the 4th as like 2minutes.
They know you've invested and you're gonna get to the end.
So they will be like, okay, we'll just keep you here now

(00:59):
forever. Yeah, yeah, it's unreal.
Like 2 minute long ads is like criminal.
Yeah, it's like Star Gold. Right.
What happens to happen is to watch movies on TV, which I have
not done in two decades. I wanna say maybe 2000s is the
last time I watched a movie on like ATV channel and now these
are TV channels. I refuse to call them streaming
services anymore because if you show me this, I'm sorry.

(01:20):
This is why we came to streamingto escape TV.
Yeah, but if there was ever a Hindi movie TV channel Star Gold
experience, I suppose it's this one.
Yeah, it is like I literally felt like with the ads and
stuff, I was basically back intothe 2000s again with like the
movies like approach and everything as well.
Yeah. And that's when it's

(01:41):
predominantly set. Yeah, yeah, that's that too.
Like that takes you back. And he's like doing such some
mainstream stuff, like in Faces of Check.
I did not expect of Kashyap, like, you know, like that.
Especially when Bablu first falls for Rinku and he's looking
at her through like a cobweb like gate or whatever window and
like this go into like a song. I'm like, this is what Karan
Johar would do. But I wouldn't say it's any more

(02:04):
mainstream than Gangs of Asipur,for instance.
Like I think the level of the level of heightened kind of
Hindi cinema reality is basically the same.
There are like a lot of like musical interludes.
There isn't like a lip sync song, but nearly there because
we have like a qawwali sequence in which there is like jealousy

(02:28):
unfolding in the background. The the romantics of that you
just. Mentioned and it's like meta
stuff, I think yeah, the romantic stuff and I think is
the only lip sync one where he'slike dreaming about romancing
her. The other stuff, as you
mentioned, yeah, is like all very like interlude and like
playing off on like Bollywood stuff.
Like the first one is a tree called film Dekho, which is like
the film is starting and there'sone song made-up of like yeah,

(02:50):
the opening credits one and there's one made-up of like
other Bollywood movie titles, the entire song with the lyrics.
Another is made-up of like his bubbles, like attempt to learn
English in juvenile jail. Yeah, but like it is also so
many of them. It's almost like it is as close
as you get to like, you know, Hollywood's like imagining of
how Bollywood looks like. Yeah, in K movies my heart team
in. Ghana.

(03:11):
But then there is like subversion of that idea also,
right? Because it's not like like you
said like it's not like a Karan Johar movie like Rocky Raniki,
Prem Kahani or a Bhansali movie is what I would imagine why
people think Bollywood or more recently Rajamouli, right?
Yeah, but. In every other sense, it's very
different, for sure. Yeah, because like I think I

(03:32):
could not stand Bablu after a point like he is completely an
anti hero. Like there is no part of him
which is like a protagonist or like it's not even in the it's
not even like a great thing at the at one point, especially
when he point blank just walks into like wrinkles house and
shows like in that flashback andjust shows the far dead without
even like 1 dialogue set right. It's just like damn walking

(03:52):
done. I'm like I'm sorry, but at this
point like he's the villain. Like this is how villains behave
in movie. Like how you're supposed to like
work with this character. Now the issue is that I've seen
Part 2 right? So in my head I cannot tell what
is Part 1 and what is Part 2. Like what scenes are So the the
killing of the father you're saying is Part 1 right?

(04:14):
It's Part 1, yeah. And I also like that's the my
other issue, which we'll get to at some point, is that how the
movie just feels like abruptly ending.
It ends abruptly, although knowing that there was a Part 2
because we watched it at home when the information was already
or I guess in theaters. No, Yeah.
I would have, I don't know how the movie ends the same way for
people who went to the theatres,but like if I had, I had money

(04:37):
for this ticket and gone to theatre when there was no buzz,
right? There was no reveal anywhere at
that point that this is a two-part movie.
It was just like an Asanji. This is like a one off thing and
I'm guessing it did not say end of Part 1 in theatre or
something. If it did, I would be like a
slap in your face and like what?No, but then we would have also
known. That yeah, because people would
have like revealed like hi yeah,we can really care which means
that it was did not say that it just ended on wrinkle taking

(05:00):
like a bath to erase metaphorically whatever
everything and I was like that would have been terrible ending
ending probably worse than the ending of I don't know if you
remember the ending of Spiderman.
The last one across the spider was the animated.
One I do not. Right.
So that movie literally ends in the middle of a scene and
they're like, we will show you in the next movie pick up from
literally that same scene. They'll pick it up.
When the movie was released. At that point, it said the next

(05:22):
movie was six months away that we call teens are which OK,
Heavy. Yeah, those are.
And the next one is apparently two more years away.
Like, I'm sorry, but you cannot do this.
At least in that sense. This is better that in the movie
release what, two months ago in September in theaters.
So that's better. But like, if I had gone to the
theatre, it was I would have been a ghost.
I'm like, what? This is the end thing?
Like what? What is happening after this and
when is it? Happening.

(05:42):
So here is my, like, take on theending of the first part, right?
Because I am going into it with the knowledge that Anurag
Kashyap has struggled with endings for the entirety of his
career. Like, he either has like 15
endings or he's just scrambling.Yeah, he's just scrambling for.
I don't know how to end this. So with that knowledge and with
also the knowledge that this is Part 1, I was expecting like

(06:04):
another one of those catcher. Oh, we don't know what to do
now, so please tune in next week.
That said, I thought that if youisolate the experience of
watching this movie, and I'll correct me if I'm wrong, the
ending of this is when the mother goes to Ambeka Prasad and
says that we are leaving Kanpur.Don't follow us, leave us alone.
The house is yours. And I just came up with there

(06:24):
are scenes, should they come back home?
Renko finds out finds out the picture the.
Picture So then she figures out that Gobble is the.
Killer so which is the which is the conflict that had been kind
of playing out in the backgroundand what if she finds out right
and she does and when? She does emotionally like Renko
has not. Been a very messy place to leave

(06:45):
the movie in, and which I admirein and of itself because not a
lot of movies would choose to end on that note of that
betrayal. And how do you move on from that
betrayal? You know, and you know, the fact
that the guy is gone, like he's been killed in jail.
So there's no like closure here.She she has in a way, kind of
developed feelings for. The theater.
World at this point, yeah. So she is wrestling with a lot

(07:08):
of complicated feelings. And I think that was quite an
interesting way to end that movie.
It doesn't necessarily wrap everything up, but then it kind
of closes whatever loops that ithad opened previously because
for all we know, that's the end,right?
Ambeka Prasad will never bothered them again.
He has the house, they've escaped this hellhole, Kanpur

(07:29):
and they will possibly live peacefully, but that is not to
be because they have to deal with this new information that
has kind of that's a decent kindof way to end the movie.
I felt. That being said, second part May
the ending of the second part, which we will discuss later, is

(07:50):
like the best ending that this that Kashyap has done like ever.
Like it's a great ending. Like the climactic 40 minutes
are incredible. So I'm completely different from
this one, right? There is like that trademark
kind of emotional complexity, but it is also very satisfying,
which is just what you expect because you want him to do like

(08:13):
the mainstream masala stuff, butthen also to make it more
complex than the actually. Which is what made him Kashyap,
right? That's what made him stand apart
from the directors and not just like us, the law directors who
do these movies of like, they want to AAP Kashyap and they
want to do like, gangster dramas.
But this is what separates him is that he's able to add like,
depth to it and meaning for like, emotional complexity to

(08:35):
it. Yeah, No.
For the first time in a really long time, I thought that the
story structure was so well defined.
Like normally it's more of a mess than it is in this case it
is sprawling, but it's not like all over the place, right?
There is a very interesting kindof reverse chronological
structure to this. Yeah, which there's a origin
story inside an origin story of like the present timeline.

(08:58):
Yeah, and the, and the opening kind of bank heist is a very
nice like way to kind of reel you in and then kind of tell you
the story of how these two. Got there and that point like
the scene and what I love is about doing it that way is that
when initially I'm just like, what is happening?
What these jokers, right? Like that's how you read the
scene because you know nothing about them.
Yeah. But then when the same scene
comes like 2 hours later or two or 15 minutes later, you feel it

(09:20):
in a different way now because you know all of these people.
Yeah. And you're like, oh God, like,
don't do this. This is beyond your
capabilities. You are so.
Idiotic. You are so idiotic.
And see that's the thing which is which made gangs of Wassip
are also interesting, right? You could sense that Kashyap is
making fun of these people like you are such people, all of you.
More than gangs, actually. What I love about this one is

(09:40):
that, like, his take is essentially that most men are
like dumb, or they've useless orthey're actively sabotaging and
they're like harmful to everyonearound them.
Right. Including themselves, yeah.
Themselves and he, he drives that home on 2 levels, right?
Because he does this through Bubloo, sure, but he also drives
it through Bubloo's dad, like who had actual genuine
potential. Like Bubloo has no potential
palace. He'd always been a nothing

(10:02):
person like nor was destined forlike this kind of sake.
But Jabardas actually had a life, right?
Like he had potential. He could have been something if
you had not been like part of a system that was looking him over
because of like whatever nepotism and stuff like that.
But then he sort of collapsed and like he went down a hole
because of that negativity. Like he succumbed to his like,
you know the thing. And he just like after that, he
destroys everything, right? For for that one petty thing to

(10:24):
take revenge on that guy who wasnot living.
He destroys like, his entire family for like, generations
now. Yeah.
And then opposed to that, the women are the one who are
actually keeping things together.
Which is the same I I guess central theme of gangs also
right is like one stupid act of vengeance can have such huge
ripple effect for generations right?
And Vineet Kumar Singh is basically like flip side of the

(10:45):
Muqabaaz character right? If he.
Yeah, if he went down a slipperyslope and like could not reel
himself in, yeah. But also, you know, he there is
like this, I can't help but makefun of these people.
But then there is also huge sense of like the sympathy for
the devil, like a Martin Scorsese sort of thing, where
you're like, these are the people.
Like Jinka, for instance, encounter roads are the roadway

(11:09):
and you're like, oh, of course encounter Katya because police
is insane in this country. The guy was like a scapegoat,
whatever, whatever, whatever. But like the journey to becoming
the scapegoat in an encounter is, is like a life lived, right?
And nobody tells those stories. And it's not in the sense
humanizing like criminals, but it's just sympathizing with them

(11:32):
to a degree that, yeah, you haveyour life and there.
Are yeah, there's a lot of people, right?
That's what like it's. And that's the annoying thing
about like even using the word encounter is that you just like,
you almost like reduce it to such a stupid level.
It's a second encounter, I think.
No, it's not that. It's so much more to it.
Like there are problems at everylevel, like in this movie,
obviously, like the police is isa tertiary cut, tertiary figure.

(11:56):
But like this, we still see thathow like it doesn't really
matter, right? Like this is in a way, it's like
a godfather the city is being run by.
These people, yeah. Police are just hanging about to
like, give it a veneer of like, legitimaturism, but they're just
puppets. It's a metaphor for India,
right? Because it is this.
The whole story of India is justlike, this is like his.

(12:18):
I would say that this is his like Killers or the Flower Moon,
because you kind of encapsulate everything that is wrong with
this country in terms of like. Yeah, yeah.
Because if this if this country was not like as patriarchal
society, that movies were not aspatriarchal.
If you just move the story like a few states South, that Monica
Vandva's character is the one who's ruling the world, right?

(12:39):
Because she is actually has the one who's like the most sensible
in terms of like her mindset andwho's also like the most
accomplished. She's reduced to like a
housewife. I mean just so there is a
reason, I will say why differentactors play younger Bubble
double U and older WW and different actors play young

(13:00):
Ambika Prasad and old Ambika Prasad but the same actor plays
the mom. It's really like a thematic
thing he's going for. There is a reason for that which
you will appreciate in partner. Yeah, because here I was like,
aghast that I was like, what is happening?
Like at least do change her makeup or like change her like,
hair, make her look older. Like she literally feels like
she's ageless, like she's the Angel in the movie or something.

(13:22):
Mother India, I have a bold TV. Yeah, my mother I.
Mean in the first one also like she has like such insane like
espousing lines like in one of them was really good.
A couple of them like the AmbikaPrasad 1 when she like people
who were the worst coward. One like that was really good.
And there's a line before that which I'm forgetting now, which
is like 10 seconds before that, which was so good.

(13:42):
No, that's what usually we spokeabout.
Like what sets Kashyap apart from like the the basically the
pretenders is that see, there isthe complexity that he brings to
like very old fashioned stories,but then there is also the
writing, right? Like it's very difficult to
mimic this. Yeah, at the moment it is so

(14:03):
like joyous. It's rich, right?
Because it feels on the superficial level, though, it's
like authenticity, sure, But then it's like almost literature
level, right? Because yeah, yeah.
Like that line, I want to frame it.
I was like, this is like, I wantto capture these 10s.
I can then pull it up as like a Tumblr post.

(14:24):
I mean this is like a value to live by.
Level And it's not like what's her name who wrote Juno where
it's like so heightened that it calls attention to itself.
Yeah. It feels both like realistic but
also like very poetic, which is how a lot of people in North
India talk, right. Like a person who is very versed
in Punjabi would really appreciate the kind of Punjabi

(14:47):
that people just casually kind of drop, you know?
And like like I cannot appreciate that nor can I fully
appreciate this Hindi because I don't understand most of it,
like a lot of the words I don't understand.
This director so far, it is actually almost like a different
language at this point. But at least you can appreciate
it, right? It's like a so imagine, like

(15:08):
the, I mean, we get the emotion behind the lines, which is down
to the acting, which we should also speak about.
Like the these guys are really good.
Like the new kid is very good. Yeah, and you're having to play
like such different characters in depending on the scene.
Yeah, and for not for one seconddo you believe that he is the
grandson of Baltacre? What, Who probably grew up of

(15:31):
any people? Never.
Thought of that even for like one second.
Yeah, which is a great compliment because he feels like
rando that you would, you know, see on the street, like the kind
of dude you would walk away fromif they were walking towards
you. Like this this guy, I might pick
your pocket or like stab you or something.
And you you buy him as both. That's the big biggest thing,

(15:51):
right? You buy him as the what do you
just spoke about the pick wall bubble, but you also buy him as
the bitcharas are the blue. Bitcharas are the blue, which
and and see, The thing is that outwardly to Babloo is whatever.
And the second part, they kind of make fun also of this that
he's modeled himself after, like, you know, the South
Indian, like Yash or somebody oranimal.

(16:12):
But basically he's like a wounded person who's just like
who who who doesn't know right from wrong.
He never learned. Yeah, yeah.
You never learned, right, Like and they build that in right,
like slowly like that's thing, right?
There is no built in model. At any stage, so.
And in a way, Uska Arrested Development.

(16:33):
Yeah, he. Has not, right?
That's important to his story, that the fact that he's has
actually gone away for years. He doesn't develop, he doesn't
get, you don't get parental figures in a juvenile house,
right? Yeah, he's stuck at age 8.
Even as an adult, he doesn't know, which is why he walks into
that house and he shoots the guywithout.
Are you crazy? No, you're just a child with a
toy. You don't know.

(16:56):
And you've already experienced the consequences.
They want a big deal, so you don't even care about that.
It's the same right? Like at age 8 when he sent away
W telling him and he shot her down and the dad saying W Ebola.
At at. Ten years later it's it's Ambika
saying Usko Jake handle Karo. He's like handle Kardiya.
There is no difference. There are two things he's taking

(17:16):
it as like, oh it's Nebola, Mene, Kardiya katam Mera.
Those are very. There's no filter in between of
like my own self thought reflection, nothing in between.
Which and, and there is a very interesting line, I think, Rinku
says. I don't know if it's in this
part or the next where she's like, how could the same person
give birth to to Yeah, she. Said that when she's lying with
WI think in this part I think she's like.

(17:38):
Yeah, exactly because that's. What I and IA lot of movies do
this and I hate it when they do the nature was a nurture battle
and they end up doing on nature.People are bit estranged, right?
You know again horror movies, they will give birth.
That kid will spend 30 years away from them and turn up like

(18:00):
them. And I'm like, no, it doesn't
happen. It's all about nurture.
It's all about nurture, right? Yeah.
And I mean, this movie kind of exemplifies that.
And then and and and. Because W stayed with mom and
like the other one, did not get that parental thing and it
separates them. The decade of that made them a
different person. What else?

(18:20):
Is there anything else I appreciate also that for one,
Sonora Kashyap is not being an activist or anything like that
and just telling a story and telling a story that.
And I think the story speak for itself right there are if you
just tell a good story automatically, it speaks about
the society. You don't need to hammer the
thing in Ki, the story is. Not about the primary thing of

(18:42):
the story is not about oh, look at toxic masculinity, but we'll
get exactly. Exactly.
It's the same thing, right? The Godfather wasn't trying to
talk about Ki hora America. Man.
Like, no, you just tell a story and through it people will draw
timeless and Evergreen lessons. Forever.
Yeah. So I mean, I thought this was
great. I mean, I'm shocked that people,
they marketed it like fools. They should have just said, you

(19:05):
know, here is the gangs of our support that you've been waiting
for. Please come watch.
Yeah, Salad. This movie should have been sold
like 6 months in advance, right?And I felt like it was.
It was sold a month in advance. Month in advance.
It should have when when it thisevent on the floors and I should
have been like from the guy who made Gangs of Azibur comes
another epic like said it like that for like 3 years and that's

(19:25):
how I look at that. That's the thing right?
Nolan doesn't just make great movies.
Nolan's marketing team or whatever studio he works for,
like they know how to sell his movies for years right?
Like we know Odyssey is coming next July.
He makes so many and at one point he's juggling like 5
completed projects that don't release who I had.
Don't he who I have. So I guess it makes sense to

(19:47):
take it one at a time. But that being said, like you
need to kind of accurately understand your own movie
instead of like selling it as some kind of throwback to old
school Hindi. No, it's not It's far like it's
more complex. It's it's it's the movie that
people expect from you. So own it and.
Watched in like as one whole film like with Part 2.

(20:08):
This is better than Gangs of Warsupport.
This is like a great achieve. Yeah, but it's also I think it's
a privacy that the even the release like this should not be
happening. I hate that finally again like
TV channel it is, but it's also streaming.
So at the same time because likeone movie does not even get the
proper like light out there. It should be standing on its own
for at least a few months there.Is a subplot about an attempted

(20:30):
assassination on Dupica's chief minister in the second part
which might. Have we will touch upon that and
the rest of it next week. OK, then that's all this episode
of the Long Take. You can follow us on Facebook,
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You can write to us at the Long Take [e-mail].
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episode and we will see you nextweek.

(20:52):
Thanks. Next week, bye.