November 24, 2025 • 20 mins
Nishaanchi: Part 2 features arguably the best climax that Anurag Kashyap has ever orchestrated.
We discuss the two-part experience as a whole, Kashyap’s modern update to old-school Bollywood tropes, and the magnetism of Monika Panwar’s Manjari.
We also discuss the film’s broader themes of revenge, the stylistic influences, and welcome Kashyap’s long-awaited return to form.
—
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Hi. I'm Akura and I'm Rohan Nahar.
Welcome to the long Take the Speak.
We're discussing the second partof Yeah, what do you think?
This is OneNote. Yeah, I thought, I really like
the first one as we've discussedand I thought this was a slight
improvement on that even. Oh, OK, yeah.
(00:36):
I mean, I think overall by the time like it wrapped up, like I
think there was some parts of itwhere I was like, Oh yeah, this
is like smarter in some ways. And there was some part I was
like, this is leaner in some way.
Like it's more about just like one straight short part out one
thing. It was like 1 was trying to do
like a bunch of things and it was like origin story inside
origin story and her develop allthese characters.
(00:59):
Now we know all these characters, some of them have
already gone. So I felt like it was leaner in
some ways. It was just like, oh, about this
one thing of like Babloo coming back and like him trying to like
relive his glory days or whatever or like and figuring
out that life has changed and mood are without him by the end.
By the end of it, I just felt like it was.
If I weigh them more together, Ifeel like they're the same for
(01:23):
me in terms of like overall quality.
Yeah. I mean, if you bought, if you
consider both as like one movie,then the the impact is obviously
stronger as opposed to like individual parts.
And I don't know what it was kind of designed to be
originally. But yeah, I read somewhere that
like, Kashyap decided to drop this directly and that he there
(01:47):
was a part of him that he wantedto do this, like with how he did
with the Wasseypur. Like, it will release them 3-4
months apart in theaters. But after he saw the first one,
just like completely bomb, he's like, pull the plug and we like,
screw it. This release directly on Prime
Video. Yeah, I don't know how much of A
say he would have in the releaseof a film unless he's already
(02:11):
decided. But yeah, I don't know.
I don't know if that matters because there was also no
publicity for this one, right? Nobody knew it existed until
after it was released. Yeah.
So that's kind of strange. Like, yeah, like you were Vassep
or like had gone to cons and like was screened as one part
and then they chopped at least in two parts.
Like everyone knew there was a second part always coming.
(02:33):
This one, it was all like hiddenfrom us.
So it feels like he's trying to do damage control or something
else. I know.
But yeah, whatever. That's all apart from the actual
movie itself, because no one's gonna talk about that 10 years
from now. We'll talk about like how the
movie was not like the release strategy of it.
Yeah, and and the movie, this one felt like more.
(02:53):
I mean, as much as I enjoy the sprawling kind of digressions of
the first one, this one felt more disciplined and more
disciplined than Kashyap has been in a very, very long time.
You know, even including all allthose random almost pair with DJ
Mohabbat and those movies. Tobara, Tobara.
(03:16):
Which is terrible, but this one felt more disciplined in that
he's very focused on the story he wants to tell.
He's very he's very clear about the ideas that he wants to
communicate and he's very the climax I felt was particularly
great because I maybe I wasn't expecting much and I will I am
(03:39):
kind of wary of like Thordak problems in previous movies, but
this one felt like the a goal that the movie was kind of
driving towards always and therewas no alternative that could
have happened. Like this is the ideal climax.
And I'm talking about from, you know, the sniper portion, say
Laker and Tuck when the mother kind of turns into a gunslinger.
(04:04):
Yeah. Then the mother's ending is just
like, you know, thematically very pure, like it's full circle
moment like you've been you've kept it there right, like you've
built it and kept in first part that Jabba's saying that she is
the real like, you know, winner in the household.
I'm just like a sideshow. So you make that and left a tray
there to ferment. Never really like it's always
(04:25):
like a Chekhov's gun. In a way, she is the like she's
used to be this person hasn't been allowed to be anything else
for like years and years and decades now.
So for the moment, like she getsto just like very rewarding on
an emotional level as a viewer or like, Oh my God.
Yeah. Obviously, you know, she's like
abuse, been abused and like taken beatings spiritually and
(04:48):
like physically for decades. And now she's like getting her
like we're like both of ya. It's my time to do something.
And come upment moment for everyone around her right and
should half of it she does like silently, right.
It's not even like it's only themain guy.
She does full violently, but otherwise the revenge is
completely like silent right. It's like, Oh yeah, here you go
some poison in all your drinks, everyone goodbye.
(05:11):
So it's clever in one way. It's not like all out.
It's not like she's trying to like kill 13 of them with her
gun which would like although that would make sense on like
violence level of a Kashyap movie.
Like it would not make sense on a character level that she would
not go crazy and start shooting every.
But you know what I felt? I felt this was also a sign of
maturity as a filmmaker, or maybe just a sign of less
(05:36):
provocation. A younger, more brash director,
I felt. See, after she discovers that
Rinku is responsible for, what'shis name?
Bablu, right? Getting him like basically
killed. The movie could have gone either
way which is she in her head could hold either Rinku
(05:57):
responsible for orchestrating the revenge or Ambeka Prasad
responsible for essentially being the trigger man.
Now I feel that this version what we saw is a sign of a more
conventional happy ending. Sort of emotionally satisfying
sort of decision, but but there is very easily an alternate
(06:21):
version where she was like, whathave you done?
I am going to have to kill you now because you have killed my
son and then living with the pain and regret for about it,
you know? Yeah, I think.
That growth is also in a way foreshadowed from the earlier
moment. Right when I think they're
sitting together with the blue and she's like, I can't live
(06:42):
here, right? I can't look at Babalu's picture
and be asked to live here. I need my own place.
At some level, it's almost like ingratitude because you have
this family has saved you from your fate in Kanpur and brought
you with them. And Rinku hai Manjari could have
easily gone in that direction and said like, you know, what
are you saying? But at that moment, she's like,
(07:06):
you know, would you be able to live with that which?
Is the surprising twist I did not expect right, Because that
is, it goes against what your exactly gut instinct.
I think that shows that like thecharacter is so much more
evolved than everyone else. And actually he's trying to show
that, you know, like there are most of these men who just
(07:26):
operate on a base level key action reaction.
And this person is actually evolved long evolved out of that
has never been of like someone did this to me.
I will do this to them. You know she's.
Able to know that's debatable. She does kind of kill Ambika
Prasad at the end and then givesa gives a neatly package lecture
(07:47):
about, you know, if you want to do pull the trigger, then you
pull the trigger and she knows full well the what she what's
coming to her because she's taken that life now.
But the only thing she's doing is sparing her other son and
Rinku of a similar fate. But like.
I mean, OK, if you're going there.
I, I, I would debate. I'm not sure sure she's sparing
(08:09):
them off anything unless they run away.
They'd get killed next right if Ambika Barsad is left alive.
But even if he's not left alive,even if like he's, this is not
done here, right? There are people who will want
something from these three at some point.
I I guess that they'll want something from Manjari and then
she's going to be in jail now, which is what she's telling
(08:31):
Rinku. Like, you know, you have to be
ready to bear the consequences of your actions.
Yeah. And it's almost like a lesson
that she's imparting or not. Like, I guess if you want to
kill someone, do it yourself. But I'd.
So I don't know if she's above like the failings of her own of
(08:51):
at least Bablu because she is still and the movie kind of
declares it. Also at the end she is the Ogi.
Think it's also about, I think the way I'm seeing it, the way I
felt it was at Waldus, because it's not like in the moment
decision, right? Like it's not like it's been
annoying me. It's been annoying me.
I'll just do it now. I think it's it reaches a point
where I feel like she has no alternative left where she's
(09:14):
been pushed into a corner for like decades and decades and now
she's first they took her husband now they have taken her
son and she keeps allowing this.She's going to lose W to this
eventually as well or she's going to lose herself given the
threats he's making and the way he's approach the household.
In that way, both the women, therevenge that they kind of
(09:36):
orchestrate is longer and more methodical as opposed to the
dudes who just are triggered happy.
But in both cases, it is like violent revenge, you know, So I
don't know if anybody is like inan older movie and the kind like
maybe in the, you know, Amitabh Bachchan era, like the mother
(09:57):
would be the moral center of a corrupt universe, right?
And, and the and the main character would always be like
at the end would be like, Oh my,my mother kind of reminds me of
what not to do and I made mistakes, etcetera, etcetera,
etcetera in this one. That's because like the what
happened to the old movies is they, they at that moment, the
mother characters are not even human beings in those movies
(10:18):
anymore. They're saying correct So.
Here is where the modern kind ofKashyap touch comes in, where he
makes the the the stereotypical kind of saintly mother character
into a fully complex human being.
Fleshed out character, yeah. Like finally.
Like if you bother her and now if you keep badgering her and if
you keep abusing her, she will hit back.
(10:39):
Like she's and what is she hitting back for is the question
right. Unlike Bablu, who's just like
shooting up people for no reasonin the false sense of for my
father Karam, she's doing it actually to protect her
remaining son and the girl that he.
Kind of targeted, right? Like it's like the guy who
actually abused me is Ambika. So that guy will go and like,
(11:00):
make a point, but she's not going after his 13 bodyguards
violently. Yeah.
And they're just in the way, Yeah.
Because you are like I need to get you out otherwise I can't do
this. So I'm just going to do it
silently because like to just toget you out of the way.
That's it. Also very nicely constructed,
right? Because that is unlike what you
would expect Kashub to do. Is like bang, and it's like
(11:22):
almost wordlessly communicated between the two of.
Like, you know, I've been watching Pluribus, okay,
parallel in parallel. So like Vince Gilligan is a
master of doing these wordless montages, right?
Like, characters is doing stuff in his shows like nothing is
spoken. And only when the sequence is
over do you realize, oh, this iswhat he was building up to.
And that's what happened is thatshe's.
(11:43):
Yeah, she's been, he's making like, Chai on the side.
And she's told Rinku to be like,ha, yeah, Karo, yeah, yeah,
Karo. And it's only once those actions
are done in the key. And meanwhile you're like
looking at the action unfold like W, like what is happening,
the character. Who was like no, like fully
incompetent to do participate inany of this.
(12:05):
But that's the thing, right? He seems incompetent in
comparison to like the insanity going on around him, but he
actually moral center of this universe is W No, Yeah, yeah.
He's not a fool. Like he lectures his brother on
the mistakes that he's made and he reminds him that, you know,
I'm not a pushover. I have been holding Fort while
(12:25):
you've been doing your nonsense.And in some way I am the bigger
hero because I have done more for my.
Mother like the parallels I saw from there was essentially like
where our world is today, right?Like we have a lot of bubloos in
power who just shout loudly fromthe rooftops and they get to
rule the world while all the bubloos sitting on the side will
be like tum chilana bandkaro to hum sense bull pie.
(12:46):
But no one stop still loving in our world the.
Surprising like depth that I found also, and this is the
mother basically saying, yes, myson deserved to die, you know,
which is not somewhere that you would expect like a fully
mainstream in the movie to go. And that is what I was kind of
also alluding to in the first one, where Rinku having to live
with the information that the love of her life is responsible
(13:09):
for her father's death and woman.
Has not delivered her right. It's not like he left her alone
after that he Marviya then like left and they left live separate
lies. No, he came back and ingratiated
himself into her life deeply. Yeah, and he wasn't justified in
any way, you know, in that murder.
It wasn't like. No, no, it was.
(13:29):
Just like it wasn't an accident.No, it was plain cold blooded
walk in town. So all of this is very like it
makes the movie a much better experience and all the other
kind of gangster like Mirzapur nonsense that we see or we try
not to see. But this one is it again, it
reminds you like, oh, so this ishow it's really done, you know,
and when he's like in form, he'sreally good.
(13:51):
And Rakusha and I, that's what Isaid this one is.
And the ending I really, really enjoyed because of what you were
mentioning, right, That it doesn't leave any threads
hanging and plot wise, who knows, maybe thousands, but.
Not emotionally like I'm just like not on board with like
Bubloos. I'm, I have to, you have to
basically give it to the fact that he's not very smart at some
(14:11):
point. And then that's the only way I
could justify it because otherwise you could have just
waited, right? The CM with Ambika Prasad are in
the convoy coming to the venue. He starts shooting up out of
nowhere. If he just waits for 5 minutes,
they are all there and he has a sniper rifle.
So you can just take out Ambika from there.
The. But he has to first take out the
henchman behind him. Sure, it's debatable, but the
(14:32):
number of bullets he was firing at like innocent people and
getting them to like leave the pavilion, I think he could have
easily managed. But I think that I'm going to
leave it up to basically like it's a emotionally satisfying
thing. Like they want him to return to
Kanpur. They want him to do the stupid
thing of walking into the lion'sden.
Also another kind of like just to mention what we discussed in
(14:54):
the previous episode is that inherent sympathy for the devil,
right? And I'm not talking about Bablu
here. I'm talking about that Saidi
Saidi Saidi tertiary character whose name I'm forgetting, who
would be like like fully like you either shoot him off screen
or he like falls off a building or something.
But sure, you're like, Oh my God, this dude had a full life
too. And he.
(15:15):
Like the last three minutes of his life.
Yeah, which is another reminder of just hello, you know, like
you conventionally, you might look at certain people a certain
way, but then everybody has, like, complicated emotions that
they're dealing with which inform how they've turned out
and what the decisions they make, you know, which is central
to the theme of the movie. So, yeah, it was kind of
(15:37):
emotionally satisfying to see that guy get killed in a very
weird way because there's like, a certain, like, inevitability
to decisions, right? And that's what the movie is
kind of reminding you over and over again, Like, Ek batumne
kuch decide Katya right, say left.
Then you have to live with the consequences of it forever and
ever. And then your children will
(15:57):
probably live with the consequences of it.
Yeah, grandchildren live with the.
Yeah. And I don't know if what the
mother does kind of end the cycle of trauma or it simply
makes it worse that we don't know.
I think the only thing that helps here is that Ambika
actually never took a wife so itdoesn't have like kids who'd
want to take revenge, and I'm not sure any of his hench men
(16:20):
will feel as strongly to kill one side.
Most of them, even if they're. Not dead, even if they're just
passed out and even if there arepeople left who are not in
present in person. All of them were like based on
like money relationships, right?They were benefiting
financially. Ambika is paying for them.
They don't have like, like, likefamilial thing like, oh, I've
known him forever. I love him.
That's why I'm like supporting him.
That's why I care for him. Like that deep wooded bond.
(16:41):
I can't imagine I'm because I had anyone like that, No.
Like that Michael Shannon movie.I don't know what was it called
like years ago. It was like OG Gangs of Azibor
short gun stories. Really good.
It was basically the same thing how generations kind of just go
after vengeance because of one stupid decision.
But that's a. Old like old fashioned western
(17:02):
trope. Yeah, it is.
And people will like. Travel like 3000 miles in the
desert to find you because of something you did 74 years ago?
Yeah. And and and Nishanshi too.
The the climax I thought definitely heard and Yomorik
only in the background score a little bit when she like pulls
the trigger on Ambeka Prasad. Yeah, that is.
(17:22):
So, so theatrical, right? There is no requirement for her
to pretend as if she's shooting game.
Yeah, it's like good the bad, the ugly, right?
Yeah, only like they're playing.In the world, they're like, no
requirement for that. She's like fully leaning into
it. Even W is leaning into it.
He's like pull, I'm like by Kuchni.
But like I don't know if that was envisioned like in an
(17:44):
alternate universe where North Indian audience was more cinema
literate and like were like actually going to theaters to
watch movies that aren't like War Two or something.
Then that moment is like full Khadeo Kitali Maro type thing.
Not designed for that. But unfortunately, like it's
just Duff now or somewhere in Prime Video and you have to like
physically type it in to find because it could not.
(18:05):
Show but I don't understand if you like for some reason like I
haven't gone since I watched themovie.
For the first four days after the release, Nishanji was
trending in prima do, but Nishanji too was not.
It was not which I don't know what their news.
So either people are taking off forever to finish the first part
of this blog. Admittedly I will give them
that, that's why they haven't got to the second part.
But to be honest people watch like 8 episodes back-to-back and
(18:27):
new shows come out. So 115 minute movie is basically
3 episodes less than that. So I don't know why have they
not got into the second part in the four days the.
Only logical answer is that people are simply not watching
the second part or more the conspiracy leaning 1 is that
Amazon does not want you to see the second part.
Yeah. So like unless you type it in
yeah, literally because you willsee end of Part 1 at the end of
(18:50):
the first movie, like or you'll be or you'll be long gone.
Like genuinely, yeah. Like you, if you make it to the
part of make it to the end of the first part, then that's the
only way you will know that there's a second part because
otherwise there is no, no, like no, it's not like Akbar Mein
Aarahi or anything people that is.
No one has taken over the front page of any newspaper to
promote. Our entire new movie has come
(19:10):
out on Prime Video. So unless you follow Anurag
Kashyap and his post happens to be on your timeline or you see.
Some 3 or 4 News articles that have covered this.
Yeah, there is no way. The most people won't even know
that Nishanthi to exist honestly.
Annoying thing, right? Like Prime.
It's not like Amazon is lacking for money because they made two
of these movies which must have cost a lot, and then to refrain
(19:31):
from marketing the second one just because the first one did
not make money in theaters is stupendously stupid.
Listen, I'm the fully going withthe conspiracy that is kinder
UPCM assassination sub plotter. And it was screened like
secretly for some audience. And they were like, not a
pooping of it. And I was like, we don't want
another Thunder on our hands. So let's just quietly.
Exit her. So please don't call him CM,
(19:54):
call him party leader or something.
Yeah, and just like exit from gully left.
And please don't kill him. Sniper say, you know, but that's
the reason. Yeah, for his foolishness.
By the way, just struck me. You can't kill ACM with Upika CM
Sniper say you'll get murdered. OK, that's all for this episode
of a Long Take. You can follow us on Facebook
(20:15):
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Please leave us a rating and a where episode and we will see
you next week. Thanks for listening.
Bye.
Hi. I'm Akura and I'm Rohan Nahar.
Welcome to the long Take the Speak.
We're discussing the second partof Yeah, what do you think?
This is OneNote. Yeah, I thought, I really like
the first one as we've discussedand I thought this was a slight
improvement on that even. Oh, OK, yeah.
(00:36):
I mean, I think overall by the time like it wrapped up, like I
think there was some parts of itwhere I was like, Oh yeah, this
is like smarter in some ways. And there was some part I was
like, this is leaner in some way.
Like it's more about just like one straight short part out one
thing. It was like 1 was trying to do
like a bunch of things and it was like origin story inside
origin story and her develop allthese characters.
(00:59):
Now we know all these characters, some of them have
already gone. So I felt like it was leaner in
some ways. It was just like, oh, about this
one thing of like Babloo coming back and like him trying to like
relive his glory days or whatever or like and figuring
out that life has changed and mood are without him by the end.
By the end of it, I just felt like it was.
If I weigh them more together, Ifeel like they're the same for
(01:23):
me in terms of like overall quality.
Yeah. I mean, if you bought, if you
consider both as like one movie,then the the impact is obviously
stronger as opposed to like individual parts.
And I don't know what it was kind of designed to be
originally. But yeah, I read somewhere that
like, Kashyap decided to drop this directly and that he there
(01:47):
was a part of him that he wantedto do this, like with how he did
with the Wasseypur. Like, it will release them 3-4
months apart in theaters. But after he saw the first one,
just like completely bomb, he's like, pull the plug and we like,
screw it. This release directly on Prime
Video. Yeah, I don't know how much of A
say he would have in the releaseof a film unless he's already
(02:11):
decided. But yeah, I don't know.
I don't know if that matters because there was also no
publicity for this one, right? Nobody knew it existed until
after it was released. Yeah.
So that's kind of strange. Like, yeah, like you were Vassep
or like had gone to cons and like was screened as one part
and then they chopped at least in two parts.
Like everyone knew there was a second part always coming.
(02:33):
This one, it was all like hiddenfrom us.
So it feels like he's trying to do damage control or something
else. I know.
But yeah, whatever. That's all apart from the actual
movie itself, because no one's gonna talk about that 10 years
from now. We'll talk about like how the
movie was not like the release strategy of it.
Yeah, and and the movie, this one felt like more.
(02:53):
I mean, as much as I enjoy the sprawling kind of digressions of
the first one, this one felt more disciplined and more
disciplined than Kashyap has been in a very, very long time.
You know, even including all allthose random almost pair with DJ
Mohabbat and those movies. Tobara, Tobara.
(03:16):
Which is terrible, but this one felt more disciplined in that
he's very focused on the story he wants to tell.
He's very he's very clear about the ideas that he wants to
communicate and he's very the climax I felt was particularly
great because I maybe I wasn't expecting much and I will I am
(03:39):
kind of wary of like Thordak problems in previous movies, but
this one felt like the a goal that the movie was kind of
driving towards always and therewas no alternative that could
have happened. Like this is the ideal climax.
And I'm talking about from, you know, the sniper portion, say
Laker and Tuck when the mother kind of turns into a gunslinger.
(04:04):
Yeah. Then the mother's ending is just
like, you know, thematically very pure, like it's full circle
moment like you've been you've kept it there right, like you've
built it and kept in first part that Jabba's saying that she is
the real like, you know, winner in the household.
I'm just like a sideshow. So you make that and left a tray
there to ferment. Never really like it's always
(04:25):
like a Chekhov's gun. In a way, she is the like she's
used to be this person hasn't been allowed to be anything else
for like years and years and decades now.
So for the moment, like she getsto just like very rewarding on
an emotional level as a viewer or like, Oh my God.
Yeah. Obviously, you know, she's like
abuse, been abused and like taken beatings spiritually and
(04:48):
like physically for decades. And now she's like getting her
like we're like both of ya. It's my time to do something.
And come upment moment for everyone around her right and
should half of it she does like silently, right.
It's not even like it's only themain guy.
She does full violently, but otherwise the revenge is
completely like silent right. It's like, Oh yeah, here you go
some poison in all your drinks, everyone goodbye.
(05:11):
So it's clever in one way. It's not like all out.
It's not like she's trying to like kill 13 of them with her
gun which would like although that would make sense on like
violence level of a Kashyap movie.
Like it would not make sense on a character level that she would
not go crazy and start shooting every.
But you know what I felt? I felt this was also a sign of
maturity as a filmmaker, or maybe just a sign of less
(05:36):
provocation. A younger, more brash director,
I felt. See, after she discovers that
Rinku is responsible for, what'shis name?
Bablu, right? Getting him like basically
killed. The movie could have gone either
way which is she in her head could hold either Rinku
(05:57):
responsible for orchestrating the revenge or Ambeka Prasad
responsible for essentially being the trigger man.
Now I feel that this version what we saw is a sign of a more
conventional happy ending. Sort of emotionally satisfying
sort of decision, but but there is very easily an alternate
(06:21):
version where she was like, whathave you done?
I am going to have to kill you now because you have killed my
son and then living with the pain and regret for about it,
you know? Yeah, I think.
That growth is also in a way foreshadowed from the earlier
moment. Right when I think they're
sitting together with the blue and she's like, I can't live
(06:42):
here, right? I can't look at Babalu's picture
and be asked to live here. I need my own place.
At some level, it's almost like ingratitude because you have
this family has saved you from your fate in Kanpur and brought
you with them. And Rinku hai Manjari could have
easily gone in that direction and said like, you know, what
are you saying? But at that moment, she's like,
(07:06):
you know, would you be able to live with that which?
Is the surprising twist I did not expect right, Because that
is, it goes against what your exactly gut instinct.
I think that shows that like thecharacter is so much more
evolved than everyone else. And actually he's trying to show
that, you know, like there are most of these men who just
(07:26):
operate on a base level key action reaction.
And this person is actually evolved long evolved out of that
has never been of like someone did this to me.
I will do this to them. You know she's.
Able to know that's debatable. She does kind of kill Ambika
Prasad at the end and then givesa gives a neatly package lecture
(07:47):
about, you know, if you want to do pull the trigger, then you
pull the trigger and she knows full well the what she what's
coming to her because she's taken that life now.
But the only thing she's doing is sparing her other son and
Rinku of a similar fate. But like.
I mean, OK, if you're going there.
I, I, I would debate. I'm not sure sure she's sparing
(08:09):
them off anything unless they run away.
They'd get killed next right if Ambika Barsad is left alive.
But even if he's not left alive,even if like he's, this is not
done here, right? There are people who will want
something from these three at some point.
I I guess that they'll want something from Manjari and then
she's going to be in jail now, which is what she's telling
(08:31):
Rinku. Like, you know, you have to be
ready to bear the consequences of your actions.
Yeah. And it's almost like a lesson
that she's imparting or not. Like, I guess if you want to
kill someone, do it yourself. But I'd.
So I don't know if she's above like the failings of her own of
(08:51):
at least Bablu because she is still and the movie kind of
declares it. Also at the end she is the Ogi.
Think it's also about, I think the way I'm seeing it, the way I
felt it was at Waldus, because it's not like in the moment
decision, right? Like it's not like it's been
annoying me. It's been annoying me.
I'll just do it now. I think it's it reaches a point
where I feel like she has no alternative left where she's
(09:14):
been pushed into a corner for like decades and decades and now
she's first they took her husband now they have taken her
son and she keeps allowing this.She's going to lose W to this
eventually as well or she's going to lose herself given the
threats he's making and the way he's approach the household.
In that way, both the women, therevenge that they kind of
(09:36):
orchestrate is longer and more methodical as opposed to the
dudes who just are triggered happy.
But in both cases, it is like violent revenge, you know, So I
don't know if anybody is like inan older movie and the kind like
maybe in the, you know, Amitabh Bachchan era, like the mother
(09:57):
would be the moral center of a corrupt universe, right?
And, and the and the main character would always be like
at the end would be like, Oh my,my mother kind of reminds me of
what not to do and I made mistakes, etcetera, etcetera,
etcetera in this one. That's because like the what
happened to the old movies is they, they at that moment, the
mother characters are not even human beings in those movies
(10:18):
anymore. They're saying correct So.
Here is where the modern kind ofKashyap touch comes in, where he
makes the the the stereotypical kind of saintly mother character
into a fully complex human being.
Fleshed out character, yeah. Like finally.
Like if you bother her and now if you keep badgering her and if
you keep abusing her, she will hit back.
(10:39):
Like she's and what is she hitting back for is the question
right. Unlike Bablu, who's just like
shooting up people for no reasonin the false sense of for my
father Karam, she's doing it actually to protect her
remaining son and the girl that he.
Kind of targeted, right? Like it's like the guy who
actually abused me is Ambika. So that guy will go and like,
(11:00):
make a point, but she's not going after his 13 bodyguards
violently. Yeah.
And they're just in the way, Yeah.
Because you are like I need to get you out otherwise I can't do
this. So I'm just going to do it
silently because like to just toget you out of the way.
That's it. Also very nicely constructed,
right? Because that is unlike what you
would expect Kashub to do. Is like bang, and it's like
(11:22):
almost wordlessly communicated between the two of.
Like, you know, I've been watching Pluribus, okay,
parallel in parallel. So like Vince Gilligan is a
master of doing these wordless montages, right?
Like, characters is doing stuff in his shows like nothing is
spoken. And only when the sequence is
over do you realize, oh, this iswhat he was building up to.
And that's what happened is thatshe's.
(11:43):
Yeah, she's been, he's making like, Chai on the side.
And she's told Rinku to be like,ha, yeah, Karo, yeah, yeah,
Karo. And it's only once those actions
are done in the key. And meanwhile you're like
looking at the action unfold like W, like what is happening,
the character. Who was like no, like fully
incompetent to do participate inany of this.
(12:05):
But that's the thing, right? He seems incompetent in
comparison to like the insanity going on around him, but he
actually moral center of this universe is W No, Yeah, yeah.
He's not a fool. Like he lectures his brother on
the mistakes that he's made and he reminds him that, you know,
I'm not a pushover. I have been holding Fort while
(12:25):
you've been doing your nonsense.And in some way I am the bigger
hero because I have done more for my.
Mother like the parallels I saw from there was essentially like
where our world is today, right?Like we have a lot of bubloos in
power who just shout loudly fromthe rooftops and they get to
rule the world while all the bubloos sitting on the side will
be like tum chilana bandkaro to hum sense bull pie.
(12:46):
But no one stop still loving in our world the.
Surprising like depth that I found also, and this is the
mother basically saying, yes, myson deserved to die, you know,
which is not somewhere that you would expect like a fully
mainstream in the movie to go. And that is what I was kind of
also alluding to in the first one, where Rinku having to live
with the information that the love of her life is responsible
(13:09):
for her father's death and woman.
Has not delivered her right. It's not like he left her alone
after that he Marviya then like left and they left live separate
lies. No, he came back and ingratiated
himself into her life deeply. Yeah, and he wasn't justified in
any way, you know, in that murder.
It wasn't like. No, no, it was.
(13:29):
Just like it wasn't an accident.No, it was plain cold blooded
walk in town. So all of this is very like it
makes the movie a much better experience and all the other
kind of gangster like Mirzapur nonsense that we see or we try
not to see. But this one is it again, it
reminds you like, oh, so this ishow it's really done, you know,
and when he's like in form, he'sreally good.
(13:51):
And Rakusha and I, that's what Isaid this one is.
And the ending I really, really enjoyed because of what you were
mentioning, right, That it doesn't leave any threads
hanging and plot wise, who knows, maybe thousands, but.
Not emotionally like I'm just like not on board with like
Bubloos. I'm, I have to, you have to
basically give it to the fact that he's not very smart at some
(14:11):
point. And then that's the only way I
could justify it because otherwise you could have just
waited, right? The CM with Ambika Prasad are in
the convoy coming to the venue. He starts shooting up out of
nowhere. If he just waits for 5 minutes,
they are all there and he has a sniper rifle.
So you can just take out Ambika from there.
The. But he has to first take out the
henchman behind him. Sure, it's debatable, but the
(14:32):
number of bullets he was firing at like innocent people and
getting them to like leave the pavilion, I think he could have
easily managed. But I think that I'm going to
leave it up to basically like it's a emotionally satisfying
thing. Like they want him to return to
Kanpur. They want him to do the stupid
thing of walking into the lion'sden.
Also another kind of like just to mention what we discussed in
(14:54):
the previous episode is that inherent sympathy for the devil,
right? And I'm not talking about Bablu
here. I'm talking about that Saidi
Saidi Saidi tertiary character whose name I'm forgetting, who
would be like like fully like you either shoot him off screen
or he like falls off a building or something.
But sure, you're like, Oh my God, this dude had a full life
too. And he.
(15:15):
Like the last three minutes of his life.
Yeah, which is another reminder of just hello, you know, like
you conventionally, you might look at certain people a certain
way, but then everybody has, like, complicated emotions that
they're dealing with which inform how they've turned out
and what the decisions they make, you know, which is central
to the theme of the movie. So, yeah, it was kind of
(15:37):
emotionally satisfying to see that guy get killed in a very
weird way because there's like, a certain, like, inevitability
to decisions, right? And that's what the movie is
kind of reminding you over and over again, Like, Ek batumne
kuch decide Katya right, say left.
Then you have to live with the consequences of it forever and
ever. And then your children will
(15:57):
probably live with the consequences of it.
Yeah, grandchildren live with the.
Yeah. And I don't know if what the
mother does kind of end the cycle of trauma or it simply
makes it worse that we don't know.
I think the only thing that helps here is that Ambika
actually never took a wife so itdoesn't have like kids who'd
want to take revenge, and I'm not sure any of his hench men
(16:20):
will feel as strongly to kill one side.
Most of them, even if they're. Not dead, even if they're just
passed out and even if there arepeople left who are not in
present in person. All of them were like based on
like money relationships, right?They were benefiting
financially. Ambika is paying for them.
They don't have like, like, likefamilial thing like, oh, I've
known him forever. I love him.
That's why I'm like supporting him.
That's why I care for him. Like that deep wooded bond.
(16:41):
I can't imagine I'm because I had anyone like that, No.
Like that Michael Shannon movie.I don't know what was it called
like years ago. It was like OG Gangs of Azibor
short gun stories. Really good.
It was basically the same thing how generations kind of just go
after vengeance because of one stupid decision.
But that's a. Old like old fashioned western
(17:02):
trope. Yeah, it is.
And people will like. Travel like 3000 miles in the
desert to find you because of something you did 74 years ago?
Yeah. And and and Nishanshi too.
The the climax I thought definitely heard and Yomorik
only in the background score a little bit when she like pulls
the trigger on Ambeka Prasad. Yeah, that is.
(17:22):
So, so theatrical, right? There is no requirement for her
to pretend as if she's shooting game.
Yeah, it's like good the bad, the ugly, right?
Yeah, only like they're playing.In the world, they're like, no
requirement for that. She's like fully leaning into
it. Even W is leaning into it.
He's like pull, I'm like by Kuchni.
But like I don't know if that was envisioned like in an
(17:44):
alternate universe where North Indian audience was more cinema
literate and like were like actually going to theaters to
watch movies that aren't like War Two or something.
Then that moment is like full Khadeo Kitali Maro type thing.
Not designed for that. But unfortunately, like it's
just Duff now or somewhere in Prime Video and you have to like
physically type it in to find because it could not.
(18:05):
Show but I don't understand if you like for some reason like I
haven't gone since I watched themovie.
For the first four days after the release, Nishanji was
trending in prima do, but Nishanji too was not.
It was not which I don't know what their news.
So either people are taking off forever to finish the first part
of this blog. Admittedly I will give them
that, that's why they haven't got to the second part.
But to be honest people watch like 8 episodes back-to-back and
(18:27):
new shows come out. So 115 minute movie is basically
3 episodes less than that. So I don't know why have they
not got into the second part in the four days the.
Only logical answer is that people are simply not watching
the second part or more the conspiracy leaning 1 is that
Amazon does not want you to see the second part.
Yeah. So like unless you type it in
yeah, literally because you willsee end of Part 1 at the end of
(18:50):
the first movie, like or you'll be or you'll be long gone.
Like genuinely, yeah. Like you, if you make it to the
part of make it to the end of the first part, then that's the
only way you will know that there's a second part because
otherwise there is no, no, like no, it's not like Akbar Mein
Aarahi or anything people that is.
No one has taken over the front page of any newspaper to
promote. Our entire new movie has come
(19:10):
out on Prime Video. So unless you follow Anurag
Kashyap and his post happens to be on your timeline or you see.
Some 3 or 4 News articles that have covered this.
Yeah, there is no way. The most people won't even know
that Nishanthi to exist honestly.
Annoying thing, right? Like Prime.
It's not like Amazon is lacking for money because they made two
of these movies which must have cost a lot, and then to refrain
(19:31):
from marketing the second one just because the first one did
not make money in theaters is stupendously stupid.
Listen, I'm the fully going withthe conspiracy that is kinder
UPCM assassination sub plotter. And it was screened like
secretly for some audience. And they were like, not a
pooping of it. And I was like, we don't want
another Thunder on our hands. So let's just quietly.
Exit her. So please don't call him CM,
(19:54):
call him party leader or something.
Yeah, and just like exit from gully left.
And please don't kill him. Sniper say, you know, but that's
the reason. Yeah, for his foolishness.
By the way, just struck me. You can't kill ACM with Upika CM
Sniper say you'll get murdered. OK, that's all for this episode
of a Long Take. You can follow us on Facebook
(20:15):
Threads, YouTube and Instagram at the Long Take Pod.
You can write to us at the Long Take pod@gmail.com.
Please leave us a rating and a where episode and we will see
you next week. Thanks for listening.
Bye.
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