Nawazuddin Siddiqui in and as Raman Raghav 2.0: Chilling, unnerving and convincing, all at once

In Anurag Kashyap’s words, Siddiqui never stands out in the crowd, but when he is on the screen, it is nearly impossible to look away. And you tend to agree when the camera pans away from him to provide a look at the surroundings. Through that brief period, lasting not more than 10 seconds, you’re nervous about what’s to come next from a man who can best be described as a chameleon of emotions. He goes from yelling, crying, and desperate to be released from a locked room to being extremely calm, almost nonchalant, a moment later. It is unsettling, it gives you the heebie-jeebies and yet, you’re hooked.

Raman Raghav 2.0 is not a perfect serial killer drama. But it is Nawazuddin who makes the movie a fascinating watch that skims the depths of human darkness without revelling in it. He kills with an iron rod. He has no bias in gender or age while picking his victims. After every sickening blow, he writes about it in a little red diary and moves on to his next target, with deranged eyes sizing up his next victim.

We have seen gruesome murderers in movies but maybe none as horrifying as the ones showcased by Nawaz. The closest I feel is actor Pradeep Rawat as Ghajini Dharmatma in Ghajini (2008) but he smashes Asin’s head with an iron rod with a purpose. He kills with rage in his eyes but Nawaz maintains his composure because for him killing is as normal as “eating food.”

“Nawazuddin Siddiqui got dengue (during the shoot) and he was in the hospital. While in the hospital, he was constantly blabbering lines from Raman Raghav as if he was literally living the character. He was on high fever and his wife called me, ‘What have you done to him? He’s just talking non-stop, lines from the movie’ and I got scared, he was really affected by it. He becomes like that. He likes to live there, he likes to stay there, he actually prefers that world, he escapes into that world,” Anurag Kashyap once said.

Kashyap’s every word about Nawaz rings true. The actor genuinely inhabited the world of Ramanna while playing the character. In Raman Raghav 2.0, we don’t see gruesome acts of violence as dead bodies or bloodshed. But there’s a creeping, chilling horror at the centre of Nawaz’s performance. The ease with which he details his first murder is even more terrifying than if we had to watch the death on screen. His crimes make him a less of a human and his confessions, in which he alleges he has been asked to murder on God’s orders, make him a psychopath.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui in a still from Raman Raghav 2.0.

Coming from Manjhi: The Mountain Man, a powerful portrayal of human will in which he played a young, hopeful man, Nawazuddin showcases the scope of his range in Raman Raghav 2.0. Arguably, the widest range of his art is when he visits his sister (Amruta Subhash).

Desperate, hungry and unkept, he reminds his sister that he’s visiting for the first time in seven years only because he genuinely needs help. Nawaz says this with so much conviction that you are convinced he means no harm. He is just a man in need of basic amenities like food and shelter.

In the scene before this, he also convinced us that he wished to leave the world of crime and surrendered to the police. It is a failure on the part of the cops to not believe him, pushing him back into the murk. He cleans up and wears fresh clothes. Not long after, he bashes the heads of his sister, her husband and their six-year-old son. So, you go from feeling sympathetic towards him to being completely disgusted with him in just one sequence. Such is the proficiency of Nawazuddin’s craft. He delivers a heart-rendering performance that manages to humanise him just enough without ever excusing what he did.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s film career can be a case study of how to perfect the art of all things grey. He established his place in films as a remarkable craftsman with his portrayal of local goon Faizal Khan in Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs of Wasseypur. His portrayal of a bank robber Liak in Badlapur, a powerful criminal overlord, Ganesh Gaitonde in Sacred Games, and a typical villain in Kick, left us all a bit scared of him. But, for me, Ramanna will remain one of the more memorable grey characters played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui over a long and fruitful career.

Nawaz, in an interview with Film Companion, had shared that he lived in a shady hotel in the interiors of Lonavala to get into the skin of his character in Raman Raghav 2.0. Over the three days that he lived in that hotel, he convinced himself that he can kill someone easily. And, finally, when he walked out on the streets, his stare made the villagers awkward. Well, after watching him as dreadful Ramanna, even I feel scared. I would probably change lanes if there’s this cold, deathly stare coming towards me. That’s the power of his performance as Ramanna.