Anurag Kashyap made Wasseypur famous in 2012. Thirteen years later, he’s giving Kanpur its own larger-than-life screen persona. Set in the 2000s, Nishaanchi is an ode to the city and to its people’s refusal to ever break character, even mid-brawl. Gen Z may have invented the term ‘unserious’, but Kanpuriyas have been living it since times immemorial.
The seed was there in Gangs of Wasseypur, when Faizal (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) sets off to Kanpur to find a sniper. In the Kashyapverse, Kanpur is like Wasseypur with more wisecracks, where crime is slick but with dollops of desi humour.
In recent years, Uttar Pradesh has been an endless preoccupation in both films and popular OTT shows, be it crime sagas like Mirzapur and Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhein, or comedies such as Shubh Mangal Saavdhan and Bareilly ki Barfi. With Nishaanchi, Kashyap adds a tadka that is quintessentially his own.
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Steady meme material
Nishaanchi is a tale of two brothers, Babloo and Dabloo (both played by Aaishvary Thackeray), their mother Manjari (Monika Panwar), a local strongman Ambika ji (Kumud Mishra), and a love interest, Rinku (Vedika Pinto). How their lives collide in crime, comedy, and chaos is Kashyap’s latest magnum opus—and this is only the first part of a franchise.’
The film’s dialogues are a dictionary of Kanpur, where wheeling-dealing and humour share the same DNA. All the characters treat the world like a stage, to borrow from Shakespeare. Every scene, big or small, gets a witty one-liner.
Be it a policeman grilling a robber or a sleaze trying his luck with his friend’s wife, each and every character churns out meme material. The film could be a promotional video for Kanpur tourism— if the droll gaalis could make it past censors. Kashyap starts an inside joke with Nishaanchi, which people from the region will smirk at and others will clap for.
By way of greeting, Babloo tells his brother: Tum toh s**le gai ho gaye ho bey. Doodh woodh dena shuru kiye ho ke nai?—You have become docile like a cow. Do you lactate as well?
The word ‘jackfruit’ has a whole other meaning. In one scene, Rinku, annoyed by Babloo’s stalking, snaps: Mere jackfruit pe welcome likha hai jo peeche-peeche ghum rahe ho?—Has someone written ‘welcome’ on my behind that you’re following me around? He replies deadpan: “I don’t know what’s written.”
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A legacy of bakaiti
Every few years, a film about the city’s idiosyncrasies reminds one why Kanpur has such main character energy. Think of Tanuja Trivedi (Kangana Ranaut) in Tanu Weds Manu: the Delhi University pass-out who won the heart of dil ka doctor Manu Sharma (R Madhavan) and the audience with her antics and dialogues.
The Kanpur girl became such a hit that a sequel followed, with even more wisecracks. In 2019 came Bala, a satire on male pattern baldness and masculinity, although Kanpur was just the backdrop. After that, crime took over and comedy took a backseat. Other UP towns came to the fore for their grit and underbelly.
Kashyap, however, puts the city centre-stage. It’s a way of thinking, living, speaking. Nishaanchi, with its Nokia 1100s, its references to the best poori-subji joints, its nautch culture, and trigger-happy youngsters whose mouths run faster than their guns, is a millennial love letter to Kanpur. It has gutka, jackfruit, hormones, and harmonium — all the ingredients that give the city its potent, unique identity.
Kanpur may not have grand monuments to boast of, but as long as it has its talent for bakaiti, it won’t need any.
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(Edited by Asavari Singh)