Amazon MGM Studios, Jar Pictures and Flip Films’ Nishaanchi (UA) is the story of twin brothers and how they adopt different paths in life.
Babloo and Dabloo (both played by Aishvary) are twins born to wrestler Jabardast Singh (Vineet Kumar Singh) and Manjari (Monika Panwar). Jabardast Singh dies even when the twins are young. Manjari brings them up in difficult circumstances. Ambika Prasad (Girish Sharma) lusts for Manjari as she is very beautiful, but the latter keeps him in his place. As bad luck would have it, Babloo befriends Ambika Prasad and treats him like a mentor. Obviously, snubbed by Manjari, Ambika leads Babloo on the wrong path. As a child, Babloo is jailed for a crime. After growing up too, Babloo is in the world of crime and one day, he gets caught by the police in a bank robbery case. Babloo is put behind bars. His brother, Dabloo, and their mother are left to fend for themselves. Babloo, who calls himself Tony now, has a girlfriend, Rinku (Vedika Pinto). She is troubled by Ambika Prasad (elderly Ambika Prasad played by Kumud Mishra) but she is made of sterner stuff and doesn’t give in to his pressures. While Babloo is in jail, Rinku interacts with Dabloo.
What happens thereafter? Does Babloo come out of jail? Does the equation between the two brothers change? Does Rinku accept Babloo after he is released from prison? Does the equation between Babloo, Dabloo and their mother change? While Babloo and Ambika Prasad are together in their criminal activities, Babloo loves Rinku who detests Ambika Prasad. So what happens to the relationship between Babloo and Ambika Prasad?
Prasoon Mishra, Ranjan Chandel and Anurag Kashyap have written a story which is very rustic. Set in Uttar Pradesh, it has real characters. This and the milieu of U.P. created are what set the film apart from other films with similar storylines. The trio’s screenplay is fast-paced and energetic, keeping the audience involved and engaged in the drama. Because there are so many unpredictable twists and turns, the drama doesn’t let the viewers’ attention stray. Yes, there are some portions where the screenplay looks stretched, but even those parts don’t take away from the entertainment quotient because the drama soon becomes interesting after such lapses. The unpredictability of the proceedings, the Uttar Pradesh milieu and the rustic and realistic characters are the biggest plus points of the story and screenplay. Prasoon Mishra, Ranjan Chandel and Anurag Kashyap’s dialogues are a major plus point because they are not just real but are also very entertaining.
Aishvary makes an impressive debut in a double role. He plays Babloo and Dabloo with complete conviction and endears himself to the viewers with his free acting. Vedika Pinto enacts the role of Rinku with confidence and comes out a winner. Monika Panwar is excellent as Manjari. Her performance lifts her character to an appreciable level. Vineet Kumar Singh makes a fantastic mark in a brief role as Jabardast Singh. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub is first-rate as police officer Kamal Ajeeb. He is detestable (as is the need of his character) in the scene in which he manhandles Manjari. Kumud Mishra leaves a very fine impression as Ambika Prasad. Girish Sharma is lovely as the young Ambika Prasad. Rajesh Kumar has his moments as Bhola Pehelwan. Nitpreet Gorkhyal and Supreet Gorkhyal leave their marks as young Babloo and Dabloo respectively. Shubham Tiwari (as Hawa Hawai), Gaurav Singh (as Pankaj), Saharsh Kumar Shukla (as Purane), Bhupesh Kumar Singh (as the party president), Jaskaran Gandhi (as Suneel Pehelwan), Murari Kumar (as Baba Chandel), Rajendra Chaturvedi (as Masterji), Prateek Pachori (as Flunky), Durgesh Kumar (as the bank guard), Ghanshyam Garg (as the bank manager), and the others provide terrific support.
Anurag Kashyap’s direction is inspired. He seems to be in top form because his narration keeps the audience engrossed all through, and he has also extracted fantastic work from his artistes. Music (Manan Bharadwaj, Anurag Saikia, Dhruv Ghanekar, Nishikar Chibber, Piyush Mishra-Hitesh Sonik, Deepak-Parimal and Aishvary) is one of the big plus points of the film. The songs are very unusual but entertaining. Filam dekho, ‘Dear country’ and Birwa songs stand out, but the other numbers are also nice. Lyrics (Shashwat Dwivedi, Manan Bharadwaj, Dr. Sagar, Aishvary, Pyarelal Yadav, Varun Grover, Renu Chhibber, and traditional) go extraordinarily well with the mood of the film. Caesar Gonsalves’ choreography is lovely. Anurag Saikia’s background music is wonderful and enhances the impact of the scenes. Sylvester Fonseca’s cinematography deserves distinction marks. Amritpal Singh’s action and stunt scenes are truly realistic and thrilling. Vikram Singh’s production designing is just too lovely. Aarti Bajaj’s editing is super-sharp.
On the whole, Nishaanchi is an entertaining fare and deserves to score at the ticket windows. But it has taken a very slow start because of almost complete lack of awareness about the film as well as its release. Collections will pick up because of positive word of mouth, but the poor start will tell on the overall box-office performance. It is the kind of film which will be cherished for years together.
Released on 19-9-’25 at Inox (daily 3 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PEN Marudhar Cine Entertainment. Publicity: below the mark. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was not at all up to the mark.