Dobaaraa movie review: It’s a shocker from Anurag Kashyap, Taapsee Pannu, 5 stars

Dobaaraa
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Pavail Gulati, Rahul Bhat, Saswata Chatterjee
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Rating: 5/5

I am anyway an Anurag Kashyap fan and have been cheering for his brand of cinema since long. Dobaaraa still shocked me, even when I had watched the Spanish original Mirage just 48 hours ago. This is the best time-loop Hindi film of all time. Truth be told, it shouldn’t be compared with films like Baar Baar Dekho, Action Replayy, Love Story 2050 and Fun2shh. Just wait for some time and you’ll see how Dobaaraa has inspired a braver and multi-layered storytelling in Hindi. 

From a kid paddling his bicycle a la The Shining in the sinister bylanes of Pune’s Hinjewadi to its leads sheepishly smiling on their own dark jokes, this film has a lot to decode. It looks like a murder mystery at the first glance, but it’s much more than that. For one, it’s a story about compromises and inner demons. Surprisingly, no mental illness has been seriously hinted at any point, and that works immensely in the film’s favour. You, sort of, start believing in a sci-fi like narrative that distracts you with abrupt comments about radio frequency or the Terminator. 

It's intelligent filmmaking, so the director wouldn’t let you fall for any obvious reasoning! Your senses and the understanding of Hindi cinema would be challenged every 15-20 minutes. Furthermore, it’s so much Indian in its treatment and context that you can’t even blame the lack of exposure for not giving it a chance. It’s fast, dark, exciting and disruptive. I am still wondering how a Kashyap film is not at all disturbing despite a kid and a woman talking to each other through an old television set! 

Taapsee’s unwavering focus on making her character not look schizophrenic (in cinematic sense), but as a woman struggling to find the reality of her life, is her finest performance till date. It’s not like one character blooming through many layers, but many layers bringing out many dimensions of many characters of one person. Sounds complicated? Well, there is a Christopher Nolan joke in the film for your reference!

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It doesn’t feel like an overdose of information or events despite so many things happening at once. It has been achieved with great cross-cutting and a superlative background score. Editor Aarti Bajaj and composer Shor Police have made the film what it is!

I know I have been praising it all along, but one more person who should be credited for better than the original adaptation is Nihit Bhave (Choked).  

Seeing is believing, because you wouldn’t actually believe me otherwise. It’s another trendsetting slash cult film by Anurag Kashyap. If it doesn’t get its due now, it will surely after some years. Don’t just keep shouting Hindi cinema still stuck in the ‘80s but help promote the ‘different’ stuff when it’s actually served with a lot of heart and bravado. 

Easily the best film I have seen this year, all language included.