The concluding part of Anurag Kashyap’s Nishaanchi has landed directly on Prime Video. Part one, released in cinemas on September 25, is also out on the streaming platform.

Nishaanchi follows the fate of identical twins Babloo and Dabloo (Aaishvary Thackeray), their love for the same woman, and their encounter with a double-dealing politician. Babloo is the more aggressive of the brothers, with enough swagger to compensate for Dabloo’s shyness.

In the first movie, Babloo works for Ambika Prasad (Kumud Mishra) as one of his enforcers, but then falls out with his mentor and lands in prison. Dabloo, who has fallen for Babloo’s girlfriend Rinku (Vedika Pinto), replaces his twin as Rinku’s lover – a development eased along by the revelation of a secret that Babloo has been concealing from Rinku.

The sequel jumps ahead by a decade. Babloo is out of jail, eager to mend fences with his long-suffering mother Manjiri (Monika Panwar), Dabloo and Rinku. But Dabloo and Rinku have moved on, as has Manjiri, in her own fashion.

A storm is exciting for a while, but it leaves devastation in its wake, Dabloo tells his sibling. Nishaanchi 2, written by Kashyap, Prasoon Mishra and Ranjan Chandel, always lands a sharp line even in the most ordinary scene.

Babloo tries to move on too, striking up a sexy romance with social media influencer Anjana (Erika Jason). Ambika Prasad refuses to leave the family alone, unleashing corrupt cop Kamal Ajeeb (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) on Babloo when the ace shooter looks like he will finally walk the straight and narrow path.

Anurag Kashyap’s latest project finds him in response-tribute-analysis mode. Kashyap and his co-writers cherry pick plot beats, emotional cues and archetypal characters from Indian and Hollywood films about revenge and redemption, while also trying to put a fresh spin on deeply familiar material.

Nishaanchi 2 moves away from the template on occasion, especially over the question of Babloo’s salvation. At times, it appears that the makers will ignore the Chekovian guns that are scattered around and aim for something different.

By the end of both films – which total five hours and 35 minutes – Nishaanchi has delivered parts that are compelling in of themselves but don’t add up to a whole. The movies are redeemed by quotable lines of earthy dialogue, strong standalone moments and subtle performances.

Aaishvary Thackeray is in top form as the heartbroken, confused Babloo who wants to set things right but doesn’t know how to. Thackeray has much of the sequel to himself and he makes the most of it, ably distinguishing between both his characters.

Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub is suitably chilling, making dire threats through a mouth that’s often stuffed with food or paan. Vedika Pinto’s dancer Rinku scatters attitude around, especially in the scene in which Rinku channels her inner Jennifer Lopez and makes a hapless assistant wait forever while shooting a music video.

Both movies too take their time in reaching their destination. Might Nishaanchi have been more effective as a lengthy but single film that sacrificed some of the songs and cut to the chase? Or might a limited series have better suited the story’s sprawl, done justice to its episodic structure and its multiple characters?

The questions are as inevitable as the film’s conclusion is predictable. Nishaanchi 2 improves on its predecessor in certain respects, but falls prey to the same plotting exigencies present in the films that have inspired it. The formula that Nishaanchi sets out to tweak proves to be stubbornly resistant to experimentation.

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