Psycho Raman (Raman Raghav 2.0) (2016)

I've always wondered why Bollywood films haven't found a bigger market in the West. They make an enormous amount of films and yet they rarely receive recognition by the Academy or in film festivals. If this movie is any indication of what other Indian films are, I think I might understand. It is vastly culturally different in terms of style from what we're used to. From an American perspective, it comes off as kind of tacky. You get a similar feeling watching some East Asian television shows but they seem to have assimilated to Western style in their films. This is a small thing, but I think a good example is the title sequence. No other movie I saw at Cannes had a title sequence. There is high octane energy. You can tell they put some budget into this title sequence that I didn't really care for. The acting style was also noticeably different. I didn't think the acting was very good. But all of the actors acted in a similar style that wasn't particularly expressive or exciting. It's one of those movies where you hate all of the characters, and the acting doesn't help make them any more likable. They don't shy away from gruesome images. This movie about a serial killer is expectedly violent. There are usually limits to what you show on screen, but they kind of just go for it.

I wasn’t really sure what to make of the plot. It seemed manufactured. Raman Raghav is a reference to a real Indian serial killer, but this is not about him. That is made clear from the beginning. Maybe something was lost in translation, but the title seemed totally insignificant save to evoke fear. Raman needs his Raghav but isn't it one name?  I wasn't really buying the into the concept.

I do want to point out that the cast was the probably the most impeccably dressed cast I saw in Cannes.