DAYS after Anurag Kashyap’s Monkey in a Cage (Bandar) was showcased at the 50th edition of Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), crime drama Nishaanchi, yet another movie directed by him, released in Indian theatres in September. The world and narrative of these two movies are vastly different from each other. While Monkey in a Cage, headlined by Bobby Deol, is an unsettling examination of “ripple effects of #MeToo in digital-age India”, Nishaanchi is a Kashyap-coded crime romp set in Kanpur that aspires to go past the enduring popularity of Gangs of Wasseypur I and II (2012).

“Monkey in a Cage” came out of a reaction to what’s happening on social media. Within minutes, people go viral. Similarly, within minutes they are cancelled. I was not trying to make a #mentoo or #metoo film

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