Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film 3.5 out of 5, writing that the melancholic tone of the movie is "leavened with nostalgia for the receding light; the pessimistic air is tempered with lingering hope of regeneration; the hard, meditative edge is softened by sustained humanism," further praising Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who Chatterjee says, redoubles the treat as "a private investigator who is more lost than the prodigals he is tasked to find...and is absolutely brilliant in this parable of pain and pining. The actor's captivating, acutely angular interpretation of a man who darts seamlessly back and forth between earnestness and resignation and Dasgupta's mastery over the medium make Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa a must watch."^[6] The Free Press Journal's Shubha Shetty (4/5 stars) felt that the script was "out of the ordinary as it offers a myriad of strange experiences even while narrating Anwar’s story...Most frames of the film (Diego Ramero) are rich with innumerable stories happening in the background and thus adding depth to the narration."^[10] "Filled with Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s trademark travelling and tracking shots, evocative locations and philosophical characters, the movie is sometimes lyrical, sometimes stagey, and at all times anchored by its leading man," said Nandini Ramnath in her review of the movie for the Scroll.in.^[11] Shubhra Gupta (2/5 stars), reviewing the movie for the Indian Express, wrote disappointedly, "The film looks like it has been yanked out of oblivion because Nawaz and Tripathi are now saleable names. There are only momentary patches in which you recognise Dasgupta’s distinctive signature, this medley of characters, and a mix of the real and the bizarre."^[12]

• Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa at IMDb