My worry is that many who are not fond of Kashyap’s usual complex sensibility would like this latest move: They’ll applaud the fact that he’s going for the tear glands with brass knuckles on.

The tragedy of Mukkabaaz is not that it aims low; the tragedy is that it aims low and hits.

Based on a true story of a hotheaded pugilist who wants to prove he is better than everyone else in the ring, Mukkabaaz puts its fist in many pies: boxing, romance, caste wars, defiance and revenge. Anurag Kashyap brings alive small town Uttar Pradesh brilliantly. But the fist through so many pies laced with too many songs becomes a feast too difficult to digest.

…sadly, Mukkabaaz fails to pack a punch even if we look at it merely from the perspective of entertainment. Yes, the style is very much there but even that looks rather stale. But, the worst part is that just like in Raman Raghav 2.0, Anurag Kashyap seems to lack the clarity as to what it is that he is trying to tell us through his movie. The end result is a film that feels like a sermon lacking purpose and conviction.