You can watch the full movie on various streaming platforms: Available on Netflix and Eros Now. Digital Purchase: Accessible through the Apple TV Store .
He discovers that the "Anwar" he protects so fiercely—his pride, his pain, his precious identity—is a story told by neurons. Underneath the story, there is only awareness watching awareness. Ajab , indeed.
The name Anwar means "luminous," "radiant," or "one who carries light." And so, Anwar ka Ajab Kissa —"The Strange Tale of Anwar"—is not merely a story of a man. It is the allegory of anwar ka ajab kissa
In short, Anwar ka Ajab Kissa is not just a story about a man trying to commit suicide; it is a philosophical exploration of what it means to be human in a chaotic world. It uses the device of the "strange" to reveal the deeper truths of reality.
The story revolves around , a private detective who lives a solitary life with his dog in a rented room in Kolkata. You can watch the full movie on various
In the landscape of modern Indian cinema, where narratives often chase grand resolutions or gritty realism, Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa (Sniffer) stands out as a whimsical, melancholic outlier. It is an essay on the beauty of being lost, a film that captures the quiet desperation of a man who looks for everyone else’s truth because he cannot face his own. The film follows Anwar, played with a fragile, wide-eyed brilliance by Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Anwar is a small-time private detective in Kolkata, but he is far from the Sherlockian archetype. He doesn't wear a deerstalker; he wears a misplaced sense of purpose. Accompanied by his only true confidant—a Labrador named Lalu—Anwar spends his days peeking through keyholes and following unfaithful spouses. The "interesting" core of the film lies in the irony of Anwar's profession. A detective’s job is to uncover secrets, to bring things to light. Yet, Anwar is a man living in the shadows of his own past. He is a romantic in a cynical world, a man who treats his cases with a misplaced sense of empathy. He doesn't just watch his subjects; he starts to care for them, often sabotaging his own investigations to protect the very people he is supposed to expose. Dasgupta uses the sprawling, decaying beauty of Kolkata to mirror Anwar’s internal state. The city is not just a backdrop; it is a labyrinth of memory. As Anwar wanders into the rural heartlands of Bengal to solve a case, the film transitions from a quirky detective flick into a surrealist journey of the soul. The line between reality and dream blurs—a hallmark of Dasgupta’s style—as Anwar encounters ghosts from his childhood and the haunting silhouette of a lost love (Pankaj Tripathi, in a brief but piercing role). What makes
The fan admonishes Anwar, questioning his decision and engaging him in a dialogue. Through this interaction, the story shifts into a magical realist narrative. The fan (and later other inanimate objects) offers commentary on life, society, and the human condition. Anwar begins to see the world through a different lens, where the boundaries between the animate and inanimate blur, revealing the absurdity of social structures and the resilience required to live. Underneath the story, there is only awareness watching
He realizes that the past is a ghost, the future a rumor, and the present—this single, slippery second—is all he will ever own. Yet he lives as though he owns centuries.