Legendary Stuff. Review on Gangs Of Wasseypur

Thanks to all the critical acclaim heaped on this film, by the time I saw this film my expectations from it were sky high......and I was beginning to think it was a case of overhype. But by the time the film got over and I sat through the credits, waiting for the trailer of the second part, I was in cinephile heaven :)

The utterly contemptible Bollywood offerings of the last few months which had kept me away from theatres and glued to the dvd player are a thing of the past. Not only does this film make up for ALL that trash, it offers a second part next month. Goody!

The film is narrated in the voice of Piyush Mishra who plays an important character in the film...he tells the story of a decades old conflict in an area called Wasseypur which is close to the coal city of Dhanbad and terms it a Mahabharat of the Muslims. That seems to be an apt metaphor as the film unfolds....an epic saga of revenge that involves many interesting characters and sub-plots. However there are no good guys and bad guys, no morally superior side in this particular story. All are uniformly base and are driven by motivations of greed, power and lust. Which means you suspend all judgement of characters and enjoy them for their own idiosyncrasies.

The central character is played by Manoj Bajpai. He has shaved his head as a child, promising himself that he will grow it back only when he has avenged his father's murder. His father, Shahid Khan, who was forced to flee Wasseypur for infringing on the "looting rights" of the powerful Qureshis, is a coal miner who rises to being a supervisor and is valued for his ability to be ruthless by the mine owner - Ramadhir Singh. But on realising that Shahid Khan is disloyal, Ramadhir has him killed.

The son, Sardar Khan, is played by Bajpai. Ramadhir, is played by Tigmanshu Dhulia who puts in a surprisingly able performance. His polite appearance on the outside is superbly contrasted with his fury over his sons inept handling of things. Besides these two, there are a host of other characters, all wonderfully etched on celluloid by the director. The two wives of Sardar Khan are perhaps the most unique female characters in Bollywood history. Richa Chaddha as Nagma, the perpetually pregnant and loud wife is a riot.

Kashyap lavishes quite a few scenes on the nuances of these two women in this film even though they are peripheral characters in the revenge plot. These provide the much needed relief in a relentlessly violent film. (The violence is not deliberately creepy however, like the type you come across in the recent RGV films) The women are as foul-mouthed and aggressive as the men, which should hardly come as a surprise. The second wife uses her buxom appeal to her own advantage while Nagma is the ever-loyal wife. Kashyap is a master at taking a stereotype and completely subverting it, (like his brilliant DevD) and here he does the same with the women. I loved the depiction of both the women. Here they are only as much the victims as are the macho men, caught in a raw world of illiterate poverty that has absolutely nothing to redeem it. Except a few distractions like Bollywood.

The people of Wasseypur are stll watching Amitabh Bachchan's films and sporting his hairstyle in the late eighties. The second generation, consisting of Sardar Khan's sons, is given a few scenes in this first installment of the film. His younger son, Faisal, played by the fine actor Nawazuddin Siddique, is to be the heir and the leading character of the second part.

The lingo of the film is simply crackling. Almost every other scene is a memorable one because of the original dialogue-writing.

The real star of this film is of course Anuraag Kashyap. I can't say I have come across any of the characters he has depicted in the film. I belong to the urban minority in this country....most films talk about urban people or attitudes and convey our beliefs. But hardly ever is the voice of the actual Indian heard on screen. To give a real account of their lives, without forcing an unreal standard on them, is what Kashyap always manages to do. What is movie-making after all if it is not about an honest expression of your understanding of the world you live in? Good for Kashyap and good for us then that somehow this is making enough commercial sense to indulge in.

(Wait till after the credits for the trailer of the second part.)

A rant:

I find it annoying to hear people whine about the use of cuss words or the fact that "unnecessary" violence is depicted. There is a mountain of crap being produced which eschews reality in favour of characters who are either good or bad and the likes of who one will never encounter anywhere, ever. If escapist cinema is your cup of tea, fine, go ahead and pay money to watch that. Almost every development in such films, including the melodrama, the naach gaana, is "unnecessary" as far as Iam concerned. But I can see how people, tired of the actual ugliness of life in a poor country like ours will want to see some pretty pictures for their entertainment. But that does not give them the right to criticise real films made by people who have a genuine creative input to give. I was glad to see some collegians leave the theatre midway during this film. At least they did not sit around giggling or whispering.

You don't get it, or like it, please leave. The promos should have left you in no doubt as to what kind of film you were walking into......but I have myself walked out of films like Agneepath. There are all kinds of products out there. Everything does not have to agree with your taste.