Aug 09, 2012 04:13 PM
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Annointed.Anuraag Kashyap as the best film director in Bollywood.ever! Dev D and Gulaal have previously ranked among my favourite hindi films and now GOW clinches it.
Mostly I just feel like repeating "whatta film". But will attempt more detail and coherence. The film has been divided into two parts because of its length, even though the second part seamlessly starts from where the first part ended - with Sardar Khans death. But the second part is distinctly different from the first because the main leads in the two parts have such different personalities and they dominate each film - Bajpai in the first and Nawazuddin in the second. Also, the second part is a more direct account of more recent times and does not seem as "historical". Politics in both the films is subtly but insistently important. However, because the film is ostensibly about the people involved, their personal quirks and characterisations, one almost misses this aspect.
Nawazuddin as Faizal, the reluctant but perfectly capable heir to Sardar Khan is as good as Manoj Bajpai. Reed thin and addicted to charas, Faizal is unblinkingly confident as the laid-back yet ruthless don. The scenes with his wife Mohsina, played by Huma Qureshi, provide much of the gentler, humorous scenes in the film. As a small town girl, quite film starrish in her looks but no-nonsensical in her approach, she is quite adorable. And like Manoj Bajpai, in the previous film, Nawazuddin too is the kind of hero one likes without sympathising with. The lack of a morally superior side is rare in most stories and probably unique in Bollywood. One cannot really dislike the nemesis of the Khans here - Ramadhir Singh is perhaps the least villainous villain - the bloodlust of the Khans seems a thing derived from mindless machismo, loyalty and the result of actions that are far from right or justifiable.
With names like Perpendicular, Tangent and Definite, the film makes merry with characterising the new entrants to the game which becomes more coherently about grabbing power. "Definite" as the brother-from-anothe-rmother has the most incredulously original chase scene in the film. The whole treatment of the film is so original. There are no precedents to this sort of characterisation or narration. Kashyap said in an interview that the girlnextdoor is the exact opposite of the kind of girl he would find interesting. I feel every character in his story is the exact opposite of the stereotype. He goes beyond grey.almost rubbishing the idea that there is something special about the grey.
The music of the film deserves a special mention again. Sneha Khanwalkar is a mine of talent. I dont know who the lyricist is but cchhechha leather with lines like "woh mujhse puchhe whether I like the weather" is a winner. As are all the other songs like coal, coal, coal.
When Mohsina hums to Faizal "jo bhi wrongwa hai usse set right karo ji", I was wondering why we need shakespearean heros with their grand dilemmas when this charas-puffing, amoral, underwhelming looker with his petty lineage could make us feel as searingly for the "human condition". The answer to that I guess is that you need the conviction of a Kashyap to be able to project such depth without resorting to larger than life props.
