Bleeding brilliance in almost every frame, breathing fire through every available orifice that the characters possess, and whipping up a kind of frenzied flamboyant bloodshed that was once associated with the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, Gangs Of Wasseypur is, briefly, one huge gang-bang. No protection provided. From its bludgeoning opening when merciless marauders ambush a powerful enemy’s fortress-like home with army-like meticulousness, Gangs Of Wasseypur takes us into a world where compassion is a dinosaur, forgiveness a faux pas, and kindness an unforgivable sin.
Welcome to Kashyap’s Wasseypur. This is no country for the weak-hearted. Country-made guns go off without warning, bombs are hurled from two-wheelers that have seen better days, and abuses fly out even faster than the bullets. If you are the kind of moviegoer who doesn’t enjoy hearing and seeing the unimaginable things that can be done to various parts of the human anatomy, then I suggest you try something more sugary and safe.
The world of Wasseypur is soaked in blood and revenge. The mafia in one form or another rules the little town. To mainstream Hindi moviegoers this is not an unknown territory. At least 4 other recent films, all remarkable in their own right — Paan Singh Tomar, Ishaqzaade, Rowdy Rathore and Shanghai — have hurled audiences right into the notorious anarchy of the North Indian small-town where the barrel of the gun speaks an irresistible language of mayhem.
It’s a strangely dichotomous world where music and songs (Sneha Khanwalk) mock the characters’ subverted hero-giri. While the characters indulge in their unmanned violence, we the audience become numbed participants in the rites of the wrong-doing. Unlike the other Bihar-UP-mein-bawandar films, the almost-ritualistic slaughter of all rules of civil conduct in Gangs Of Wasseypur is not redeemed by the presence of any hero. Even the main protagonist in Kashyap’s bloodthirsty saga is a certifiable rogue named Sardar Khan.
As played by Manoj Bajpayee in what is arguably his most feisty and filled-out performance to date, Sardar Khan is a second-generation criminal and social outcast. In the film’s unforgettable prologue, Sardar’s father (Jaideep Ahlawat, incredibly in-character) serves as a henchman to the powerful local politician (Tigmanshu Dhulia). Politician has Daddy killed by a hired assassin who could be teaching social science in a village school, and Sonny-boy grows up swearing revenge.
This in a nutshell, could be the plot for a cheesy 1980s’ potboiler. In taking the grammar and language of the formulistic vendetta drama from the 1970s and 80s (there’s even a broad and prominent homage to the Big B in Yash Chopra’s Trishul) and converting it into a crackling saga of compelling contemporary currency, Anurag Kashyap turns all the rules of mainstream Hindi cinema on its head. He uses the language of Manmohan Desai and Narinder Bedi’s cinema. But he applies these to characters who are as far removed from the world of escapism as Sicily is from Wasseypur.
Kashyap’s mode of storytelling, and the way his characters loom over the proceedings without becoming caricatural, are frighteningly original and as liberated of reference-points as any of the path-breaking films on gang wars that have emerged out of Hollywood in the last 25 years.
Kashyap celebrates the grammar of the grotesque with the relish of a 7-‘coarse’ meal. No details in the non-stop brutality are kept off camera. We can count the number of thuds and stabbing sounds every time a victim is cornered and done to death. Violence on this level has never really been a part of mainstream Hindi cinema before. The end of cinematic niceties is here. Take it or leave it.
Kashyap in Wasseypur legitimizes gore with glorious gusto. In the gang-war that he portrays with such feral immediacy, victims are chopped up piece by piece, their body parts sent to the butcher’s to eliminate legal evidence. A finger floating in a cesspool of stale blood is a commonplace sight in the world of unchecked mayhem that Kashyap has constructed with such casual resplendence. His team of technicians are unconditionally mired in the mood of violence. Rajeev Ravi’s camera mows through the imaginary world of Wasseypur with a devilish dispassion.
The film looks layered and even luminous in texture. But the tone of narration is detached. The dereliction of the damned and doomed characters is neither romanticized nor demonized. Indeed, Gangs Of Wasseypur invents a new language of cinematic expression. It creates a world where the characters inhabit a universe of vapid stagnant violence. And yet the narration, never short of breath even in the most breathless state of violence, exudes a kind of vibrancy that comes from neither rejection nor acceptance of an undesirable situation. It comes from within the characters. As they battle each other in bitter futile feuds, they also seem to be battling the demons within themselves. The synthesis of what lies within and without is devastating. And yet for all its outward show of ruthless machismo, Gangs Of Wasseypur is a film with a heart. There is a rather enticing love story featuring Bajpayee, his screen wife (debutante Richa Chadha), and the Other Woman (Reema Sen) tucked away in the folds of the ferocious tale.
That Bajpayee’s wife is played by firebrand Richa Chadha is a very happy happening in this sad but savagely funny tale. She is quite the discovery of the year, and that too in a film mottled with exceptional performances by Bajpayee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui as his son (more of him in Wasseypur 2), Tigmanshu Dhulia (clenched, controlled and combative as the villain in chief), Pankaj Tripathi (riveting as Bajpayee’s belligerent enemy), Piyush Mishra (remarkably restrained and wise as Bajpayee’s mentor and guide), and Huma Qureshi (another whammy performer whom we will see more of in the sequel).
In fact, every character, big or small, is cast with what looks like first-and-last options. You can’t imagine any other actor playing any of the myriad parts. Brutal, brilliant, dark, sinister, terrifying in its violence and yet savagely funny in the way human life is disregarded, Gangs Of Wasseypur is one helluva romp into the raw and rugged heartland. Not to be missed. I can’t wait to see the sequel. But be warned. Avoid meals half an hour before and after viewing.
Recalling the experience of shooting of Gangs Of Wasseypur, Manoj in an exclusive interaction says, “When Anurag Kashyap showed me the final edit, that was the time I realised that we have something very unique, something that audience is going to talk about for a very long time because there was nothing about it that could be compared with anything else.”
Manoj recalls floating in midair after seeing the final edit of Gangs Of Wasseypur. “I was quite excited. I went home, I still remember that, went home, giggling inside somewhere. I felt that whatever we set out to do, we achieved a lot in terms of the craft. And also the collaboration has really managed to pull off something which was looking impossible and so difficult.”
Manoj singles out his costars for praise. “I had a chance to get introduced to such great talents like Richa Chadha, Huma Qureshi, Zeishan Quadri… Pankaj Tripathi I’ve known very closely. Then Vipin Sharma was there. Vipin I’ve known for a long time, from my theatre days. Tigmanshu Dhulia, I was meeting after a long time. And also it was great to see Nawazuddin creating magic. Huma with him was quite a revelation. And Richa was working with me and she had so many scenes. It has been an unforgettable experience and all of those people who worked, they are still very good friends. And all of us take great pride, not only in the film but also in the manner we have really gone ahead and really managed to pull it off.”
Interestingly, Manoj Bajpayee did not speak to Anurag Kashyap for eighteen years due to a misunderstanding during the shooting of Gangs Of Wasseypur. Manoj was so furious with Kashyap that he had chased him down with a stone in his hand.
Says Manoj, “The shoot itself was very difficult. Too many incidents happened which can only be written in a book. It can’t be part of an interview.”
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