“Gangs of Wasseypur” could well be Anurag Kashyap's best work so far; and that's setting the bar high for Hindi cinema. Everything seems to be in place in this film set squat in the heart of the coal mining industry and its inevitable accessory, the coal mafia. It has an epic scale, a blood-soaked story of three generations possessed by revenge, a talented cast of actors and a director whose cinematic vision and assurance promise to peak.
His raw material is an industry that has long been one of the most exploitative in India's impoverished swathes. The timing of this film's release in conjunction with that of the uncovering of the mining scams in Jharkand and Karnataka is the kind of luck that favours the brave. Kashyap has certainly earned this serendipitous political turn that gives his film an added edge and relevance. So many scenes are bound to cut close to the bone. (For the record, a Wasseypur does exist.) `
The film, when completed, was five hours 20 minutes long, so Kashyap has split it in two, both halves self-contained and whole in themselves. He ran both, back to back, at Cannes last month, and no one seems to have complained. The audience sat through till the gory end, with The Hollywood Reporter calling it “a piece of violent entertainment that never seems to run out of invention or bullets.”
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But back home in India, five hours plus is a length that the average moviegoer would find too daunting. So we will see Part I to begin with (when Part 2 will release seems to be a little hazy, though). The first film tells the story of dacoit Shahid Khan (Jaideep Ahlawat), who becomes a worker at a colliery. When he is killed by the owner, Ramadhir Singh (played, interestingly enough, by director Tigmanshu Dhulia), it sets off a blood-thirsty battle for revenge. Shahid's son, Sardar Khan (Manoj Bajpayee) shaves off his hair and vows to stay that way till he has avenged his father's death. He becomes the dark lord of Wasseypur, with four sons to carry on his murderous legacy.
If you've seen any of Kashyap's earlier films, you'll have a pretty good idea what this one should be like. The mood is more “Gulaal” than “Dev D”, it will hark back to “Black Friday” and “Satya” (the landmark film directed by Ram Gopal Varma which Kashyap co-wrote with Saurabh Shukla). Though the film has a number of songs and what the director calls “spicy humour”, this may not be an easy film to watch. But it should be a rewarding one.
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Gangs of Wasseypur
Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Piyush Mishra, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Yashpal Sharma, Jaideep Ahlawat, Richa Chaddha, Reema Sen and others
Director: Anurag Kashyap
Releases: June 22, 2012