Gangs of Wasseypur – Review

Set in the rustic, wild, rural land in Danbad district which shifted its address from pre-independence Bengal, later to Bihar and now in Jharkand is blessed with minerals. The exploitation of coal is actually at the cost of the exploitation of poverty and illiterate local population which leads to proliferation of blood, gore and the might of machetes and bullets in collusion with political class, bureaucracy, and the rogues. The seeds of revenge are sowed in the tiny hamlet of Wasseypur when Shahid Khan is outcasted after crossing lines with the local gangster and impersonating as legendary Sultana Daku. He then joins as the pehlwan of Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia), a local mafia. Sensing Shahid Khan’s larger ambitions of becoming a mafia himself, he eliminates him one day, when he takes him out of home, only to not return forever. Shahid khan’s kid, Sardar Khan is whisked away by his uncle escaping the knives of Ramdadhir Singh’s men who were send to eliminate the family. Sardar Khan grows up in Danbad with only revenge in thoughts and action and sports a shaved head which he swears will be bald till he takes revenge on Ramadhir Singh. Time shifts. Ramadhir Singh grows up to be a politician and a MLA now, while Sardar Khan his nemesis engineers himself to become a ruthless, cold-blooded gangster. Amidst all the butchery and gore,  the film also delves into the timeline of Sardar Khan’s family life with his marriage first to Nagma (Richa Chadda) and his second marriage with Durga (Reema Sen) and his children.

As much blood is spilled without any remorse or sin, expletives fires out of the mouth at free will adding to the rustic and darker shades of the movie. Sneha Khanwalkar’s folk music and GV Prakash’s gripping, rustic background music is the strong pillar of the movie along with Rajeev Ravi’s mowing camera that is a brilliant visual,dark canvas capturing the changing landscape and fallacies of the people.

On a final note Anurag Kashyap’s GOW is an epic bloody tale that drains you at the end even though it adeptly holds you till the end. A bit of butchering in the editing table could have made it deservedly less demanding on the audience, nevertheless it’s a great movie but full of blood and expletives.