'Gangs of Wasseypur'

Last week I finally managed to watch 'Gangs of Wasseypur' - the much hyped film in the recent times.  Made by Anurag Kashyap, it is one more film based on a part of earlier Bihar, but now falls in Jharkhand.  I had just came back from the trip to Surat, tired but was full of energy to see this movie.  Took a shower and rushed to Wide Angle.  Before seeing this movie, my perception about it was that it will just be another movie with gangs of bandits or something like that.  Also never ever before had heard of this place called Wasseypur.  In short my idea about how the movie will be was totally vague. And the hype kind of forced me to see it before it got down from the theaters.

The star cast was very much new but most of them got into their roles pretty well.  The plot of the movie was pretty confusing.  At the end it leaves you struggling to link the different scenes and periods.  In two and half hours the movie shows three generations.  Pretty fast paced, but what it tries to portray in the early half - the mission of the lead hero Manoj Bajpayee (Sardar Khan) to destroy the local minister (Ramadhir Singh), goes completely off track.  The end however tells you that the sequel is not too far. ;)  The movie pretty well portrays the irregularities of running the coal mines in Dhanbad.  How the british founded the black gold, how they used to run and how after independence the local mafia's have ruled the poor miners and how they have exploited the entire region.  

The life of the miners and the owners of coal mines portrayed in the movie reminded me of the book 'The White Tiger'... :)  It just shows why Bihar till few years back (when Dhanbad was a part of Bihar) was one of the most under developed state with inhuman living conditions in most of the villages.  

What really makes this movie worth watchable is the timing of the abusive words used freely.  Right from the starting till the end.  The hindi punches in bihari way were just hilarious.  The timing and the way these cuss words are used, just make it extremely hilarious.  Loved it.  Somehow most of the movies made on Uttar Pradesh and Bihar uses abusive words pretty freely.  Not that there aren't other regions which don't use it in their day to day life.  But for long censor board never allowed movies with abusive words to get released.    Its been ages since the trend setter for such language in the movie, 'The Bandit Queen' was released.

How in the movie, the wife of Sardar Khan, Najma and her anger is portrayed is commendable.  Manoj Bajpayee is seen at his best after his act of 'Bhiku Matre' in Satya.  Reema Sen (Durga), after a failed bollywood career plays the role of being the second wife of Sardar Khan is made to look pretty sexy.. ;) Looks like another bollywood actress taking this route to revive her bollywood career... ?  Well who knows... ? ;)  

Anurag Kashyap seems have mastered the art of making movies that are so very different.  His vision on the topic he chooses is just too good.  Also what is admirable is his courage to showcase the many factions of relationships that exist in a double standard conservative society of rural India, but are very rarely accepted by the society.  Blood, rivalries, gun battles, sex, political crime, coal mafia's and some extremely comic hindi punches make this movie worth watching one time.  The fact that in the recent times the blowing off of the coal mine controversy in India, this movie gives a very vague and small highlight of how such a huge controversy might have taken place in a corrupted and politically controversial country of ours.