This overreaching desire to be an Epic makes it a film that, despite some genuinely stunning individual pieces, fails to come together as a whole. The son, vowing to keep his head shaved till he finishes Singh off, grows up to be Sardar Khan, played by Manoj Bajpai.Īs you can imagine, there's a fair bit of Prakash Mehra and vintage Yash Chopra running through this film's veins, and while Kashyap doffs his hat to each of the directors in style, his film tries too hard to be more: more than just an actioner, more than just a drama, Tigmanshu Dhulia's portly and effortlessly sinister Ramadhir Singh kills a fearsome foe and anoints his bereaved son with a drop of his dead father's blood. And, in keeping with most phrases in this film, we mean literally. It is clear from the very onset that coal - which, we're taught, is light till it soaks up water - isn't the darkest thing about a colliery, and that we're in for a real blood-feud. We're told about Wasseypur, legendary dacoits, impersonators and trade unions. The magnificent Piyush Mishra narrates this sprawling tale, lifting his first two lines almost verbatim from the start of Omkara. It is this look-what-I-did windbaggery that constantly weighs down Wasseypur, a highly competent and occasionally enjoyable product, and keeps it from soaring like it should have. They growl orders, surround themselves by those applauding their every maniacal move, and, intoxicated by their own bluster, proceed to boast about their convoluted plot to the protagonist, resulting in their climactic downfall. It must here be remembered that mob bosses, at least the ones Hindi cinema have accustomed us to over the years, have hardly been an efficient lot. He wouldn't have made a good hitman, clearly Kashyap is a kingpin. This is partly because of every Indian filmmaker's befuddling desire to borrow plot-points from The Godfather whenever dealing with crime families, but mostly because Kashyap is defiant in his self-indulgence, piling on more and more when less could have done the job more efficiently. The film never recovers from the unforgivably tedious first half-hour, and despite many laudable moments and nifty touches, never quite engages. And this - in keeping with the lamentable way most schoolteachers use the subject to provoke yawns and force dates down student throats - is instantly boring.Īnd the yawns are the primary issue with Anurag Kashyap's Gangs Of Wasseypur, an impressively ambitious - and excellently shot - collection of memorable characters and entertaining scenes, set to a killer soundtrack. Then, yet another metamorphosis: into a history lesson.
We're jolted into its noisy, brutish world.
And more gunfire.Īs Pankaj Tripathi's Sultan leads a group of marauders through twisty side-streets, Anurag Kashyap's film has, within seconds, evolved from soap opera to First Person Shooter.
Smriti Irani's ridiculously bovine grin welcomes us to the Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhu Bahu Thi house, introducing us to the saccharine-soaked members of the smiley family, before the camera pulls out and the television is silenced by gunfire. Anurag Kashyap gets flavour, setting and character right with Gangs Of Wasseypur but the lack of economy cripples the film, writes Raja Sen.
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