Movie Review: Gangs of Wasseypur

By Jyotsna Kumar

Jab Anurag Kashyap philum banaate hai toh badi tabiyat se banaate hai. But why this time he forgot to instruct his team to edit it sharply? Why he chose to edit it as if he was cutting the umbilical cord separating two and a half hours from five and a half.

Yes! Gangs of Wasseypur is exhaustive, but not boring. Kashyap’s use of dark humour to judiciously propagate violence does enough to keep you on your toes.

GOW (Gangs of Wasseypur) is set in the hinterland rather ‘hunterland’ of Bihar. The film beautifully and aesthetically manages to take very authentic milieu of Bihar ‘hunterland’. But as they say too many cooks spoil the food. In this case, too many characters will confuse. Yep! There are too many characters woven in this complicated matrix. Therefore, you really need to keep your eyes and mind open.

However, performance wise each and every character stands out in the film. Manoj Vajpayee’s letching performance as Sardar Khan is impeccable. Richa Chaddha’s performance as Najma is bold, in your face and strong. Her constant fears, chase and vulnerability also come across in this power packed performance of hers.

Tigmanshu Dhulia’s performance as Ramdhir Singh is restrained. His ability to transcend tension, anxiety, anger, power and embarrassment- all emotions through one single expression is commendable. Piyush Mishra’s testosterone narration and performance adds gravity to the film.

Music is also seen as an important character in this film. It’s perhaps the soul of GOW. The entire album beautifully fuses English and Hindi language apart from folk and contemporary mix. Kudos to Sneha Sanwalkar’s for her bold and explicit style of composition. And Varun Grover and Piyush Mishra’s for their expletive style of writing. Their style even made Woman(iya) of today’s era humming the lyrics of I’m a hunter. Keh ke lunga adds volume to the coarse language and bloody violence.

And now the big question- is GOW a good film? It’s rare that filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap will let us down. They rather keep our appetite for ‘galees’ and gore under thorough check. Therefore, the likeability of GOW depends on how much you can take it as an audience.  It’s a matter of capacity rather likeability, to each his own!

P.S: Wait till the end credits roll. You better not miss the Gangs of Wasseypur –II trailer. Also it’s important to Google up the paradigm shift of coal mafia to scrap trade mafia in Bihar. It’ll help you to keep the track and better understanding of events.

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