Gangs of Wasseypur-I

For a lot many among us, particularly the ones from small towns lost in big cities (and yes we are so many that we took the lead over Gengis Khan way back, coming from UP and Bihar to populate all corners of mother Earth from Mumbai to Manhattan), GoW evokes that feeling of loss of what we have left behind, the honesty of violence, that ‘khadi boli’ and the ambition to change the natural order of society. We have all seen somewhere that wayward revenge of Sardar Khan, that steady wilting power of a conniving Ramadhir Singh of a higher caste and that lurking dark ambition of Faizal Khan. We have seen all that and much more in our dusty villages and ‘tier-n’ towns with too little power-supply and too many power mongers.

Another lot (pun intended, since they are apparently only 1%, courtesy the Wall-Street movement) that roots for such a movie, is the intelligentsia of our country who not only has the burden of their refined tastes, the Ps and the Qs but less importantly the burden of uplifting the masses from the crassness of the 100Cr clubs, or at least the pretence of it. You never know, Obama got the Nobel Prize, right! This 1% is happy because for them cinema is the mirror to the society never mind that the remaining 99% is all for entertainment.

In a nutshell, Anurag Kashyap has been able to successfully sell two things-(i) nostalgia to the former, and (ii) realism to the latter. Thus he has been able to sell Bharat to India like so many before him selling Indian poverty to the world.

Don’t get me wrong, GoW has all the ingredients of ‘that’ Indian cult movie which so many of us Indians, brought up on the dose of torrentized Copollas and Tarantinos, are desperately waiting for. It shows the real Bharat aka realism (loved that street dancer in pink shirt dancing in front of the jeep). It has great actors with Manoj Bajpai returning to his roots after Satya and Nawajuddin Siddiqui finally coming of age. It has the brilliantly rustic songs by Piyush Mishra, a period story and pure gore. It even has the details right to the last one of them including the actual footage of the sand mafia leading to a few broken bones of the cameraman in real life.

BUT, it’s not sufficient!

Now hold on, I can foresee all those angular eyebrows and twisted lips but after watching GoW-1, there was this familiar pang which you get after watching Sachin smashing a six off Shoaib for a century but India losing the WC finals simultaneously. You see, it is still missing that 1% that goes into the making of a cult movie. Maybe I am asking too much from Mr. Kashyap more like our national hysteria asking Sachin for a century even in the nets. Maybe I am seeing too many firangi flicks or maybe it’s just that 1%...maybe.

An apt end probably

And this brings me to the fact- why GoW (I and II combined) will never be inducted in the 100Cr frat of Salmans, Ajays and Akshays. You see Mr. Kashyap, you brought too much realism to the screen. The 99% will not be happy because they want to see the glitz. Hell, why should they pay to see themselves. The remaining 1% is unhappy because it is just too much for their refined tastes. But yes, you got your wish of making your kind of films. Now that should be sufficient because people like me will keep paying you to do just that.

Now, where’s my entertainment!   

[Dedicated to: Anurag Kashyap and the Team. You all are doing a great job out there. Keep up the good work].
You know why this dedication comes at the last like GoW-II trailer after the credit-rolls of part-I (I know, you missed that too), so that you can read the above piece in an unbiased manner, if there’s anything like ‘unbiased’.

PS: If you are looking for a compliment Mr. Kashyap, may I point to “BUT, it is not sufficient!”
PPS: As a fan of your work, I want your next film to be ‘the’ cult classic. Mind you, the competition is heating up with Tigmanshu and Dibakar knocking on our screens.