Gangs of Wasseypur - I : Movie Review

Bawaaseer !!

Bahut Badi ho gayi ho !!

Maange Jo babuna, prem nishaniya !!

Man !! An action packed 3 hour trip to an evolution story of crime and life in a small village in south bihar through the meandering plot around witty events, rustic locales and contemporary culturual snapshots ....

Take this : Super music adaptation and presentation through songs -
1. Jiya ho Bihar ke Lala, Jiya ho hazar sala  .... tani nachi gaayi sabke man bahlaave e bhaiyaa !!

2. I am a hunter, she want to see my gun, when I pull out by, the woman start to run !! Hum Hain Shikaari, paakit mein lambi Gun ... !!

3. O Womaniya ... ahha womaniya ... Badle rupaiya ke dena chavaniyaa, Saiyyan ji jhaptte, to hona hiraniya !!

One hell of a movie but still can't ignore the flaws ... :-)

Plot: The story ranges in 3 generations starting in pre-independence era and extending to mid 1980's in Chhotanagpur's coal belt. The charachters in the story are involved in trade / loot of coal and scrap iron.
Shaihd Khan (Jaideep Ahlawat) a coal-dacoit-turned-mining-gunda gets murdered by his master, the coal mining mafia-turned-politician Ramadheer Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia) with close support of the Qureshi/Butcher community who have a generation old feud with the Pathans (Khans). Shahid's son, Sardar Khan (Manoj) vows revenge in a halaal manner rather than jhatka and he keeps cutting his adversaries in that easy-easy-severing fashion all along the plot !!
He marries a spitfire "womaniya" Nagma (Chadda) who inspite of all philandering escapades of her husband stands by him through thick and thin. There's another "hiraniya" Durga (Reema Sen) who seduces Sardar in tempting as well as hilarious sequences. The movie goes onto throw ahead various charachters one after another making audience wonder why the heck so many actors ?? Imagine veteran actor like Yashpal Sharma coming in for a cameo as dual-voice singer for a marriage party.
On whole, the movie shows the intricate fabric of crime, law-lessness, venegeance, adultery and feud in the protagonist Sardar Khan's life. Dark in details, the movie would never inspire a soul, but would just spring open a dirty pandora's box of these once-upon-a-time-mafia-controlled-geographies. You would either love it , or hate it ..... but you wouldn't be able to ignore it.

Good Part: Songs (Sneha Khanwalkar rocks!!), Manoj Bajpai, Comic sequences, Richa Chadda,  Nawazuddin(Faizal). Infact acting performance of each person in movie was exemplary, And last but not least - apt dialogues (forget those expletives)

Bad Part: Confused plot, too many charachters, too fast at some points while too slow at others, too much of gore, cow abattoir scenes (yuck !!), charachter of Manoj was too complex with more shades of black than white, audience may forget as to what was the motive of protagonist to keep himself bald ? And yes, too lengthy a movie !!

Several times watchable. Must for you, if you have lived in North Indian belt ever.
Don't ever assume or pray it to be a family movie. It actually can't. One of the best from Manoj Bajpai's works till date. He looks real. But out of all these, one man who makes his presence felt through his skinny body, like-Amitabh-hair-style and piercing eyes, is the Sardar's younger son - Faizal (Nawazuddin). Last time we saw of him was in Kahaani. Super expressions indeed.

Girls can and should keep away if they dont want to see too much of gore and "touching" expletives. Mind you, The movie is rated -  "Adult".

The 2nd part would be out soon. Seems like Anurag Kashyap's going the Francis Coppola way !!

Revised Rating: 4*/5* ... Can't believe I did this :-)

Chalaa Taani
Neo.