M Husain –
Gangs of Wasseypur is a two-part Indian crime thriller anthology. It is one of the best gang war movies ever made. It focuses on the mafia of Dhanbad as well as Wasseypur and the underlying power struggles, politics, and vengeance between the crime families.
The conflict between the Khan and Qureshi families continues for up to 3 generations. The story starts from the pre-independence era when the British owned mines in Dhanbad. After independence, these mines were passed on to local landlords. For forcing people to work in the mines, the landlord hired Shahid Khan (portrayed by Jaideep Ahlawat) as a muscleman, the patriarch of the Khan family.
Shahid Khan was kicked out of his village, Wasseypur, after a confrontation with the local musclemen, the Qureshis, and is now forced to work in the mines of Dhanbad. But he was not happy with his position and started doing illegal jobs to gain power. Landlord, Ramadhir Singh (portrayed by Tigmanshu Dhulia) detected him as a threat and made him killed by a hired hitman from the Qureshi family. It resulted in murders and counter-murders for generations. The story progresses in this way. It is one of the best works by the acclaimed director Anurag Kashyap.
The main attraction of Gangs of Wasseypur is its powerful dialogues. Meticulous timing and use of words with great impact take the film to a different height. Though lots of slang language is seen in the movie, it has not affected the flow at all or seemed unnecessary. Many of the dialogues are used in creating meme materials even today.
Plot twists will glue your eyes to the screen. It will take you on a lifetime journey in just 6 hours. Manoj Vajpayee as Sardar Khan, Nawaz Uddin Siddique as Faizal Khan, Richa Chadda as Nagma Khatoon, and Pankaj Tripathi as Sultan Qureshi gave their best performances in this movie. Legendary actor Piyush Mishra also played a brilliant part as Nasir and also the narrator of the film.
Anurag Kashyap gave his heart and soul to make this film and you can feel it in every scene. This movie gave birth to the superstars like Nawaz Uddin Siddique, Pankaj Tripathi, Richa Chadda, and Huma Qureshi. It also starred present-day superstars Rajkumar Rao and Vicky Kaushal in small roles.
The main story of this film is about getting into power, influencing people, and enjoying power by any means which includes betrayal, murder, hatred, and cruel politics. While these were seen between families, it was also seen among the same family members. Everyone was hungry for political power, money, and revenge.
Editing of Gangs of Wasseypur was done flawlessly. You will not hear words before action or see action before words. The movie approaches at a perfect pace which allows having a firm grip over the story and plot twist.
In a scene, when Sardar Khan (played by Manoj Vajpayee) was looking at the back of Durga (played by Reema Sen), the lust in Sardar’s eye was so real that it gave the audience goosebumps. The whole movie gives a feeling of real-life incidents with real-life characters and historical backgrounds.
The movie is smartly conveyed through the changing phases of India for which multi-camera formats were used from Anamorphic in 4 perf, Spherical in 3 perf, and Sony F900R in HD as well as the use of a Canon 5D by the cinematographer Rajeev Ravi. It gives an authentic feeling of seeing a real-life situation.
The history of gang rivalry over coal, politics, and enmity between families started before independence. The audience can guess it from the look of the set and the costume of the actors which were trends at that time. Hairstyles and beards were prepared according to the demands of the situation.
Two parts of Gangs of Wasseypur have two albums containing 27 songs. In some scenes, song music was used and, in some scenes, the whole song was used for situation development. Some of the well-known songs are hunter, womaniya, jiya tu, keh ke lunga etc.
Zeishan Quadri was the writer of Gangs of Wasseypur, who originally hailed from Wasseypur too. His combination with Anurag Kashyap created a masterpiece. The audience was eagerly waiting for the second part to see what happens next because the first part ended with a great twist. People loved their work. This 18.40 crore Indian rupees budget movie earned 70 crore Indian rupees at the box office along with a massive cult following.
This film is a perfect blend of gang rivalry, village politics, illegal drugs and arms dealing, betrayal, revenge, romance, robbery, and hooliganism. Such proportional blending is rarely seen. And that is the reason behind this film becoming a masterpiece. Some people compare it with Hollywood films but I think it is a masterpiece in a different class.
