JOIN USgangs of wasseypur II
Hindi (U/A)
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Richa Chadda, Huma Qureshi, Zeishan Quadri
Director: Anurag Kashyap
If Anurag Kashyap took his time building up characters, sequences and background in Gangs of Wasseypur I, there was a good reason behind it.
The reason came to be called Gangs of Wasseypur II (GOWII). For, it is here that Kashyap gives full rein to his creative juices and has a far firmer grip on the content. Beginning without a preamble and with the end of Sardar Khan (Manoj Bajpayee) who was shot in the head in the first part, GOWII plunges into action from frame one, scene one. From then on, for the next 2 hours and 40 minutes he only ups the violence which borders on maniacal.
It is not violence for the faint-hearted, neither is it meant to conceal the horrific ‘truths’ of the real-time Wasseypur in Dhanbad.
As Sardar Khan’s sons take over the legacy of revenge and bloodshed from him, they reveal themselves in manners mild, impulsive and aggressive. The voice of reason in this case, is the only one which promotes unmitigated hostility. To that extent, Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Faisal Khan, Zeishan Quadri as Definite (also credited as the principal scriptwriter), Vineet Singh as Danish Khan and Aditya Kumar as Perpendicular are characters who rule your senses for the length of the film and also reveal themselves as actors to watch out for in the coming years.
Though placed against the backdrop of the coal mafia of Dhanbad, the film confines itself to exploring the volatile dynamics between principal protagonists. There is Faisal Khan who is provoked into taking up arms against Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia really should consider acting as his final calling); there is Richa Chadda as Nagma Khatoon who eggs on Faisal to avenge his father’s and brother’s murders and then there is Definite, who, as Sardar’s son (from his second wife Durga played by a very subdued yet electric Reema Sen) whose desire to rule over Wasseypur overrules all else.
What you take back home from GOWII are images — loads of them. If on the one hand there are some very tender moments that Faisal and his wife Mohsina (Huma Qureshi in a refreshing debut) share; on the other are images that shock you out of your urbane complacency.
The women of Wasseypur are not what you would call typical ‘filmi’ heroines. As ‘real’ women they berate, beguile and bewitch the men who lust after them — in equal measure. As the backbone of the film they sometimes become the very reason for why brutality has to be unleashed.
Anurag Kashyap has come unto his own with GOWII — in a neat cyclical way and has proven that he is undoubtedly not a man to be trifled with, in the world of cinema.