Film Review | Gangs of Wasseypur II

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The force of Anurag Kashyap’s films, especially those made after his first released film, Black Friday, lies in elaborate and clever set pieces. They are sequences in which Kashyap orchestrates music, dialogues, choreography and visual composition in original and staggering ways, and which enhance the overall experience of the film. It may be an idiom derivative of, or an amalgamation of, modern masters of the “set pieces spectacle” such as Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, or even Wong Kar-wai, but for us Kashyap’s is a voice that can shatter tastes—us, the cinema-obsessed nation fed largely on various representations of song, dance, prayer and purity. Few Indian directors can manipulate us with such tableaus—and populated by characters who are defiant, and outside traditionally moral ambits.

Gangs of Wasseypur is a saturation of that aesthetic, and the second part, Gangs of Wasseypur II, is smug in it. The violence takes dazzling flight. Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Faisal Khan is a stunning study in violence. Fuelled by marijuana, sexually virile, soft-spoken, but with amazing nerve and pluck, he is a worthy successor to Sardar Khan, his father (Manoj Bajpai), who is wounded at the end of the first film. Faisal is slow to take over the reins of the ruthless and reckless gang that his father led, plundering iron and coal in Dhanbad and Wasseypur. The transition of the protagonist from a trigger-happy pothead to someone with astounding greed for money and an ability to lynch humans with impudence, is abrupt, but once his fierce journey as leader begins, Kashyap turns his cinematic tricks on. That, and Siddiqui’s crackerjack performance add to his being the centrepiece, and indeed the only truly engaging thing about Gangs of Wasseypur II. Siddiqui is an actor to look forward to. With his small stature, deep-set facial expressions, and acting prowess that does not need dialogues or overt expressions as a crutch, Siddiqui redefines the brooding hero, a Hindi cinema staple.

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The story does not go beyond the mundane killing and lynching. Unlike the first part there is no sense of the backdrop of the story.

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Richa Chadda as Faisal’s mother, the matriarch of the family, continues the deadpan cynicism of the character; it’s a convincing performance here too. Huma Qureshi, as Faisal’s feisty wife, is an accomplished actor, balancing the tenderness and cockiness of the role. Zeishan Quadri as Definite, a new character, is engaging as the only man in the thick of the gang war with unpredictability and guile.

Bollywood is the index the writers (Zeishan Quadri, Sachin Ladia, Anurag Kashyap and Akhilesh Jaiswal) give us of the nation’s transformation over decades. From Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) to Rahul (Shah Rukh Khan) to Munnabhai (Sanjay Dutt), the Bollywood hero is the subject of both sarcasm and celebration in the film—possibly reflecting Kashyap’s own relationship with the industry. An heir apparent who tells his father that he just watched Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is mocked. “You have no future, son,” he is told. Besides the obvious marker on the screen, the only visible social changes in Wasseypur are the film posters on walls and the songs that Faisal’s wife sings to him. After repeated reiterations of how much Hindi films influence this rotten, defiant milieu in Wasseypur, Bollywood becomes a contrived refrain in the film.

The writing is flabby. Redundant characters abound, and scenes and sequences exist not to take the story forward, but to prove how unique these people are. A boy who keeps a Topaz blade in his mouth takes up a few scenes that contribute absolutely nothing to the story except that he is a character with the potential to startle. The dialogues lack spunk and flair, and the brilliant humour which emphasized the narrative of the first film is sorely absent in the second.

Gangs of Wasseypur is perhaps best enjoyed when both parts are seen together. To watch the first as a stand-alone piece is impossible. The end of the first film urges you to watch the next because the story does not have any sort of ending there. All great multiple-part films make sense together, but each, like the Godfather films, is a complete story, which neither of these two films is.

Kashyap’s astuteness and knack for spectacle, along with the humour in the writing and Rajeev Ravi’s rich cinematography, made the first film engaging. The second film has the same stylistic flair, but without story and context it becomes a smug enterprise. After the novelty of his treatment wears off, what the eyes see becomes tiresome and trite.

Also Read | Review of Gang of Wasseypur I

Gangs of Wasseypur II released in theatres on Wednesday. Part I and Part II will be screened back to back in select theatres in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore