A romp into raw, ru g~d heartland

Bleeding brilliance in mainstream Hindi moviegoers, almost every frame, this is not an unknown territory breathing fire through At least four other recent films every available orifice that - Paan Singh Tomar, /shaqzaade, the characters possess, and Rowdy Rathore and Shanghaiwhipping up a kind of frenzied, have hurled audiences right into flamboyant bloodshed that the notorious anarchy of the was once associated with the north Indian small-town where Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio the barrel of the gun speaks an Leone and Sam Peckinpah, irresistible language of mayhem Gangs OfWasseypuris, briefly, It's a strangely dichotomous one huge gang-bang. No world where music and protection provided. songs (Sneha Khan) mock the

From its bludgeoning opening characters' subverted herogiri. when merciless marauders While the characters indulge ambush a powerful enemy's in their unmanned violence, fortress-like home with army- viewers become numbed like meticulousness, Gangs Of participants in the rites of the Wasseypurtakes us into a world wrong -doing. where compassion is a dinosaur, The almost-ritualistic forgiveness a faux pas, and slaughter of all rules of civil kindness an unforgivable sin conduct in Gangs Of Wasseypur

Welcome to Kashyap's is not redeemed by the presence Wasseypur. This is no country of any hero. for the weak - hearted. Country- Even the main protagonist made guns go off without in the blood thirsty saga is a warning, bombs are hurled from certifiable rogue named Sardar two-wheelers and abuses fly out Khan. As played by Manoj even faster than the bullets. If Bajpayee in what is arguably you are the kind of moviegoer his most feisty and filled-out who doesn't enjoying hearing performance to date, Sardar and seeing the unimaginable Khan is a second -generation things that can't be done to criminal and socia l outcast. various parts of the human In the film's unforgettable anatomy, then I suggest you try prologue, Sardar's father something more sugary and (Jaideep Ahlawat) serves as a safe henchman to the powerful local

The world ofWasseypur is politician (Tigmanshu Dhulia). soaked in blood and revenge. Politician has daddy killed by a The mafia in one form or hired assassin and Sonny-boy another rules the little town. To grows up swearing revenge.

This in a nutshell, could be the plot for a cheesy 1980s potboiler. In taking the grammar and language of the formulistic vendetta drama from the 1970s and 1980s and converting it into a crackling saga of compelling contemporary currency, Kashyap turns all the rules of mainstream Hindi cinema on its head. He uses the language of Manmohan Desai and Narinder Bed i's cinema. But he applies these to characters who are as far removed from the world of escapism as Sicily is from Wasseypur.

Oh, did we really say Gangs OfWasseypurwas derived from The Godfather? Nah The two worlds are inter-connected only by their legacy of lineage and violence. Beyond that Kashyap's mode of storytelling, and the way his characters loom over the proceedings without become caricatural. are frighteningly original and as liberated of reference-points as any of the path-breaking films on gangwars that have emerged out of Hollywood in the last 25 years.

Kashyap celebrates the drama of the grotesque with the relish of a seven-'coarse' meal. We can count the number of thuds and stabbing sounds every time a victim is cornered and done to death. Violence on this level has never really been a part of mainstream Hindi cinema before. The end of cinematic niceties is here. Take it or leave it Kashyap, in Wasseypur, legitimizes gore with glorious gusto. In the gang war that he portrays with such feral immediacy, victims are chopped up piece by piece, their body parts sent to the butcher's to eliminate legal evidence. A finger floating in a cesspool of stale blood is a commonplace sight in the world of unchecked mayhem that Kashyap has constructed with such casual resplendence.

His team of technicians are unconditionally mired in the mood of violence Rajeev Ravi's camera mows through the imaginary world of Wasseypur with a devilish dispassion.

The film looks layered and even luminous in texture. But the tone of narration is detached. The dereliction of the damned and doomed characters is neither romanticized nor demonized.

Indeed Gangs Of Wasseypur invents a new language of cinematic expression. It creates a world where the characters inhabit a universe of vapid stagnant violence And yet the narration, never short of breath even in the most breathless state of violence, exudes a kind of vibrancy that comes from neither rejection not acceptance of an undesirable situation. It comes from within the characters. As they battle each other in bitter futile feuds, they also seem to be battling the demons within themselves. The synthesis of what lies within and without is devastating.

And yet for all its outward show of ruthless machismo Gangs Of Wasseypur Is a film with a heart. There is a rather enticing love story featuring Manoj, his screen wife (debutante Richa Chadha) and t h e other woman (Reema Sen) tucked away in the folds of the ferocious tale Manoj's wife is a very happy happening in this sad but savagely funny tale. She is quite the discovery of the year, and that too in a film mottled with exceptional performances by Manoj, Nawazuddin as his son (more of him in Wasseypur 2), Tigmanshu Dhulia who is clenched, controlled and combative as the villain in chief, Pankaj Tripathi riveting as Manoj's be lligerent enemy, Piyush Mishra remarkably restrained and wise as Manoj's mentor and guide, and Huma Qureshi, another whammy performer who we will see more of In the sequel.

In fact, every character, b ig or small, is cast with what looks like first-and-last options You can't imagine any other actor playing any of the myriad parts.

Brutal, brilliant, dark, sinister, terrifying in Its violence and yet savagely funny In the way human life is disregarded, Gangs Of Wasseypuris one helluva romp into the raw and rugged heartland Not to be missed. I can't wait to see the sequel. But be warned Avoid meals half an hour before and after viewing. Subha sh K. Jha