The incident yet to happen and the situation happening: nothing remains in the hands of the fate in Wasseypur. Here: “kabutar bhi ek paankh se udta hain, aur ek se apni izzat bnachata hain”. Guns are in rage and fights are never held in fists but bloodshed. Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Gangs of Wasseypur” : both first and second parts has been the director’s dream project where he peeps through the tamarind stained kitchen curtains of Bihar and powerfully spreads the aroma of gunpowder with the ‘veeni veeni si khushboo’. The story is a family drama where love, lust and bloodshed spills in every sip of tea. The mother provokes the child to avenge his father’s death and a knife is sharpened in the furnace more than the roti.
Before the spark of independence set in the lives of Indians, the coal mines of Dhanbad and extended Bihar belonged to West Bengal and were supervised under the British. Later with times they were taken by the biggies: Tata, Ambani et cetera and the local bare aadmis became the thikadaars of the mines and joined politics for more power. Wasseypur had seen such a man: Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia): a serpent with sweet tooth, Singh crushed everything that came in his way. There was this young man, Shahid Khan (Jaideep Ahlawat) who feared no one and a pathan that he was, took a brawl with the Qureshis: Shahid Khan’s and Sultana Daaku’s fight led to the cyclonic events where Shahid’s every heir was killed and the next grew more powerful to kill the man behind all powers: the mastermind of the Qureshis- Ramadhir Singh.
Anurag Kashyap and the writer Zeishan Quadri( who also played the role of Definite) have pulled the string of life in Bihar and Dhanbad : from 1941’s to 2009 – the fight to kill led to various events where three generations- Shahid Khan, Sardar khan (Manoj Bajpayee) and his sons Danish Khan (Vineet Kumar Singh) and Faisal Khan ( Nawazuddin Siddiqui) were firm in stabbing Ramadhir Singh and those who came in their way: as Sardar had said to his wife Nagma Khatoon (Richa Chadda) , he would’t stab him but, “Keh ke Lunga”. This becomes the sue motto of the storyline where each one’s life is leashed to end one life, but is merciless to others too. Wasseypur is a town where women always busy in the chores, their involvement is to disarm the man in bed or tie him to the physical bonds and hence become a “bachha payda karne ki machine” as Sardar’s mistress, later his wife: Durga (Reemma Sen) says. The war between Shahid and Ramadhir was fine until Sardar meddled with Durga: a woman of independent beliefs yet someone who wanted love and knew how to get her rights: for which she made her son “definite”: “Sardar Khan ki maauth” says the kid. Women here are much darker then the hard hit lines of poverty or residing with the male chauvinist. Nagma, Mohsina: Faizal’s wife, (Huma Qureshi) all are not damsels in distress but are women who fought the society for love, sang to their love to relive their dreams and have weaved new paths of brotherhood. They are the “womaniya” who always have to know ”saiiyanji jhhapte toh hona hiraaniya” and even if “Patna bahane woh chahega saatna” they can’t resist or else they might land up with another child or ignorance that is enough to make a mind kill oneself.
The apprentices in crime like Sultan (Pankaj Tripathy) or Ashgar Khan(Jameel Khan) or Perpendicular(Aditya Kumar) even the local goon Shamshad Alam(Raj Kumar Yadav), J.P. Singh: Ramadhir’s son(Satyakam Anand) , Guddu(Murari Kumar) all were the quiet shadows behind their master. Lust for blood made them blind enough to murder own families, kin: Because Nasir Ahmed (the storyteller who even saw the generations flourish and perish for revenge on Ramadhir) says it right: “khoon khaulta hain toh ziddi dil manta kaha hain!” Nasir Ahmed(Piyush Mishra) is the man who punishes himself every time he fails to make things right. With slashes fighting with the skin and relaxing his mind, he restrained himself from women and unnecessary meddling with the enemies. With saas bahu serials and paanch waqt ka namaz and caressing to comfort the woman longing for love: Nasir is the character to watch out for.
The Bystander has so far in some way gone for a critical appreciation the movies. In this case it will defend the Wasseypurians. The movie for three hours is not a balm to the nerves but is a blowhard to the society in slumber and it shakes the conscience of a thinking man. There are [arts in the nation which have been undergoing such panoramic motion in daily lives. In such a scenario, Anurag Kashyap deserves applause. The background score is beaming with the flavor of the fields where singers from remote regions of Bihar have been brought and a Prodigy: Piyush Mishra has handled the lyrics and the musical situation. Gangs of Wasseypur doesn’t poke your thought to the reels and let you change the world but with very slow stream is often engulfing you to the sea of emotions, drama, exaggerated aggression and lifts you to dream with the “kaala dil” and urges you to “wrongwa hain jo bhi usse rightwa karo ji” because at the end:
“Honhi aur Aaanhonhi ki parwah kise hain meri jaan,
Haadh se zyada yahi hoga ki yahi maar jaayenge.
Hum maauth ko sapna baatakar uut khare honge yahi,
Aur honhi ko thenga dikhakar khilkhilate jayenge”
