Gangs of Wasseypur 2

This rivetting mafia film is also a history of corruption in India

Part two of this film is a lot more linear in narrative than part one and is faster paced. Rarely, if ever, as in this epic, has Hindi cinema transported you to a world that is real and surreal at the same time. It is a fantastical account of the mafia in Wasseypur that functions as a history of how India has turned into the corrupt cesspool of violence, prejudice and fraud that we see reflected in legislative bodies, the administration and law enforcement machinery. The second part of this rivetting movie by Anurag Kashyap is unpredictable, eloquent and just as good as the first part.

True, the level of violence in the film disturbs everyone. But the bloodletting should be interpreted less literally. It is a metaphor for what we have become as a people. The second generation of this mafia clan is even more ruthless than the first. The surviving sons of Sardar Khan, from his wife and also from his mistress, are remorseless and mercenary and we see them make the most of the entire corrupt system.

Through intimidation and money, they buy out any enterprise that generates revenue; from coal to scrap to iron and steel, and then, as the film arrives at the first decade of this century, to communications and cellphone networks.

Everyone is up for sale in the movie: MLAs, police officers, railway officials, private company employees. Kashyap connects the dots in the country’s culture of corruption. What the mafia does on a ‘goonda’ level in Wasseypur is what the fastest growing companies in Mumbai do on a ‘corporate’ level—adopt the philosophy that every person and institution has a price.

After more than five hours of cinema in the back of beyond, the movie ends with the survivors of Wasseypur arriving in Mumbai. There, a child of the unspeakable evil we have seen, is being tenderly nursed.

Anurag KashyapmafiaWasseypur