Gangs of Wasseypur is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language epic crime film directed by Anurag Kashyap, and written by Kashyap and Zeishan Quadri. It precedes Part 2 as the first of the two-part film, centered on the coal mafia of Dhanbad, and the underlying power struggles, politics and vengeance between three crime families from 1941 to the mid-1990s. Gangs of Wasseypur stars an ensemble cast, featuring Manoj Bajpayee, Richa Chadha, Reema Sen, Piyush Mishra, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vineet Kumar Singh, Pankaj Tripathi, Huma Qureshi, Anurita Jha and Tigmanshu Dhulia.
Although both parts were shot as a single film measuring a total of 319 minutes, no Indian theatre would screen a five-hour film, so it was divided into two parts. Gangs of Wasseypur was screened in its entirety at the 2012 Cannes Directors' Fortnight. It was also screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2013. It was filmed in Varanasi, Bihar, and Chunar, with these settings inspiring the film's soundtrack, which consists mainly of Indian folk.
The film was theatrically released on 22 June 2012, but was banned in Kuwait and Qatar for violent content. Upon release, Gangs of Wasseypur received widespread critical acclaim, and won a number of awards. It received nominations for Best Film and Best Director for Kashyap at the 55th Asia-Pacific Film Festival, and won for Best Audiography at the 60th National Film Awards, while Siddiqui won a Special Mention for acting at the same ceremony. Gangs of Wasseypur also won four Filmfare Awards, including the Critics Award for Best Film, while Chadda won the Critics Award for Best Actress, at the 58th Filmfare Awards.
Plot During British colonial rule, the administration seizes agricultural lands in Dhanbad to initiate industrial coal mining. The neighboring village of Wasseypur is heavily dominated by the elite Qureshi butchers. In 1941, a Pashtun laborer named Shahid Khan is banished from Wasseypur for impersonating a legendary Qureshi bandit who plundered British transit trains. Shahid relocates his family to Dhanbad to work in the mines. When his wife tragically dies during labor, a vengeful Shahid murders the mine's abusive overseer who had denied him leave. Following India's Independence, the British mines are acquired by domestic industrialists, and Shahid is hired as a security enforcer by an aspiring tycoon, Ramadhir Singh. Recognizing Shahid's growing ambitions, Ramadhir orders his assassination via a hitman named Yadav. Although Ehsaan Qureshi is dispatched to eliminate Shahid's remaining lineage, Shahid’s young son, Sardar, escapes the purge, eventually learning the truth and vowing absolute vengeance against Ramadhir.
By 1965, Ramadhir transitions into politics, establishing a ruthless hegemony over the local labor unions. Following the nationalization of Indian coal mines in 1972, Ramadhir consolidates his authority by assassinating an uncooperative government official, cementing his status as the undisputed crime lord of Dhanbad. Concurrently, an adult Sardar marries Nagma Khatoon, fathering three sons: Danish, Faizal, and Babua. Tolerant of Sardar's hyperactive libido, Nagma permits his extramarital affairs. Operating under the radar, Sardar, his cousin Asgar, and his uncle Nasir work for Ramadhir’s son while covertly plundering Ramadhir's fuel stations and freight trains. A subsequent arrest alerts Ramadhir to the terrifying reality that Shahid Khan's heir is alive and waging a covert war against
In 1979, Sardar and Asgar execute a daring prison break. Seeking refuge in Wasseypur under the protection of Qamar Makhdoomi, Sardar takes a second wife, Durga. In the 1980s, Wasseypur is administratively merged into Dhanbad. The Qureshi clan, now led by the volatile Sultan, continues to oppress the non-Qureshi Muslim population. Makhdoomi enlists Sardar to neutralize the threat, prompting Sardar to launch a devastating series of bombing raids against Qureshi businesses and strongholds. This campaign establishes Sardar as a premier syndicate leader, eclipsing the Qureshis' authority. Sardar briefly reunites with Nagma, but when she becomes pregnant again, a frustrated Sardar returns to Durga, who gives birth to his fourth son, Definite.
Perceiving Sardar's expanding empire as a mutual threat, Ramadhir and Sultan form a tactical alliance, with Ramadhir promising military-grade automatic firearms to the Qureshi faction. By 1989, the local underworld shifts its focus from petty coal pilferage to lucrative government contracts. Sardar secures monopolies over mine-filling tenders and aggressively drives the Qureshi clan out of Wasseypur, diversifying his empire into illegal iron ore extraction. His eldest son, Danish, actively joins the family business.
Sardar dispatches his second son, the marijuana-addicted Faizal, to Varanasi to procure firearms, but Faizal is intercepted and imprisoned. Upon his release, an enraged Faizal executes the arms dealer, Yadav, unwittingly killing his grandfather's assassin. Seeking stability, Danish negotiates a truce with Sultan’s uncle, Badoor Qureshi, and successfully marries Sultan's sister, Shama Parveen, despite Sultan's violent opposition.
Concurrently, Faizal begins courting Mohsina Hamid, another relative of the Qureshi clan. While heavily intoxicated on marijuana, Faizal casually confides in his associate, Fazlu, that Sardar will be traveling alone the following day without his standard security detail. Seeking financial gain, Fazlu betrays the secret to the Qureshi faction. The next morning, Sultan and his hitmen intercept Sardar's vehicle at a fuel station. They unleash a relentless barrage of gunfire, and a heavily perforated Sardar staggers out of the vehicle, collapsing and dying on the road.
Cast
Production Development Anurag Kashyap said he had wanted to make a film on Bihar with the name Bihar for some time, but for various reasons it didn't take off. In 2008, he met Zeishan Quadri, who would then go on to write the script of the film, after he discussed with him Wasseypur's story. He found it unreal to believe that mafia activity and gang war existed at such a high level, and what really attracted him was not gang war but the entire story of the emergence of the mafia. According to him, to tell the story through a few families is what interested him but that also meant a longer reel. "We all know mafia exists but what they do, how they operate, why they do we don't know and that is something which forms the basis of the film".
Casting According to Bajpayee, the role of Sardar Khan is the most negative role he has done till date. His motivation for doing this role came from the fact that there was "something new" with the character of Sardar Khan. Piyush Mishra and Tigmanshu Dhulia were given the discretion to decide who, among them, would perform the roles of Nasir and Ramadhir. Mishra chose the role of Nasir and Dhulia portrayed Ramadhir Singh. Chadda revealed in an interview that this role helped her bag 11 film roles. This was Huma Qureshi's first film, and she characterised this as her "dream debut". Qureshi landed this role after director Anurag Kashyap spotted her in a Samsung commercial he was directing.
Filming Major portions of the film were shot in the state of Uttar Pradesh, mainly in the district of Sonbhadra Varanasi.Anurita Jha bonds with a Bihari Shooting also took place in Anpara, Obra Chunar. During filming in Varanasi in December 2010, the film's chief assistant director, Sohil Shah, died while performing one of the stunt shot scenes. The movie was dedicated to Sohil Shah, as is seen in the opening titles. The film finished production in late March 2011.
The production cost was ₹18.4 crore. Anurag Kashyap has said that it is his most expensive film, and he reportedly had to spend 15 crore on paying the actors. However, he has tweeted that "45 crore as reported in the media is false."
Themes and portrayals
Style The filming style adopted by Anurag Kashyap in Gangs of Wasseypur bears a striking similarity to the styles of Sam Peckinpah. The scenes are short in length, several in number and often a series of montages take the story forward. Anurag Kashyap never has to resort to extraneous elements like stylised entries, editing patterns or camera motions to add to the effect because the story has an intrinsic impact of its own. However the film doesn't fall short of any technical finesse. There's unabashed blood, gore and abuse wherever the scene demands.
Lines like "Tum sahi ho, woh marad hai," ("You are right, he is male") said in resigned agreement to a wronged wife stand out for their cruel truths of rural life. Kashyap's use of occasional bursts of music and comedy to punctuate the slowly augmenting tension at different junctures is highly reminiscent of Spaghetti Westerns. Kashyap's use of dark humour to judiciously propagate violence bears an uncanny similarity to Quentin Tarantino's style of movie-making. Absorbing styles as diverse as those of old-school Italo-American mafia classics a la Coppola, Scorsese and Leone, as well as David Michod's taut crime thriller Animal Kingdom, Kashyap never lets his influences override the distinct Indian colour. The pacing is machine-gun relentless, sweeping incoherence and repetitiveness under the carpet as it barrels forward with hypnotic speed.
Theme
The movie chronicles the journey of the saga associated with coal mines. It portrays the gang lords of Wasseypur like Shafi Khan, Faheem Khan and Shabir Alam.GOW Part 2 release date not confirmed yet The film has also been inspired from the story of rivals Shafi Khan and Surya Dev Singh. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN calls the movie, a gang warfare and notes that "On the surface, Gangs of Wasseypur is a revenge saga, a tableau of vengeance between generations of gangsters. Scratch that surface and you'll discover more than just a grim portrait". While some of the critics noted that the film, is a powerful political film, which underlines the party politics system (at that time) allowing the growth of illegal coal trading and mafias in the region (Bihar) and their use as a political tool, thus making the allotment of coal blocks, one of the most powerful expressions of controlling power in the region. Despite its grim theme, the film also has an inherent sense of humour that comes quite naturally to it from its series of events. The scene where Reema Sen is charmed by Manoj Bajpai over her daily chores or the one where Nawazuddin goes on a formal date with Huma Qureshi are outrageously hilarious. The household politics is one of the many subplots rendering layers to the story. You realise Sardar's family is emerging into a Corleone set-up of sorts. His sons - the brooding Danish and the doped-out Faizal (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) from Nagma, and the enigmatic Definite Khan (Zeishan Quadri) from Durga - will become key players in this revenge story. Violent as his screenplay is, Kashyap reveals wit while narrating his tale. Ample black comedy is used to imagine the gang war milieu. The humour lets us relate to the intrinsic irreverent nature of men who live by the gun. Character development can best justify the length of Gangs of Wasseypur.
Music
The soundtrack album of the two-part compilation of Gangs of Wasseypur has 27 songs, composed by Sneha Khanwalkar and Piyush Mishra, with lyrics by Mishra and Varun Grover. However, the album was split up according to the film's release. Gangs of Wasseypur has 14 songs which were released on 1 June 2012. The film's soundtrack is heavily influenced by traditional Indian folk songs. The film score is composed by Tamil composer G. V. Prakash Kumar.