Che Guevara on the Road: July 2012

I had been waiting for Gangs of Wasseypur like mad since the day it was announced and had been waiting for it expectantly; I was all over the place with its promotion on Facebook; in fact some of my friends thought I was being paid for it – but nothing of that sort, it was just my true love for “Anurag Kashyap” brand of Cinema and nothing else…I used the watch all the videos/pics/songs posted by GoW Team within minutes of them being posted and then went ga-ga over them on FB and posting them left, right & centre. I also downloaded its music and got lost in the sheer brilliance – what a mind-blowing soundtrack, it was playing at the loudest of the volumes in my car every day…so much was the excitement & anticipation…but then one of the biggest bummers of my life happened!

I watched its trailer when I went to watch the RGV Disaster named “Department” on the big screen here in Kuwait and thought (against hope) that it would release here in Kuwait too but 21 June came and it didn’t release here as the Censors here didn’t pass it for a release…I was shattered, depressed and distressed – all together…I somehow consoled myself and waited for the Pirated Camera Print to come online…and downloaded 2 of them but the print quality was disastrous and I decided to wait for a good quality print as I didn’t want to spoil and ruin my GoW Experience by watching a lousy print…

And finally the proverbial lady luck smiled on me on the night of 30^th June …after watching 9 movies in the weekend (yes, you read it correctly – 9 movies it is!) we geared up for our GoW Time which had well & truly arrived…Bandita in true Cinema-experience style popped a pack of Popcorn in the Microwave and we sat down to get drenched in Anurag Kashyap Magic….the writing was on the wall – KEH KE LUNGA…And it did all that and even more…

GoW is just about Anurag Kashyap's vision...to have such an extensive ensemble cast and still ensuring each getting their optimum screen time is a commendable effort to say the least....each thing about this movie wreaks of brilliance...be it the smashing music of Sneha Khanwalkar, the superb Background score composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar , the storyline (Zeishan Quadri, Akhilesh, Sachin Ladia & Anurag Kashyap), dialogues, cinematography of Rajeev Ravi and the acting of the entire cast...

So much research and hard work has gone into making this movie and all the scenes must have been well-thought out and planned by the crew…minute details have been paid attention to and I could not find any glitches in the storyline…all the characters have been developed painstakingly and you start getting involved in each one of them…

It is brutal, dark, violent, abusive and yet funny!!! sheer magic and I was glued to my seat for the full 2.5 hours of the movie waiting with baited breath for the next scene to unfold…Helmets off to AK and the entire team who backed his vision and pumped money into this project…the new phase of Bollywood is well & truly here and I am very happy to say that its here to stay! And believe me, this movie isn’t for the sissies out there – it’s gory in its own way (unlike SawJ) and dark all the way through!

Some of the dialogues are way too awesome…apart from the ones which were publicized on YouTube there are loads of other equally brilliant ones as well! And I am not just talking about the Dialogues with Gaalis (Yes I loved them the most but loved others too) ;)

The song where Sardar Khan stands on a top of a truck and publicly takes on Ramadhir Singh while the guy in the pink shirt is dancing as if there is no tomorrow is sheer brilliance…and the song playing in the background “Kasam paida karne waale ki”…Hazraat-Hazraat-Hazraat!!!! Crazy stuff indeed…

Manoj Bajpai as Sardar Khan is menacing in his role and in spite of all his follies (read: love for violence & immorality) I loved his character...he is brutal when he kills people, shameless the way he treats his women and his eyes just mean lust and nothing else when he is around women! Needless to say he is the real star of the movie and this is one of the best roles of his life…Manoj Bajpai is back & how!

Richa Chaddha as Nagma Khatoon is a revelation; in spite of the utter disdain shown by her husband she loves him unabashedly! superb acting and what a fiery performance...great to see her back after the "Dolly" Avatar of Oye Lucky Lucky Oye!

Reemma Sen as Durga looks a real hottie and the lust for her is all-too-visible in the eyes of Sardar Khan; she doesn’t have many dialogues but really she never needed them - her body and eyes did all the talking!

Jaideep Ahlawat as Shahid Khan is menacing too in his brief role and sets the tone for the entire movie...the scene where he dies would never go out of my mind! Talk about Sudden Death ;)

Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Faizal Khan has started off brilliantly and I am sure he would be the star of the Part -2 and I hope to see some more romantic extravaganzas with Mohsina (Huma Qureshi) ;) and I am sure he would have all the Permissions by then to go all the way!!! His dialogue “jab tak Dileep Kumar hai tab tak Waheeda Rehman rahegi” is spectacular! And in fact he is the one who takes the real revenge for the killing of his grandfather and not Sardar Khan as he has been seen proclaiming in the movie J

Vineet Kumar as Danish Khan…My favourite scene of him is his “Suhaagraat” scene when he tells his wife “ santara ko seb kehne se seb thode hi ho jaayega, santra hi na rahega….sunhara rang, bheeni-bheeni khushbu aur andar se rasedaar” ;)

Huma Qureshi as Mohsina – the Ray Ban girl is beautiful, rustic and yet modern!!! And yes she likes both colours – Laal & Hara ;) and Innocence personified….even when she wants Faizal to touch her but even then she wants to tell him she is the boss!!!!

Pankaj Tripathi as Sultan Qureshi is controlled yet poignant in his performance; the scene where he asks for “Automatic Guns” from Ramadhir is brilliant – his understated style is for all to admire and has set the tone for an encore in the Part 2 and I am sure he would have a pivotal role in the second installment…glad to see him back on the big screen after his brief yet important role in Omkara!

Tigmanshu Dhulia as Ramadhir Singh – What a debut; he couldn’t have asked for a better start to his Acting career! He is restrained, calm & collected and yet brings out the expected results in the best possible way!

It was great to see Aayan Boradia back on the screen as the young Sardar Khan; he was simply brilliant in Udaan!

Jameel Khan as Asgar is comical too and plays his part brilliantly of being the right-hand man of Sardar Khan…

And then there is the indomitable Yashpal Sharma as the Item Boy singing “Salaam-e-Ishq”…bloody hilarious…hope its MP3 File is out soon J

Last but not the least Piyush Mishra as Farhan who is the right-hand man & caretaker of Sardar Khan and also the narrator of the movie…as always controlled yet so effective in his performance…he has also sung, written and composed the beautiful song “Ik Bagal”…He has also written “Keh Ke Loonga” and “Manmauji”. And then one of his dialogues when he is talking to Nagma: "Tum sahi ho, woh marad hai,"…WOW is the word for its poignancy!

Special Mention to the Music of this film which is nothing short of being master class…the kind of research & efforts which have gone into it is all too audible!! Sneha Khanwalkar just like AK is a true maverick in her own way…and each one of the songs of the Soundtrack is here to stay…my favourites being “O Womaniya” and “Ik Bagal”…and all the songs are perfectly timed in the movie and take the story forward…exception being “I am Hunter” which in my opinion was not at all needed…

The ending lives up to the theme of the movie – bloody and gory…and the famous & old-age saying…”you live by the gun and die by the gun”…

I just can’t wait for GoW – 2 to be released soon and watch the saga unfold further and get to its conclusion…needless to say it would be another masterpiece from AK and would be lapped up by us all…KASAM PAIDA KARNE WAALE KI…………………………………