"Humein laga Sanjeev Kumar ke ghar Amitabh Bachchan paida hua hai. Lekin ab pata chala hum to Shashi Kapoor the!" - Faisal Khan
No matter what time machine you use and what time zone you set for yourself to land at the theatre, you’ll inevitably find Sardar Khan (Bajpai) dead. That in spite of the soulful rendering of 'Jiya Tu Hazaar Saala' at the fag end of first part, giving a glimmer of hope that may be, just maybe Sardar, much like Vijay Chavan in Agneepath [video link], would survive the million-bullets-busted-in-the-car assault at the patrol pump. That is not to be. Having said that, every effort you make to be on time is still worth it (especially those who get stuck in Baba Ramdev inflicted mayhem in Delhi) because watching the initial reels of GoW-2 unfold is akin to catching the first episode of a highly awaited new season of a popular TV series. It starts with a bang and puts you right in the thick of things without unnecessary reminiscing.
The vendetta tale transcends into the third generation and with every prominent killing that takes place henceforth, you’re witnessed to a new brass-band laden death song from Yashpal Sharma, who reprises his role of the official item boy of Wasseypur. You are not quite sure whether to laugh or feel sorry for the grief stricken widows every time he lunges into the mic and throws out a Shabbir Kumar/Mohd Aziz chartbuster from 80's. But you do realise that a bloody grand Corleone-like payback is on the cards as Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s ‘Phaijal’ Khan finally takes the patriarchal baton in his hands. And it is this anticipation that turns to movie’s undoing as it loses steam after the lightening start and begins to relay the plot for another two hours of politicking one-upmanship with battery of fringe players and extra characters - Perpendicular, Tangent, Diameter, Vertex, Rhombus, Parallelogram, et al - popping out every now and then.
Definitely, Definite
It is Faisal Khan’s bastard brother, Definite (played brilliantly by film’s co-author Zeishan Quadri) that brings the much needed punch back into the film with his portrayal of power hungry, unpredictable, fearless, Salman Khan obsessed, wannabe Don. The Chhi-chha ledar chase sequence, where Definite goes to bump off Shamshad Alam, only to run away to save his own ass, is one of the high points of the film.
Nawazuddin, as expected, gives a powerhouse performance, but still falls short of emulating Manoj Bajpai’s larger-than-life aura of the first part. Piyush Mishra and Jameel Khan, who were able sidekicks to Bajpai in GoW-1, are reduced to mere mannequins here. May be it was a sign of new generation taking over both the reins and the guns of Wasseypur. The action too evolves from the rugged knife-stabbing and country-made revolver shootouts in the seminal part to a more polished Kalashnikov inflicted bloodshed here.
One might see GoW I & II as two different films and they are, in all fairness, different in story build up, narrative pace and their leads. But it's how the two films compliment each other that truly makes Gangs of Wasseypur, as a whole, a complete epic. Where the first part successfully created the perfect milieu for the riveting revenge saga to unfold, GoW-2 (for all its shortcomings) provides the most iconoclastic, befitting climax in the karmic killing of Ramadhir Singh. The orgy of endless bullets pumping into his blood laden pulp of fat dead meat in the backdrop of electronic ‘Keh ke Lunga’ is the closest Bollywood has ever got to Quentin Tarantino. That scene alone is worth your price of admission and the cost of buying the 2-DVD set when it's out.
My rating: 3.5 for the sequel and 4 for the franchise.
No comments:
Post a Comment