A gangster clashes with the mining kingpin who killed his father. A clash between Sultan; a Qureishi dacoit chief and Shahid Khan; a Pathan who impersonates him.
Gangs of Wasseypur is, then, an adrenalin shot of a film, powered along by an inventive score by Sneha Khanwalkar that's a grab-bag of diverse genres including north Indian folk, electronica and even Indo-Caribbean reggae.
Inspired by a true story, Gangs of Wasseypur is technically a Bollywood musical (it has 25 original songs, according to film notes) but without the characters breaking into song and dance...
It's a story about charismatic killers, men we love to hate, characters who are depraved, ennobled and finally doomed by their disregard for ordinary human decency and their devotion to an endless cycle of violent retribution.
This insane masterpiece shows the self-destructive properties of myth making and how they overlap with the downfall of a community damned from the beginning of time.
But what makes Gangs one of the rare recent Indian mainstream movies to achieve crossover exposure is the way that it intersects with and echoes other international variants on gangster themes.
A frequently spectacular achievement: five hours - and then some - of gliding camera moves, brutal action and dizzying revenge plotting, often set to a peppy pop music backbeat.
This epic crime saga sprawls across seven decades and three generations of characters -- like all three parts of The Godfather rolled into one, with an injection of boisterous Bollywood flavour.
