On various occasions the sequels much better than the first installment. This is one of those occasions.
When Sardar Khan meets his gory end at the end of the first film, viewers are left wondering as to how the second part can hold the promise shown by the first, with the main tour de force now out of the story. All these doubts are swept away a few minutes into the second part as Faizal Khan steps effortlessly into Sardar Khan’s place.
The film starts with Sardar Khan’s funeral, and two of his assailants being bumped off by his elder son Danish. A further ten minutes into the film, Danish himself is gunned down. This is a rude awakening for the other son Faizal (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) from his marijuana induced stupor, who begins by killing his friend, a local politician who had been a co-conspirator of Sardar’s murder, and the co-assailant of Danish. He swiftly follows by gunning down the remaining killers of his father and brother, and Wasseypur now has a new crime lord. He makes a conditional arrangement with MLA Ramadhir Singh, the man who has de facto been the cause of deaths of his own father and brother so that the local administration does not come in the way of his illegal activities.
With the help of this truce, Faizal makes the gang into a crime syndicate, ruling the town with an iron hand having gone from Kattas to Kalashnikovs, and having a cut in everything from scrap sales to government contracts. He seems to be unstoppable, his only weakness being his lust for easy money in copious amounts which plays a major role in his eventual end.
Enter Definite (Zeeshan Qadri), Sardar Khan’s son from another marriage, who will prove to be Faizal’s nemesis. Having grown up under Ramadhir’s influence, his attitude is both of contempt and awe for Faizal. On one hand he gets into Faizal’s gang and quickly rises through it, and on the other he remains in touch with Ramadhir to do his bidding in weakening the Khan household, and having their empire to himself. He does everything to please Faizal, including carrying out a deadly attack on Shamshad Alam (Rajkumar Yadav), a local businessman and collaborator with Faizal who had double crossed him and got him arrested.
Ramadhir implants another sleeper in Faizal’s gang. Initially, his sleeper brings him great profit as far as bagging government contracts is concerned, and Ramadhir ends up ignoring Definite. Definite in turn gets embittered and starts dismantling Faizal’s network, with the help of Ramadhir and JP, while being a part of it. In the end, it is revealed that JP and Definite have an agenda of their own.
Much has been written about Nawazuddin Siddiquis great performance, but the surprise package of this film is, as in the first, Tigmanshu Dhulia as Ramadhir Singh and Zeeshan Qadri (also the writer) as Definite.
The rest of the cast is brilliant as well with Richa Chadda effortlessly playing the role of the sixty year old Nagma . Pankaj Tripathi as Sultan Qureshi, Piyush Mishra as Farhan, Aditya Kumar as Perpendicular and Satya Anand as J.P. Singh are great as well. Devoid of stars, the movie gives you the pleasure of pure acting performances.
The film provides enough comic relief in between all the gore. For example, the abusive conversation that takes place between the assailants who are going to carry out a hit on Sultan and then the funny moments between Faizal and his wife Mohsina (Huma Qureshi).
On the other end, there are chilling sequences like the one where local shopkeepers are pooling in resources to give a ransom for the murder of the Faizal’s school going brother Perpendicular. Not only has Perpendicular been looting their shops, or those of Sultan, he even shoots his own sister, Danish’s widow, when he goes to attack Faizal’s remaining family.
The sequel scores over the first part because unlike the first, it does need to build background and the story starts right away. Earthy expletive laced dialogues seem more realistic than the eloquent urdu laced utterances of conventional Bollywood fare. Simple but effective dialogues like when Ramadhir Singh says how people will continue to remain “c*****” as long as there are films, are memorable and that is the USP of the film.
The film is based on realism, and shows us an India which we conveniently choose to ignore in our bubble wrapped surroundings. The film does have its weak links like over characterization (there are over 300 speaking parts in both the films) and it is a little lengthy and detailed.
However, the music in the film is worth looking out for. Sneha Khanwalkar’s minimalist and unconventional music, which combines tradition and imperfection to give a whole new effect makes tracks like “Chi Cha Ledar” and “Kala Re” the most notable.
This one (along with the first) definitely carries on the tradition set by The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino, Scarface and The Departed, reaffirming the fact that talent in filmmaking lies with independent productions and not Bollywood.
Ankur Jayawant
Image Source [http://www.madaboutmoviez.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/GOW2.jpg]
