Gangs of Wasseypur is an ambitious, sprawling saga about the coal mining mafia in Bihar. Three generations of Khan men carry on a blood feud that starts in 1941 and will continue in Gangs of Wasseypur Part 2, which is set in contemporary times.
These are men without a moral compass, living in a lawless land. The actors — Jaideep Ahlawat playing Shahid Khan, Manoj Bajpayee playing his son Sardar Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui playing his son Faizal — are terrific. This is undoubtedly Bajpayee’s best performance since Bhiku Mhatre in Satya. Sardar Khan has an insatiable appetite for sex and power. He murders with glee. And yet he’s charming.
Wasseypur, at least in director Anurag Kashyap’s version, brims with such fascinating characters. There’s Sardar’s firebrand wife, played with a steely gaze by Richa Chadda, who finally just accepts that he will have other lovers and so tells him to eat well, saying, ’Bahar jaake bezati mat karana ( Don’t go out and disgrace yourself) ’. There’s Ramadhir, the local strongman who battles the Khan men, played with quiet menace by Tigmanshu Dhulia. Even the minor players, like a gun dealer in Varanasi who looks like he could be a class teacher, are memorable.