The Attacks of 26/11 (2013)

I have seen only one Ram Gopal Verma film in my life: Rangeela. I never got around to watch his critically-acclaimed crime dramas, his spate of horror films or even the universally hated recent misadventures. I do not understand the praise or the criticism he has received. Oh boy. I do now. The criticism. 

The film opens with a Joint Commissioner of Police, accused of mishandling the fightback and botching up the subsequent investigation, deposing before a committee set up to uncover discrepancies. There are numerous ways to make a film around this historical event. Ramu could have made a film from one family's point of view; or about a slew of strangers caught in different parts of the city, struggling to stay alive. Instead, he chooses to make the all encompassing version which starts in the Arabian Sea and goes about,  procedurally, creating mayhem in all the places we now associate with the terror attacks. There's nothing wrong with Ramu's choice, per se, but the way he makes his movie. Leaving us with no one to relate to or root for, he insensitively turns most of his characters into mere props- bag of flesh and blood just waiting to take a bullet and spill their guts out. By taking this route, it never quite finds its unique voice. 

The film claims this particular terror attack was far more shocking than 9/11 because of its "sheer audacity". I don't think I agree. I believed there was a massive intelligence failure and a major botch up by the city's Police, fueled by intrusive media coverage. The film's job was to convince me to believe otherwise; to consider the Joint Commissioner's account and reassess my views. It has clearly failed miserably. In its attempt to give some sort of catharsis, the film colors the cop clean while only coming across as a movie about one man saving his ass by telling us what we already knew. No one asks him any hard questions. The 'committee' is basically a bunch of suited extras, who have vowed to never open their mouth, giving reaction shots. 

I expected the film to put the lone captured terrorist Ajmal Kasab on a pedestal. Ramu does exactly that, and more, by turning Kasab into a poster child. His representation of terrorists is so basic that I couldn't believe someone once considered this guy a great director. With terrorists putting on their best scary face, shaking their guns in fury as they pump bullets into all the underpaid extras, the whole atmosphere becomes very caricaturish. From the CCTV images, Kasab looked like an excited kid out on a field trip. But Ramu's Kasab is all Bharat Mata ki Maa ki, foaming at the mouth with fury. He was lucky enough to find a guy who sort of resembled Kasab, but he tortures the poor guy to act when he clearly can't. 

The direction is so bad you wouldn't believe. This is the kind of vision which was passable in the 90s Bollywood. But at a time when we are getting movies like Zero Dark Thirty, it is mind-boggling to have Ramu expect us to keep a straight face while looking at a shot of terrorists walking around, with a statue of a Hindu deity in the foreground, and dhoom tana dhoom tana music playing in the background. 

The Attacks of 26/11 is an insensitive, amateurishly directed film. Ramu is the only filmmaker in the entire world who got an opportunity to visit the ruins of Taj Mahal Palace. It's a real shame he couldn't make a half decent movie out of his first hand experience. It is grim and grotesque just for the sake of it. Avoid at all costs. 

Gangs of Wasseypur II (2012)

While watching Wasseypur, I often found myself trying to fit its characters into the world of Godfather. Puzo and Coppola's work is so rich and perfect that every mafia family movie taking even the slightest inspiration immediately gets compared to the classic. Most movies have succumbed to this and a few have managed to survive. Nayakan, Devar Magan, Raajneeti and Sarkar come to mind. Raajneeti was unabashedly Godfather-esque, drew inspiration from Mahabharat and Indian political history, but with loads of masala. All these movies have only increased my admiration for my favorite movie of all time. The issue is characters keep switching roles, which may be a good thing. Sardar's death is reminiscent of Sonny's, but then Dhanish shows his shades. At one point of time Sardar appeared like Michael, but then Faizal turned into one. Ageing Ramadhir curiously resembled Vito before finally taking his place as Don Cicci.. the list goes on. Wassepur's success lies in the fact that it offers a sprawling epic that still manages to appear honest, original and realistic. 

Cinema forms this story's backbone. Ramadhir, while telling Shamshad how he managed to survive so long as all his foes kept dying, says everyone in India is caught in an illusion with movies. Jab tak Hindustan mein cinema rahega, tab tak log chutiya bante rahenge. The truth in that line resonates loudly as Kashyap mocks himself. The Indian masses are extremely impressionable and I personally blame cinema for increase in rape in India. Faizal thinks of himself as Amitabh Bachchan of the family but later realizes he's actually a Shashi kapoor. His younger brother Perpendicular is obsessed with Sanjay Dutt and his half-brother Definite is a Salman Khan knock off with a Tere Naam haircut. Like in Part I, the passage of time is signified using movie posters, with ringtones adding to it. 

Many people criticized the lack of urgency in part I which had Sardar savoring his moments troubling Ramadhir. After his passing, his sons have picked up the baton; the Pandavs fighting Ramadhir's metaphorical Kauravas. Luckily for Sardar, the apples didn't fall far from the tree. Each son seemed to have a penchant for the old ultraviolence. New characters came and went altering the course of the story but the goal remained the same: Ramadhir ki keh ke lena. In spite of everything, Wasseypur has always been a threesome, also involving the Qureshi family. Like part I, this one too felt like it was all over the place giving no clear idea of where things were heading. We always knew what was ultimately going to happen. Kashyap could have ended it anywhere he wished to. He only had to tie the loose ends. But he kept going on and on introducing new characters till the very end. My absurdly full bladder is partially to blame, but I kept hoping it would end soon. 

We are told that Faizal is the reluctant son who got dragged into this feud, but I never got that impression from him. When he breaks down to his wife, I didn't understand his regret. Perpendicular and Definite's bet seems so pointless. On the other hand, Definite's first failed attempt to kill Shamshad, another one involving Sultan and bananas, the continuation of the opening scene, the final shoot-down were amazing scenes. It's these flashes of genius that manage to pull your attention back after all the meanderings. Like Hithesh said, Kashyap is so deeply in love with his baby that he kept going on and on. Did it really need to be so long? The 5 hour version may show a different picture but I don't think I have it in me to sit through this saga again.  

Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)

Gangs of Wasseypur, Anurag Kashyap's epic crime saga sprawling over 6 decades, is the portrayal of the rural, trigger-happy India we've been waiting for. Characters don't belt out profanities in the range of kutte and kaminey, but speak their mind without worrying about the censor-board. Forget about thinking twice before pulling the trigger, people die here by the dozens for very petty reasons. Without going into the story, I'll just say the film has, at its center, Sardar Khan and his rivalry with Ramadhir Singh. 

Sardar is like a mad dog and saying that he has a penchant for ultra-violence and lawlessness would be putting it slightly. He’s also like that monkey which pulls the tiger’s tail. Killing is easier, but defeating a person in every imaginable way is, we are told, more fun. Sardar has one mission in life since he was a boy, and it is to destroy Ramadhir. Like The Joker who had not the slightest intention of killing the Batman, Sardar's life is incomplete without Ramadhir Singh. This all-consuming rivalry unravels leisurely over many fascinating set-pieces. 

Revenge has been the subject of many Hindi films from the notorious 70s and 80s. Kashyap’s admiration for the Amitabh Bachchan films belonging to that period shows as he pays homage to Trishul, Kalnayak, etc. Wasseypur too, I’d argue, has the template of a 80s revenge drama, but it is the treatment which sets them miles apart.

This is the most important Indian movie since the previous most important Indian movie. It takes the story back to rural India which remains unaffected from the westernisation. Many movies have had rural India as its subject but they were social movies passing judgments about everything that is wrong about the place. Wasseypur never judges its characters and their actions. It never says there’s anything wrong with them. Infidelity, rape, murder, dacoity defines them, and they are not ashamed of it. Like one character says, “Iddhar kabootar bhi ekh pankh se udta hai, aur dusra pankh se apni ijjat bachata hai.” They are who they are and it simply documents a saga which could have taken place in any of the thousands towns in India. 

As time passes, characters find different ways to harms each other as they mature from desi bombs and pistols to automatics. There’s karma if you look for it and dollops of poetic justice. But in spite of the little tussles, the movie continually gave this impression that Ramadhir was always on the receiving end. One of my problems with the movie is that the narrative is linear as fuck. Imagine starting with Vito Andolini's birth in Corleone and then going all the way to killing of the heads of the five families. I don't even understand why we even need to know about Sardar Khan's father. I agree it gives another generation's foundation to the rivalry, apart from also giving it a history, but it simply comes across as a deliberate attempt to make it seem grander than it actually is. 

I really wish I had seen the 5-hour version which has been playing at film-festivals. There are so many sub-plots which are hanging in the balance and it feels odd when the closure you get is not the kind you expect. Most of the developments which will go on to shape a character in the sequel look very incomplete. For example, the love-track between Sardar’s younger son Faizal and Sultan’s sister, though entertaining, goes nowhere at the end of part 1. I understand there is little the maker could do to rectify this but it felt odd. 

The dialogues are just the right amount of crackling without making the characters look like a bunch of smart-asses. Sardar's wife Nagma, played wonderfully by Richa Chadda, is the second most memorable character in the film. The single most gratifying part of watching Wasseypur is that its characters had the liberty of using profanity in whichever way and magnitude they wished to. And it feels so right. 

Sardar is so fascinating you sort of root for him in spite of knowing what he's made up of. But the movie is so expansive and meandering that I sort of lost interest in his pursuit and simply sat there taking in whatever it threw at me. I couldn’t write anything about the movie last night and I was disappointed in it. But now I can say Wasseyur is, without a doubt, a fine piece of work and everyone must watch it. It is simply too entertaining to miss.