Bajrangi Bhaijaan- Blockbuster Meat, Sweet Sauce

Not every bearded filmmaker is Steven Spielberg and our wannabes should wake up to that fact.

Kabir Khan, while sporting a Shaggy-style beard, different from the great man’s trademark muzzle, tries his hand on a premise that would have suited early, eighties-era Spielberg- a film about sensitive political issues, a sprightly comic adventure set in a seemingly hostile and unwelcoming land and most importantly about a little child at the center of it all.

Yet, even the weakest of Spielberg films are made compellingly watchable either by the director’s firm sense of realism (as in the flawed yet pretty light-hearted ‘The Terminal’) or a sweeping, if self-deprecatory sense of wonder (as in ‘Hook’). ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’- a well-intentioned plea for secularism disguised as a Bollywood entertainer (read as tearjerker)- sees Khan, hitherto an uneven stylist- whose films are awkwardly trapped between their weighty ambitions and the simple aims of entertainment- in solid, confident form but despite much going for it, it is a film which lacks both a reassuring sense of coherence as well as the kind of genuinely rollicking old-school allure that would have drawn us in.

The result, nevertheless, is a safe, harmless Bollywood entertainer, inoffensive to the point that its normally larger-than-life hero- Salman Khan, who else- is palpably restrained (which is good indeed) and much of the film’s talk of secularism, border tensions and so on is reduced to simplistic, sloppy plotting and a conveniently please-all climax. Sigh.

It starts off promisingly indeed- like all Khan films- in a territory that he is most comfortable with- when he is required to add in welcome touches of documentary-style credibility to the proceedings. We begin in the frosty hills of Pakistan, where a family sits huddled watching a cricket match and applauding the stellar Shahid Afridi as he bags them a victory. A pregnant mother makes a wishful resolution, the result is an irresistibly sweet girl named Shahida, with a face the color of snow. Taken along with her anxious mother to Nizammuddin Auliya behind Indian lines so that she can be able to utter a word, Shahida’s curiosity gets the better of her on the homeward bound- inevitably, as it should happen, she is stranded in a seemingly alien India and as we know, this sweetie cannot ‘phone home’.

Of course, with a Spielberg-like breeziness, Khan lets the little girl set her troubled, exquisitely wide eyes at an unlikely escort in the midst of a frenetic paean to Lord Hanuman- a thick-headed simpleton called as Pavan Kumar Chaturvedi, who happens to be a rather naïve devotee for the said deity. Make no mistake however- this is Bollywood formula at its cheesiest- what follows is a strictly serviceable routine of proceedings- blending the regular trappings of candy floss romance, predictable humor and the usual tomfoolery that we have seen in so many Salman Khan-starrers in the yore. It hardly feels like a film coming from a seasoned documentary pro like Khan and it is evident in these hoary, if often harmless, plot movements that the director just is not cut for masala.

What makes these uninspired stretches work is, for most part, the man himself. It is nicely refreshing to see Salman shed off the self-aggrandizing, pompous and celebratory essence away and instead play the dim-witted Simple Simon to the hilt without every overplaying the ridiculous decisions that his character makes. His is a refreshingly simple character, thrust unwittingly into responsibilities that he has no intention to be. It is largely due to him- and Khan’s attention to a few nice nuanced touches- a staunchly Hindu household in which the kid presumably watches ‘Chhota Bheem’ and where the patriarch frowns on neighbors being meat-guzzling Muslims- that the film’s lazy first half is pretty much watchable- even as a silly song about chicken and an even more ridiculous fight inside a brothel spoil things.

Post interval, the film crackles up nicely enough- with our foolhardy, Hanuman-worshipping hero tugging along little Shahida across the border and things enliven nicely with the arrival of Nawazzudin Siddiqui as the news scavenger Chand Nawaz, a character so full of pluck and rippling earnestness that he alone lifts the film from its hitherto labored pace. Khan himself does a neat job of capturing the mofussil flavor of the locations- lensman Aseem Mishra does a fabulous job of shooting the sandy streets, the loaded camels and the barren highways while the tone becomes crisply comic in nature- resulting in some well-earned sequences of full-blown entertainment and charming adventure.

To be more honest, the entire film is amply lifted by the little Shahida herself. Played by an effervescent yet effectively earthy Harshaali Malhotra, this little, knee-high damsel in distress is the film’s high point- its apex and obviously Khan’s best decision as a director. As long as the film fixes its starry, besotted gaze on this little wonder, it literally soars, accompanied with a subtle, sweeping background score and the precocious Malhotra herself- acting out her predicament, her glee and her plucky bubbliness with effective balance. Here is a child performer to watch out for and it won’t be surprising if other mainstream films feature her for the tear-jerking- for her essence herself is enough to make one go weak at the knees.

Somewhere inside the ungainly mess of mainstream clichés- a boring and dull romance between Pavan and Rasika (a surprisingly bland Kareena Kapoor Khan) and some ham-fisted, emotionally manipulative scenes in the way- lies an inert film, a smaller, more intimate story of Pavan and Shahida- a yarn that simply and rather effectively spans their obvious geopolitical differences and unites them in a well-intentioned knight and damsel tale. A more able director would have teased this smaller story out, ignoring the weightier aspirations but nah, Khan decides to pad them along- even as they begin to look even more unconvincing. For this is a film that is unwisely trying to sound like a plea for secularism between both the nations but it hardly has the narrative heft to warrant such  naïve ambition. For once again, Khan hardly adds any real stakes to this tale.

There is no real threat, no real sense of peril or danger in Pavan’s single-minded quest. Border guards are easily and ridiculously won over by the man’s earnestness and in typical Bollywood fashion, one of them, who normally looks the sternest, allows him to enter without documents, easily impressed with the intentions. Throughout the cross-border comic chase, the pursuers turn out to be blundering uniformed fools and Rajesh Sharma’s slap-happy cop, desperately hunting for these wild geese, is suddenly transformed into an all-so-wonderful guy towards the inevitable climax.

This is something of a shame since there is so much potential in a film like this. Unlike most Salman Khan-starrers, it is slick, nicely shot and also nicely cast with fine actors finally doing what they can do best. Sharat Saxena is reliably gruff as a believably stern patriarch, Om Puri shows up in a delightfully old-school cameo as a warm-hearted maulvi offering refuge to the fugitive Pavan and there are a couple of good bits, here and there. Mostly, Malhotra’s bubbly grace and Siddiqui’s heartfelt energy drive the proceedings, aided by Khan’s flair for some nice local flavor. But with so much of the film’s politics dumbed down to just stray moments of some little insight and a handful of clever, thoughtful lines, much of this is again elaborate, if somewhat flab-free, window-dressing.

A major Bollywood critic- one often lambasted for ripping apart wildly popular films- compared ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ to the style of Rajkumar Hirani and I beg to differ. Hirani’s films might be ham-fisted soliloquies on religion, education and institutions- with more stretched farce than intelligent satire on display- but the writer-director also hammers hard at valuable insights with wacky scripts and memorable characters. There is none of this in Khan’s film- even as he and writer S. Vijayendra Prasad (the man who wrote the ‘Baahubali’ behemoth) amp up the tear-jerker element quite effectively in many key scenes.

‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ is a safe yet unspectacular entertainer- a film which remains quite watchable for most part and often sweet but if only it had been just a bit complex, a tad more involving and not merely chose the easy way out…..

My Rating- Three Stars Out Of Five.

Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’- Simmering, Sizzling, Superb

Can a criminal fall in love? We have seen many movie gangsters having wives and molls and sweethearts around the corner and much of the romance is secondary in the larger concerns of gang battles, escaping attention of alert cops and sliding down into inevitable decline. But what about a romance, a romance that throbs subtly, silently, poignantly? What if the said crook does not let his love interest know even a shred of a fact about his real life but simply lives the illusion until it is inevitably broken? And what then? Will the criminal still stick to the woman he loves or will he leave her as he spots the heat around the corner?

Michael Mann’s masterly 1995 cops-and-robbers thriller deftly answers this tricky question- thanks to his nuanced, heartfelt, amazingly poignant touch of direction, a welcome surprise in a premise that brims with gritty violence, brutal treachery and betrayal at every corner- and also due to a large measure by one powerhouse performance at the center of it all. But before we delve deeper into the film’s superb emotional core, as well as its elegant, clean-cut, incisive thrust of action and crime, let us first remember of the single important reason why this film ranks so high on every movie buff’s list.

In 1974, two budding actors, already making something of a mark with their incendiary acting talent, were cast in the same film in different roles and yet in character threads that interwove with each other in fascinating ways and remains a masterclass of storytelling. The film was the stunning ‘The Godfather Part 2’, Francis Ford Coppola’s superlative sequel to his already epic ‘The Godfather’- the actors were a fiery Al Pacino, starring as a cold-blooded yet convincingly alienated Michael Corleone and a sublime Robert De Niro as the perfect foil- the younger, charismatic version of Michael’s famous father- embodied earlier by Marlon Brando.

Twenty one years later, Mann, a director known for sharp policer TV series in the 80s and a handful of compelling and diverse directorial outings (‘Thief’ and ‘The Last Of The Mohicans’), cast both of them together in the same frame as once again the opposite forces- cop and criminal- tireless enforcer and tricky thief and created instant screen magic by igniting them both.

Or shall I say, honestly, one of them ignites pretty well enough, the other simply crackles up like an over-lit fuse and the ultimate impact is a bit of a downer but more than made up by how the writer-director, the crew and the rest of the cast lets things explode with immediacy, without compromising on a throbbing emotional core.

In the broad, glinting daylight of Los Angeles, five robbers, with fearsome hockey masks, take down a van carrying illegal money, in a hair-trigger sequence of explosive tension which is precision-engineered in its chilling suspense and stark urban horror and would any day beat the flashier heist scenes in the films of Steven Soderbergh. Even with things going at clockwork, this does not look like a perfect job- as a loose-cannon member of the ragtag crew bumps off a cop and all hell breaks loose.

The leader- Neil McCauley (De Niro)- is naturally furious, for here is a strange, charismatic loner of a man who would never really kill someone, until totally required. Meanwhile, the cops are equally intrigued by the messy nature of the job itself. ‘Robbery Homicide’s taking it’, announces LAPD detective Vincent Hanna (Pacino)- an aging fox of an enforcer, hell bent on solving the case, to the point of ruining his third marriage and the stage is set for a bigger clash of the two determined souls, each doing what they know best.

With the tone set, Mann makes the film live up to its name and lets things boil and simmer with the right amount of fiery sauce and narrative flesh and blood to craft a true potboiler in every sense. The pace is amazingly unhurried, the detailing astonishingly meticulous (often letting major sequences of heists gone wrong and investigations going awry unravel with both big and small detail captured almost naturally) and the snappy dialogue quite flawless- Mann has a remarkable talent for blending the rapid-fire, profane verbal tension with the subtler reflections on life and relationships without it sounding schmaltzy. And this entire piece of fiery hot, sizzling beauty oscillates perceptively between its attention on the tumultuous lives of its two leads- one with a failing marriage, the other with a secretly guarded, throbbing romance-to the terse, brisk scenes of cat-and-mouse pursuit and treacherous ambush.

All this is before the big stunner of a scene- the literal clash of the titans- as one sultry Los Angeles evening, Hanna asks his target Neil out for coffee. The two actors face off in this wonderfully subdued scene- where Mann withdraws and lets his master performers to take things in their own hands. The two offer respect to each other, discuss their own personal problems and end up insisting that they will do what they are meant to. It is a classic setup, one for the ages.

The film’s urban, dirty, gritty warfare erupts soon after that- in ways that remain genuinely suspenseful and exciting but after a point, the so-far lean and muscular film begins collecting a fair bit of its own flab. Part of the problem is Mann’s sometimes suicidal ambition- trying to tie up all the threads within the time available, to the point of slowing down things a bit. The bigger problem seems to be Pacino, laying it more thickly than ever as the film progresses. His character Hanna is a genuinely smartass cop but Pacino is taking things too literally- trying too hard to be smart-mouthed, tough, vulnerable all at the same time. There are scenes in which he could have absolutely rocked with a subtler control of his emotions- but Pacino, an actor who once could absolutely simmer just with his silent, intense glares, frequently hams it up and the effect is that he does let down the film.

It is nevertheless not significantly bad to wreck the film for Mann has a natural talent to handle actors as well. Val Kilmer is a treat as McCauley’s younger protégé Chris Shiherlis, a tightly wound yet diligent youngster totally dedicated to his job. Tom Sizemore and Jon Voight are reliably excellent and even the women do their parts justice. Special mention should go to the sublime and vulnerable Amy Brenneman as Eady, the wide-eyed young lady who melts Neil’s icy heart and responsible for some of the most searing emotional moments in the script while Ashley Judd and Diane Venora are quite impressive as imperfect wives trying to hold their marriages together. And somewhere there is also a young and fresh-faced Natalie Portman playing angsty blues the way she does best.

And that brings us to the biggest stick of dynamite in the film- the one man whose towering, terrific performance lends its real fireworks. De Niro is downright brilliant as McCauley- a man who is a tough, terse criminal, sure (just watch the blazing scene in which he grills a treacherous negotiator over a phone call) but also a man, crucially with a tender, vulnerable inner self. He is a charismatic loner- as he admits, ‘I am alone, I am not lonely’ and he is looking for some stability in his fugitive life and De Niro captures both the ruthless determination as well as the heartfelt despair in equal measure with fantastic, measured elegance. It is a bravura performance, pitch-perfect in timing, the kind of performance we can only get from an actor this seasoned and somewhere in between this gritty portrayal, we also see the same lovelorn essence that we saw in the great, great ‘Taxi Driver’ years ago.

There is a standalone scene towards the climax- a scene in which De Niro’s McCauley is trying to save the little world of romance that he created from falling apart and we see the actor in familiarly desperate form- early on, when he first finds Eady in a coffee shop and starts warming up to her, we can almost recognize the sociopathic Travis Bickle wooing Cybill Shepherd in a coffee shop those decades ago. Such is De Niro’s prowess that he makes McCauley’s romance totally believable and genuinely poignant without every exaggerating it.

The same is the case with Mann as well. ‘Heat’ might be classified as a crime thriller and (as movie lists go) as a terrific, enthralling action film (the relentless scenes of urban gunplay and stealth are still unmatched) but it is ultimately Mann’s measured, sublime and minutely detailed treatment of the same template that today makes it a classic worth viewing. Now, if only Pacino knew too how to hold himself a bit……

My Rating- 4 and a half stars out of 5

The Top Twenty People From Kashyap-land

20- Baba Bangali (No Smoking- 2007)

Played by- Paresh Rawal

A pure figment of imagination, and not just of the central character K (spoiler alert!) but most crucially of the director himself, Baba Bangali might be the pulpiest person in Kashyap’s universe but then pretty much everyone in this twisted, bizarre and breathtakingly original outing (so what if it takes its dream-logic from the master David Lynch?) was as weird and pulpy as they could be. Then again, few could master both menacing villainy and campy humor with aplomb than the veteran Paresh Rawal and the master actor sinks his grinning teeth and devilish eyes into full-effect. A worshipper of Adolf Hitler and his methods, an unashamed psychopath and yet capable of solid, convincing monologues that would coax a person less tough than K to give up the cigarette, here is a sort of a taskmaster you can either hate or follow resolutely. And he certainly expects the latter.

19- Chaitanya (Ugly-2014)

Played by- Vineet Singh

The talented and energetic Singh, so fabulous as the alternately meek and maddening Danish Khan in the ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ double-bill and the desperate son in Kashyap’s charming little segment ‘Murabba’, finds his finest hour as the terrifically sly and slimy casting director in the director’s most unglamorous- and emotionally wrenching- work. As the deceptive, traitorous Chaitanya, who prefers pulled-up collars and does some sneaky business in a tiny shovel of an office, here is a character impossible not to disbelieve. Even as he might pretend to be on the side of the distraught Rahul (Rahul Bhat) in his quest for the missing daughter, and even cry and shout out a heap of invectives in a torture chamber, there is little to care and more to blatantly dislike in a man so swarmy, so unashamedly self-centered. You actually almost cheer when this character, so full of his own interest, gets his comeuppance in the worst way possible.

18- Johnny Balraj (‘Bombay Velvet’-2015)

Played by- Ranbir Kapoor

In some of Kashyap’s characters, we can actually find glimmerings of the man himself- his own faults, his own weaknesses and his own obvious charisma. Johnny Balraj- the uniquely named protagonist of Kashyap’s most underrated triumph- personifies many of Kashyap’s trademark traits- plucky, ambitious, even a bit foolhardy and most crucially a man who loves his choice of movies. Rather than become a clean-cut, smartly groomed gangster out of pressing financial obligations or even the desire for revenge, Balraj turns a goon for the simple reason that he was inspired by the final scene of a classic Hollywood film. It is a wonderfully refreshing angle on a character like this gullible yet determined and big-minded dreamer, as he plots both his descent and his inevitable downfall. Played by a shattering blend of childlike bravado and boyish arrogance by the reliable Kapoor, this is a sorely neglected yet quietly magnificent characterization.

17- Inspector Rakesh Maria (‘Black Friday’- 2007)

Played by- Kay Kay Menon

Kashyap is not known for straight-up heroes but the ones that he does create (like Guddu in ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur 2’ and Chimman in ‘Bombay Velvet’) are everlasting- they are genuinely good and honest people in a world where lies and murderous deceit usually lie scattered in abandon. This hard-boiled ace cop was one that was modeled on the namesake himself- the famed enforcer who was really at the forefront of the inquest after the 1993 bomb blasts in Bombay. The casting of Kay Kay Menon is the masterstroke here- the by-default simmering and intense actor brings great depths of hard-nosed seriousness and wonderful dignity to his character. ‘Be ruthless… but be tactful’, he briefs to his fellow cops and yet as the blood and screams begins to flow from the grimy torture chambers, it begins to take a toll on Maria himself- as he himself reveals his rough edges. It is a masterclass of a performance- coming from an actor who has always outdone himself and check out numbers 12 and 7 as well.

16- Prithvi Bana (‘Gulaal’- 2009)

Played by- Piyush Mishra

Oh, Kashyap loves total psychos. And none so more than the ones who have a soft, mushy side to them. Prithvi Bana is one of Kashyap’s most indulgent creations- something like the lisping Perpendicular in ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur 2’, Abbas in ‘No Smoking’ and even the jazz singers in ‘Dev D’. But while all these were enjoyably nutty detours for the director and his audience, it is Prithvi Bana in this slow-burn political potboiler, literally soaked in scarlet, who actually gives the film its deeply emotional core. This loony family fool is also a talented socialist musician who also turns out to be a fan of John Lennon (god bless him!) and even scampers around the scene like a child- sometimes to his sad detriment. But the extraordinarily talented Mishra also gives this madcap character a throbbing heart of sadness and neglect and this is what makes him so endearingly good. In a world of self-centered politics, twisted ideology and ruthless brutality, it is he, alone, who feels like the only bastion of reason and morals in an universe of evil.

15- Chanda (‘Dev D’- 2009)

Played by- Kalki Koechlin

There is so much contrast in Kashyap’s snazzy and spectacular version of Devdas- leaping gracefully and frenetically from mustard fields and mofussil houses to grimy bars and hotels of Delhi’s belly- the harsh sunlight of semi-urban sexuality against the neon-lit urban decay. And the same would also apply to the two women at the center of it-and the alternate worlds in which Dev’s tumultuous feelings revolve. If Paro (Mahie Gill) was all spunk and self-combustible anger, Chanda (Kalki Koechlin) reflects a subdued, servile vulnerability to all the scum that the unforgiving world of men throws on her. She can be easily called as one of Kashyap’s most weak-willed women but make no mistake. Chanda might have a painful past and we can all see the craving for fatherly love beneath both her blank, sad stares and her foul-mouthed talk. But she holds her own will in an increasingly doomed world where she operates- her love for Dev is pure and willful and she has also kept the door always open for escape to a life full of color.

14- Ranasa (‘Gulaal’- 2009)

Played by- Abhimanyu Singh

‘Gulaal’ saw Kashyap at the peak of his character-building process and there is an impressive gallery of rogues, villains and femme fatales vying for attention. One of the most stunning creations in this ensemble is Singh’s raw and instantly rippling portrayal of Ranasa- a character so full of rugged machismo that it is impossible not to like him for the sheer bravado alone. Kashyap wisely wastes little time on introduction- he lets his most gorgeously gritty character storm his way into the proceedings early on. Alternating between cowboy attire (when enjoying a mujra) and a soldier’s helmet (when geared up for action), Ranasa might look devilish even with a wide grin below his fierce kohl’d eyes and you better not expect any sympathy from him if you are ragged. And yet, again, in a crowd of mostly untruthful and unforgiving people, here is a man closest to what the film has as a hero- his swagger, his grit and overall bravado makes him so irresistible.

13- K (‘No Smoking’- 2007)

Played by- John Abraham

‘Nobody tells me what to do’, intones Abraham’s K, as he looks at his bathroom mirror with a cigarette between his lips. Kashyap might have based the twisted, arrogant cynic at the center of his bizarre nightmare of a movie on a Kafka character or maybe even on one of David Lynch’s characters but he is not fooling anyone- hell, K could be a pseudonym for Kashyap. Like Dev, Johnny Balraj and some others, K reflects a dimension of its creator’s arrogant, stubborn personality- his refusal to take it lying down, his defiance of the people hell-bent on bringing him down and his delusional ideas of being suppressed in individual freedom. Yet the fact that some of this rings so true- Kashyap’s films being banned for public release, his ideas thwarted cruelly by producers and films dismissed by the audiences- itself makes K a marvelous creation- a character in which both Kashyap and Abraham (seldom better) invest with dedicated despair. A cynic by default, a bad husband and even a bigger scumbag, K nevertheless gets a comeuppance of sorts when he finds (or rather feels) the entire world ‘telling him what to do’. It is a fantastically nightmarish twist when the man whom we would love to hate suddenly becomes the doomed victim of the world’s domineering force on one and all. Doesn’t that sound a bit too true? Sadly, it does.

12- Inspector Vishwas Kulkarni (‘Bombay Velvet’- 2015)

Played by- Kay Kay Menon

The narrative of ‘Bombay Velvet’ flourishes at the arrival of Inspector Vishwas Kulkarni into the proceedings. So far, the film’s characters are merely making up their delusions in a fabled Bombay- from Balraj seeing starry dreams in daylight to Karan Johar’s Kaizad Khambatta running many a scandal in pursuit for his own star in the sky. It is Kulkarni, who comes as a harsh wakeup call to the characters- it is a murder that he starts to investigate and soon, the great myth of Bombay Dream begins to unravel in fascinating glory. Powered with an uncanny sense of the merely concealed truths, Kulkarni is a brilliant archetype Menon performance- stuffed to the gills with sly wit and devilish charm- best expressed in his trademark shifty eyes and the half-grin that marks his rascally face. But Kulkarni is also something of a hero in his own right- he is honest, upright and he will never really fire a gun or raise a fist until totally necessary. Talk about having real charm and boy, the fedora suits really to him.

11- Inspector Jadhav (‘Ugly’-2014)

Played by- Girish Kulkarni

Kashyap is the kind of director who, like Vishal Bhardwaj and Sriram Raghavan, squeeze out fantastic acting from the most hardened mainstream performers but it is his choice of unknown but extraordinarily talented performers that really makes him stand in the crowd. The finest and most recent pick in this gallery is the little-known Kulkarni, playing a character who is way too real to belong in any film world- the archetype, impatient and deliberately frustrating policeman who won’t believe your lies and does not even care about the truth.  Jadhav is not merely incompetent and sycophantic- he is also something of a sneaky sadist and the best evidence of this lies in the chillingly hilarious scene in the station- when the distraught Rahul (Rahul Bhat) tries desperately to get his help in finding his abducted daughter. The highlight of this character’s sheer wicked boisterousness is the moment when the less-than-ideal father tries to explain how to set up a caller ID on a phone with a photograph. Kulkarni’s Jadhav jumps at the juncture, grabs this potentially rich scene of pitch-black comedy and turns it into a masterpiece of comic despair.

10- Paro (‘Dev D’-2009)

Played by- Mahie Gill

She is open-mouthed in bewilderment when her sophisticated lover, calling her from London, asks her to send her nude pictures via email. But it is only a moment’s hesitation- in the next few moments, we see her not only taking the said pictures but also marching her way to the nearest cybercafé in her mofussil town and sending the same with an air of frustration in her nose. That is Kashyap’s spunky, sizzling version of Paro- the heroine of a famous romantic tragedy, originally condemned to be a wilting wallflower and yet reimagined by Kashyap and co-writer Vikramaditya Motwane as effervescent and pungent as the mustard that grows in fields around her house. Not exactly the archetype of the village belle, her predicament and anger at her erstwhile lover’s chauvinism and urban cynicism is genuinely heartbreaking. But this lass also has the gall to dance in full, unashamed glory in her own wedding, blissfully unaware of the depths to which Dev would inevitably fall. And then, it is she who tries in vain to resurrect the man that she once loved. For once and for all, Gill’s spirited performance along with Kashyap’s bravado treatment changed the template of the modern heroine for good.

9- Definite (‘Gangs Of Wasseypur 2’-2012)

Played by- Zeeshan Quadri

He has one ‘definite mission’ in his life but what the heck is it? The talented Quadri, who also co-wrote ‘Wasseypur’ double-bill and co-created the great irresistible world, brings a whole new dimension to the storyline of the revenge-soaked drama. So far, it had been only tit-for-tat; with Definite’s entry, it turns into something more twisted. For here is a youngster whose mother nurtured with the thirst of vendetta but is now more interested in carving his own way in a world which is constantly moving on. For us fans, he is one of the most irresistible characters put on the large screen- literally given license to wreck chaos and mayhem on the already volatile world where he belongs. A little slippery, a little vainglorious, a little harmless and mostly pungent and dangerous, this man is loose cannon and you better don’t underestimate him. And yes, he does not quite believe in friendships between guys and girls. You have been warned.

8- Mohsina (‘Gangs Of Wasseypur-1 And 2’-2012)

Played by- Huma Qureshi

It was widely called by many as the true stunning debut performance of the year. In the elaborate, intricately plotted Part 1, we see Mohsina mostly in precious glimpses- conning her way into a second movie showing with her gushing, effete charm and then shaking a hip along with her girls to a song behind closed doors, impervious to the tensions and rivalry outside. But it is only when we see Qureshi’s firecracker with a pair of Aviator glasses that we know that an actress of rare flammability has arrived. Towards the end of Part 1, we see only hints of her edgy sexuality and her combustible hold over her love interest (see number three). In the second film, she turns out to be as much oozing with spunk as the rest of the premise and her hold continues even as she submits to her man’s arduous and often wild-eyed love. A new firecracker is set alight and Qureshi keeps it cracking right up till the end with her infectiously raw presence.

7- Dukey Bana (‘Gulaal’-2009)

Played by- Kay Kay Menon

One man’s leader is another’s tyrant. In case of Dukey Bana, one of Kashyap’s purest villains, he is a tyrant for all- no matter how much he might help you if you happen to be ragged by nasties in your hostel. The film suitably then opens with one of Bana’s rousing yet invective-laden speeches as he rallies his devoted, fellow fanatics, all with faces smeared blood-red, to his grand delusion- of a separatist Rajput nation made of his clan. A little later, the huge splits and cracks in this unlikely rabble-rouser become baldly evident- he has a bad marriage, is fancying a courtesan and yet treats her like shit and as for his ideology, it clearly does not stop him from being a ruthless master of the political game. It is then a marvel how Menon, a Kashyap veteran at top form, captures all this evil in the subtlest, most natural way possible. His presence is indeed larger-than-life and menacing but there is also a calm, pensive air about him- as he often stays away from the chessboard. And then, Kashyap and Menon toss the big twist when, in the blood-splattered end, we end up feeling for this megalomaniac when the harsh truth of his life is unleashed. Brilliant.

6- Ramadhir Singh (‘Gangs Of Wasseypur-1 and 2’-2012)

Played by- Tigmanshu Dhulia

Kashyap loves casting ace directors in interesting roles, both little and major- including himself. And it has most paid off in spades- think Karan Johar’s wicked Kaizad Khambatta in ‘Bombay Velvet’ and Imtiaz Ali as the convincingly shifty Yakub Memon in ‘Black Friday’. But his single masterstroke will always be when he picked out fellow indie-hero Tigmanshu Dhulia to play a performance more memorable than all his impressive oeuvre as a director. While Ramadhir might begin as a typical Bollywood movie villain, soiling his hands with illegal coal and viciously spilled blood, there is little of the menace left in him as the film progresses. Instead, what we get is a decadent kingpin whose time is now fading away. Surrounded on all sides with persistently harassing foes, compelled to rely on hot-headed plotters, here is a man who remains calm in the face of the storm but hides a simmering hatred beneath the calm exterior. It shows in his splendidly enjoyable rough edges- the furious ways in which he spouts his choicest invectives, the way he sizes up his son and the somnolent, dangerous stare in his eyes. Here is a man not just a villain but rather a searing extraordinary character and even worthy of some empathy.

5- Dev (‘Dev D’-2009)

Played by- Abhay Deol

The love of his life, the woman whom he unfairly abandoned only because of his arrogance, comes to him and when he confesses that he loves her, pat comes the reply that ‘he does not love anyone, except for himself’. By that time, we know that after all the melodramatic and hyperbolic attempts to get Devdas right in spirit, finally we have a Dev who is as much of a scumbag as his creator intended him to be.

The credit would go solely to Deol himself, hitherto a low-key, congenial wannabe who was slowly making a mark as a deceptively earnest performer in a series of low-brow but interesting films and then prove to everybody his vast acting chops in the rollicking ‘Oye Lucky!Lucky Oye!’. But ‘Dev D’ was his baby to begin with- a germ of an idea that he had, stashing together scandalous headlines and adding a jazzy, urban feel to the age-old tragedy. But bless him also that he trusted none other than Kashyap to handle it all and the latter gave that idea its flesh, blood, heart, semen and snuff.

The result was a sizzling and spectacular romantic yarn that boldly busted all clichés, turned typical romance on its head and while the proceedings are given main thrust by the two women at the center (see numbers 10 and 15), this would not have been the watershed of filmmaking without Deol’s haunting, laconic, desperate and self-pitying performance at the center. This is the arrogant loverboy who wants his love interest to behave according to his whims- from asking her to pose nude to insulting her because of her attire. This is the helpless spurned lover who soaks himself in alcohol instead of showing some spine. This is the smug bastard scavenging for quick sex and drugs in a deranged Delhi. And yet, this is also the doomed pathetic but oddly fortunate man who nevertheless deserves a new lease of life. No wonder then that Kashyap gives him one and in full, colorful glory in the film’s rousingly optimistic climax.

4- Tiger Memon (‘Black Friday’-2007)

Played by- Pavan Malhotra

Few directors, other than Kashyap, can handle underutilized veteran actors to greater effect- think about Ronit Roy as the brutal yet sternly honest cop in ‘Ugly’, Piyush Mishra as the loon in ‘Gulaal’ and the calm, serene patriarch in ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ and Manish Chaudhary as the cigar-chomping communist cuckold in ‘Bombay Velvet’. But it is one triumph that deserves some special mention. By the early 2000s, with the Khans on a roll and newbie actors finding their stuff to strut, few remembered the searing and powerful actor named Pavan Malhotra, who was best known for the gritty gangster roles in Saeed Mirza’s punchy Bombay yarns. He had done a couple of movies here and there when Kashyap picked him up and cast him as a man who can be called as the most monstrous of all Kashyap villains- a real-life kingpin called Tiger Memon.

But then, the real-life figure- the absconding from police captivity- itself had been documented with ruthless realism in the source novel by S. Hussain Zaidi and it is largely in Kashyap’s film version that we see him truly come alive with all the self-aggrandizing swagger, the bursting confidence of a true plotter who has planned every step for his getaway. Here is a truly terrifying portrait of the brain of the conspiracy- the man whose iron-fisted determination holds the desperate local minions in place, the man whose fearsome yet awesome presence eggs them all to be trained for cold-blooded murder. And this is also the vicious, snarling and traitorous boss whose final coup of an escape leaves them all reeling for some little semblance of reason and sanity. Ruthless, domineering, charismatic- Malhotra captures it all and more to make an enigmatic scoundrel all the more lifelike.

3- Faizal Khan (‘Gangs Of Wasseypur 2’-2012)

Played by- Nawazzudin Siddiqui

Most famous director-actor collaborations are known for the rich ways in which the actors evolve under the capable hands of their taskmasters. The same truth applies perfectly to the relationship between Kashyap and Nawazzudin Siddiqui. He was virtually unnoticed as a cowering, cowardly local help in ‘Black Friday’ and you might have also missed him as the Elvis-Presley-styled crooner in ‘Dev D’. But you simply cannot take eyes away from the first glimpse of the adult Faizal Khan in ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur Part 1’- watching his favorite Amitabh Bachchan potboiler while sniffing hungrily at dope. And as he is given a handful of stellar moments- posing with cocked guns in front of a mirror, fondling a mechanized mannequin at a store and accidentally holding a girl’s hands in his first date- we watch, spellbound at an actor so ease even in silences.

But it is really in Part Deux that the man is given the lion’s share of the action- let loose like a Tony Montana, complete with the dope, and given the reign of the scene. It is indeed when Faizal, sporting a handsome moustache and eyes drugged with both blood-lust and lusty desire for his spunky maiden , takes over that Kashyap rolls out the big guns and bombs. The film is virtually crammed with exciting, dangerous and devilish people all vying for attention but it is Siddiqui’s Faizal who makes the film leap and fly- who remains at the center of the action always- either when forcing a victim to have his head shaved before being shot or lunging lustily at his wife.

But most crucially is that this stunning portrayal of dark-edged and cold-blooded evil is often lightened by a surprising tenderness and a likable empathy. Like many of Siddiqui’s now-famous portrayals, here is a villain almost to root for- he is so addictively foolhardy, so confidently gung-ho and yet so fiercely dangerous that you can’t help but fall in love with him. The master-actor had a breakthrough year in 2012- nailing his presence with superb turns in ‘Kahaani’ and ‘Talaash’ but it is in Kashyap’s grungy, foul-mouthed yet utterly compassionate vision that he really soars.

2- Nagma Khatoon (‘Gangs Of Wasseypur-1 and 2’-2012)

Played by- Richa Chaddha

The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world. For Anurag Kashyap’s massive, epic and masterful double-bill feature, the hand that reaches out to threaten a cowering husband and a drug-eyed son with possible decapitation is the hand that rules the Khan household. It comes as no surprise that the hand belongs to one of the greatest women ever portrayed on film since a certain mother shot down her dacoit son and transpired into instant history.

Before she transformed from a budding actress to a woman with gall and guts, the little-known but talented Richa Chaddha had made a mark as the foul-mouthed yet scathingly honest Dolly in Dibakar Banerjee’s incredible ‘Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!’. But Kashyap seems to have a special penchant with newbie talent and instead of making her the spotlight of the film, he gave this actress the toughest part- the wife who won’t take it lying down, the matriarch who won’t bend under the harsh truths of her life and ultimately the woman who can both sing a wedding song and even egg her wastrel of a son into murderous action.

It is perhaps also the finest example of character development in the history of film- we see Chaddha’s convincingly gritty and earthy Nagma Khatoon first as a silent wife, befuddled mildly by the streak of bloody revenge in her clan. Little by little, Kashyap lets the actress take control, intuitively offering glimpses of her varying shades with the true deftness of a master filmmaker. Once we are totally hooked with the words she says, the sheer energy of her performance, Chaddha lets it rip and creates a woman who is compelling in strange, unprecedented ways- in her stubborn sexual denial to her husband, in her lamentations of her estranged idyll, in the way she commands her clan and even in the way she remains an incredibly loyal wife and mother to all.

     

1-   Sardar Khan (‘Gangs Of Wasseypur- 1’-2012)

Played by- Manoj Bajpayi

Does it really surprise you? In 1998, Kashyap co-wrote Ram Gopal Varma’s unforgettably iconic gangster yarn ‘Satya’ and helped create one of the most rippling gangster characters for Bollywood- Bhiku Mhatre, a name that inevitably made an actor named Manoj Bajpai the go-to-man for vicious villainy in many a Bollywood potboiler. Over the years, we saw the actor, used in some films effectively to nasty effect, in others as merely a caricature. But it was only a matter of time when Kashyap would pick him up from a slew of forgettable Prakash Jha outings and hand him, arguably, the greatest, most fiercely passionate performance of his career.

The thing that really nails Bajpai’s powerhouse performance- and makes his vile, virile and viciously loathsome character so impossible to root against- is that rare thing for performances of this category- subtlety. Sardar Khan might be a particularly wicked avenger- the kind of man who is superficially justifying his blood-thirst as an alibi for revenger. He might also be an unashamed philanderer and a scoundrel who can get on your nerves. But so impeccable and spontaneous is Bajpai’s mastery over the writhing, repulsive mess of his character is that he actually makes his innumerable faults superbly endearing. So, even as he might leap like a snarling beast when pumped up in blood-lust, you will always feel that he is a gung-ho action hero. When he tries desperately to woo his wife or even charm a maiden as she washes laundry, in the most maniacally lovable way ever, we can’t help but join in the guilty pleasure of it. And when he turns from the tough killer to the warmly domineering patriarch, you can’t help but forgive him for all the violent and sexual excesses before it.

But also crucially effective is Kashyap’s wonderfully effective treatment of this rascally rogue- the fact that instinct tells us to loath Sardar Khan and yet the director and actor make sure that we always stick to his side- we always side up with him, we gladly soak ourselves in his bloody killings, we turn away in disgust when he is at his most fearsome and disgusting and yet, when the bullets rain on him in the first film’s suitably tragic climax, you know that you have been through a hell of a time, watching a character full of life, lust and lovable grit.