Anurag Kashyap celebrates the drama of the grotesque with the relish of a 7-‘coarse’ meal. No details in the non-stop brutality are kept off camera. We can count the number of thuds and stabbing sounds every time a victim is cornered and done to death. Violence on this level has never really been a part of mainstream Hindi cinema before. The end of cinematic niceties is here. Take it or leave it.Kashyap in Wasseypur legitimizes gore with glorious gusto. In the gang-war that he portrays with such feral immediacy.
From its bludgeoning opening when merciless marauders ambush a powerful enemy’s fortress-like home with army-like meticulousness Gangs Of Wasseypur takes us into a world where compassion is a dinosaur, forgiveness a faux pas, and kindness an unforgivable sin. Bleeding brilliance in almost every frame, breathing fire through every available orifice that the characters possess, and whipping up a kind of frenzied flamboyant bloodshed that was once associated with the Spaghetti Westerns of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah, Gangs Of Wasseypur is, briefly, one huge gang-bang. No protection provided.
Recalling the experience of shooting of Gangs Of Wasseypur Manoj who is currently in New York, in an exclusive interaction says, “When Anurag Kashyap showed me the final edit, that was the time I realised that we have something very unique, something that audience is going to talk about for a very long time because there was nothing about it that could be compared with anything else.”
Manoj recalls floating in midair after seeing the final edit of Gangs Of Wasseypur. “I was quite excited. I went home, I still remember that, went home, giggling inside somewhere. I felt that whatever we set out to do, we achieved a lot in terms of the craft. And also the collaboration has really managed to pull off something which was looking impossible and so difficult.”
Manoj singles out his costars for praise. “ I had a chance to get introduced to such great talents like Richa Chadha, Huma Qureshi, Zeishan Quadri…Pankaj Tripathi I’ve known very closely. Then Vipin Sharma was there. Vipin I’ve known for a long time, from my theatre days.Tigmanshu Dhulia, I was meeting after a long time. And also it was great to see Nawazuddin creating magic. Huma with him was quite a revelation.And Richa was working with me and she had so many scenes. It has been an unforgettable experience and all of those people who worked, they are still very good friends. And all of us take great pride, not only in the film but also in the manner we have really gone ahead and really managed to pull it off.”
Interestingly, Manoj Bajpayee did not speak to Anurag Kashyap for eighteen years due to a misunderstanding during the shooting of Gangs Of Wasseypur. Manoj was so furious with Kashyap that he had chased him down with a stone in his hand.
Says Manoj. “The shoot itself was very difficult. Too many incidents happened which can only be written in a book. It can’t be part of an interview.”