Review of Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1 (2012) by Roger R — 16 Jun 2012

Peckinpah and Tarentino are reincarnated in one director who remakes the Godfather trilogy in India with an amazing sense of humour and social and political awareness.

The measure of a good film is that one thinks about it long after one has seen it. I have not stopped thinking about it. The Godfather Trilogy deals with how a person or family becomes entwined in the cycle of crime and violence. It is one of the great achievements of cinema History.

Bertolucci's 1900 deals with how the struggle of ordinary people for some autonomy and freedom from oppression. It is one of the great achievements of cinema History.

Gangs of Wasseypur does both and more.

Most people take the government, police and legal systems for granted. It seems to have a god given authority and whilst there are corrupt politicians, judges and police, these are seen as the exception rather than the rule. The basis of the authority of the state is rarely questioned, we distract ourselves with arguments over which gang should rule the state, not what powers the state should have.

By tracing the oppression of the people of Bihar from British colonial times to the present day Gangs of Wasseypur brings into sharper focus the meaning of "authority". Shortly after the British leave India it becomes clear to the mine workers that their new Indian overlords are worse than the previous foreign ones.

The state, the legal system and the police are largely sidelined in the power struggles of the gangs of Wasseypur. Where they do feature in the discussion they are merely tools of which gang lord has them in his pay.

The people of Bihar accept rule by gang lords as a fact. They pay extortion cheerily and willingly in exactly the same way as people pay tax, without thought.

What difference there is between a gang Lord and a politician is the sophistication of their manipulative powers. The gang lord uses intimidation and reputation. The politician uses rhetoric and ideology. The politician is merely the better and sneakier liar.

In countries like India, the nexus between the gang lord of two generations ago and the politician of today is clear to thinking people. In the developed world the state has assumed an almost irresistible authority.

But the process is the same. Most people are too busy trying to stay alive to bother much with the machinations of politics. They are resigned to paying extortion for protection from chaos. It is only when this extortion becomes unbearable or the chaos too disruptive that governments are deposed, by ballot or bullet. Then a new gang of war lords take over, full of promises. And the cycle starts again.

This film deserves a place of honour amongst the great acheivements in cinema.